Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

All Style No Substance

Beautiful Platters & Delicious Boards by Cedar Mill Press

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Beautiful Platters & Delicious Boards looks really pretty, as in it has many attractive and colorful picture. I had a good time with my New Year’s experiment with this trend (using a different cookbook), and I was hoping for some more ideas as March is not just birthday month, but also this year, it’s a decade-change. This requires more extensive food-fun. That said, it turns out, this was not the book for that. It’s all a big lie. This book has quite a few recipes […]

“When has cake ever been for hunger? It’s for flavor, and, in this case, comfort.”

Snacking Cakes by Yossy Arefi

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Okay, my first review of 2022 was a complete bummer, so it’s time for an almost literal palate cleanser, namely the cookbook that’s been the most useful to me in the past six months. Whether you are a fairly novice baker or an seasoned kitchen pro who just likes adding new tricks to your arsenal, Snacking Cakes has something to offer you. The premise is simple: these are all one-bowl cake recipes, and from the start of mixing to when you take them out of the novel, […]

Midwestern High End but how Representational Is it?

Dishing Up Minnesota by Teresa Marrone

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Imagine a regional cookbook that includes recipes from that region but also from farms/mills/markets/etc and from various cultures related to the region, with some background and history to help connect everything; that’s Dishing Up Minnesota. I may be biased, having been born and raised in that state, but it also means that I actually know something about the food culture of that part of the country. Some ingredient and recipes are obvious necessities, such as a wild rice soup, at least one or two walleye […]

More Cookbooks I’ve Been Perusing

Nadiya’s Kitchen: Over 100 Simple, Delicious Family Recipes by Nadiya Hussain

Easy Gourmet: Awesome Recipes Anyone Can Cook by Stephanie Le

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I’m grouping these two together because they both fulfill the Reading Women Challenge task 4: Cookbook by a woman of color. I own one and borrowed the other, I’ve cooked from both (although no pictures this time – sorry!) and I feel each is a three star book for me, for similar reasons. Without further ado… Nadiya’s Kitchen After having fallen in love with Nadiya and her outstanding bakes on the Great British Bake Off (Great British Baking Show in the U.S.) and placing her […]

Do not read this hungry

The Inspired Vegan by Bryant Terry

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Sometimes it’s hard to tell if The Inspired Vegan is a cookbook, a set of media recommendations, or a social justice manifesto. Bryant Terry is a recognized advocate for all 3 things though, so it makes sense he’d combine them. One of the more interesting things about this book is how it’s set up, seasonally but also by menu. Each menu has some noted inspirations, usually musical or literary but also sometimes a film gets in there too. Individual recipes also have their own soundtrack […]

Expect the Unexpected with the Manga Cookbook

Manga Cookbook by Annonymus

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It’s always a fun surprise with Book Exchange, but this year one of my books came with a second extra surprise. Manga Cookbook appears on the surface to be a cookbook based on manga as in Japanese graphic novels given both the title and the cover illustrations. However…… It turns out that “manga” is also an Indian word for “mango”, and it is this definition which is intended. Nearly all of the recipes feature some sort of mango. I say ‘some sort’ because I do […]



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