Best Quick & Easy Cooking
The #1 bestselling author and Food Network personality at last answers that age-old question—“What's for Dinner?”—bringing together more than 125 simple, scrumptious, step-by-step recipes for delicious dinners the whole family will love.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I love The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl for straight comfort food. Ree’s books have photos of both the finished dish and photos of the process making the dish, which makes her books terrific to empower teenagers to get going independently, and feel really proud bringing those yummy dishes to smiling people at the table. Pictured below: 1) Huevos Rancheros – p6, with Enchilada Sauce – p8, and Pico De Gallo – p23. She has you make them in those cute little disposable tins if you’re going to freeze them. One is to add a red bell pepper, and my husband had just brought one in from the garden, so that went in, too. I am embarrassed to say that I was wondering what sort of bowls Ree had that these 4 servings could fit in. It's a make ahead and just needs 40 minutes in the oven when you're ready."
"There is also several sections on different types of side dishes and even desserts so readers can mix and match main dishes with the sides and desserts they like to make a complete meal. I was especially pleased with the section on freezer meals. While basic and certainly not an attempt to be a treatise on the subject, this section gives readers the opportunity to prepare staples to keep frozen and then provides several different ways that those frozen staples can be used to make different meals."
"The purpose of the cookbook is tactile: Some of us just like holding a book of lovely recipes in our hands, flipping the pages and attaching sticky notes all over it.. Well, I've flipped the pages of this book and I give it five stars."
"So I have been a stay at home mom for 15 years, and I have been working full time now for 5 months. (cook, bake, take care of kids, grocery shopping, etc) Now that I'm working, I don't want my family eating the crap from fast food or pre made food from the stores (too many add ins that aren't good for you). I have bought cook books before (none of hers) and was disappointed because the ingredients were either too expensive or there was only a couple of recipes that my family would actually eat."
You’ll learn the importance of chili peppers, the secret to cheesy-cheeseless eggs, and life tips like how to use bacon as a home fragrance, the single best way to wake up in the morning, and how not to overthink men or Brussels sprouts.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"She's that rare famous person who makes themselves extremely publicly accessible, but in an actual authentic way. Her online presence doesn't appear to be artfully constructed by a PR firm. She talks about buying giant bear stuffed animals from shopping TV. She's a reminder that yes, celebrity is another plane of existence, but, it's still a career, and she's still a human being. Her twitter feed contains a lot of posts about failed attempts in the kitchen. It led me to believe Teigen tried to make a lot of food, but that it probably turned out kinda terribly most of the time. I expected one of those books with a "If you're a super rich person like me, you can have your housekeeper make you gluten-free llama milk infused baby kangaroo burgers too" tone. I promised I would give a recipe or two a try, but that I was probably going to pass this book along to someone else for their amusement. A book deserving of early admission to Food52's Piglet 2017 tournament (even though it does not have the pedigree of the usual entrants). Dutch Baby Pancake: Super easy to make. This was one of the best salads I have ever eaten, much less prepared (there are a lot of steps with this one, and there's a whole bunch of chopping, but it's an extremely well-written recipe). I tried to make it on a solo parent weeknight, so I rushed a little and didn't mix it up as fully as I should have which led to some mushy breadcrumb only sections. It also needed more time in the oven than the recipe's "about 1 hour" step. That seems to be common with my latest meatloaf cookery though, so it's not a fault of Chrissy's. My minor related suggestion here though would be to add a "cook to XXX degrees" step. I've certainly never thought, "Hey, maybe let's get some Stovetop Stuffing mix and bread our pork chops with that." It's so good that when I asked our daughter a week later what she wanted for dinner, she said, "Hmmm.... Pork Chops!" Pad Grapow Chicken (Basil Chicken): This recipe is from the tiny "Thai Mom" section of the cookbook and it makes me kinda hope for a future Thai Mom specific book. I want to make it again with basil fresh from the garden, because it was delicious with store bought stuff, but I think it would be heavenly with some leaves pulled fresh from the stalk. A simple combination of sugar and water and green beans and butter. Easy recipe, great, slightly crispy green beans. In fact, even my not-really-that-big-of-a-fan-of-corn spouse said, "This salad is really good, I like how this corn is made." I like having the breakfast vs salad vs noodles vs dinner type sections. The recipe introductions are right in line with the tone of Chrissy Teigen. The stuff that reminds her of her mom, or her dad, or that thing that John Legend made that everyone loves. On the other hand, if you just like her sense of humor, I might recommend reading the book in small portions. In no way does this detract from the greatness of the food you will make based on this book, but just be forewarned. I could cook exclusively from this book for a month and we'd be happy family. You should definitely buy this book if you're a huge fan of Chrissy Teigen. But, surprisingly, you should also buy this book if you simply love good food."
"Since purchasing I have cooked the following recipes: -Capon's Chrissy Burger. -John's Crispy Roasted Potatoes. -Chinese Chicken Salad. -Lemony Arugula Spaghetti Cacio e Pepe. -Sweet Chili & Mustard Glazed Salmon. -Thai Pounded Papaya Salad. -Grilled Garlic Soy Shrimp. -Chicken Lettuce Wraps (served over rice). -Pad Grapow Chicken (Basil Chicken). -Roasted Cauliflower, Orzo & Feta Salad. -Sriracha Caesar Salad (with added chicken). -Chipotle Honey Chicken. All but one were really good! I made the papaya salad with spiralized cucumber (as a suggestion in the recipe intro) and it was good, but I would probably leave the fish sauce out as it was too strong for me. But the Cacio e Pepe--SO GOOD!!"
"Ok, so I am a picky eater…and when I say picky, I mean picky."
"Ingredients are regular pantry staples and not hard to find like some other cookbooks."
"She's cooked a few dishes from it and so far, everything I've tasted has been really good."
"I love chrissy and love this book and I try to pick something new to cook every week."
"Gave this as a gift to my wife who loves to cook and is a big fan of Chrissy - it's an awesome cookbook and we have used it numerous times already."
"Good Recipes!!"
Featuring 150 all new, Whole30-compliant recipes—all fast and easy to prepare Millions of people have transformed their lives with Whole30, yet co-creator Melissa Hartwig wants to make it even easier to achieve Whole30 success—with delicious, compliant, fast, and easy recipes. “If you fed me every single recipe in this book, it would never occur to me once that anything was ‘missing.’ I would, however, have been mystified why my body, joints, and mind were operating like a well-oiled machine when I’d been eating like a freaking queen.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"They don’t require super exotic ingredients, and as long as your pantry is fairly Paleo-centric, you probably have a lot of stuff on hand, already(almond flour, coconut aminos, ghee, etc...)."
"Since I bought it on my grocery shopping day, I wrote an entire meal plan for the next week following only recipes from this book. You can put the recipes in this cookbook in your regular meal rotation and know that when dinner (or breakfast, or lunch) comes around, you're going to get it done faster than it takes to sit through the drive thru at your local fast food chain. In fact, we're doing a second week of recipes from this book after my oldest took it upon herself to thumb through this cookbook and pick out more recipes to try."
"love the pictures and the recipes are delicious and easy to prepare."
"Easy to follow, yummy recipes!"
"As a Mom of two, who is a distance runner and crossfitter, there literally isn’t enough time in the day to get creative with my cooking."
"I've had this book for 24 hours and have already made three recipes from it!"
"My favorite part of the original Whole30 book was it's suggested pairings (make it a complete meal) which made your decisions about what to make certain things with much easier."
"I would have been much happier if each recipe started on a new page and all the ingredients were on one page."
Best Culinary Arts & Techniques
The #1 bestselling author and Food Network personality at last answers that age-old question—“What's for Dinner?”—bringing together more than 125 simple, scrumptious, step-by-step recipes for delicious dinners the whole family will love.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I love The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl for straight comfort food. Ree’s books have photos of both the finished dish and photos of the process making the dish, which makes her books terrific to empower teenagers to get going independently, and feel really proud bringing those yummy dishes to smiling people at the table. Pictured below: 1) Huevos Rancheros – p6, with Enchilada Sauce – p8, and Pico De Gallo – p23. She has you make them in those cute little disposable tins if you’re going to freeze them. One is to add a red bell pepper, and my husband had just brought one in from the garden, so that went in, too. I am embarrassed to say that I was wondering what sort of bowls Ree had that these 4 servings could fit in. It's a make ahead and just needs 40 minutes in the oven when you're ready."
"There is also several sections on different types of side dishes and even desserts so readers can mix and match main dishes with the sides and desserts they like to make a complete meal. I was especially pleased with the section on freezer meals. While basic and certainly not an attempt to be a treatise on the subject, this section gives readers the opportunity to prepare staples to keep frozen and then provides several different ways that those frozen staples can be used to make different meals."
"The purpose of the cookbook is tactile: Some of us just like holding a book of lovely recipes in our hands, flipping the pages and attaching sticky notes all over it.. Well, I've flipped the pages of this book and I give it five stars."
"So I have been a stay at home mom for 15 years, and I have been working full time now for 5 months. (cook, bake, take care of kids, grocery shopping, etc) Now that I'm working, I don't want my family eating the crap from fast food or pre made food from the stores (too many add ins that aren't good for you). I have bought cook books before (none of hers) and was disappointed because the ingredients were either too expensive or there was only a couple of recipes that my family would actually eat."
Best Kitchen Appliance Cooking
From America’s “master griller” ( Esquire ), a step-by-step guide to cold-smoking, hot-smoking, and smoke-roasting, and a collection of 100 innovative recipes for smoking every kind of food, from starters to desserts. As someone who has been smoking meat his whole life, even I found new ground covered in this smart, accessible book.”. --Myron Mixon, author and host of BBQ Pitmasters, Smoked, and BBQ Rules. “If your version of heaven has smoked meats waiting beyond the pearly gates, then Project Smoke is your bible.”. --Tom Colicchio, author, chef/owner Crafted hospitality, and host of Top Chef. Project Smoke is both an indispensible guidebook to mastering smoking techniques and a cookbook billowing with innovative recipes, from the usual suspects like appetizers and meats to the more surprising desserts, cocktails, and condiments.”— Taste of the South. There’s hot smoking and cold-smoking, smoke-braising, tea-smoking, “caveman” smoking direct on embers, and stovetop smoking. Bible® cookbook series, which includes the new Barbecue Sauces, Rubs, and Marinades; Project Smoke; The Barbecue Bible ; and How to Grill . His TV shows include the PBS series Steven Raichlen’s Project Smoke (currently in its 3rd season); Primal Grill; and Barbecue University , and the French language series Les Incontournables du BBQ and Le Maitre du Grill.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"PS: Unlike some self-loving "I am the best, buy my books because they tell you how good I am" super BBQ champions, these two authors provide complete recipes and techniques that actually work and produce amazing results."
"I have been wanting to make smoked deviled eggs for a long time but couldn't think of a way to make it worth without overlooking the egg, and this book has the perfect solution."
"From the Martha Stewart of grilling comes Raichlen's new book which features recipes from his latest PBS series."
"I've made a few of the recipes in this book so far and everyone has complemented me on how delicious everything is."
"Really high quality pictures with easy to follow instructions."
"This guy has some great recipes."
"I like to try new things in my smoker."
"great addition to the back yard barbecue... Superbly written with tons of interesting side facts."
Best Thai Cooking, Food & Wine
In this much-anticipated debut cookbook, Ricker shares seventy of the most popular recipes from Thailand and his Pok Pok restaurants—ranging from Khao Soi Kai (Northern Thai curry noodle soup with chicken) to Som Tam Thai (Central Thai–style papaya salad) to Pok Pok’s now-classic (and obsessed-over) Fish-Sauce Wings. Sounding like a gourmand Allen Ginsberg, he writes, “I’ve spent the better part of the last twenty years roaming around Thailand, cooking and recooking strange soups, beseeching street vendors for stir-fry tips, and trying to figure out how to reproduce obscure Thai products with American ingredients.” He spills out his acquired knowledge here across 13 chapters and nearly 100 recipes.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"2) Thai Style Pork Ribs – p 128 with Jaew (spicy, tart dipping sauce) – p 278. He talks about indirect heat using zones on a big grill or the oven. He doesn’t mention a kamado style grill, so if you’ve got an egg shaped grill, to do low heat slow gilling or smoking, you just need a heat deflector. I tossed a chunk of hickory in mine to exaggerate the smoky taste he talks about. The peanut sauce gave my molcajete and right arm a nice workout. Some others I have flagged to try: Grilled Eggplant Salad – p 59 * Isaan Steak Salad – p 68 * Grilled Pork Neck (or shoulder) with Spicy Dipping Sauce and Iced Greens – p 125 * Northern Thai Style Herbal Sausage – p 132 * Stir Fried Noodles with Shrimp, Tofu, and Peanuts – p 221 * Thai Rice Noodles with Northern Thai Curry – p 235 * Sticky Rice with Mango and Salty Sweet Coconut Cream – p 257. I’ll update this as I play in the book more."
"Received as a gift but have eaten at the restaurant several times. We have made 10-12 recipes from the book in just over 2 weeks and have loved all but one recipe and that one was eaten but won't be made again."
"I've been to the restaurant, and Pok Pok has some of the best Thai-fusion food I have ever had."
"Our favorite dish is the green curry and Som Tom or shredded green papaya salad with shrimp."
"If you have ever been to Pok Pok in Portland, you know how delicious the food is!"
"As someone with multiple trips to Thailand and who has been working on duplicating Thai cuisine in the US for 20 years, this book made me want to be in northern or northeastern Thailand so badly."
Best Wok Cookery
In Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge, award-winning author Grace Young shares more than 100 classic stir-fry recipes that sizzle with heat and pop with flavor, from the great Cantonese stir-fry masters to the culinary customs of Sichuan, Hunan, Shanghai, Beijing, Fujian, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia, as well as other countries around the world. Stir-frying may have been pedestrianized by generations of vegetarian college students, but this beautiful, comprehensive cookbook restores it to its rightful place among the most elegant cookery techniques. The virtues of stir-frying, Young writes, are many: it makes bounty out of small amounts of meat and oil; it emphasizes healthful vegetables; and most importantly, it creates 'alchemic flavor out of raw ingredients.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"has a lot of common recipes and stories which makes for fun and informative reading."
"This is a must-have book, and must-give book."
"Chinese Chef Grace Young, author of "The Wisdom Of The Chinese Kitchen", & "The Breath Of A Wok", has another Jade Jewel in her cookbook offerings, with "Stir-Frying To The Sky's Edge"!"
"Warm, accessible approach make this a book that is both enjoyable to read and practical to use."
"Haven't tried the recipes yet, however I have read through the book and the recipes look delicious."
"Probably the best thing for me is the narrative about how Chinese cooks who live outside China have adapted their ingredients to match what's available in their area, turning out jerk chicken stir-fry dishes, Malaysian stir-fries, and assorted other twists. This is a revelation to me, a girl who grew up on the 50s with ChunKing chop suey and chow mein, a girl whose favorite vegetable was tomato juice with corn and potatoes coming in second and third."
"The instructions are easy to follow, the ingredients are easy to find (staples like chinkiang vinegar and shaoxing wine can be picked up at the Asian grocery or substituted), and the recipes are relatively simple and delicious."
"The stories and background information is invaluable to understanding the basic skills used to create the methods and recipes."
Best Special Cooking Appliances
You will learn how to make the best dishes in the world in the easiest way possible: using an instant pot. Your success in the kitchen is guaranteed with just 2 simple tools: this great cookbook and an instant pot!
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I’m a new user of the Instant Pot and after having tried a few online recipes that didn’t turn out well, I though I would opt for a cookbook."
"Preparation time, Cooking time, Servings, ingredients, Directions, Nutritions. These are the six terms the author included with every 500 recipes of this book and the average preparation time of all the recipes included in this book is i think not more than 30 min and the recipes are prepared by a wide range of ingredients."
"This book has a good variety of recipes."
"Anyone can follow these instructions and be on their way to amazing food in just minutes."
"Just made our first meal tonight."
"This cookbook is amazing it has recipes for all kinds of meals."
"I was searching for a book with recipes fro an instant pot and I decided to get this one."
"Recipes are ok- but no photos."
Best Teen & Young Adult Cookbooks
Cooking for teens, like finding the perfect gift for teen boys and girls, is almost impossible. MEGAN CARLE and JILL CARLE are both graduate students at Arizona State University.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"She was so excited because it said ‘Teens’ in the title and that makes her feel so grown up."
"Christmas gift for granddaughter, age 11."
"Easy to follow directions and healthy recipes."
"Item is exactly as described."
"good cookbook, but arrived wit a waterstains and was dirty."
"Bought for teenage Grandson who likes to cook."
"I would not buy this book for a teenager unless they have expressed an interest in learning to make more complicated recipes then simple teenage favorites."
"Not very healthy, recipes unimaginative and really quite bland."
Best Sports & Outdoors
Talk about a bucket list: here are natural wonders—the dazzling glowworm caves in New Zealand, or a baobob tree in South Africa that's so large it has a pub inside where 15 people can drink comfortably. Not to mention the Great Stalacpipe Organ in Virginia, Turkmenistan's 40-year hole of fire called the Gates of Hell, a graveyard for decommissioned ships on the coast of Bangladesh, eccentric bone museums in Italy, or a weather-forecasting invention that was powered by leeches, still on display in Devon, England. “Fair warning: It's addictive.” — NPR, “Cosmos & Culture” “In this gorgeous collection, the celebrated Atlas Obscura website is condensed into 480 pages of awe-inspiring destinations. “Odds are you won’t get past three pages without being amazed at something truly strange that you didn’t know existed.” — San Francisco Chronicle. “Richly illustrated, delightfully strange, this compendium of off-beat destinations should spark many adventures, both terrestrial and imaginary.” — Boston Globe. “Whether describing a Canadian museum that showcases world history through shoes, a pet-casket company that will also sell you a unit for your severed limb, a Greek snake festival, or a place in the Canary Islands where inhabitants communicate through whistling, the authors have compiled an enthralling range of oddities. Featuring full-color illustrations, this hefty and gorgeously produced tome will be eagerly pored over by readers of many ages and fans of the original website.”— Booklist (Starred Review). a wonderful browse [for] armchair travelers who enjoyed Brandon Stanton’s Humans of New York and Frank Warren’s PostSecret .” — Library Journal. It's the kind of book that makes you want to pack in your workaday life and head out to places you'd never have dreamed of going, to see things you could not even have imagined. “ Atlas Obscura is a joyful antidote to the creeping suspicion that travel these days is little more than a homogenized corporate shopping opportunity. Here are hundreds of surprising, perplexing, mind-blowing, inspiring reasons to travel a day longer and farther off the path. Never start a trip without knowing where a haunted hotel or a mouth of hell is!”. —GUILLERMO DEL TORO, filmmaker, Pan’s Labyrinth “ What a strange and wonderful book! Each page reveals some hidden realm—a realm that is frightening, or funny, or magical, or simply mad, but that always leaves the reader in wonder.”. —DAVID GRANN, author of The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon. Be grateful when visiting the Karni Mata Rat Temple if one of the 20,000 venerated rodents runs across your bare foot—it is considered good luck.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Revel in the places that you've seen!"
"I read a short description of the book in the travel section of the SF Chronicle a few weeks ago, and made the purchase based on that. That said, there are items about things I have no interest in seeing, e.g., “Lake Monsters of the USA,” but there don’t seem to be many of that sort of thing included. As with "Lake Monsters," even if you (or a recipient) aren't likely to visit many of the places described, I think for many curious people this would make for an interesting read even without the travel element. It's not a perfect book, and I don't think any one book can be perfect for all readers, but I do think it's very good and I can easily recommend it for anyone who might be potentially interested."
"This book exceeded my already higher-than-average expectations."
"We purchased it for our 19 year old grandson."
"Such a fascinating book!"
"Super fun and entertaini g read if the off beat and curious is your thing."
"Purchased as a gift and spent much of one night pouring through it before giving it away."
"This book is great to have around to pick up while you're waiting for your son to put his socks on, when your eyes need a screen break, during a boring conference call, when you just want to escape your little world for a few minutes."
Best Individual Sports
In this candid and riveting memoir, for the first time ever, Nike founder and board chairman Phil Knight shares the inside story of the company’s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world’s most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands. Above all, he recalls the foundational relationships that formed the heart and soul of Nike, with his former track coach, the irascible and charismatic Bill Bowerman, and with his first employees, a ragtag group of misfits and savants who quickly became a band of swoosh-crazed brothers. “ Shoe Dog is a great American story about luck, grit, know-how, and the magic alchemy of a handful of eccentric characters who came together to build Nike. That it happened at all is a miracle, because as I learned from this book, though we are a nation that extols free enterprise, we also excel at thwarting it. I’ve worn the gear, with pride, but I didn’t realize the remarkable saga of innovation and survival and triumph that stood behind every swoosh. " Shoe Dog is an extraordinary hero's journey, an epic tale of faith, unparalleled determination, excellence, failure, triumph, hard-earned wisdom, and love. Phil Knight takes us back to the Big Bang of the swoosh, recalls how he first begged and borrowed from reluctant banks, how he assembled a crew of eccentric but brilliant misfits, how they all worked together to build something unique and paradigm-changing. "A fresh historical prospective on one of the most profiled companies in the world...[ Shoe Dog ] builds characters of the people behind the brand, many of whom we've never heard of." As Knight collects the misfits and oddballs who become the core of his growing company, Shoe Dog is more like The Lord of the Rings than a typical mogul memoir."
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"To put it bluntly, they are “crap between covers.” There are very few business memoirs that are even good, since most of them make the person writing the memoir seem like a business savant who always knew the right answers and knew things would come out right. Phil Knight’s Shoe Dog: A Memoir by The Creator of Nike is a great business memoir. This will be a great read for anybody, but if you’re thinking about starting a business, especially a business that you expect to grow, this book belongs on your must-read list. If you start a business and that business starts to grow, you are funding the process out ahead of your cash flow. But if you’re in business, and especially if you’re starting a business and wanting to make it grow, this book should be on your must-read list. If you want some seasoned advice to help you run and grow your company, or if you just want to read a great business memoir, pick up a copy of Shoe Dog: A Memoir by The Creator of Nike."
"The author also demonstrates the importance of creative individuals to a organization, perseverance of management, and the importance of having a passionate knowledge of the product as well as market contacts with which to ensure growth."
"The last chapter sums everything together and is beautifully descriptive as it bridges and incorporates the old and new, the people who made the biggest impact to NIKE and what they are doing now.."
"Phil Knight tells his story and the story of Nike’s rise – from his earliest travels to Japan, to the company’s first stirrings in 1972 to its IPO in 1980."
"Phil Knight is an amazing CEO and he shares his many challenges and credits his crew for his many successes."
"This is a must read for any aspiring entrepreneur, not because of any technical content, but because Knight's outlook on life and business is so refreshing."
Best Fryer Recipes
Additional recipes include Parmesan Chicken Fingers, Fish and "Chips," Cherry Chipotle Chicken Wings, Crab Cakes, Coconut Shrimp, Fried Cauliflower with Parmesan Lemon Dressing, homemade potato chips, Boston Cream Donut Holes, and much more. gives you recipes for that too including Marinated Rib-Eye Steak with Herb Roasted Mushrooms, Inside Out Cheeseburgers, Honey Mesquite Pork Chops, Maple Balsamic Salmon, Roasted Vegetable Stromboli and Mini Molten Chocolate Cake, just to name a few. The first book, Blue Jean Chef: Comfortable in the Kitchen , received rave reviews, and helped home cooks broaden their repertoire and become more versatile with a variety of cooking techniques in the kitchen. As the Blue Jean Chef, Meredith’s belief is that being comfortable in the kitchen is key to successful and enjoyable cooking.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"So check your food as it cooks to avoid burning it."
"I bought an air fryer a while ago and need a book to know how to use it."
"This book presents most of the standard fried recipes adapted to the airfryer.."
"I made the parmesan cauliflower and maple balsamic glazed salmon for dinner last night and it was perfect!"
"So many good recipes and Meredith has expanded my thinking."
"Some nice and easy to follow recipes."
"Really nice."
"Still exploring....great recipes."