Must Read: 2009 Food & Wine Annual Cookbook

by partysugar 2

Food & Wine magazine is one of my favorite glossies. I love it so much that at the end of the month I page through each issue and rip out interesting and delicious recipes.

Little did I know that the fabulous folks over at Food & Wine have already done the dirty work for me! Every year they release an annual cookbook ($29.95) with an entire year's worth of recipes.

Lucky me: I got my hands on 2009's copy. To find out what I thought of the compilation of over 700 recipes, read more.

Pros:

• The book reduces paper waste. Now I don't have to rip out of the magazine or print up a recipe from online.
• It's like a nostalgic look back on the year. Many of the recipes I've already made or remember thinking I wanted to try them.
• No topic is left uncovered. There are recipes for everything from vegetarian starters to Thanksgiving dinners to pitcher cocktails.
• Each recipe has a different author resulting in a wide range of cuisines and culinary point of views.

Cons:

• There's something lacking in terms of organization. While it's broken up into sections (including breads, pizzas, and sandwiches; breakfast and brunch; and beef, lamb, and game), they're hard to navigate.
• With so many recipes, sometimes the pages feel crowded.
• Without the accompanying magazine story or headline, some recipes seem out of place.

Recipes: The recipes are written in Food & Wine's straight forward, easy-to-follow style. Here are some I hope to make:

• BLT salad with blue cheese
• Creamy asparagus soup
• Sticky marmalade-glazed baby-back ribs
• Pop-open clams with horseradish Tabasco sauce
• Warm potato salad with arugula
• Sour-cherry gin slings

Imagery: Not every recipe has a picture, but the book's smooth pages are filled with photos. Each image is in color. Some are full sized, while others take up only a quarter or half of the page.

Overall: If you're a fan of the magazine, you'll enjoy this book. Because there is a year's worth of recipes, it also makes a good basic cookbook.