Food 52 Cookbook, Review

**Contest now closed.**

The moment this book arrived in my mailbox mid-October (the publisher William Morrow sent me a reviewer copy), I haven’t been able to put it down and it quickly earned a permanent spot on my kitchen counter. That is saying quite a bit for a typical counter-space challenged New York City kitchen – see Le Bitt’s kitch here and mine here.

As I flipped through this gorgeously photographed and seasonally organized hardcover, I recognized two recipes that I had cooked from this collection already. How did that happen? Food52 was, and is, an online recipe project started two years ago by authors bestselling author Amanda Hesser and food writer Merrill Stubbs.

From the website: "We started small, with a single project: creating the first crowd-sourced cookbook in 52 weeks (that’s where the 52 in Food52 comes from!). We used recipe contests as a way to vet recipes so we’d have a book to publish and a site that would be a trustworthy, go-to recipe source. But these contests were also a handy way to bring together people for a shared purpose -- to create something meaningful, valuable and enduring."

My friend and colleague Stacey Harwood and I cooked spicy chickpeas on camera for this You Tube video about hosting a guest with dietary restrictions. With a few top 8 allergen-free ingredients we made this delish snack. Then, more recently I was looking for a way to use up some extra kale and among the other recipes I found on google.com, I found Food52 with an easy kale lemon pasta variation.

Because the Food52 book is culled from the recipe files of skilled home cooks, it has steps and instructions but nothing too Julia. And many of the dishes to my eye are easily top 8 allergen-free (or easily substituted to be so). What a treasure. (They even have a gluten-free search button on their website.)

The recipe that I made to try out the book is the Southwestern Sweet Potato Fries with Cilantro Sour Cream from Taste Food blog. Easy to make with ingredients I had in my pantry, the “fries” (they are in fact baked) and dip together are: spicy and cool, sweet and tart (I substituted yogurt for sour cream). It was a hit out of the gate as I suspect most of these recipes will be.

***

And now you can find out for yourself. Starting today, November 21, 2011, I’m running a context over on the Allergic Girl Facebook page to win two free copies of Food52 courtesy of the publisher William Morrow.

Please enter only once.

To enter to win all you have to do is share a recipe of your favorite fall-time allergen-friendly dish. Either write out the recipe in the comment section of my Facebook page page or give us a recipe link. Leave a comment on the Allergic Girl Facebook page and make sure I can get in touch with you.

On December 1, 2011, I’ll use random.org to pick TWO winners and post them on Facebook page.

Good luck!

Comments

A Lovely Nest said…
I recently came across this "Faux Pecan Pie" recipe, made it & LOVED it! Here's the link :)
http://www.southernplate.com/2011/11/faux-pecan-pie.html

Enjoy!
Kayla
kcoe87@gmail.com

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