Discover some great Christmas gifts!
Emma Alter/ DCL
If you are looking for last minute food-related presents for someone on your Christmas list, here are a couple of lovely books from Williams-Sonoma, Weeknight Fast and Fresh by Kristine Kidd and Cooking at Home by Chuck Williams and Kristine Kidd.
Cooking at Home is an excellent gift for a beginner cook, a child who has just left home or for someone who could just use a good reference guide. It's filled with recipes for classic dishes like osso bucco or crepes Suzette, often with a updated twist. The book covers all the cooking basics from stocking your kitchen, to knife techniques, to basic cooking techniques, to how to build flavour. At a time when people no longer necessarily learn how to cook at their mother's knee, this is a cookbook that you can use to teach yourself to cook. The recipes are well laid out and clearly written and there are interesting tips included on every page. There aren't any photos, but that's okay because this book is designed to be informative and help you out in the kitchen, not intimidate you with impossibly gorgeous dishes. This is a book that is going to quickly become dog-earred and covered with food stains, because you are going to reach for it a lot.
Weeknight Fast and Fresh is an entirely different kind of book. This book is aimed at people who would like to have quick, easy and delicious dinners that they can make after work without a huge amount of fuss or time. The recipes are organized by season, which I always like, because the emphasis is on what vegetables are in season. So far I have made Risotto with Fall Vegetables and Blue Cheese and Sauteed Pork with Parsnips and both were terrific. I'm looking forward to making such things as Chicken Saute with Sugar Snaps and Asparagus and Corn and Cheddar Fritters with Sauteed Tomatoes next year. The recipes are straightforward, enticing and every one has an appetizing photo.
I had never had a Williams-Sonoma cookbook before this year when I got Cooking from the Farmers' Market and The Art of Preserving, both of which I have used many, many times, always with great results.
