I think I’ve mentioned my epic love of food before. I love eating, but I also love cooking. In fact I love just looking at food, or talking about it, and especially reading about it. One of my favorite food bloggers, Molly Wizenberg of Orangette, has a new book out called A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes From My Kitchen Table. Read on for details…
I’m only halfway through it but I can tell you it is awesome. It has the feeling of a memoir (Molly recounts her Oklahoma City childhood, her junior year of college abroad in Paris, her food-loving father’s life and death of cancer) but at the heart of each story is a cherished family recipe or delectable dish that is intertwined with the memory. Her essays are full of wonderful details and tell such personal stories they make you feel like the two of you are friends that just don’t know each other yet. I haven’t had time to try any of the recipes (I just got the book on Monday!) but you can bet the blueberry-raspberry pound cake (made by her mother and eaten during summer jazz nights on the lawn of the Oklahoma City Museum of Art), the banana bread with chocolate and crystallized ginger (created by her childhood best friend’s mother), and coconut macaroons with chocolate ganache (she became addicted while going to school in the Bay Area) are at the top of my list. And as mouth-wateringly delicious as these goodies sound, what’s really memorable about A Homemade Life are the tales Molly couches these recipes in. I just want to curl up in my jammies, devour every page, and then devour a warm slice of vanilla bean buttermilk cake, fresh from the oven. I highly recommend adding it to your to-read list (click here for a list of booksigning events), and if you’re of the instant-gratification ilk, head to Orangette now, you (and your tummy!) won’t be disappointed.
