This week's Cook the Book is The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook: The Original Classics. Having worked at Martha Stewart Living magazine for a number of years in my pre–Serious Eats days, I know firsthand the amount of exacting work that went into creating, testing, and editing these recipes, many of which are from Living magazine's articles throughout the years. They've been the source of a number of delicious meals and treats I've made for myself and others over the years. I might also add that the recipes here are not only a pleasure to cook from but reside in a book that features some wonderful art direction—with elegant typefaces and beautiful and helpful photos. As always, we'll be highlighting some... More

This week's Cook the Book has a title that almost guarantees it success with a certain large and very vocal subsection of the population: The Bacon Cookbook. See? You're already interested. It's by James Villas and features 150 recipes inspired by bacon dishes from around the world. We've picked our five favorites from the book and will be featuring them all these week. Win This Book Monday's recipe will be up in a bit, but first we'd like to give you a chance to win one of five (5) copies of this cookbook. All you have to do is tell us: What is your favorite bacon dish? Winners will be chosen at random from among the commenters here. Comments will... More

Long before Top Chef co-host Tom Colicchio was a television personality, he was a working chef. One of the best, most thoughtful chefs in the country, for that matter. In 2000 he wrote what was then a groundbreaking cookbook-manifesto, Think Like a Chef. In it he successfully and clearly deconstructed the chef's craft. It was and is a terrific book, full of recipes and sage advice. In fact, it's the equivalent of a master class from one of our greatest chefs. Now Think Like a Chef has been reissued in a gorgeous trade paperback edition, and we are giving away five copies in this week's Cook the Book. To enter, just tell us what your favorite cooking technique is. The... More

I've been eating Susan Spicer's spectacularly delicious food in New Orleans first at the Bistro at Maison de Ville, then at her own Bayona, for more than 20 years now, and frankly I could never figure out why she'd never written a cookbook. With the publication of Crescent City Cooking my days of wondering are now over. Spicer has always had a way of combining classical French cooking techniques and traditional New Orleans food preparations and ingredients into her own effortlessly elegant cooking style. She manages to elevate comfort food into something special without tricking it up. We've got eight copies of Crescent City Cooking to give away. To enter: Tell us what your favorite New Orleans dish is when... More

Conventional wisdom in the food world is that desserts in Italian restaurants are an afterthought. All I can say is that the people spouting that conventional wisdom have never had Gina DePalma's desserts at Babbo in New York City. I have had the privilege of eating DePalma's desserts since the restaurant opened. I have over the years sampled every dessert on the menu at least once, and I can tell you there isn't a loser in the bunch. Now that DePalma has written Dolce Italiano: Desserts From the Babbo Kitchen, we can all try to replicate the magic that comes out of Mario Batali's tiny kitchen at Babbo every night. What's really cool about Dolce Italiano is that DePalma herself... More

This week's installment of Cook the Book features Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. (We figured you could use a counterpoint to last week's selection.) Bittman is, of course, known for his Minimalist column in the New York Times dining section, for his popular How to Cook Everything series of cookbooks, and for his cooking show on PBS—all of which stress an informal style of cooking, as befits the Minimalist title. This book, obviously, puts Bittman's spin on vegetarian cooking. The first recipe we'll be highlighting from it will be along shortly, but, as always, let's take care of business. We've got five (5) of these to give away this week. Simply tell us in the comments: What's your... More

I've been reading new kid-related cookbooks so you don't have to. First, the good news. Nicola Graimes's Top 100 Recipes for a Healthy Lunchbox is petite (the book is about 6-inches square) and English. The author may also be petite and English, for all I know. The recipes have an emphasis on "healthy" but without resorting to unsavory stuff like low-fat cottage cheese or tub margarine. Surely my daughter Iris could be convinced to take Chicken Tikka Naan, Zucchini & Parmesan Fritters, or even Sushi Cones in her Hello Kitty lunchbox, although she would eat the contents of the sushi cone and leave the seaweed. There is a whole section on salads; if your kids accept salad in their lunch,... More

As promised, here's the place where you can throw your hat in the ring to win a copy of Fergus Henderson's Beyond Nose to Tail, which Serious Eater Cathy just weighed in on. The first recipe from the book will be up in a few minutes, but for now, if you'd like to win a copy, just tell us what your favorite offal dish is. We'll be giving away ten (10) copies, choosing the winners at random from among the comments below. Commenting will close at noon ET Saturday, October 27. The standard Serious Eats contest rules apply.... More