Our go-to recipe sources

Edna Lewis is known for her contributions to Southern food writing. Her recipes are wholesome and elegant, focusing on fresh ingredients. She lived by seasonal cooking based on her family’s gardens and locally available foods.

If you garden, farm, or buy lots of local produce, Edna’s books will have recipes for you.

Check libraries, or go to her website for more information.

Madhur Jaffrey has an extensive collection of cookbooks; many are vegetarian. Her recipes are what many Americans would consider home-style Indian adapted to be made from ingredients in the US. She writes easy-to-follow recipes that work and cover a wide variety of Indian cuisine.

"All food is very specific in India... I don't know how to chop fast. I never learned technique or anything like that. I'm not a trained chef... Nobody can be an expert on Indian food; it's such a large country." MJ

Her recipes have come to reflect the spread of Indian food culture we see today, much a result of colonialism.

If you are eating vegetarian, if you love aromatic spices, if you try to cook Indian food but don't know how - check her out.

Check libraries, or go to this website for more information and some recipes.

Vivian Howard is another Southern food writer and chef. Her food reflects what is both locally available in Eastern North Carolina and throughout much of the US. Vivian’s recipes are well balanced, rich and ingredient/seasonally focused.

Her style is elevated comfort food aka American, with some particular ingredients to her locality. Great for those who grow their own food, or buy locally farmed food.

Check libraries, or go to her website for more information.

Lidia Bastianich is an Italian-American chef, food-writer and TV personality. Her recipes are irresistibly tempting, family style Italian.

If you like Italian-American foods, she could be your go-to

Check libraries, or go to her website for more information.

One of the most memorable cooking personalities on TV, Julia Child has been a source of inspiration and great recipes for decades.

Her style is French inspired but candidly American. If you want to learn the foundations of how to make sauces, soups, roasts, etc., she can help

Check libraries for her books and shows, or go to her website for more information.

Jacques Pépin is a French chef who has dedicated his career to teaching cooking skills. He has many cookbooks, shows, collaborations (a show with Julia Child) and is generally a delightful person from whom to learn cooking. He also makes beautiful, illustrated home-menus! Check it out.

If you like seafood, butter, French food in general, want to learn to debone a whole chicken, he will humbly amaze you

Check libraries, or go to his website for more information.

Alice Waters is known for California cuisine, which is to say, farm-to-table. Her recipes are intentional and bursting with flavor. She has written many cookbooks and is an advocate for the Slow Food movement.

If you garden, farm or buy lots of local, fresh foods, if you like French or Italian food, if you delight in hospitality, Alice got you

Check libraries for her books.

Sean Sherman is revitalizing the contemporary Native American Cuisine scene. He is a teacher, chef and writer and so far has one cookbook published. The recipes are focused on ingredients indigenous to the upper midwest.

If you are committed to cooking seasonally, nose-to-tail cooking, want to learn more about indigenous foods, he will tell you all about it

Check libraries for The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen, or go to his website for more information.

The food scientists at General Mills under the name Betty Crocker have been a household name in the US for almost a century. The recipes are simplistic and often involve advertised, prepared foods to speed up prep.

Great for industrial, middle-American foods, foundational kitchen skills and organization, quick preparations, research projects on domestic labor

Check libraries, or go to their website for recipes and more information.

This team of food scientists and gadget enthusiasts apply the scientific method to writing great recipes, and then they tell you all about it! ATK is part of Cook’s Illustrated, who publish an artsy food science magazine.

If you like details about the chemistry behind your cooking, making comfort food from scratch, complicated recipes, help understanding cooking equipment, this crew has it covered

Check libraries, or go to their website for recipes and more information.

Harold McGee is an author known for his writing on the chemistry and history of food and cooking.

This book is like a cooking science encyclopedia, great for learning the foundations of how food ingredients behave when subjected to different forms of cookery

Check libraries, or go to his website for more information.

All Recipes is an online recipe encyclopedia that is user-made, meaning all the recipes come from users of the website. We have been referencing All Recipes for over 15 years.

All Recipes is an easily searchable database; good for finding had-it-at-a-party foods, comfort foods, quick-preparations

Check the website here!

Written by Deb Perelman, an impassioned home cook who has seemingly endless new recipe ideas. We have been going to this website for recipes for about 12 years now and Deb is still crushing it.

Her recipes are usually on the rich, more complicated side, and worth the effort. She lives in New York and eats an omnivorous diet, her recipes are highly varied.

To visit her blog, head here!

Written by Chunguh Rhee, a Korean-American living in Chicago. She keeps her recipes simple and flavorful, and we have yet to be disappointed by anything we have tried.

Her recipes are American-Korean, well balanced dishes, vegetarian dishes, holiday and party foods

To visit her blog, head here!

Written by Kate, a food-lover and vegetarian who lives in Kansas City. She takes restaurant-style dishes and makes them vegetarian, focusing on whole, quality ingredients. She also includes many diet-specific recipes ie. plant-based, gluten-free.

We came across this blog looking for a vegetarian alternative dish to serve at a party, we keep referencing this blog for delicious, healthy, recipes

To visit her blog, head here!

This duo specialize in developing recipes for electric pressure cookers ie. Instantpots. We are relatively new to their site, as we are relatively new to Instant-life, but everything we have tried from these two has been super tasty and clearly explained.

For Chinese-American pressure cooker recipes ie. Umami Chili, other restaurant style dishes, basic pressure cooker recipes

To visit their blog, head here!

Written by Lalaine, she focuses on Filipino and Asian recipes adapted for making in the US. Born and raised in the Philippines, she moved to California in the 1990’s and began cooking because of her need for better quality food. Her recipes are really delicious and she explains all the deets.

Find recipes for things like coconut rice, lumpia, Filipino-style lasagna, delicious fried appetizers and so much more

To visit her blog, head here!