Recipes and Wisdom from an Obsessive Home Cook - The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

Everything I anticipated and more. Deb Perelman is a born story-teller. She puts you in charge of your kitchen by showing/telling how to pull off culinary magic. Everything I have tried so far has been spectacular, with the exception of the popcorn cookies. That was my fault. The popcorn I used wasn't great quality and it showed in the finished product.

Nice photos, great explanations, fun anecdotes.

This book is going to stay in my best-loved cookbook rack for a long time!

Deb has been one of my favorite food bloggers. Her book is a perfect reflection of her blog, with her humorous writing style and fabulous photos. Her recipes are all well tested and come out wonderfully. The only slight disappointment is that the entree section of the book is a bit light. But she makes up for it with a killer desert section. An extremely well done book, both visually and content wise.

I have already made three items from this book. Great read, wonderful photos, and terrific recipes. I particularly love the metric weights in addition to volume - have adopted this practice recently and found it a great tool (less mess, more accuracy).

This book has many of my family's favorite recipes like granola bars. Some of the recipes are a bit complicated for my preschoolers tastes but there are plenty of other good recipes. The challah with figs is one of our go to things to take somewhere as a hostess gift

On time & well packaged. This book looks really nice (high quality material).

The recipes look Devine. I love her blog and I'm glad to have some of her recipes in an actual book to also display in my kitchen.

Love the blog posts but this book didn't translate for me. If you're a fan of smitten kitchen it's worth a look but probably pick up at he library first to make sure you need this one in the permanent cookbook collection. I ended up passing this along to a friend as I didn't find I used the recipes enough to maintain a spot on my bookshelf.

I love Smitten kitchen's blog, but I thought this book had mostly desserts and breakfast food (all of these recipes would be considered highly unhealthy in France, where I live). Almost everything has flour and butter in it, and a tremendous amount of sugar (I usually cut at least 40% of sugar in all of her recipes, and they are still very sweet).

Also, all of the recipes take a LONG time (over an hour, and many times 1,5 hours + cleaning).
Finally, the book is highly impractical (ingredients and steps are almost systematically on different pages, and there is no index), so it involves a lot of fliping the pages. I really hope her next book is going to be more balanced and more practical!

She loves cookbooks and absolutely loves Deb Perelman's blog about cooking. She was ecstatic when she received this book! I looked through it as well and it had some really tasty looking recipes that weren't very complicated to cook and some really great pictures of the food.

Deb is just plain entertaining. For me, this cookbook is just an extension of her quippy website. Everything Deb cooks in her kitchen (and then shares with us) is awesome. Ingredients are readily available and food is good family food, and with presentation becomes "fancy" enough for a special events.

I just received my copy yesterday and every page I turned offered up another beautiful photo accompanied by a recipe that made me want to run to my kitchen and start cooking. What I love about her recipes is that they inspire me to move outside my comfort zone and try new things, whether it be a new ingredient or just a new way of using what I already have in my kitchen. For instance, I was thrilled to find the a recipe for Honey & Harissa Farro Salad, mostly because I've had a jar of harissa in my refrigerator for ages and have never known quite what to do with it. Now I have a recipe! The other thing I love is that her recipes are easily adaptable. I may not have the exact ingredients called for in my pantry, but I know that I can probably find a suitable substitute and trust that the recipe will still work.

I've seen other reviews that complain about the number or variety of recipes included. Or that they have or have not already appeared on her blog. All I can say to these folks is that if you are a regular reader of her blog she gave a very specific idea of what would be in the book well before it was available for purchase. I was quite pleased with the few favorites that I had already seen and I was excited to see new recipes that I know will soon become favorites. I will admit that I tend to favor savory fare and at first I was bit concerned by of the number of recipes for sweets. However, when I got the book and was able to see exactly what was there I was delighted to find a well rounded selection of cakes and pies and tarts and cookies that I can't wait to make, the first of which will definitely be the Grapefruit Olive Oil Pound Cake.

Just a side note to those who have complained about the inclusion of her son, Jacob, in the book. He is her son and a large part of her inspiration in the kitchen. Personally, I would have been disappointed if she hadn't included him in the book.

Our daughter follows Deb Perelman online and has used many of her recipes. She requested this the day it came out and I purchased it as a Christmas gift. She has spent hours reading Debs commentary and I know we'll get to enjoy some more delicious treats.

The recipes are creative and delicious. There are beautiful full color pictures that go along with each recipe so you can feast your eyes on what's to come! The stories are witty and entertaining. I'm an avid chef in my own kitchen and this cookbook is a must! Easy to follow recipes and delicious outcomes!

I love this cookbook. Every recipe in it is awesome (all right, I haven't made them all yet, but every recipe of Deb Perelman's I've ever made, here and on her website, has never been a disappointment), and her writing is just genius. I'd like to buy one for all of my friends who enjoy cooking. I love how her recipes are based on how she thought things would taste...or things she would like to try but aren't available, like with her grapefruit cake recipe, or how she makes a red velvet cake with red wine ( a REAL red velvet cake). This book is worth every penny, you should buy it.

This was one of the hottest cookbook releases in the last year, and the photography, layout and recipes are all very strong. Top quality book and written in great conversational voice. You feel like Deb is across the kitchen table sharing her food and family stories.

I love cookbooks. I love reading them and trying new recipes. Smitten Kitchen is a awesome book!
I just don't like the layout of the recipes. I lost my spot a few times and would have the re-read the recipe to find out where I left off. Not a huge problem but I get frustrated easily ;)

The Smitten Kitchen cookbook is an extraordinary collection of special recipes. This is not a "quick and easy dinner for every night of the week" cookbook, or an "everything you should know about cooking" cookbook. These recipes are inventive, beautiful, and absolutely mouthwateringly delicious. The recipes are creative yet approachable, and you can rest assured that they will taste fantastic. Many of the recipes are indulgent (think biscuits made with bacon grease!) and many are staples that you will come back to again and again. Thank you Deb for creating this fantastic collection.

This cookbook contains some of the best recipes I've ever tasted. Nothing too terribly complex to prepare, but great tasting. Two women, my wife and friend next door, both cooks for 30+ years each, love this cookbook.

My sister loves the smitten kitchen blog and had been eyeing this for a while. I got it for her for Christmas and she was very happy with it. It is a heavy book, so keep that in mind if you are going to be shipping it anywhere yourself as a gift - it may be easier and cheaper to ship it from the store.

I love this cookbook. Deb Perelman's voice shines in the recipes. We have tried several and they are easy to follow and the outcomes delicious. My current favorite is Baked Ranchero Eggs with Blistered Jack Cheese and Lime Crema. I'm a snob about anything TexMex and this is delicious.

Great cookbook, with simple explanations. Everyday meals as well as fancy dishes.
I wish this book existed when I first started cooking (hum..30 some years ago) but it's
never too late, I can still learn from it, and my children certainly will!
It also shows that knowledge can be acquired from having a passion and following your instincts.
Kudos to Deb!

This book, and blog site, were recommended by a friend. It is my new obsession! This food is wholesome, approachable and yummy. The photos are incredible and the stories accompanying each recipe are great! You feel like you could just sit and have a cup of coffee with the author and be right at home. I have given this to 4 different friends and they are all Smitten Kitchen Groupies! She had me at the roast chicken recipe and I am now a complete SK convert! Enjoy~

I have been following smitten kitchen for years. I pre-ordered this book as soon as it was announced on Mrs. Perelman's blog. Along with a lot of loyal smitten kitchen followers I was originally drawn in with the photography of honest, pure food. This book is an amazing extension of the blog filled with amusing stories, real-life practical cooking times, and yes, stunning photos of food.

This book is wonderful! I have noticed some of the recipes are altered from when they were posted online and I think the changes are really wonderful! If you like her blog, this book is a must! I've always appreciated The Smitten Kitchen because many of the recipes are outside of what I would usually make, but they are rarely too ambitious or hard. I've been introduced to so many wonderful dishes and ideas from this woman over the years and I'm happy to finally own her book!

After reading through almost the entire book here are my thoughts. I love the breakfast and sweets section the most. The salads section was my least favorite because they were not combinations that appealed to me. I tried making the cheddar cheese breakfast rolls, the gnocchi, and the shell pasta with alfredo sauce today. Everything turned out okay, not as good looking compared to hers but edible. Compared to other cookbooks I've read, she writes in a paragraph format which can sometimes be a little hard to follow but this is the style she also uses on the website. There are pictures for almost every recipe and the stories (about 2-3 paragraphs) before each recipe are endearing. I saw a few recipes that were from her blog such as the brown butter rice krispies but most of it is new material.

I have waaay too many cookbooks, however, I couldn't help but buy this book to support the wonderful work of Smitten Kitchen. Deb has a truly delightful approach to cooking and I've been enjoying her work (for free!) for years. I wish her all the success in the world, especially for an accidental, home-taught cook who has such a fresh perspective and who isn't afraid to play in the kitchen, take risks.