“A Short Stack, Please”
A few months ago, I was in the Phoenix Gift Shop near the Nepenthe Restaurant in Big Sur and I saw a delightful series of colorful little cookbooks. Each volume focused on a different ingredient or food, was curated by a well known food personality, and was published by Short Stack Editions. (shortstackeditions.com)
The books are small (4½ inch wide x 7½ inch tall), beautifully printed, and fit nicely in the hand. Each has a patterned cover and 48 pages that are all of one bright color. Yogurt, for example, has a red/blue/green/beige/black patterned cover, with bright pink pages. My kind of cookbook! There are currently 32 of these little treasures, each with 20 to 30 recipes and illustrated with simple line drawings.
I have eight of them–Chickpeas, Yogurt, Prosciutto di Parma, Butter, Corn, Apples, Sweet Potatoes and Chocolate (of course) and am just beginning to use them in addition to admiring their design!
This week I was feeling sweet potatoey, so out came Sweet Potatoes by Scott Hocker, a food writer and recipe creator. Fittingly, it has a brown cover with golden and brown potato peel design; the pages are the same golden color. I landed on Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes with Tahini. It was a hit in taste, texture and look. “Repeatable,” as a friend said. My next escapades are going to take me to Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Marjoram/Almond Sauce, and Sweet Potato Jam.
After that, I will explore Yogurt by Molly Yeh, who I enjoy following on Instagram, and Butter by Dorie Greenspan, whose Dorie’s Cookies cookbook launched my political “make it sweet, please” cookie making binge two years ago. AND there’s a new one on Chèvre coming in May!
It is such a gift to have a moderately priced cookbook ($14) that looks and feels good, is easy and enjoyable to read, and contains recipes that produce tasty results.
I look forward to more experiments and to gifting one or two of these cookbooks to friends who have a passion for one particular food or ingredient. I’m so glad these cookbooks caught my eye so many months ago. On to the next short stack!
I have one of Dorie Greenspan’s cookbooks and I have made several of her dessert recipes, including an interesting one called World Peace Cookies (named that because if every person had one, we would have world peace!)
I love having a justifiable good reason to eat cookies! And as it turns out, when I checked my list of the cookies I made during my political cookie making time, Dorie Greenspan’s World Peace Cookies were the first ones I made! We’re on the same wavelength–I like that. Time to make those again!
Talk about a great marketing strategy! I would love to have and hold one of the short stack creations. It sounds as though collecting them can be quite addictive. They would be a great collection of beautiful small books.
These little cookbooks appeal to so many of the senses: visual, tactile, and taste. Doesn’t your mouth water? Do they have a fragrance too? I am trying to imagine what the chickpeas book would smell like. :-}
You share so many interesting and joyful ideas. Lead on, Lynn.
Glad you’re enjoying the joy missives, Barbara. And, yes, these little books are great fun and useful. And you present an interesting concept–a fragrance/scent to go along with all the other senses the books appeal to.