The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook: Recipes and Wisdom from an Obsessive Home Cook

A tiny kitchen and great eats are the winning formula for popular New York City food blogger Deb Perelman, confessed “picky” and “obsessive” self-taught cook of smittenkitchen.com blogging fame. In her first cookbook, awaited by an enormous fan base, Perelman shares her undisguised love of cooking and 300 recipes that come out of her apartment’s postage stamp–size kitchen. Driven by curiosity and a desire to share her cooking discoveries, Perelman delivers a collection of lab notes from well-tested culinary experiments and open dialogue with blog fans whose questions Deb credits with having “fine-tuned my cooking by forcing me to question everything.” What makes the best roast chicken? How can you make gnocchi light as pillows? She approaches each cooking challenge with aplomb, breaking the mold while inspiring readers to work with whatever challenges a tiny kitchen, limited budget, equipment, or untried recipes present. What better way to convince a friend of the virtues of popcorn than by combining it with a buttery brown sugar cookie? Perelman’s love of strawberry shortcake inspires a biscuit-as-cradle for juicy tomatoes topped with whipped goat cheese. Included are a great number of vegetarian recipes. This fearless home cook’s humorous anecdotes and delectable photos make for a food blog–gone–book that translates beautifully into any kitchen and fulfills Perelman’s promise to help cooks prepare food that both “she and you will love.” Photos. Agent: Alison Fargis. (Oct.)