Gifts Cooks Love: Recipes for Giving [Hardcover]

Diane Morgan (Author), Sur La Table (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 28, 2010

Food Gifts Cooks Love is a year-round collection of gifts from the heart—a treasure trove of homemade foods ready to pack into tins, jars, boxes, and cellophane bags tied with a ribbon.

From Orange Cardamom Marmalade and Salmon Gravlax to Rustic Rosemary Parmesan Crackers and Blueberry-Blackberry-Basil Margarita Puree, the recipes in Gifts Cooks Love will help you create the perfect gift for any occasion. Because making a handmade gift takes time--one of life's most precious commodities--Gifts Cooks Love emphasizes that giving a handmade offering expresses something very personal.

In this beautifully presented book, Sur La Table and Diane Morgan offer something for every level of cook, providing accessible recipes delivered with helpful kitchen tips and ingredient notes, as well as guidance for artfully wrapping and presenting these edible gifts. Gorgeous full-color photographs encourage and motivate creativity, while the 40 recipes inside Gifts Cooks Love are certain to please all palates any time of year, from the sweet and simple to the gourmet. Some of the techniques include preserving fruits, dehydrating fresh mushrooms, smoking and curing meat and fish, and creating spirited beverages. For the beginning cook, there are even simple-to-make no-cook food gifts. And because tasteful treats deserve equally tasteful presentations, each delicious recipe comes with a beautiful packaging idea. Gifts Cooks Love will show you how to turn your handmade gifts into homemade hugs with a few slices of art paper, colorful twists of ribbon, or quick strokes of a brush.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Diane Morgan is an award-winning cookbook author, freelance food writer, culinary instructor, and restaurant consultant. She is the author of 14 cookbooks and has been involved in the world of food for more than 25 years. Diane has been a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times food section and has written for Bon Appetit, Fine Cooking, Cooking Light, among others. She has appeared on NBC's Today show, ABC World News Now, The Early Show on CBS, the Food Network, Smart Solutions on HGTV, Seasonings on PBS, and Good Day Oregon. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

Sur La Table is the trusted authority when it comes to all things cooking related. Sur La Table entices aficionados and curious beginners alike with its amazing selection of cookware, bakeware, tools, cookbooks, and cooking school programs designed to make any cook's life easier. They have coauthored nine cookbooks including The Art and Soul of Baking (2008), which received the 2009 IACP Cookbook Award for Baking, was chosen by Gourmet magazine as a book club selection, and was nominated for 2009 baking book of the year by the James Beard Foundation. Baking Kids Love (2009) was also nominated for a 2010 IACP Cookbook Award for Kids/Family Cookbooks. The original store and headquarters are in Seattle, Washington.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing (September 28, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0740793500
• ISBN-13: 978-0740793509
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #513,195 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Diane Morgan is an award-winning cookbook author, freelance food writer, culinary instructor, and restaurant consultant. She is the author of 17 cookbooks, including her newest book, Roots: The Definitive Compendium with more than 225 Recipes. Roots won the prestigious James Beard award for vegetable focused and vegetarian cookbooks, in addition to a coveted IACP Cookbook Award in the single subject category. The New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, among others named Roots one of the top cookbooks of the year.

Her other cookbooks include: Skinny Dips, The Christmas Table, The New Thanksgiving Table, Grill Every Day, Salmon, Pizza, Delicious Dips, The Thanksgiving Table, Midnight Munchies, Cooking For The Week, The Basic Gourmet, The Basic Gourmet Entertains, and Dressed To Grill: Savvy Recipes for Girls who Play with Fire, all from Chronicle Books. In addition, Diane has a cookbook, Gifts Cooks Love, written in conjunction with Sur La Table and published by Andrews McMeel.

She has been involved in the world of food for more than 30 years. She spent six years in Chicago as a caterer and chef for an executive dining room. Leaving behind Chicago's blustery, frigid winters, Diane moved to the Pacific Northwest, settling in Portland, Oregon. Her focus shifted to teaching cooking classes and pursuing a career in food writing. Her first cookbook, Entertaining People: Menus from a Pacific Northwest Cooking School won an IACP/Seagrams cookbook award and was followed by Very Entertaining: Menus for Special Occasions.

Diane's holiday cookbook, The Christmas Table, was featured in Oprah's "O" magazine with six-pages of glorious photographs highlighting food gifts from the kitchen, all created by Diane. Better Homes & Gardens featured six recipes from The Christmas Table in a beautifully illustrated article. Her decadent recipe for Hot Chocolate Fudge Cakes was on the cover of December 2008's issue of Cooking Light magazine.

Diane has been a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times food section and has written for Bon Appétit, Fine Cooking, Cooking Light, Clean Eating, The Oregonian, and Edible Portland. She has appeared on the Today Show, ABC World News Now, CBS Early Show, The Food Network, Smart Solutions on HGTV, Seasonings on PBS, and Good Day Oregon. In addition, for the past two years, Diane has consulted on the core menu, promotional seasonal menus and recipes for a Northwest chain of family dining restaurants. Her website is: www.dianemorgancooks.com.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This Book Inspired Me February 7, 2011

By Books and Chocolate TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

Gifts Cooks Love is the kind of cookbook I enjoy looking at over and over. The photos are beautiful and besides interesting recipes, there are great ideas for packaging and presenting the food gifts which gave me several "oh, look at that!" moments as I read through this book.

I have not tried any of the recipes yet but found several to bookmark with the intent to do so soon. These are not ordinary home canned type recipes and some have ingredients that may not be in the local grocery store. However, this is a book of food gift ideas with people who love to cook in mind, so something out of the ordinary or that itself becomes an ingredient for a creative cook is what would be appreciated.

The author includes a suggested list of tools and equipment, most of which are things that many cooks would already have. (I personally have never owned a food processor and have yet to find a recipe I couldn't make without one.) There is a chapter devoted to decorative packaging and another of tips and techniques for preserving and dehydrating.

The book is organized by types of food: sweet preserved, savory preserved; smoked, cured and dried, baked, confection and chocolate, drinks, no-cook gifts, and make-a-gift kits. Recipes include Moroccan Spice Blend that can be sprinkled on food or used as a rub for meats, a S'Mores Kit that includes homemade marshmallows and graham crackers, Rosemary-Parmesan Crackers, Chipolte Chile Candied Pecans, Rhubarb Compote, Meyer Lemon Curd, and Apricot-Bourbon Mustard, plus others for mustards, dried vegetables and fruit, biscottis, jams, jellies, chutneys, and pastas.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly a gift of food January 8, 2011

By BookEater

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I now have made several of the recipes and used the ideas for packaging. They made great holiday gifts. I like several of the recipes just for home use also, like the cardamom marmalade and the onion base for french onion soup. Delicious. I highly recommend the book. It also has beautiful pictures, which is a must in a cook book!

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Great ideas to build on... September 1, 2011

By scoutyspice

Format:Hardcover

Most of the recipes and ideas are unique or favorites with a twist and therefore gift worthy. I was inspired to make my own lemon vodka and bring it to a friend who loves lemon-drop martinis. It was a real hit. This recipe is not in the book, but I probably wouldn't have thought of it if I hadn't seen the Limoncello recipe (pp. 135-6). I never thought how to present what I made--this book gives many ideas how to make it look like a gift without too much bother. If you don't enjoy cooking or are a beginner, this book might seem too fussy or pretentious.

My only criticism is that the book could have provided source information for the various containers they used in their creations. It is not hard to find canning jars, but some of the smaller glass bottles with the swing tops are difficult to find.