Christmas in the Cookbook Club – And the New Year Cookbook Selections

Here we are at the sharp end of 2023, but Christmas in the cookbook club will be a cinch with our December cookbook choice.

Well, all of a sudden it’s December, and time for Christmas in the cookbook club – and it’s been another fabulous year for Lambs’ Ears Cookbook Club.We’ve seen our membership grow, with cookbook addicts both here in Australia and overseas, and we’ve cooked from a selection of excellent cookbooks – I do hope everyone has enjoyed 2023.

Our final cookbook for this year is one that is entirely appropriate for Christmas in the cookbook club – and in your home, wherever that may be. Donna Hay has a well deserved national and international reputation for her fresh accessible food and her Christmas Feasts and Treats cookbook is fabulous. It’s full of wonderful dishes that will have you covered for all of your holiday cooking and entertaining.

She has step-by-step guides to help you through the ‘big four’ – glazed ham, roast pork, roast turkey and perfectly grilled lobster – plus fabulous starters, side dishes that range from fast and fresh, to stunners, and wonderfully achievable sweet treats. With gorgeous full colour images, this book will get you through the lead up to Christmas in all it’s craziness, and have you totally set for the big day. I can’t wait to see what you share from this cookbook.

Here’s what we cooked in November

I was totally looking forward indulging myself with our November selection, Sweet Enough by Alison Roman, but the fates had other ideas. My cooking time was interrupted by a wonderful short stay in Tasmania in the middle of the month, and then by a nasty sinus infection that laid me low for more than a week, so I didn’t get as much cake in my face as I’d intended. But here’s what our members got up to in November.

Getting a head start on 2024 with our January selection

Our January cookbook selection is one I’ve been waiting very eagerly for. I’m a stickler for using good quality spices in my cooking – the supermarket shelf spice offerings just never seem to lift food quite enough for me, so I always buy my spices from the Melbourne-based family spice business, Gewurzhaus.

Sisters Maria and Eva Konecsny, who founded this spice business, have recently released Kindred, their own cookbook. Taking you into their own kitchens, in this book they share the spices, rituals and traditions from their German heritage that brings their families together around the table.

This selection of recipes teaches you how to elevate your food, often with just a simple fragrant addition, and you’ll discover essential principles for spicing up all of your dishes. Both Maria and Eva were nurtured in the kitchen from infancy by their mother, grandmother and great grandmothers, so call on a strong family legacy of cooking from the heart and with flavour.

I’ll be back with a short post for the new year in a few weeks, where I’ll announce our year-long cookbook option for 2024. In the meantime I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and enjoy Christmas in the cookbook club with Donna Hay.

RECAPPING 2023 SO FAR

Our whole year “cookbook” for 2023 is delicious. – either the magazines or anything from their website.

November – Sweet Enough by Alison Roman
October – Be Inspired – A Month in Provence by Roberta Muir
September – Pomegranates and Artichokes by Saghar Setareh
August – Tried, Tested and True by Liz Harfull
July – In Belinda’s Kitchen by Belinda Jeffery
June – Modern Pressure Cooking by Catherine Phipps
May – The Italian Home Cook, by Silvia Colloca
April – Strong, Sweet and Bitter by Cara Devine, or First, Cream the Butter and Sugar by Emelia Jackson
March – Maggie’s Harvest by Maggie Beer
February – Salamati by Hamed Allahyari
January – More Fish, More Veg by Tom Walton

YOU CAN BUY ANY OF THESE COOKBOOKS AT ALL GOOD BOOKSHOPS, OR ONLINE AT BOOKTOPIA USING THE LINKS IN THIS POST. (IF PURCHASED VIA THESE LINKS, YOU WILL GET A GREAT PRICE AND I WILL RECEIVE A SMALL PERCENTAGE OF THE COST.)

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