Food Lush

The Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook + Giveaway

Updated: The giveaway is now closed, and we have a winner! Congratulations to Stephanie M. (#7). I'll be in touch this week to get your mailing address to send your cookbook to. Happy cooking!

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Editor's note: Tara received a free copy of The Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook with no obigation to review and her thoughts are all her own. 

By Tara C.

The holidays may be over, but fans of Downton Abbey still have a reason to celebrate--the U.S. premiere of Season 3. And what could make your viewing experience even more pleasurable? How about some tasty, Downton Abbey-inspired treats?

When I was offered a review copy of The Downton Abbey Cookbook: From Lady Mary's Crab Canapés to Mrs. Patmore's Christmas Pudding--More Than 150 Recipes From Upstairs and Downstairs by Emily Ansara Baines after reviewing The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook, I jumped on the opportunity.

I recruited several Downton Abbey/cooking enthusiasts to help me try some recipes, including our own Food Lush writer, Erica. Never one to shy away from a theme, Erica arrived in a sparkly tiarra. I'm not pictured here, but let's imagine that I was dressed as a scullery maid.

Here are the recipes we tried:

• Lady Mary's Crab Canapés
• Crunchy Fig and Bleu Cheese Tarts
• Mrs. Isobel Crawley's Smoked Salmon Tea Sandwiches
• Sweet Cream Scones
• Classic Cornish Pasty
• Pork Pie Balls

 

Lady Mary's Crab Canapés

Crunchy Fig and Bleu Cheese Tarts (above) and Mrs. Isobel Crawley's Smoked Salmon Tea Sandwiches (below)

Perhaps not surprisingly, the cookbook contains more "upstairs" recipes than "downstairs" recipes, and, in my opinion, they're generally more appealing. An upper-class family at this time would have had access to a wider variety of foods than their working-class counterparts. Only two of the recipes we tried, the Classic Cornish Pasties and the Pork Pie Balls, were from the "Sustenance For The Staff" section. The recipes were pretty conceptually similar, as both involved meat wrapped in pastry dough. My friend Gina made the Classic Cornish Pasties and I made the Pork Pie Balls. While we made the dishes separately, we realized later than neither of us had used lard in the pastry as written in the recipe. We substituted Crisco. Other than that, we followed the recipes pretty closely. I think when you've spent much of your life avoiding lard, it's hard to consciously include it.

Classic Cornish Pasty

I somehow neglected to take a picture of the Pork Ball Balls, but they were not very photogenic anyway. Picture enormous meatballs wrapped in pie crust and you get the idea. 

Throughout the cookbook, the author includes Times Gone By sections that place the recipes within an historical context. There are also Etiquette Lessons scattered throughout. For example, did you know that a true tea sandwich has the crusts removed only after the sandwich has been prepared and not before?

While most of the recipes in the book call for ingredients that are easily accessible by modern cooks, a few of the recipes are a little authentic for my taste. Take, for example, O'Brien's Black Pudding, which calls for fresh pork blood, or Boiled Beef Tongue for breakfast. Erica and I may have surreptitiously eyed local turtles for the turtle soup recipe, but I can assure you that no turtles were harmed.

We thoroghly enjoyed all of the dishes we made. In fact, it was hard to decide which recipe to share with you. I think our favorites were the Crunchy Fig and Bleu Cheese Tarts, Lady Mary's Crab Canapés, and the Sweet Cream Scones. Mrs. Isobel Crawley's Smoked Salmon Tea Sandwhiches were quite good too. After eating them for breakfast for the next several days, I decided that you really should have the Sweet Cream Scone Recipe. I have made a lot of scones, and these are probably the best I have ever made. They are moist, somewhat sweet, and very tasty.

Sweet Cream Scones

 Sweet Cream Scones Receipe from The Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook

1 cup sour cream
1 teaspooon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 cups all-purpose flour
1½ cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature and cut into pieces
1 egg, at room temperature
Heavy cream for brushing
Granulated sugar for sprinkling

1. Blend sour cream, vanilla extract, and baking soda together in a small bowl. Set aside.
2. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a large baking sheet.
3. In a lare bowl, blend together flour, sugar, baking powder, cream of tartar, and salt.Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs. Stir in sour-cream mixture and eggs until just barely moistened.
4. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, kneading briefly. Pat dough out into a 3/4-inch-thick round. Cut into 12 wedges and place them 2-3 inches apart on the greased baking sheet. Lightly brush with cream, then sprinkle with granulated sugar.
5. Bake 12-15 minutes or until golden brown on the bottom.

If you are a fan of Downton Abbey who also enjoys cooking, you probably need your own copy of this cookbook.

(photos from: Target-book cover image, me)

Giveaway details:

Now, one lucky Food Lush reader can comment for the chance to win your very own copy of The Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook!

GIVEAWAY: One copy of The Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook
TO ENTER:  Comment, answering the question "Are you a Downton Abbey fan?" 
GIVEAWAY ENDS: January 11th (this Friday) at 11:50pm PST
SHIPS: To any U.S. reader
EXTRA DETAILS: One comment per reader. Winner will be selected through random.org and announced as an update to this post by January 14th (that's one week from today).

My Cookbook Collection

by Jess M

I’ve been trying to shed all (some?) unnecessary clutter from our lives and now in the age of digital books and digital recipe storage, my bookshelves are getting lighter and lighter. As I cull through our library again and again, thinning things out, the printed books that I still actively use and use often are cookbooks. I try and be a careful cookbook shopper; I want to make sure that a book is something I will use before I add it to the permanent collection. I usually check a cookbook out of the library to give it a test run before committing to a new purchase. I also find that browsing through an actual printed book is very satisfying and it's sometimes easier to find something to cook when you don’t know what you want. Looking online you almost need a starting point to search for and narrow things down.

And so, let’s look at my cookbook collection:

This isn’t my entire collection, but these are the top 8, the ones that I use regularly and most often. (And, uh, there’s a bit of a skew towards Cook’s Illustrated - even Jack Bishop is a CI contributor.)

 

The Complete Book of Pasta and Noodles - Cook’s Illustrated

If you ever wanted to make your own noodles, or just cook great dishes with store-bought noodles and pasta, this is a great place to start. Detailed instructions, and dishes from lots of ethnicities, not just focused on Italian pasta. My favorites include the basic pasta-making methods and the stir fry recipe.

 

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day - Jeff Hertzburg and Zoe Francois

Truly the easiest way to start making delicious breads. They have simplified the process so that (if you have room in your refrigerator) you can always have bread dough ready to go. In addition to the basic doughs, my favortie is the Spinach and Cheese Calzone recipe.

 

How to Cook Everything: Vegetarian - Mark Bittman

This is the newest addition to my collection and I wish I had it sooner! Need to know what to do with that new thing that came in your CSA? Or how to make a stuffed pepper? Or any number of variations on these basics? This book has everything. My favorites: black bean burgers and cooking with dried beans.

 

 

A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen - Jack Bishop

If you’re a carnivore or omnivore looking to incorporate some more meatless dishes into your life, this is an excellent resource. There are lots of vegetable and bean-centered dishes as well as entire meal plans. The book is organized by season, so if you are trying to eat locally and/or take advantage of things that are in season , you can easily find some suggestions. My favorites: Pan-Fried Noodle Cake with Stir-Fried Bok Choy and Black Bean Enchiladas. The enchiladas are a bit of work to make the sauce and the filling and assemble it all, but it’s sooo good. And it freezes really well, so I make 2 or 3 at a time.

 

Perfect Vegetables -  Cook’s Illustrated

 

This is a basic, no-frills book on how to cook (most) vegetables. With instructions on the most basic ways to prepare a vegetable along with more variations, I love this book for figuring out simple side dishes. My favorites: the Master Recipe for Steamed Broccoli, and the variations on Sauteed Spinach.

 

 

Cover and Bake - Cook’s Illustrated

 

Comforting casseroles. Cheesy, baked, delicious and make-ahead. In addition to more modern adaptations of casseroles, this book also includes recipes for skillet casseroles and slow-cookers. My favorites: Baked Ravioli, Turkey Tettrazzini, and Baked Macaroni and Cheese - this is our family’s standard mac and cheese, it is the best!

 

Baking Illustrated - Cook’s Illustrated

 

This would make a great gift for someone who is just starting out, who may need a collection of basics. Banana bread, varieties of muffins, yeast breads, basic cakes, etc. It’s the perfect go-to when you want something simple. My favorite here: totally random, but there’s a Quick Pizza Sauce recipe that I love.

 

 

The Best Slow and Easy Recipes - Cook’s Illustrated

This is for when you want to take your time, and cook something over an entire day and make your house smell amazing. My favorites: Tuscan White Bean Stew and Hungarian Goulash (in the slow cooker).

 

 

What cookbooks are in your permanent collection? Do you have any suggestions for my Christmas wishlist that maybe aren’t published by Cook’s Illustrated (but if you have those too, I’d love to hear it)? (And check out some other cookbooks featured on Food Lush in the past.)

(Photos from: me, Amazon)

Food Fiction

By Nora

I’m a big reader. I love when I find a book that I can lose myself in. I find that the books that I love the most are the ones that often involve food in some way. Not that the plots have to be about food, but when the characters describe mouth-watering meals or talk about making recipes that have some significance in their lives, it somehow makes me more invested in the story (because it feels real to me). So, needless to say, I LOVE when fiction books include recipes for the dishes that are mentioned in the story, or even better, have spin-off cookbooks!  I KNOW that in most cases, this is a marketing ploy to get suckers like me to buy more books.  But I fall for it every time.  Here are some of my favorite spin-off cookbooks and books that have recipes within the context of the story. 

 

If you’re a fan of Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta series, you’ll know that Kay Scarpetta is the Virginia State Medical Examiner AND an avid Italian cook. Many of the recipes in  Food to Die For: Secrets from Kay Scarpetta’s Kitchen are really legit in terms of being authentically Italian. It’s also worth mentioning that Cornwell published another little vignette/cookbook out called “Kay’s Winter Table”, but it’s more focused on holiday food and has a story to accompany it.

 

Good Enough to Eat is actually a book that Dani reviewed a while back, and which I loved as well.  As Dani so eloquently put it, it’s a book about “weight-loss, health food, love, friendship and good, delicious, hearty meals.”  The recipes for many of the dishes featured in the chapters are included, and some are----gasp---healthy!

 

 

Like Water for Chocolate. If you haven’t read this book, please set aside a weekend soon to devote to reading it. It takes place in turn of the century Mexico, so you can only imagine the amazing traditional recipes in this novel/fairy tale about forbidden love, complicated family relationships, and how food fits in to all of those elements of the story.

 

 

So I can’t personally vouch for this one, but I thought it was hilarious and worth mentioning. The Unofficial Hunger Games Cookbook. If Lamb Stew with Plums sounds good to you, this cookbook is for you.

And Tara C. just wrote a post about the Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook, which I plan to buy in the near future. Head on over to her post and enter to win a free copy!

If you know any other fiction books with recipes or awesome cookbook spin-offs, please share! 

(Photos from Amazon and Barnes&Noble)

My First Cookbook

By Julie

My mom has been doing some cleaning out of things, and as such, started gifting me with things she think I ought to have. One of those things was the very first cookbook I ever had, Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse Cookbook, copyright 1975.

Oh my, this thing is just delightful. It’s chock full of incredibly simple recipes for things like hardboiled eggs and grilled cheese sandwiches, Disney-fied up for the wee ones. On the one hand, I get the point that this is a book for kids to learn the very basics of the kitchen and cooking, and it goes to great lengths to teach skills we could all now do in our sleep. But, oh, I cannot stop laughing. I think my favorite recipe is for Sleeping Beauty’s Spinning Wheels, which is an elaborate dessert consisting of a donut topped with ice cream and sprinkles. Or maybe it’s Alice’s Apple Fluff, which combines applesauce and Jello. But then again, perhaps it’s Dewey’s Cheese Waffles:

Why yes, that is a sandwich made from toaster waffles and cheese. Awesome.

I think I understand now that while I remember spending hours pouring over this book, I never actually made anything from it. But I will treasure it always.

Do you remember any cookbooks from your childhood?

(Photos from: amazon.com, vintagecookbook.com)

Diamond Jubilee Minted Pea Puree (The Easiest Dish Ever)

by Caitlin

I'm a bit of an Anglophile. I love Britain. I love British weather, British people, the accents, the Royal family, the Unionjack, the Tube, all of it. And I love British food. Perhaps my love of all things British comes from the same place my freckles, pale skin, light eyes, and curly hair do: My Irish, Scottish, and Welsh family roots. We're a bunch of sturdy, pale, freckled, curly headed people, my family. (Well, on one side. On the other side we're a bunch of sturdy, not-QUITE-as-pale, curly headed Black Irish, with fewer freckles.)

British food gets a bad rap, but I don't think that's entirely deserved. In fact, I already have an entire post with many of my favorite highlights planned to coincide with the start of the upcoming London Summer Olympics, as I'm embarassingly excited for them (Summer Olympics, which are the Best Olympics, and in LONDON!). But in the meantime I'd be remiss not to mention the Queen's recent Diamond Jubilee, glued as I was to the coverage of the festivities, the flotilla, the concert, and whatever flawless sartorial choice the Duchess of Cambridge had shown up in. 

Fun fact: My favorite nickname for Wills and Kate, aka William and Catherine, aka The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge is, wait for it, Bill and Cathy Cambridge. HAHAHA. Kills me every time.

(AHHHHAHAHHAAHAHAHAA Bill and Cathy Cambridge.)

Zach and I are lucky enough to have some wonderful British friends (Hi Bridget and Adrian!) who love food just as much than we do. (If not more. I mean, I thought we had an impressive cookbook collection; then we saw theirs.) We've all been lucky to visit each other 'across the pond' a few times in the last several years. Their knowledge of American culture, history, and politics rivals that of many Americans I know, and they've been incredibly patient and willing teachers when it's come to our many questions about Britain in return. 

When Bridget and Adrian visited us this past fall they brought with them a veritable buffet of British deliciousness, including many of our favorite treats, because they are incredibly generous and thoughtful like that. One of the highlights, though, was this book by the "Julia Child of Ireland," which we hadn't heard of.

When I first cracked this book, it opened right to page 396-397. On one side I oohed over a recipe for melted chard stalks with bacon and hazlenuts. On the other side I aahed over a recipe for Mushy Peas with Mint. British with a twist! How neat! (And it also reminded me of a Top Chef debacle over missing pea puree!)

Fast forward several months to a Sunday afternoon where Zach and I are playing our favorite game: "What Should We Do For Dinner?" Lately we've been into doing quasi fancy Sunday dinners, mostly as an excuse to try out a new wine. We had a rack of lamb in the freezer that we'd been meaning to use, and started brainstorming ideas around that. Lamb makes me think of mint jelly (yuck) which made me think of the minted pea puree I'd been wanting to try (yum). Luckily the lamb was wedged next to a bag of frozen peas. And voila, a dinner menu was born.

Zach made a few simple modifcations, but even so it's a very simple recipe. You're basically boiling some peas with seasoning and blending them up, which doesn't sound appealing, at all, oh but trust me.

I'm calling this minted pea puree because rather than mashing these, Zach used our immersion/stick blender to smooth them out. I really think I prefer the texture of a puree over mashed peas. Just think of the skins! Just lingering in there waiting to stick to your teeth! He used some leftover stock in place of water and also sauteed some shallots and threw those in ("Frenching it up" he says). The flavor of this was just so good, and it went perfectly with the lamb but I think it would be good with just about anything. It's somewhre between a sauce and a vegetable side, and the flavor is simple but layered: just when you think it's straightforward or one-note, you taste something else. What's more, it can be made with ingredients you probably have on hand, but it sounds and looks fancy. That's the best kind of dish, no?

Zach made up a mustard and herb crusted rack of lamb similar to this, and served it all along with these potatoes. Bam. So good. And so easy. (Especially if you're not the one cooking. Thanks, Zach.)

Have you made pea puree before? Or mushy peas? 

Darina Allen's Mushy Peas with Mint

1 lb. fresh or frozen peas
salt, freshly ground black pepper
4 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon sugar
1-2 tablespoons chopped mint 

Bring 1 cup of water (or stock, as Zach did) to a fast, rolling boil. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt, toss in the peas, stir. (If you're adding sauteed shallots, do so here.)

Cover the saucepan, bring back to a boil on high heat. Uncover and cook for 4-5 minutes. Drain, but save some of the cooking liquid. Add butter, salt, and freshly ground black pepper and a good pinch of sugar to the peas. Pulse in a food processor or mash with a potato masher, adding some of the cooking liquid if necessary. Add freshly chopped mint. Taste and correct seasoning. Serve with "fish and chips." (Or lamb and roasted potatoes!)

Bookworm/Foodie

by Tara

I love to read, and I love to cook. One of my favorite authors that combines the two very nicely is Adriana Trigiani. This Italian-American author has written more than a dozen books, including some incredible novels, a cookbook, and a life-lessons book. Her novels are about big Italian families, just like her real life, and she incorporates Italian and Southern recipes into each of them. It's hard to pick a favorite novel, so I'll tell you that the Big Stone Gap series (four books) helped me escape to fiction when I was going through the hardest experience of my life. 

(Photo from adrianatrigiani.com.)

In addition to printing delicious recipes in her novels, Trigiani shares some of her family recipes on her author site, visit her Favorite Recipes page on her author site.

Do you have a favorite foodie author?

Foodie Book Review: Lunch in Paris

By Dani

If you are a foodie, if you've ever dreamed of running away to Paris, if you are a sucker for a good love story, or if you have a soft spot for the American dream, Lunch in Paris is your perfect read. Elizabeth Bard does an incredible job of taking her reader with her on a sometimes breathless, always thoughtful journey through her life as an American in Paris.

Lunch in Paris is packed with delicious recipes and cultural nuances, and Bard takes her time walking through the differences between Americans and the French - as if stopping to examine the smelly cheeses and zucchini flowers at the farmer's market - commenting on what makes them unique and beautiful without overpowering her reader with a particular point of view.

We get to be outside observers as she learns why French women don't get fat, what "success" looks like in Paris compared to her New Yorker sensibilities, and the unbelievable love story between her, her French husband, and of course, French cuisine.

Not until finally venturing into Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking two years ago did I realize that French cooking isn't all delicately prepared bites of fluff, but can also be hearty and satisfying. Bard's recipes flirt with both sides of French cuisine, from the impressive "Whole Fish Baked in Sea Salt" recipe to a comforting-sounding "Yogurt Cake." I have yet to make any of her recipes verbatim, but just reading her thoughts as she cooks, trailing her as she carefully purchases ingredients and mulling over life as she stirs something on her tiny apartment stove made me see cooking differently, take more pride in my local ingredients and more care with my weeknight dinners.

(Photo credit: Amazon.com)

Host a Cookbook Swap

By Jessica

Recently on Style Lush, Rebecca posted about hosting a clothing swap and one of our readers @lexilooo tweeted about not only hosting one of her own but also about hosting a cookbook swap. It'd be a similar situation but instead of clothes people would bring cookbooks they don't use and hopefully swap them for ones they would be more interested in/have been hoping to get. She has many that she isn't currently using and don't we all? I thought this was a fabulous idea and couldn't wait to share it with all of you.

Wouldn't it be fun to have everyone cook a dish from a book that they are bringing to the swap? That way the menu is covered AND you can get a real feel for the kind of dishes actually in whatever cookbooks available to swap, instead of just what you see on the cover.

Whichever books are left at the end could be donated to a local charity or library so everyone wins!

I think I am going to have to host one of these myself very soon. Thanks for the idea Lexi!

{Photo from: Now. Here. This.}

The Healthy Slow Cooker Recipe Review and A GIVEAWAY!

By Kristin

Editor's note: Kristin received a complimentary review copy of The Healthy Slow Cooker direct from the publisher. Food Lush received no compensation for this post.

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Most Sundays in the fall I spend in a bar watching football. My friends and I have been doing it for years and it’s so much fun! I mean, it’s not fun come Monday morning when I am so hungover I can’t see straight, but other than that, FUN! 

The problem with this is that Sunday is the day I usually do everything. I do the grocery shopping and the meal planning and the cooking. So if I come home at 5 PM drunk as a skunk, this stuff doesn’t happen until Monday. And grocery shopping after work blows. 

So, for the 2011 football season, I needed a change. And that change was to be Crock Pot Sundays! It is the perfect solution to my problem. I don’t have to cook anything on Sundays before I leave, and when I come home, drunk and ravenous, I have food! And dinner for the rest of the week! It’s GENIUS! 

This all means I’m on the hunt for new crock pot recipes so I don’t get bored. So when Jennie asked if I wanted to review a slow cooker cookbook, I jumped at the chance! The book is The Healthy Slow Cooker by Judith Finlayson. 

Overall, the cookbook is OK. I’m a huge fan of the crock pot when it means no additional cooking. I don’t like prep work. I like to throw it all in the slow cooker, turn it on, and have food ready in 6-8 hours. This book doesn’t have a lot of recipes like that. I looked through to find something to review and it was hard because a lot of things had ingredients I didn’t have or had a lot or prep work. 

I ended up making an altered version of the Pepper Turkey Casserole. I used frozen chicken instead, because that is less work. 

My verdict on the recipe on the day it was made was that it was OK. It was quite bland, which was odd for the amount of peppers in it. But it was filling and it was healthy. It was so much better on day 2 when the flavors had time to blend. And it wasn’t too hard, but there was too much prep and end work for my liking. I think next time I would add some beans, some more salt, and omit the quinoa to just make it a soup/stew. 

Pepper Turkey/Chicken Casserole 

• 1 TBSP Olive oil
• 2 onions, chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp cracked black peppercorns
• 1 cup white wine
• 1 can (14 oz) diced tomatoes including juice
• 2 cups chicken or turkey stock
• Salt
• 1 1/2 pounds chicken/turkey
• 2 tsp paprika, dissolved in 2 TBSP water
• 1 jalapeno
• 2 green peppers, diced
• 1 roasted red pepper, diced
• 1 1/2 cups quinoa

Directions 

1. In a skillet, heat oil over medium heat for 30 seconds. Add onions and cook, stirring, until softened, about 3 minutes. Add garlic, oregano and peppercorns and cook, stirring, for one minute. Add white wine and tomatoes with juice and bring to boil. Transfer to slow cooker. Add chicken stock and stir well. Season to taste with salt, if needed.
2. Add chicken and stir well. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours or high for 3 hours, until meat is tender.
3. Add paprika solution, jalapeño, green peppers and roasted red pepper to slow cooker and stir well. Cover and cook on high for 30 minutes, until peppers are tender.
4. Meanwhile, in a pot, cook quinoa according to package directions.
5. When peppers are tender, add cooked quinoa to slow cooker and stir. Serve immediately.

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When I received this cookbook, I also received another one from the publisher – Everyday to Entertaining by Carla Snyder and Marla Deeds. This one looks really good and you’re all lucky my cat puked on the slow cooker one, making my decision as to which one to review an easy choice. 

I have this copy of Everyday to Entertaining to give out to one lucky reader. All you have to do is answer one question – What is your favorite dish to make when you entertain? 

The giveaway will stay live for one week, through Tuesday, October 25 at 11:59 p.m., and the winner will be announced on Wednesday. Only Canadian and U.S. readers, please, and one comment per reader. 

Good luck!

Cookbooks vs. the Internet

By Ariel

I am a child of the internet. I literally do not remember a time I did not have access to it, maybe pre-second grade? In any case, my life has been seriously impacted by computers and having information at the tips of my fingertips (what do you mean, you had to look stuff up before? In BOOKS?) So that leads me to ask a very important question: Do you buy cookbooks when you have access to millions of (free) recipes on the net?

It's a battle for me. On the one hand, I love books! I love looking at glossy pictures and a great layout in a cookbook just makes me happy. On the other hand, I'm cheap. Do I really want to shell out $20-$30+ for a book when I can search for the dish on the internet for free? I'll admit, free wins just about every time. 

I do have visions of a beautifully stocked cookbook shelf in my kitchen, with gorgeous pictures that I can flip through on a lazy night. I also have a ton of Martha Stewart Living that I don't want to part with, so they could be included in my cookbook party in my kitchen if I ever accumulate enough books to have said party.

And so I am torn. Do you buy the pretty books that catch your eye (and your appetite?) Do you have a good argument for one side of my cookbooks vs. internet struggle?