“Standing on the stage delivering the graduation speech at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris is not the optimal time for an existential crisis.”

So begins The Kitchen Counter Cooking School, a sequel, of sorts, to The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry from award-winning writer Kathleen Flinn. Whereas Flinn’s first book tells her tale of earning a diploma from the world’s most famous cooking school, her second commences two years after...

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Zuppe: Soups from the kitchen of the American Academy in Rome | The Little Bookroom, | Serves 6

English peas come in fast and we make a feast of them in the early days of spring. This sweet creamy soup is exactly the same color as the Bass Garden outside the kitchen window. Adding the parsley and mint at the end not only intensifies the flavor, but accentuates the brilliant spring green color. Avoid the temptation to make this soup out of...

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My grandma isn’t your typical floral housecoat-wearing, quilt-sewing, rolling-pin waving sort of grandma. When she’s not driving herself to Monday morning Tai Chi class, she’s lunching with friends while wearing hip-hugging jeans most likely purchased at Target and, if she’s feeling really spry, red cowboy boots. Even after 89 years, my grandma has style–especially when it comes to shoes. It’s a fetish she and I share, even...

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Cook, Eat, Smile | Salt Yard Book Co., 2011 | Serves 8 to 12

This is an all-singing, whooped-up, somewhat-over-the-top, photo-opportunity cake that requires no cooking at all and can be assembled–because it is essentially an assembly job–by a five-year-old. Which is, after all, the point: that it has been, at least in some small way, prepared by the children.

You can use any shop-bought cake—maybe a Victorian sponge or a lemon...

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Joy the Baker Cookbook | Hyperion, 2012 | Makes one 9-by-5-inch loaf

Dear Mommom,

I love your banana bread. It’s moist and uncomplicated, full of banana bits and supreme comfort. I’ve enjoyed your banana bread for as long as I can remember. Dad makes a low-fat version of your banana bread but come on! I just can’t get behind that. Your recipe reigns supreme. Just one thing though, I added chocolate and bourbon to your classic. What...

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Melt: A Book of Chocolate | Absolute Press, 2011 | Servings vary

There are three basic methods of melting chocolate. Our favorite way is simply to put it in the oven at a very low temperature. This results in chocolate that is easy to handle and minimizes the possibility of producing lumpy, unevenly melted chocolate.

If you overheat the chocolate, or if it comes into contact with water or steam, it may “seize,” i.e. thicken and...

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Babies’ hair smells keenly of humanity. It makes people groan, small but deep–a kind of creaking in their gut as they inhale and say, “Hmmm.”

Babies smell of rusks, even if they don’t eat them. Tiny babies smell like kissing someone in a field; also of milk, and asparagus, and–it’s up to you really–pancakes cooked in the Frytex of your youth; baby lotion, even if they are wearing none; sunshine,...

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Pasta Italiana | Kyle Books, 2012 | Serves 4

I have always found artichokes a little bit like Marmite—you love them or you hate them! In my case, I absolutely adore them. If you have never tried them, please have a go at this pasta dish—you won’t be disappointed.

Never ever buy artichokes that are preserved in brine because they aren’t worth eating.–Gino D’Acampo

LC Simple Is As Pasta Does Note: Simple is as simple...

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