Saturday, March 26 – 6:15pm

Because of Pie Day, we had the joy of two Cookbook Club events in March! For our “regular” dinner, we used Alison Roman’s Dining In. Described as “drool-worthy yet decidedly unfussy food”, the cookbook’s aim is to provide recipes that are seductive but simple enough that they make you want to stay home and cook.

Saturday, February 12 – 5:30pm

In February, we tried something a little different. Cookbook Clubbers were able to choose recipes from the America’s Test Kitchen website and cookbook, or from their affiliated Cook’s Illustrated magazine and cookbook. That made for a lot of options to choose from, as the cookbooks alone had over 3,700 recipes!

Saturday, December 4 – 4:00pm

Our Cookbook Clubbers had the fabulous idea to do a holiday cookie swap, where each person made a batch of cookies and then everyone swapped so that you went home with a whole load of various cookies. The cookie recipe could be selected from several cookbook options – BraveTart by Stella Parks, Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan, or The Cookie Collection by Brian Hart Hoffman.

Saturday, October 23 – 6:00pm

October’s featured cookbook was In Bibi’s Kitchen by Hawa Hassan. The book’s subtitle is “The Recipes and Stories of Grandmothers From the Eight African Countries that Touch the Indian Ocean”, which is a mouthful but pretty much describes the cookbook. The bibis (grandmothers) are from these eight African nations – South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, Comoros, Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia, and Eritrea.

Sunday, September 19 – 5:30pm

For our September cookbook, we used Nik Sharma’s Season: Big Flavors, Beautiful Food. The recipes are a fresh take on Indian cooking, and the book is filled with beautiful food photos taken by Sharma himself. The photography often includes his own hands at work, noted for their brownness in a food media landscape dominated by whiteness.

Saturday, August 14 – 6:30pm

Our August cookbook was Guerrilla Tacos. In the book, Wesley Avila tells his story of growing up in our very own city of Los Angeles, working in some of the city’s top-tier restaurants, and then going on to create one of its most sought-after food trucks. Avila shares the recipes he created along the way to opening “the best taco place in L.A.”

Sunday, July 11 – 6:00pm

In July, we used Gourmet Today – a massive cookbook of more than 1,000 recipes selected by Ruth Reichl, the editor in chief of Gourmet magazine. Every recipe was tested by the Gourmet test kitchen, and that’s a lot of recipes!