Sticky Books: Michelle Norris of Brown Eyed Baker

Michelle Norris is the blogger and baker behind Brown Eyed Baker, a "sweet, savory, sinful" blog that features recipes and posts about breads, desserts, and other tempting baked goods (with an occasional savory dish thrown in). She also writes "how to" articles, such as the recent four-part series on how to build and stock a baking pantry, which are an incredible resource for novice and seasoned cooks alike.

Michelle is a marketing analyst by day, and has recently started her own baking business selling cakes, cupcakes, and cookies to a clientele of local Pittsburgh-area customers. Readers of her blog who live too far away may also soon be able to taste these goodies for themselves; she's currently working on making a selection of her cookies available for online purchase and shipping.

Those stains on well-used cookbooks are often a badge of honor for passionate cooks and Michelle is no different. "I get such a sense of pride when I go to leaf through a cookbook and the pages stick together," she says. "It makes me feel accomplished in the kitchen."



Michelle's Top Three Sticky Books

1. Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.
I received this book for Christmas 2007 from my sister. I had heard a few other bloggers singing its praises and was so excited to finally have it in my kitchen. The minute I opened it and started reading the forward, I was in awe of Dorie. She is a home baker, like so many of us, and just wants to share her love of baking with others. I have made dozens of recipes from this book, but my top 3 are probably Hidden Berry and Cream Cheese Torte, French Chocolate Brownies, and the Perfect Party Cake.

2. The Bread Baker’s Apprentice by Peter Reinhart
I purchased this book with a Barnes & Noble gift card I got for my birthday a couple of years ago, but it was some time before I finally cracked it open. Once I did, I found that I couldn’t put it down. The entire first part of the book is written almost as a textbook, with a large amount of information about the science behind bread baking. This serves not only as a great introduction for a beginner bread baker, but also as a fabulous resource for even the seasoned veterans. Of all the baked goods I have ever made, the one that my boyfriend requests more than anything else is Cinnamon Raisin Bagels from this book. He likes them toasted with butter, while I prefer cream cheese or peanut butter. Any way you top them, you can’t go wrong!

3. The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz
This may be a biased selection since I've just spent the entire summer churning ice cream, but this book IS sticky! Since I was new to homemade ice cream, I wanted a book that could serve not only as a source for great recipes, but also as a resource I could use as I delved into the world of homemade ice cream. This book delivered in every way I had hoped. The book has an entire section devoted to equipment and techniques, and dozens of incredibly delicious recipes. I could have eaten the Tin Roof Ice Cream all by myself (and just about did!). The Chocolate Ice Cream is the richest, most intense chocolate ice cream I have ever eaten. On top of these great recipes, I was able to use the methods and techniques to create my own recipes for things like Pistachio Ice Cream.

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Sticky Books: Lori Lange of Recipe Girl

I'm not sure if you noticed, but things have been a little quiet around here this week. I didn't mean for it to be that way, but sometime late Sunday night I got knocked right off my feet by a nasty cold that left me sleepy and whiny and incapable of consuming anything but plain whole wheat noodles with butter, rum raisin cookies, and mugs of steaming TheraFlu. The latter, by the way, is delicious. It's like a hot cup of Minute Maid soda fountain lemonade. Someone on Twitter pointed out that in "real life," TheraFlu is actually not delicious, and that the fact that I think so is a clear indication that I'm still ill. I guess I'll have to wait a few more days before I can confirm that theory, but for now...Om Nom Nom!! Pass me the TheraFlu, please!

Next week I'll be back to my regular posting schedule, with a few posts about the food and hi-jinx and more food that Eugene and I got into on our little getaway this past weekend. Until then, I'm excited to share with you the second installment of the Friday Sticky Books column here on Always Order Dessert. This week, we're featuring Lori Lange of the incredible recipe and entertaining website, RecipeGirl.com.

Note: If you're just learning about the Sticky Books feature, click here to read more about the project.


About Lori
A former elementary school teacher from San Diego, California, Lori Lange left the classroom in 2005 to start RecipeGirl.com. Lori now spends her (incredibly enviable) days cooking, baking, and photographing food for her website which houses a collection of more than 2,500 original and adapted recipes. The site also features a food blog and a searchable database of entertainment menus for all occasions. When I sent her the interview, Lori hinted that she's also got a brand new food blog in the works, so be sure to keep checking her site for more details!

Lori confessed that she owns 219 (!!!) cookbooks, but was happy to share her top three stickiest with us:

1. California Sol Food: Casual Cooking from the Junior League of San Diego
This one is near and dear to me since I was involved in the recipe testing and selection for this book. The recipes are divided into 'times of the day' (brunch, happy hour, dinner, etc) and each of them is representative of the fresh, seasonal flavors of Southern California. I've made over half of the recipes in this book, and they've all been fabulous. My favorite is a recipe that came from my family's kitchen: Summer Salad. I've recommended this salad to so many people, and it inevitably becomes their favorite too. I also really love the Margarita Cake.

2. The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion by King Arthur Flour
I'm addicted to baking, and cookies are my favorite thing to experiment with. There are so many recipes in this cookbook that I don't think I could ever possibly ever get through them all, but I intend to try! For many of the cookie/bar/snack recipes, there are multiple variations listed. My all-time favorite recipe from this book is the Cinnamon Bun Cookies. Magic in the Middles are a must for Chocolate-Peanut Butter fans.

3. The Food You Crave: Luscious Recipes for a Healthy Life by Ellie Krieger
I picked up this cookbook on a whim, and I can't believe how much I use it. This is the cookbook I turn to most for quick and healthy meals. I've never watched Ellie Krieger on Food Network, but her recipes are reliable and delicious. They're easy enough for a novice cook, and gourmet enough for an experienced foodie. My favorites: Chickpea and Spinach Salad with Cumin Dressing and Fish Tacos with Chipotle Cream.

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Awesome, right? I can already tell this Sticky Books thing is going to be dangerous. (Although possibly very profitable for Amazon). Have you guys tried any recipes from these books? I haven't yet, but those fish tacos are calling my name...

Remember to check back every Friday for more Sticky Books from your favorite bloggers, and in the meantime, I'd love to hear about your favorite cookbooks below!

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Sticky Books: An Introduction & Selections by Marc Matsumoto of No Recipes

I recently woke up thinking about a recipe I used to make when I first started to experiment in the kitchen. It came from a cookbook that my mother had gotten sometime in the early 80s from Cooking Light magazine. Along with the usual "light" recipes, the book had an entire chapter on microwave cookery. Though I was still too young to mess around with the stove, my mom let me go to town with the microwave (once I understood that metal things were off limits, that is).

There was an easy lemon pudding cake that quickly became my favorite. It was a kind of souffle that relied on stiff egg whites for height and just the teensiest bit of flour. I made the pudding cakes all the time that year until I was able to graduate to box mixes and the oven. I don't think I thought about those little lemon cakes again until the other day when they reappeared for no reason at all. I called my mom and she promised to look for the book. We stopped by the house for dinner a couple weeks ago, and found the book sitting on the kitchen shelf. I excitedly flipped through the pages right to the recipe for lemon pudding cakes. There was the picture I'd remembered, and the page...well it was filthy! Crusts of long ago flour and sugar and a rip where the paper had glued itself together. It was the only page in the book that looked like that; the surest evidence of a favorite recipe.

We all have books like this, sticky and splattered with frosting from that cake we made grandpa on his 75th birthday or the splatter of cranberry sauce from the first time mom let you help with Thanksgiving. Seeing that messy and beloved page made me wonder about the stories in other people's cookbook pages, and so Sticky Books, a new weekly interview column here on Always Order Dessert, was born.

Each Friday, a different food blogger or will share his or her top three favorite cookbooks with my readers. Sticky books are a badge of honor for the home cook, sometimes even more memorable than the album full of snapshots, and so I'm excited that so many incredible bloggers have been willing to share them with us. If you have experiences with the books that these bloggers mention, I invite you to leave them in the comments, and please don't hesitate to tell us about your own sticky books.

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Sticky Books: Marc Matsumoto of No Recipes


Marc Matsumoto started his food blog No Recipes nearly two years ago. Based on the philosophy that cooking is 50% technique, 40% inspiration, and 10% ingredients, he strongly believes that armed with a handful of basic techniques and a little inspiration, anyone can make a tasty meal from even the most derelict pantry.

When I sent Marc the questions for this feature, he told me about a new event that he just launched on his blog called Blog Away Hunger, which is meant to raise money for the World Food Program. The WFP gets food aid to the people that need it most, and with one in seven people on Earth suffering from chronic hunger, they need all the support they can get. He's inviting everybody to participate in this event by simply creating a meal that costs less than what you'd normally spend, post about it on your own blog or website, and then donate the money you saved to the WFP. You can check out Marc's blog for more details.

And now, in Marc's words, his top three Sticky Books:

Marc: Since I don't cook with recipes, my most used cookbooks tend to be reference books where I can quickly look up information on ingredients and basic techniques.

1. On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee
This is my "stickiest" cookbook. It doesn't contain any recipes, but it holds within its blessed binding, answers to nearly any food related question you may have. Like "How is soy sauce made?" or "What do cell walls have to do with the mealiness or meltingness of fruit?". This is the Webster's of the culinary world.

2. The Best Recipe by the editors of Cooks Illustrated
What I love about the folks at Cooks Illustrated is that they take scientific rigor and apply it to food. Through a documented process and iterative testing, they figure out the best way to do something. As with anything that comes out of a lab, their recipes tend to lack soul, but what it lacks in character is more than compensated for with rock solid techniques and play-by-play details.

3. Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art by Shizuo Tsuji
You won't find any drool-worthy photos or nostalgic stories here, but if you want a reference book on Japanese ingredients and cooking, this is the only English language book that will meet your needs. Like Julia Child, with her tome: Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Tsuji opens the door into the mystical world of Japanese food with her book.


Have you cooked with any of Marc's favorite cookbooks? Tell us about them in the comments! And remember to check back next Friday for the next edition of Sticky Books.

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