2014 Cookbook Gift Guide

Cookbooks make the best holiday gifts. Here are some of my top picks of 2014!

It’s that time of year again! I think cookbooks make the best gifts so I’ve rounded up tons of my favorites in a variety of different categories. Hopefully there’s something here for everyone on your list (and then maybe a little something for yourself too). If I’ve missed any of your favorites, leave me your recommendations in the comments! pictured above: Green Kitchen Travels  /  Vibrant Food  /  The Forest Feast The Oh She Glows Cookbook  /  At Home in the Whole Food Kitchen  /  Plenty More Shake  /  The Art of Vintage Cocktails  /  The Bar Book Sunday Suppers  /  The…

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Mini Sweet Potato Pizzas

our Mini Sweet Potato Pizzas are topped with brussels sprouts and kale. Customize the recipe with ingredients you happen to have on hand.

I feel like I missed the boat on the Thanksgiving leftover trend – sorry no mashed potato sandwiches happened here. (and um, eww). Instead, I turned a bunch of random veggie scraps and a chunk of red onion into fancy little veggie packed pizzas. In other words – it’s pretty much a non-recipe made on mini naan breads. You can customize these with whatever veggies you have on hand. Red onion and brussels sprouts are a tried & true combo (this recipe is still one of our favorites), and the sweet potatoes add a nice hearty bite. I slathered ricotta cheese…

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Holiday Cocktail & Cookie Swap

Enjoy cocktails and a holiday cookie swap with Love and Lemons and Crate and Barrel. Includes two cookie recipes and a cocktail recipe!

For as long as I can remember, my family’s Christmas season officially started with cookies. Before we were even tall enough to reach the countertop, my mom would pull over kitchen chairs so my sister and I could “help” out and get our hands in the flour. She would get out the baking sheets, the ingredients, and the flour-dusted recipes that were reserved only for the holiday season. We’d bake batch after batch after batch, eating more cookie dough than actual cookies. This year, to kick off our holiday season, I created a little cookie & cocktail party taking inspiration…

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Healthy Winter Squash Recipes

Are you feeling as stuffed as I am? This year we actually celebrated Thanksgiving a week early with Jack’s family – yet I’m still full from his mom’s amazing apple pie and the leftovers we’ve been snacking on all week. This weekend, I’m craving food that’s a little bit healthier but still comforting and delicious so I thought I’d share just a few ideas: Butternut Squash & Leek Risotto (pictured) Spaghetti Squash with Chickpeas & Kale (pictured) Butternut Squash & Tart Cherry Quinoa Sweet Potato Pomegranate Salad Roasted Acorn Squash with Pears and Miso Dressing from Edible Perspective Sweet Potato Ravioli with Kale Pesto from The First…

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Sweet Harvest Pumpkin Ice Cream

Made with just 4 ingredients, this vegan Pumpkin Black Tea Ice Cream recipe is a simple & healthy pumpkin spice treat! Perfect for fall and winter holidays.

Are you all pumpkin-ed out yet? Hopefully not – but even if you are, you just have to try this one. If you’ve been following for long you know I have just a slight love for ice creams made with coconut milk. But this one? This one not only takes the cake but probably the pumpkin and apple pies too. It’s a rich & creamy, yet healthier, take on holiday desserts. I’ve had tea ice cream on my mind ever since tasting a tea-infused sorbet while visiting Celestial Seasonings last month. Their Sweet Harvest Pumpkin Black Tea is warmly spiced with cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg…

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Vegetarian Thanksgiving Recipes

Happy almost Thanksgiving! Whether you’re having a vegetarian holiday, or your son’s new girlfriend is vegan… OR you just plain love vegetables (like we do), here are a few veggie feast-worthy recipes that will hopefully inspire… Pictured above: Vegan Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes Ginger Apple Pumpkin Soup / Shredded Brussels Sprout & Apple Salad Butternut Squash, Walnut & Sage Pasta / Creamy Polenta & Mushrooms Rosemary Roasted Veggies / Kale & Shiitake Mushroom Stuffing Apple Zinger Tea-tails / Apple Cardamom Oat Crumble Plus, check out tons more in the Thanksgiving section of our recipe index…

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Stuffed Acorn Squash

I first made this stuffed acorn squash recipe for Thanksgiving, but its spiced quinoa filling is so good that it's become one of my go-to fall recipes.

The year I first became vegetarian I truly missed the turkey part of turkey day. It seems like ages ago now, but back then I barely knew how to cook for myself, let alone embrace seasonal foods like squashes, Brussels sprouts, and sweet potatoes (you know, the kind without marshmallows). Now, with hearty vegetarian main dishes like this stuffed acorn squash, I couldn’t miss the turkey less. When I started working on this recipe, I knew I wanted to make an unconventional stuffed squash. Obviously, you won’t find ground beef or a sausage and apple combination here, but I also veered off the traditional…

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Pistachio Cranberry Cookies

I made a half batch of these cookies, which was clearly a mistake. I ate the last one for breakfast this morning and I could really go for another one right about now. Chewy, oaty, nutty… slightly sweet and warmly spiced… it’s the kind of cookie that’s just healthy enough to get by as breakfast but would be even more perfect as a 2pm snack. If only… This recipe is just slightly adapted from Amy Chaplin’s book At Home in the Whole Food Kitchen, which is hands down one of the most beautiful cookbooks I’ve ever held. I’ve been a fan of Amy’s for the…

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Autumn Farmhouse Salad

Sweet potatoes, apples & greens fill out this hearty autumn salad. With sweet, salty, crunchy & nutty elements, it's a perfect side dish or meal on its own.

I have a love/hate relationship with farro. It takes forever to make, and quinoa is quicker, but the chewy, nutty grains bring a real heartiness to this not-wimpy fall salad. The catch is that you have to pre-plan for farro – it’s easiest to make a big batch and keep it around all week. I’m not usually that organized, but I happened to have made farro the day before my Farmhouse vegetables arrived, so here we are… a farro salad with more veggies than could fit onto the subject line of this post. Fall Salad Recipe Ingredients This delicious salad recipe is sweet, salty, crunchy, nutty… Here’s what…

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Soup weather recipes

We’ve left the house exactly two times in the last two days. It might not be snowing here like it is for many of you – but its rainy, cold and miserable. Which means it’s the perfect weather to stay in and make soup! Here are a few of my favorites (pictured above): Chickpea Miso Noodle Soup  /  Spicy Black Bean Soup Tomato Chickpea & Coconut Soup / Curried Sweet Potato Soup …and a few others that have me thinking warm thoughts: Roasted Carrot and Fennel Soup on Sunday Spent Cooking Amy Chaplin’s Kabocha Squash + Chestnut Soup on The First Mess Cream of Broccoli & Cashew…

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Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes

Seasoned with roasted garlic & fresh rosemary, these vegan cauliflower mashed potatoes are wonderfully fluffy and light. Perfect for Thanksgiving.

Jack here today. I never thought I’d say this, but I’m now a cauliflower mashed potatoes convert. To be honest, I used to be mashed potato traditionalist. When I was growing up, every holiday with my dad’s family, the mashed potatoes came out, and it was a frenzy. My uncle Billy, my grandfather, and I would load up, devouring what seemed like a truck full of mashed potatoes. Fast forward to today. Now, I have a lovely wife who makes wonderful, healthy food – all full of vibrancy and flavor. But there has always been a hole in my heart that…

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A food blog with fresh, zesty recipes.
Photograph of Jeanine Donofrio and Jack Mathews in their kitchen

Hello, we're Jeanine and Jack.

We love to eat, travel, cook, and eat some more! We create & photograph vegetarian recipes from our home in Chicago, while our shiba pups eat the kale stems that fall on the kitchen floor.