Cooking the Books – April in the Cookbook Club

We are going free-range for April in the cookbook club – just pick one of your own  cookbooks to cook from. And May is looking very special …

Welcome to April and yet another month of cooking the books with Lambs Ears Cookbook Club.

This month we are going free-range with our cookbook selections, and I want each of you to select ONE book from your shelves and leap into it head-first, for the whole month. I don’t care which book you choose, but I just want you to cook as much as you can from the one book and share it with the group over on Facebook and/or on Instagram (using #lambsearscookbookclub on the latter) for the whole month.

My efforts at cooking the books in April will be from Alice Zaslavsky’s The Joy of Better Cooking. I’ve been wandering through it over the last few months and have been struck by its adaptable recipes, down-to-earth approach and the delicious selection of dishes it includes. It’s such an enthusiastic and inspiring cookbook, and incredibly versatile – I won’t be short of ideas with this one.

What did we cook in March?

March was very busy (not the least for me, as I spontaneously popped back to Italy for a conference on food and politics, and then had to deal with a crushing bout of jet lag as punishment for self-indulgence), and the lovely Recipes for a Lifetime of Beautiful Cooking has proved to be a particularly popular monthly choice. I love it when I get the selection so right that it resonates with so many of you.

Here’s just a few of the gorgeous photos our members shared.

 

So – tell me about May

Another of the requests from my very casual Facebook poll of last year was for some more vegetarian content. Well, in May we will be cooking the books from something that I think is really quite special.

Anna Jones is an award-winning, London-based food writer, stylist and cookbook author who is well noted for her focus on vegetables and modern vegetarian cooking. With four books under her belt, this week (on the 3rd of April, to be exact) her latest – Easy Wins – will be released here in Australia.

I’m a committed omnivore, but Jones’ modern approach to vegetables is totally head-turning. I was already a fan after her 2014 volume, A Modern Way To Eat, but ever since I received a review copy of Easy Wins it has barely been out of my hands. I love the format –  12 ingredients that are always show-stoppers, a selection of recipes starring each of them, and 365 days of great eating – and I want to cook nearly everything in it.

I get a lot of cookbooks sent to me, but this one is special and I can’t commend it highly enough, it’s already the UK Sunday Times No1 Bestseller – and it was only released in England 2 weeks ago! Get online and order it, head into your nearest book shop on Wednesday, or grab yourself the digital copy from Amazon. Just do it – this cookbook is an utter cracker and should be in everyone’s kitchen.

So far, 2024 is looking a little like this –

The whole year cookbook is The Food Saver’s A-Z – The Essential Cornersmith Kitchen Companion by Alex Elliott-Howery and Jaimee Edwards

April – Your choice from any ONE book you have
March – Recipes for a Lifetime of Beautiful Cooking by Danielle Alvarez with Libby Travers
February – Any recipes from the late Bill Granger, either from his books or online
January – Kindred by Maria and Eva Konescny

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.)

Details for last year in the cookbook club are all here.

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