Everyday Easy: Cakes & Cupcakes: Cheesecakes, Muffins, Brownies, Sponge Cakes ( Everyday Easy )

Given the pressures of other aspects of fast family life, help in the kitchen is essential. And "Everyday Easy"-a series of cookbooks that each include a collection of around 90 recipes-provides an inexhaustible collection of favorite family recipes to be dipped into on a daily basis for any home cook.
What's not to love about cakes and cupcakes? In the latest title in the successful "Everyday Easy" series, " Cakes and Cupcakes," you can wow your friends and loved-ones with decadent desserts, or get your own sugar fix with minimal fuss. (
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The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Classic Recipes for a New Century

Hesser, a food columnist for the New York Times, offers a superb compilation of the most noteworthy recipes published by the paper since it started covering food in the 1850s. What she has produced is no less a chronicle of American culinary history--an evolutionary progression that marks the notable and sometimes regrettable changes in our approach to food--than a cookbook. Recipe originators are a hodgepodge of talent, including noted chefs and the kitchens of famed restaurants such as Le Bernardin as well as Times writers, most notably Craig Claiborne, whose culinary mastery is evidenced throughout. Every category of food is covered, and each recipe is accompanied by serving suggestions for complementary dishes within the book. From 1877's tomato soup and 1907's roast quail with sage dressing to Eisenhower's steak in the fire and 1968's sour cream coffee cake, Hesser showcases the best of the best. Each recipe is dated, and many include cooking notes. Hesser, whose witty bent permeates every page, does a more than admirable job with this stellar collection of more than 1,400 recipes, which should grace the shelves of every food-lover. (Check Catalog)

Cake Boss: Stories and Recipes from Mia Famiglia

Best known on TLC cable as the Cake Boss, Valastro shares recipes and a sometimes treacly tale of family, tradition, and ambition. A fourth-generation baker born in Hoboken, N.J., Buddy honors his Sicilian father, who taught him his craft, while marking his own rise from apprentice to master baker. His is the American dream told in flashbacks; like his show, the book plays on charm and the idea that to know Buddy is to like his work. Still, the book offers hard-won baking know-how. It conveys the dramatic sweep of Buddy's accomplishments as bolstered by his traditional values and family. For drama, it depicts, as mini-crises, the elaborate challenges and difficult designs that proliferate as Buddy's clientele expands to include Modern Bride and Britney Spears. However, despite great technical descriptions, including his bakery's cannoli recipe and photos of his spectacular cakes, Buddy's tale of immigrant success proves too familiar. (Oct.) Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information. (Check Catalog)

The Everything Vegan Cookbook ( Everything (Cooking) )

Hackett, who writes about vegetarian food on About.com, teams up with registered dietitian Bull to present reasons for a vegan diet as well as nutrition and shopping tips. Writing for those just beginning to explore vegan cooking, they include recipes for Mushroom and Rosemary Wild Rice, Quinoa and Hummus Sandwich Wrap, and Chocolate Mocha Ice Cream (no ice cream machine needed!). Highly recommended for its brief health discussion and beginner recipes, this book provides just enough information for the new vegan. For more detailed vegan health coverage, consider also Brenda Davis and Vesanto Melina's "Becoming Vegan" (Check Catalog)

The Family Dinner: Great Ways to Connect with Your Kids, One Meal at a Time

Film and TV producer David (An Inconvenient Truth) enlists more than 50 child-care experts, writers, celebrities, activists, musicians, and chefs--including Nora Ephron, Maya Angelou, Judge Judy, Michael Pollan, Sheryl Crow, and Alice Waters--in support of family mealtime rituals. Mother of two girls, David presents a grab bag of child-friendly ideas from her trial-and-error experiments before and after divorcing actor Larry David: creative table settings; quick weekday meals and leftovers; cooking with kids; table games; reading selections and discussion topics; and ways for divorced parents to establish food traditions. For the recipes, Uhrenholdt draws on her Danish heritage and global flavors. It may take effort to entice young children with artichokes and edamame, most will likely enjoy composting and gardening; while teens may balk at table games, David knows how to snag an audience with viable alternatives to enemies of health and togetherness (TV, computers, cellphones, factory farmproduced foods, soda, plastics, etc.). She tempers her earnest tone with whimsical flourishes (poetry, quotes) and nostalgic reminiscences from contributors. Parents willing to adjust busy schedules to raise healthy, conscious, and confident children will find David's ideas practical and enjoyable, her passion irresistible.(Check Catalog)