“Simply Julia”’s ricotta potato chip fish cakes with peas.Credit.Melina Hammer
Turshen’s recipes never feel as though they’ve been developed in a test kitchen a good thing!
The food is comforting and familiar (ricotta and potato chip fish cakes with peas, vegan chili, pork tenderloin piccata, French onion meatloaf, mustardy cracker-crumb fish) and, thanks to a series of honest personal essays by the host herself (one on body acceptance, another on how cooking helped her anxiety), you can feel like your best self, too. Also helping with the charm: a series of pretty and practical listicles, including one about the things that are always in her pantry (vinegar, tahini, beans), and another on the things she can always count on for good vibes (No. 3: her grandmother’s old china dishes). There are 11 make-ahead meals, 11 chicken recipes, 11 one-pot vegan dishes and more.
Pecans, caramel, chocolate. Name a better combination of flavors. I ll wait.
Americans have been dipping pecans in chocolate and/or caramel for as long as we ve had reliable access to sugar and cacao. In 1918, the Johnson’s Candy Company started making a nut-and-caramel mixture that they dipped in chocolate in a way so that it kind of looked like a turtle. They trademarked the word Turtle, and before long, people were making these treats at home and calling them turtles, too.
Johnson s Candy Company later became the DeMet’s Candy Company, which still has the loosely protected trademark. Folks far and wide use the term turtle to describe anything with those three ingredients. (It s worth noting that Lammes Candies, which has been around since 1885, sells chocolate-covered pecan caramels called Longhorns that first debuted in the 1960s during the Darrell K. Royal national championship years.)
As most of you are aware, I continually update the 2021 Cookbook Preview post with additions each week. Working on the EYB Library and adding new cookbooks is one of my favorite jobs. Adding these soon-to-be released titles to our preview post gives me the same feeling of excitement as Christmas morning to a child.
Today, I’m going to share a deeper look into some stellar titles coming in the months February through May that I have had the pleasure of reviewing a galley. The 2021 Cookbook Preview shares a detailed listing by month of most worldwide cookbook releases (so many great books this year, again) but the following provides a taste of what we have to look forward to this year.