Favorite Food and Recipe Links

I am mostly a cookbook person, with upwards of 125 at last count. I prefer having a solid book in my hand, preferably with gorgeous photos, to searching online for recipes. That said, there are a few that I frequent, along with food blogs that include recipes. Here then, a list of my personal favorites:

Cooks Illustrated  The best website for guaranteed to be perfect recipes! Cooks Illustrated is part of the America’s Test Kitchen family, which started out as cookbooks. Not surprising then that their books also rank among my favorites. This is a subscription website, with a few free recipes, but you will have to sign up to access the huge mother load. Well worth it, for the recipes and so much more available online. Including a truly revolutionary, fool proof pie dough!!

Epicurious  one of the first and still one of the best

Dorie Greenspan  my favorite food blog, including recipes. Dorie is the queen of baking, in fact, her book “Baking” taught me how to do just that and led to a few dozen more books and a minor obsession. Her recipes are foolproof,  her writing is always entertaining, her recommendations to be relied upon, and she even share the occasional savory recipe

Cafe Fernando a food blog like no other. Entertaining, educational and always fascinating, not to mention the name tells you nothing about the content. I won’t tell you more, just check it out

Nick Malgieri Nick is another highly regarded baking master, with down to earth and easily accessible recipes

NOTE: if you come across the ingredient “corn syrup” called for in any of the American recipes, particularly when making cake frosting, DO NOT try substituting! In Auckland, you can find both light and dark corn syrup at Martha’s Backyard on Lunn Avenue in Mt Wellington. She also has Crisco shortening, best for the pie recipes (NZ shortening is different and may alter the results)

Julia Child  because she is incomparable, need I say more? The Baking with Julia series was amazing and produced a wonderful cookbook, co-authored by Dorie Greenspan

Mexican Specialties  probably the best Mexican food in Auckland (though I hear there are some new contenders on the horizon), with recipes coming soon to the website. And their little store will have most of the ingredients needed for any of your Latin American recipes

Chow and Chowhound  all things food and foodie, with an Australia/New Zealand forum that you can sign up for here

Millys Kitchen  the best kitchen store of course, and now they have recipes online too. I prefer the huge Parnell warehouse location, though the Ponsonby store has it’s charm

Foodie  all things food and foodie New Zealand with a great newsletter that you can subscribe to

Foodlovers  a lot like the previous listing, also with a newsletter and loads of recipes and forums

Dineout  not recipes, at least not usually, but an invaluable resource for any foodie. A wealth of great information on restaurants and related topics, love their forums too!

Dish Magazine and last, but certainly not least, if you can buy only one food magazine, this has got to be it! I have tried them all, and still do on occasion but whether Kiwi, Aussie or American, there is no comparing to Dish. The best recipes hands down, always perfect the first time.

I hope you have enjoyed my list and have found some new and enlightening resources.

Happy eating! And Happy Holidays to all!

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