A Good Plain Cook

It's summer 1936, and the world is on the cusp of change, but there's little sign of this in rural Sussex. So when Kitty Allen answers an advert looking for 'a good plain cook', she has no idea what she's in for. For starters, her employer is an American called Ellen Steinberg who believes in having the staff call her by her first name and sunbathing in the nude. Then there's Ellen's eleven-year-old daughter, Geenie, a bright, unhappy little thing, and Mrs Steinberg's gentleman friend, Mr Crane, who's said to be a poet - even though he doesn't have a beard and doesn't actually write much poetry. Rich bohemians imagining themselves as communists, Steinberg and Crane see themselves as champions of 'the people' - not that they know the first thing about how the people actually live. Kitty is in no position to criticise - after all she claimed to be a good plain cook, despite hardly knowing how to boil an egg. Utterly out of her depth, she is relieved to have the gardener, Arthur, to talk to. Otherwise she'd never last a summer in this madhouse. Ellen Steinberg wants life to run as smoothly as the love story she imagines her lover George Crane to be writing. But as Kitty arrives, the dream is on the edge of falling apart.

The first cookery book for those who could not afford a cook - the so called working classes. First edited in 1852, this book is both: A rich source for traditional recipes and a picture of a changing society in the early 19th century.

Literary Nonfiction. Cooking. Licht's lyrical recipes turn our attention away from strict measurements and towards the sights and smells of our own pantries, our own fridges, and our own imaginations. A new book that feels oddly like a familiar classic. A reminder of the pleasure and the importance of living with what we have. COOKING AS THOUGH YOU MIGHT COOK AGAIN is like an impossibly lucky yard sale find: a personal kitchen journal that was somehow written just for you. Like a handful of dry beans, Danny Licht's recipes grow, with a rustic everyday magic, to fill all your pots. Follow the rhythm, as I have, of this stern and sweet set of instructions and it will become your daily beat.--Cal Peternell

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Deceptively Delicious, an essential collection of more than 100 simple recipes that will transform even the most kitchen-phobic “Can’t Cooks” into “Can Cooks.” Are you smart enough to dodge a telemarketer yet clueless as to how to chop a clove of garlic? Are you clever enough to forward an e-mail but don’t know the difference between broiling and baking? Ingenious enough to operate a blow-dryer but not sure how to use your blender? If you are basically competent, then Jessica Seinfeld’s The Can’t Cook Book is for you. If you find cooking scary or stressful or just boring, Jessica has a calm, confidencebuilding approach to cooking, even for those who’ve never followed a recipe or used an oven. Jessica shows you how to prepare deliciously simple food—from Caesar salad, rice pilaf, and roasted asparagus to lemon salmon, roast chicken, and flourless fudge cake. At the beginning of each dish, she explains up front what the challenge will be, and then shows you exactly how to overcome any hurdles in easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions. Designed to put the nervous cook at ease, The Can’t Cook Book is perfect for anyone who wants to gain confidence in the kitchen—and, who knows, maybe even master a meal or two.

Recalling an earlier era when cooks relied on sight, touch, and taste rather than cookbooks, the author encourages readers to rediscover the lost art of preparing food and use their imagination in the kitchen.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Part cookbook, part memoir, these “rollicking, poignant, sometimes hilarious tales” (USA Today) are the Pulitzer Prize-winner’s loving tribute to the South, his family and, especially, to his extraordinary mother. Here are irresistible stories and recipes from across generations. They come, skillet by skillet, from Bragg’s ancestors, from feasts and near famine, from funerals and celebrations, and from a thousand tales of family lore as rich and as sumptuous as the dishes they inspired. Deeply personal and unfailingly mouthwatering, The Best Cook in the World is a book to be savored.

In an era of outfitted home kitchens and food fascination, it's no wonder home cooks who never learned the fundamentals of the kitchen are intimidated. Twenty years ago, James Peterson could relate, and so he taught himself by cooking his way through professional kitchens and stacks of books, logging the lessons of his kitchen education one by one. Now one of the country's most revered cooking teachers, Peterson provides the confidence-building instructions home cooks need to teach themselves to cook consistently with ease and success. COOKING is the only all-in-one instructional that details the techniques that cooks really need to master, teaches all the basic recipes, and includes hundreds of photos that illuminate and inspire. • Cooking authority James Peterson's definitive, all-inclusive learn-to-cook cookbook. • 600 hard-working recipes everyone should know how to make-from the perfect roasted chicken to bouillabaisse and apple pie. • 1,500 instructional photos, showing exactly how recipes are made, teach food-literate novices to cook with confidence and more advanced cooks to expand their repertoire. • James Peterson has more than 1 million cookbooks in print. From the Hardcover edition.

The next best thing to having Mark Bittman in the kitchen with you Mark Bittman's highly acclaimed, bestselling book How to Cook Everything is an indispensable guide for any modern cook. With How to Cook Everything The Basics he reveals how truly easy it is to learn fundamental techniques and recipes. From dicing vegetables and roasting meat, to cooking building-block meals that include salads, soups, poultry, meats, fish, sides, and desserts, Bittman explains what every home cook, particularly novices, should know. 1,000 beautiful and instructive photographs throughout the book reveal key preparation details that make every dish inviting and accessible. With clear and straightforward directions, Bittman's practical tips and variation ideas, and visual cues that accompany each of the 185 recipes, cooking with How to Cook Everything The Basics is like having Bittman in the kitchen with you. This is the essential teaching cookbook, with 1,000 photos illustrating every technique and recipe; the result is a comprehensive reference that’s both visually stunning and utterly practical. Special Basics features scattered throughout simplify broad subjects with sections like “Think of Vegetables in Groups,” “How to Cook Any Grain,” and “5 Rules for Buying and Storing Seafood.” 600 demonstration photos each build on a step from the recipe to teach a core lesson, like “Cracking an Egg,” “Using Pasta Water,” “Recognizing Doneness,” and “Crimping the Pie Shut.” Detailed notes appear in blue type near selected images. Here Mark highlights what to look for during a particular step and offers handy advice and other helpful asides. Tips and variations let cooks hone their skills and be creative.