Books like Betty Crocker Cookbook — picked by fans

I love this cookbook because it is a collectible and a treasure. Kasey Rogers was Louise Tate, the boss's wife from the television show, Bewitched. I was fortunate to have coordinated a book signing at Barnes and Noble in 2005 with Kasey. I got to hear firsthand knowledge of her memories of being on the set of Bewitched. She actually was able to participate in a lot of cast parties and be invited to the star of the show’s home, so the recipes are authentic. Everyone knows that "Samantha Stephens" didn't have to lift a finger in the kitchen... Now, "Bewitched" fans everywhere can share the kitchen with "Louise Tate" (the boss's wife) as she conjures up the magic that turned "Samantha Stephens" into a household name. In The Bewitched Cookbook, you'll discover "Cousin Serena's" "I-don't-cook" quick-fixes, "Dr. Bombay's" exotic banquets, "Maurice's" special drinks and delicacies, "Endora's" wickedly tasty tricks… show more.

With this cookbook, dining a la Hogwarts is as easy as delicious. If you are looking for a unique themed cookbook and want a lot of British-inspired recipes, look no further. With more than 150 easy-to-make recipes, tips, and techniques, you can indulge in spellbinding meals drawn straight from the pages of your favorite Potter stories.

I met well-known author Liz Gilbert at a book signing in San Francisco. She was friends with a fellow cookbook author from Estonia and New York who recommended we meet Elizabeth Gilbert. While Liz was unpacking boxes of old family books, she rediscovered a book called At Home on the Range, written by her great-grandmother, Margaret Yardley Potter. Having only been peripherally aware of the volume, Gilbert dug in with some curiosity, and soon found that she had stumbled upon a book far ahead of its time. Part scholar and part crusader for a more open food conversation, Potter espoused the importance of farmer’s markets and ethnic food (Italian, Jewish, and German), culinary shortcuts, and generally celebrated a devotion to epicurean adventures.

I met Marika Blossfeldt in Paris, France at the Gourmand Cookbook Fair. She wrote a beautiful and nourishing cookbook from her farm in Estonia. Essential Nourishment is a cookbook and nutrition guide fusing an appreciation for the sensual pleasures of natural foods with a sensible approach to nourishment. There is a yummy carrot ginger soup and lots of immunity booster recipes.

My first cookbook was Betty Crocker’s New Boys and Girls Cook Book. It was given to me by my mother when I was eight years old. I still have it and Cookies, Cakes, and Other Desserts was always my favorite chapter. I remember working my way through the recipes, starting with Oatmeal Cookies and advancing to creative Paintbrush Cookies. My love of baking started there! This book has many recipes with kid appeal, such as Frankenstein Cookies and Tie-Dye Swirl Cookies. A personal favorite of mine: Turtle Chocolate Chip Cookies with caramel and pecans and lots of chocolate!

If you want to understand how modern (i.e. American) fast food culture evolved, this book is for you.

From ‘Chickens of Tomorrow’ to Betty Crocker’s cakes, from Women’s Lib to crash diets, flash-freezing to TV dinners, it’s all here – along with the political manoeuvring, misleading adverts, corporate greed, and social manipulation that created the unhealthiest, most destructive, yet also most popular and profitable food culture on earth.

Paradox of Plenty explains how we got into the mess we’re in when it comes to food – and is therefore essential reading for anyone concerned with the way we eat today. It’s also fast-paced, brilliant, and funny.

This book really opened my eyes to the craziness of industrial food culture and I can’t recommend it highly enough. 

In my first ten years in this country, I fell in love with barbecue and was lucky to travel in the Carolinas, to Kansas City, Memphis, and in Texas, the four main regions that characterize barbecue in the United States. When a friend of mine recommended Cooked by Michael Pollan, I read the first chapter called “Fire” in one go. This chapter takes you on the roads from Skylight Inn in Ayden, N.C., to The Pit in Raleigh, N.C., and other delicious barbecue places. Pollan structures his book by the four ancient elements connected to specific “cooking” methods, grilling, braising liquids, baking bread, and the fundamental of fermentation. The research for the book brought Pollan to meet experts in a particular way of cooking or prepping food, and to learn how to do it himself. Pollan shows how cooking is at the heart of our culture. This book is a… show more.

I admire the commitment of effort and time it takes to be a political activist. There’s rarely time left over to have a personal life, or even just take the time to cook wholesome, healthy meals.

I hadn’t considered those aspects of active resistance before reading this cookbook. It really made me stop and think about the logistics of eating well while trying to save the world. 

The practicality of the recipes also works well for those of us who can’t take to the streets. And it’s good to know that if I’m given the opportunity to cook for a crowd or hand out nutritious snacks at a rally or march, I can be helpful, too.

Everything this reality TV personality Lisa Vanderpump does looks beautiful, elegant, and expensive on TV. Of course, I wanted to see how she does that, that’s why I purchased this book.

I was pleasantly surprised by how honestly she described so many things she does as “smoke and mirrors” in her words. From owning many restaurants in different countries, she has a wide variety of knowledge on hosting people. She shared many tips on how to make beautiful presentations of food and table settings effortlessly such as decorating store-bought plain cake to make it look like a custom-ordered cake from a high-end cake shop.

Her dry sense of British humor really adds fun to reading this book as well. The recipes in this book are mainly from chefs who worked for her restaurants, I was really impressed when I tested them out but easy enough for home cooks like me… show more.

There are so few young adult novels that demonstrate positive relationships between Muslim kids and Jewish kids. This one succeeds masterfully.

The main characters in the story come from very different backgrounds and seem to share little in common. Their friendship grows slowly, and eventually they learn to trust one another. This story shows both the risks and rewards of such a friendship. With taking risks, there can be no reward.