San Antonio Public Library discussion

What are your favorite cookbooks? Please let us know and tell us why it is your favorite. What cookbooks do you know that have inexpensive meals or recipes that use limited ingredients?

The Complete Cookbook for Young Chefs
The one above is one of my favorites because children can help and learn new cooking skills. It is also great for adults that have no idea what to do in a kitchen.

LovesToRead wrote: "The Complete Cookbook for Young Chefs
The one above is one of my favorites because children can help and learn new cooking skills. It is also great for adults that have no idea what..."

I'll add this book! My kids really like to bake cookies and cakes.

I am one of those adults that struggle with my cooking skills. I like the book by Mark Bittman titled How to Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food.

Any of Smitten Kitchen's books; I find her approach to cooking (and talking about it) wonderfully straightforward and approachable, but still food that I'm actually interested in cooking. She recently posted a vegetarian burger recipe on her blog that's fantastic.

My favorite cookbook is The Italian Vegetable Cookbook: 200 Favorite Recipes for Antipasti, Soups, Pasta, Main Dishes, and Desserts it has several soup recipes that are to die for! Of course you'll find risottos, pastas, pizzas, etc. But I really love it because it has pages of recipes for making your own sauces, broths, and breads that are used throughout the book. It also has dessert recipes, my favorite being a polenta berry cake. I've made about half of the recipes in this book.

I also love Decorating Cakes: Beautifully Decorated Cakes from Easy to Experienced to Expert. I've used the recipes here to bake cakes and cupcakes for my family and coworkers. The book has batter and icing recipes, and it includes decorating techniques.