Hi everyone!
Time to start the holiday season with some gift ideas.
Our daughter works in advertising at the digital magazine Apartment Therapy and its sister site, The Kitchn. The Kitchn released its first cookbook this fall and it makes a wonderful present for a new cook, a young couple or anyone wanting to reorganize and update an outdated kitchen with modern recipes, design ideas and equipment. It is so much more than a cookbook.
Here is the description of the book by authors Sara Kate Gillingham and Faith Durand....
"The Kitchn Cookbook is not just a big collection of recipes (as much as we love them). Half of the book is devoted to all the other things that make cooking so essential and engaging, like principles for organizing your kitchen effectively, and the best tools to buy. We include 10 real-life kitchen tours, from sleek and modern to worn-in and friendly, and we offer tips and natural solutions for keeping the kitchen clean and tidy.
Only after your kitchen is ship-shape do we dive into food. We talk ingredients — meat, seafood, produce, pantry, and beyond — and we include 50 essential techniques for developing your own cooking skills and learning how to cook without recipes.
The 150 recipes are of course a big chunk of the book — but they're not just recipes brought over from the site. There are some perennial favorites, retested and rewritten (watch for some new flavors of that famous banana ice cream!), but most of the recipes are all-new, offering you healthy, homey cooking with little splashes of elegance."
It is stylish and practical with inspiring photographs throughout, I highly recommend it. Also their daily email updates are fun to receive, always great ideas and recipes. You can purchase The Kitchn Cookbook here on their site, also available at West Elm stores here and all the regular book sellers.
Next up is Inspired by Tradition/The Architecture of Norman Davenport Askins. It features fifteen homes by Atlanta architect Norman Askins. Known in the South for his traditional residential designs, he designed the remodel of our cottage 10 years ago and we are working with him on some ideas for an addition.
It is a beautiful book! His architectural styles are quite varied. A Caribbean inspired home on Sea Island, GA
a mountain home in North Carolina
his in-town Italian villa in Atlanta
and many more. The details in his designs are inspired and make each home unique. Here are just a few of my favorite images I took from my copy... the book has beautiful interior design and garden inspiration as well.
This is such a pretty work space.
A perfect mountain porch.
The most cozy warm mountain kitchen...
He uses metal doors in a traditional sunroom.
I love how an alcove becomes an elegant dining room in this Atlanta bungalow.
Photos from The Kitchn, West Elm, Norman Askins and my iPhone.
Thanks for visiting!
Cindy
They look like great books. I was recently lamenting that there are no good ways doff people to learn to cook anymore. Food network is useless crap, and most cookbooks are filled with beautiful images and short on instruction or technique. I might get the Kitchn book for a friend of mine. I hope it sells well. An addition?! How exciting!
ReplyDeleteDoff people? I think that's *for people :)
DeleteFood network still has Ina Garten, love the scenery as much as her food!
DeleteI LOVE books! Those look like great ones, Cindy. I have way too many design books but Inspired by Tradition looks too beautiful not to own. Adding that to my list. And The Kitchn would make great presents for many of my nieces and nephews fresh out of college. Maybe I'll get a copy for me, too :-)
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Loi
Yay, you know I love your awesome gift ideas!! How fun your architect has a book out, it looks gorgeous and that dining nook is so charming!
ReplyDeleteLoving those metal doors… a lot! And that mountain porch looks a lot like yours, no? Can't wait to see more of what you do with the house.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the cookbook suggestion: perfect for my daughter in her new apt. in D.C. Will check it out!
They look like beautiful books. I love that NC mountain home -- wish it were mine!
ReplyDeleteClaudia