Cookbook Club Roundup 2021

Welcome to the Lambs’ Ears Cookbook Club roundup for 2021. Thanks to the lively participation of our members, our cookbook club has had a fab first year.

First up – I just can’t believe that it’s the end of the year and it’s actually time to do a cookbook club roundup. Where did that time and all those cookbooks and recipes go?!

Anyhoo – let’s take a quick look at how we fared in our very first year (actually it’s only 10 months because we began in March) of cooking together. From the small handful of cookbook tragics who joined me at the beginning of the year, I’m thrilled to say that our membership continues to grow. It’s currently at 553 members and still climbing. Share the group with all of your friends, lovers, spouses, kids, next door neighbours and casual acquaintances – the more the merrier!

In a different sort of cookbook club roundup, we held a poll on our Facebook page to find the most popular book since we began the cookbook club back in March. It will surprise no-one who is in the group to discover that Hetty McKinnon’s “To Asia, With Love’ has romped home so far. We all loved her simple, fresh and unerringly delicious recipes.

“Simple” by Yotam Ottolenghi came in a very close second. (One of my daughters has given me his new book “Test Kitchen” for Christmas. I’ll be exploring it just as soon as we run out of leftovers. 🤣 )The poll is still up on the page so do go and vote, if you haven’t already.

Briefly, our cookbook year looked like this – our year-long cookbook for 2021 was Alice Zaslavsky’s “In Praise of Veg”, and our monthly selections for 2021, since we began the club back in March were –

December – Feast by Miguel Maestre
November – In Good Company by Sophie Hansen
October – Every.Night.Of.The.Week. by Lucy Tweed
September – How To Eat by Nigella Lawson
August – Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat
July – To Asia, With Love by Hetty McKinnon
June – Parwana by Durkhanai Ayubi
May – The Slow Cook by Justine Schofield
April – Mix & Bake by Belinda Jeffrey
March – Simple by Yotam Ottolenghi

To finish this cookbook club roundup I’d just like to thank our wonderful members. The success of the club would not have been possible without the enthusiastic participation of all of you who have embraced my idea so wholeheartedly. You’ve been diligently cooking and snapping away all year and for that I thank you all! I’m so proud that you’ve stepped up and share your photos, and I’ve included just a few of the images that some of you have posted here, but there are heaps more.

If you have yet to take the plunge and join in, I’d urge you to head to our Facebook group and check out the many, many more images, and honest opinions of the dishes we have cooked – I can guarantee you will end up feeling very hungry.

Check back here later in the week, when I’ll announce the year-long cookbook club selection – and, of course, our February cookbook.