Two In The Kitchen, A Cookbook For Newlyweds, Christy Dufault & Jordan Mackay

I love cookbooks. I own quite a collection. I check them out from the library. I browse for them at every bookstore I step into. They are wonderful to cook directly from, or just to give me a touch of inspiration for my own little food riff. Sometimes they just plain make me hungry. But, rarely do I open a cookbook and instantly want to cook nearly every single recipe in the book. Two In The Kitchen, a cookbook for newlyweds, had just that effect on me. 

I generally consider a cookbook to be pretty solid if I’m interested in about 1/3 of the recipes. But with Two In The Kitchen, I opened it and, “Lemon ricotta pancakes, I need to make that, summer rose sangria, that too, baby artichokes with aoli, and that, mussels steamed in belgian ale, ziti with arugala pesto and chicken, grilled salmon with miso glaze, braised sausages with broccoli rabe, moroccan lamb burgers, quinoa tabbouleh, chocolate pots de creme, and that, and that, and that… Oh my goodness yum!

And even better yet, I started trying the recipes, and they were as good as they sounded. I’m seriously just considering cooking my way though the entire book at this point. I think why this book might have hit the spot for me so perfectly is that it really embodies what I want to achieve with my own cooking. I want to serve everyday food, that’s somehow elevated. Something special. It doesn’t have to be fancy, use crazy or expensive ingredients, or be complicated (though that’s fun sometimes) to achieve that ‘je ne sais quoi.’ To me this cookbook really hits the mark in doing just that. So obviously, I had to share it with you! 

Ironically, I wasn’t even going to pick up this cookbook when I was browsing. The cover didn’t particularly catch my fancy, and I figured a cookbook for newly weds wasn’t likely to suit my needs, and honestly cookbooks produced by/for a company (this one’s for William Sonoma) aren’t always necessarily very good. My oldest son (who’s 5) actually picked it up and wanted me to look at it. Obviously at this point I am obligated to happily look at whatever he presents me with. And in this case I am so glad he did. So hurrah for Aiden who found my new favorite cookbook! 

Anyhow, I can’t recommend this one enough. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.