Time to nominate some books for December Cookbook of the Month! To make a nomination, comment on this post and put the title of the book in ALL CAPS. Nominations not in all caps will not be counted. You may nominate as many books as you like, but do so with the intention of cooking along and reporting should your nominee be selected.
Nominations will run until November 21, 5pm EST. At that point I will tally the nominations and then post the top candidates for a vote.
To see our past selections, visit the COTM archive. Our reporting posts remain open for new comments. To get in on this month’s COTM, see our November thread for Dinner in One.
DISHOOM: From Bombay with Love HEIRLOOM KITCHEN: Heritage Recipes and Family Stories from the Tables of Immigrant Women ON THE HIMALAYAN TRAIL: Recipes and Stories from Kashmir to Ladakh
I’m hesitant to add my voice because December is always so busy that it’s hard to add another job (like trying to make new recipes from a new book), but I did recently get an e version of CARMINE’S so I will second this nomination, nervously.
Nik Sharma has a new book out, VEG-TABLE. Just released last month, so probably too new for a COTM, but I might as well start getting it out there.
I’d still like to do Hetty McKinnon’s TENDERHEART, which has plenty of winter veg in it. I’ve liked every recipe I’ve made from that book, and I’ve made quite a few.
I’m going to nominate ETHIOPIA, even though I know it hasn’t a prayer in December, but it will be a reminder to try again in January.
ROMY GILL MONTH (author of On the Himalayan Trail) - I want to do more than just the one book.
HEIRLOOM KITCHEN
I’ll also throw out MICHAEL KORKOSZ MONTH. He has a new book called Polish’d: Modern Vegetarian Cooking from Global Poland, and a previous one called Fresh from Poland. Fresh from Poland is currently available on Kindle Unlimited for free.
Last but not least, even though I am not in love with the book, I’ll nominate a continuation of DINNER IN ONE. It has pretty good participation so far, and is probably most people’s speed for December.
My library has TENDERHEART. I haven’t looked at it, and again, probably won’t be able to cook much for COTM next month, but I’m interested in giving this a look.
I wish we could do OUR FAMILIES’ TREASURED WINTER HOLIDAY RECIPES as a way of sharing the very best of what we’re cooking with recipes and stories about why they are special to us mandatory.
Needn’t be fancy; it could be your great-aunt’s pickles that she always served in a special relish dish, or your grandfather’s special roasted nuts that weren’t spectacular but remind you of special times with him and a funny story he would tell and retell, or a friend you met only last year but who shared a home-cooked dish with you that’s already made it into your heart and annual rotation, or your mom’s recipe for a cake that she tweaked just a little every year and then presented triumphantly to eagerly-waiting family and friends.
Might be against the rules, though. Just putting it here in case it sounds fun.
Thanks for the mention of the Polish cookbooks. In May 1983, I visited in Warsaw a Polish woman I had met when we were both doing art history research in Madrid. She was a vegetarian then and now, which was difficult in Poland (and in Spain) back then. I am really intrigued with the idea of Eastern European vegetarian recipes.
I was able to find both cookbooks in my Greater Boston Area regional library network and have requested them. But only after I searched for MICHAL KORKOSZ.
Here’s my 2c… I don’t think we should nominate books to keep them on the wish list, unless we are ok that 3 people nominated them, they ended up on the voting roster, and won — but no one has time to cook from them.
I’m all for listing out wish list books so we don’t forget them. Ethiopia and Carmine’s are both on mine, as well as some others I mentioned last month and will bring up again.
Good point. I’ll rescind my Tenderheart nomination. But the family has been clamoring for more pasta recently, so I can promise to cook something from Carmine’s.
Darn, I misspelled his name! You are correct, it is Michal Korkosz. Unfortunately it is too late to edit my post.
I have been pleasantly surprised in the past about the vegetarian offerings in some of the eastern European books we’ve done, and in books covering the former Soviet Union. Not just that they existed, but that they were fantastic. I’m not knowledgeable about Polish cuisine, but I wasn’t completely surprised to see a vegetarian book, and I jumped to buy Polish’d. Haven’t cooked anything yet, but it looks quite good.
I’d cook from Ethiopia if it won, and vote for it if it gets to the finals. I used the term “wish list” because I highly doubt it would win but I wish it would. It may not be the same thing others mean by “wish list.”
Is that ok? Or should we not nominate books we doubt have a chance?
December is a crowded month of holidays, so Ethiopia is not likely. However, I do agree with “planting a seed” and maybe next time I’d say more about why I want to cook from Ethiopia. I feel the same way about Black Food, which I’d love to delve into and which I think you nominated several times either here or on CH, as did I. Also Bryant Terry month.
I always love it when people suggest cookbooks entirely new to me, like the Korkosz books you mentioned. I get lots of new ideas from these nominations, even if they don’t make it on to voting or winning COTM.
