*Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway and for all the fantastic cookbook recommendations! Congratulations to the following winners:
#479: Summer who said “My go to is a church cookbook from 1996…it’s got a great variety of recipes!”
#1024: Jill W who said “I just have to say, first of all, that I love your blog. I have been a faithful follower for years. I have made many of your recipes, and they’ve been a huge success with my family of seven! I have MANY cookbooks, but the one that I use the most is actually a family cookbook that I was given for a wedding present. It has many wonderful recipes.I would love to win something!”
I feel like I’ve been harping on quick, simple recipes and meals lately. Sorry if that offends your gourmet spirit. I promise that fast food (I’m talking fast food like homecooked fast food, not fast food like dollar menu fast food) can taste delicious even if it is simple and quick to prepare. Because of my latest fetish with easy recipes, I was thrilled beyond thrilled when out of the blue, America’s Test Kitchen sent me their newest cookbook, The Quick Family Cookbook, because the food in here is seriously talking my language. No-fail is the word that comes to mind with ATK’s tested, tested, tested recipes and the wonder of this cookbook is that you get classically delicious America’s Test Kitchen recipes with minimal fuss, time and ingredients. Oh, I am in love with this book.
And I’m giving away TWO today! Just leave one comment on this post telling me your most used, most loved cookbook. I have a feeling this is going to be the one haunting the counters of my kitchen (uh, when we get a house) for a long time.
In honor of the giveaway, I chose a recipe from the book to make and share with you. I should have made some stellar main course fare that will save your bacon on any given Tuesday night; however, I couldn’t resist these delicious cheese Danish pastries. They are so easy, so elegant and so delicious, if you close your eyes while eating one, you might just believe you are smack dab on the bustling streets of Paris – oh wait, think of some city in Denmark! – eating an authentic pastry. Not that I ever have had that experience, but take my word for it – these babies get the job done for a no-fuss pastry. Make them and love them. And in the meantime, keep an eye out for a truly sanity-saving recipe coming Friday and don’t forget to enter the giveaway!
Note: One copy of the cookbook sponsored by America’s Test Kitchen, the other giveaway copy provided by me. If you’ve been around this here blog long enough you’ll know that I don’t do product/cookbook giveaways hardly ever and trust me, I get a lot of snarky emails from companies and readers upset because I won’t accept their free food products and other “stuff” for shameless promotion on my blog. The only exception I really ever make is for America’s Test Kitchen cookbooks because I swear by their recipes and I have bought many of their cookbooks myself. I figure if I would go out of my way to buy it or own it on my own dollar then it is worth sharing with all of you!
Ingredients
- 8 ounces cream cheese, light or regular, softened to room temperature
- 4 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoons grated lemon zest
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed (9 1/2 by 9-inch)
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten with 2 tablespoons water
Directions
- Adjust an oven rack to upper-middle position and preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. In a small bowl, stir together the cream cheese, sugar, lemon zest and vanilla. Set aside.
- Roll the pastry into a 12 by 9-inch rectangle on a lightly floured counter, making sure it doesn't stick to the counter while rolling. Cut the rectangle into six 4 1/2 by 4-inch rectangles (cut it in half the long way and then cut each strip into thirds). Transfer the pastry rectangles to the baking sheet, spacing about 1 inch apart. Using the tip of a paring knife, score a 1/2-inch border around the edge of each pastry, then brush the borders with the egg wash (no fear - if you don't have a pastry brush, using your fingers works just as well!). Prick the pastry with a fork every 1 inch or so within the border (see the picture below for a visual). Place a generous 2-3 tablespoons of filling in the center of each pastry and spread it into an even layer leaving the border uncovered.
- Bake the pastries until fully puffed and golden about 12-14 minutes (watching carefully so they don't overbrown). Serve the pastries warm or at room temperature.
Recipe Source: adapted slightly from America’s Test Kitchen Quick Family Cookbook
Hope Mel’s Kitchen Cafe counts as a cookbook, because it’s my go-to to find recipes I can count on being good and that my family will love!!! Thank you for constantly adding more and more wonderful recipes
My most used are definitely my church cookbooks – they always have the best recipes!
My most loved cookbook isn’t one that could be shared, unfortunately. It’s one my mom made me and my sisters several years back from all of our old family recipes. I’ve been adding to it myself ever since and use it all the time!
If your website doesn’t count as a cookbook I guess it would be a family one that I have and have used for the 10 years we have been married. Would love to have this one though. I can’t believe you have time to be doing this with all you have going on. Thanks for all you do!!
I use a crockpot recipe book my sister gave me.
These look amazing. I love ATK. I have numerous cookbooks. Way too many. I am with cookbooks like some women are with shoes. I think my favorite would be the baking illustrated cookbook. I have multiple binders like you do with printed off recipes and hand written recipes in plastic sleeves and I probably use those more than any one single cookbook.
I have an obsession with cookbooks but the two that I use the most are The Best 30-Minute Recipe as well the The America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking Book. By the way, I love your blog and have added many of your recipes to our rotation.
My go-to cookbook is my Mothers’ Betty Crocker Cookbook. It has all her hand written notes, on almost every recipe, and when I need a hand in the kitchen, I “feel” Mom, as well as Betty! standing right behind me! And your yummy easy EASY! Cream Cheese Pastry’s are delish!! I had the recipe from a few years ago, and lost it!! Thank goodness YOU found it!! Thank you!
My favorite cookbook right now is Pinterest! I have so many recipes pinned that I doubt I’ll ever get to them all, but I make it a point to try something new every week! And now I’ll be trying these danishes! Thank you!
Oh my goodness…I have been looking for a simple cheese danish recipe and this is perfect. Cannot wait to try.
I don’t often use a cookbook any more other than the one I am making with my recipe cards I use to write down recipes I find on the internet… I do have Joy of Cooking and I adore looking through it and finding a new recipe…so much fun!
I actually get most of my recipes from your blog! I have a Betty Crocker cookbook that I use for a general reference, but it is not my favorite. I borrowed a Joy of Cooking from the library and loved it!
Your blog would be one of my recipe books, you are the go to. Thanks for all your hard work!
I guess it would be an old church one that I have had for years.
My most used cook book is the Cake Mix Dr Returns.
A tough question-there are so many good ones. But I do love & use my ATK “Best Make-Ahead” cookbook a lot!
For basics – I use Joy of Cooking alot. BHG too. Thanks for the giveaway!
I have a cookbook from my aunt’s grandma that I love. Every recipe is tried and true because she developed almost every one. If love this cookbook. Take care!
I love Rachael Ray’s 365 No Repeats. There’s a ton of great recipes in there
My favorite cookbook is Mad Hungry from Lucinda Scala Quinn. But really, I have two portable file boxes with file folders FILLED with recipes from magazines, the internet and my grandmother
) that I go to daily. You can tell that appetizers are my fav because that folder is 3x the size of all the others!! Thanks for taking the time to post so regularly. I LOVE this site!!
My mom gave me The Southern Living Cookbook when I was out of college. I have used is so much that the cover is very worn. But it was nice to go to when I could not call mom for help. Your blog is also a great help in “whats for dinner”. Thanks for a lovely blog and wonderful recipes and stories.
Don’t be mad about it cause I cook something from your blog every night, but I also like our best bites book!
Although I have quite a cookbook collection, these days I seem to rely on food blogs more than anything, or pinterest. Love ATK though!
My go-to cookbook is ATK’s Family Cookbook (third edition). Can’t wait to see the newest ATK cookbook!
I love our best bites! Cant wait to pick up the new one
My favorite cookbooks are:
Culinary Institute of America cookbook from the 50′s I bought at a thrift store. so many great recipes in there.
and
my Better Homes and Garden ‘family’ cookbook. It has blank pages where you write in your family recipes and is 3 hole punched. I got it 30+ years ago and is filled with my favorite recipes.
Good ol’ Betty Crocker cookbooks. They’re what I grew up on and how I learned to cook the basics.
Aside from the one my mom made me, I think it’s an old school Betty Crocker one. I reference it all the time!
Thanks for your recipes, they are outstanding! My favorite book is The Best Recipe, by Cook’s Illustrated.
Sadly I don’t own a cookbook:( Fortunately, There are great food blogs I’ve been using, yours being my favorite one!
My favorite cookbooks are by the Barefoot Contessa!
Cookbook? I definitely refer to my favorite food blog, melskitchencafe.com, for almost all my recipe ideas
I do have a few cookbooks that I adore – family cookbooks & old ward cookbooks, but probably the most referred to is my “Lion House Lite” recipe book I’ve been hanging on too forever for our family favorite muffin recipe. We love Sunday morning muffins and I should have long ago memorized it, but enjoy pulling out the book. I’ve been discovered ATK more and more and would LOVE one of their creations.
My favorite cookbook (and this is slightly embarrassing) is Martha Stewart’s Cupcake Book! I’ve made at least half of all the cupcakes in that fantastic book! I’ve been trying to branch out to actual meals since I’ve been married, since cupcakes are apparently not a well-rounded dinner. : )
I use BHG a fair amt, but at this point, use the internet ALOT!
Cooking A to Z by the California Culinary something or other. Not so much a cookbook per se but chock full of food info to satisfy my inner cooking nerd.
I love my moms ward cookbook from the 80′s
I mostly use the internet for recipes, but I also have a Taste of Home cookbook that I really like. P.S. – I want a danish now.
Mel, the cookbook I use the most is the one my mom put together of all her favorite recipes she’s collected over the years- from ATK to homemade or passed down from other family and friends. My 3 sisters and I were always asking mom for the same recipes. iInstead of writing out individually for all 4 of us, one Christmas she presented us the cookbook along with an apron. One of our favorites (cornmeal crepe enchiladas) is used regularly.
If you had a cook book, that would be my favorite and most used, as I’m on your blog almost daily using another favorite recipe. If it has to be an actual recipe book, I’d say Our Best Bites is my most used.
I enjoy cookbooks put out by different groups of their favorite recipes. One of my favorites is Food for Thought from Dallas Theological Seminary Ladies.
I have lots of “favorite” cookbooks…but the one that I always go back to is the BETTER HOMES & GARDENS COOKBOOK…with the red and white checkered cover that my Dad gave me for a wedding shower gift, in 1967!! It is tattered..scribbled in by my babies (now both in their 40′s!) and still brings me joy…with good recipes and good memories! Thank’s for this great drawing!!
Hi Mel! Anything with cream cheese is amazing to me! My husband and I always joke about our lack of using a cookbook…never have had a great one so we just use google!
I have several favorites as I collect cookbooks, but my favorites are the local church cookbooks I have. Down home cooking at its best!
I really don’t have a cookbook. LOL Unless you count Southern living magazines, and the Kraft ones I get at the grocery store. But please consider me for your give away.
This may sound silly but my favorite cookbook is Mels Kitchen Cafe. Seriously though. I get most of my recipes from here and I love them all! Every time somebody asks me for ideas I always tell them to go to this site. Love it!
I love my betty crocker cookbook. I took a cooking class in college and that was my textbook!! I think my most used cookbook, though, is a big white binder that I put together using all the random recipes I have collected. (LOTS from you, thanks!!!)
I honestly don’t use cookbooks that much…as a 20-something year old experimenting in the kitchen I tend to use people’s blogs more than any cookbook
Maryana Vollstedt’s big book of potluck is my most used cookbook.
My America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook is my most trusted book. Quick cooking is right up my alley so this one looks awesome.
Great looking danish!
I love ATK and Cook’s Country cookbooks best, but I also have an old church cookbook that I’ve used so much the pages are falling out.
Lately, I have been using the internet almost exclusively for finding recipes. I find things I think I will make and pin them.
My go to is Barefoot Contessa!
My favorite cookbook is one that our family compiled. It has all if the tried and true family recipes. Although I keep adding more and more from this site.
Before I became a Mel’s kitchen cafe groupie my go to was always Taste of Home.
I hope you all find a place to call home really soon.
I love the Taste of Home cookbooks. I use them quite regularly.
Okay, you got me. I use and enjoy a number of cookbooks, but the one I go to every time if I need help is “Rodale’s Basic Natural Foods Cookbook” Charles Gerras, Editor. It has great recipes, and it ALSO explains the hows and whys of cooking. For example, what can I do if my pancake recipe calls for buttermilk, but I don’t have buttermilk? Rodale’s Cookbook has the answer. Why is my bread crumbly? Why is it heavy? Can I make my own starter? What is a leek? How do I prepare this or that? Rodale’s has the answer. I am “new-ish” to your blog so you may have already mentioned this book as one you use. I wouldn’t be surprised!
Betty Crocker (basic binder style that I have used since 1971)
I love my trusty Betty Crocker cookbook
I have many that I love, but with 4 small children around, hands-down America’s Teat Kitchen Family Cookbook gets the most “love.” I’m on my second copy and have convinced the other women in my extended family to get their own, too! Whenever there’s a new “winning” recipe, my husband guesses, “America’s Test”?
My favorite cookbook is “The Best 30 Minute Recipe” by ATK! LOVE IT!
If I ever have questions I look at The Joy of Cooking but my favorite is Chloe’s Kitchen!! She has amazing recipes!!
Honestly, Mel’s Kitchen Cafe is my go-to recipe book! I have never made anything that we didn’t love. If I want to make something new I do a search on your site and if you’ve made it, then I know it’s going to be good. Before I “met” you I relied on family recipes.
I have one of the cook books and I love it, I use it a lot. My favorite recipe is rustic white bread, I make it all the time. Thanks Mel for doing this.
Hi Mel…My favorite cookbook is an old church cookbook . It was used when my mother in law gave it to me over 30 years ago. It has come unbound, has stained pages, and I keep it in a large ziploc bag
This cookbook was the beginning of my culinary training as a new wife and mom and I still use it to this day. I have 4 daughters and they argue over who is gonna get moms ziploc bag cookbook. I need to figure out a way to make 4 copies of it… Any ideas readers?? Thanks
I’m not vegetarian, but my most used is Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison. Amazing amazing. Clear directions, yummy food, not too weird for little kids and husbands to gobble up. LOVE IT.
But I think cookbook might give it a run!
My favorite cookbook I use is a recipe book handed down to me when my grandmother passed away. It has all of her hand written notes!
I search the internet for most of my recipes. Besides your site, I also search in RecipeZaar and the Food Network – mostly for the Pioneer Woman recipes.
Oh I would love to own an America’s test kitchen cookbook! I always look and drool and then have to walk away:(. My most used cook book is one published by family. Other than that I always come here!
I love cookbooks that have pictures of the recipes. My current favorite is “The essentials of Mediterranean cooking” by Williams -Sonoma. Give me another month and I’ll move on to another one.
I use the Ivory Family Cookbook the most at my house. Lots of good stuff in there.
These days I usually go to Food.com, but if I had to list my favorite traditional cookbook, I would have to list The Joy of Cooking. However, from your comments, I think the new ATK cookbook may be my next best friend
Better Homes and Gardens!
We use Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook quite a bit for really tasty desserts. And maybe Moosewood Simple Suppers. I don’t use it much anymore, but I used it constantly for years.
Mostly, when I need a recipe, I just come here. Duh.
This looks delicious! I don’t have a favorite really. I use all kinds and pinterest is awesome for recipes.
I really like the food nanny rescues dinner cookbook, there’s lots of good stuff in there, but honestly I just mostly print recipes off of blogs like yours and keep them in a binder and that’s my most used “cookbook”!
My favorite cookbook are my amish mennonite ones. Love love love them!
Honestly not trying to suck up or anything, but I absolutely love your blog – I consider it my favorite cook”book”. None of your recipes have ever let me down.
As for an actual book – I’ve got one called the Blanchard Bistro that is a compilation of favorites from my husband’s mom and sisters. Good comfort food in there.
OBTW..the cheese danish looks yummy
mmm…wish I had one for breakfast!…I love my trusty Better Home and Gardens cookbook- got it as a gift when we got married…I have many, but that one seems to cover the basics the best
I love, love, love ATK! Their Healthy Family Cookbook is one of only a few cookbooks that I go back to over and over again.
Well, that would probably be the Harry Potter cookbook, it just makes cooking *magical*
Fav cook book…betty crocker, has every day basics which I needed when I started cooking for my family, but now it would be great to have a different one to expand my usual boring recipes!
My favorite cookbook is one compiled by some neighborhood friends., but I would love to have this cookbook! My daughter and I love to watch America’s Test Kitchen together on Saturday morning.
Hi Mel,
I know what it is like to live in a hotel while waiting for a house. We did that in Japan, each time we were stationed there. My husband is a retired Marine, and we had orders to Iwkauni Japan three times (for three years each time), and we had to live in the TLF (temporary lodging facility) each time for up to 3 months while waiting on base housing. They had kitchens in them, but it was so cramped and there were just 4 of us. I hope you are able to move soon.
The danish look delicious! My favorite cookbooks are the Taste of Home cookbooks and Pioneer Woman’s two cookbooks.
The tried and true Betty Crocker for the basics and MelsKitchenCafe for everything else!
My love our family cookbook my sister put together a few years ago.
The cookbook I use the most is a family one in a binder that I keep adding to!
The cookbook I go to the most is The Southern Living Cookbook. It’s a great reference for anything you are trying to make.
An Amish cookbook I bought in Ohio.
I use old church cookbooks religiously (pun intended). Those ladies know their recipes!
I love my family cookbook with all our family favorites!
I use a cookbook that my roommate put together for me when I got married of quick, no fail recipes and I love it. I would love to have another cookbook with quick meals!
My go to recipe books are the neighborhood ones I have collected over the years. I love making something from friends’ collections.
Honestly, my cookbooks are a few favorite food blogs including this one! But I love watching ATK and would love to have that book. Quick and easy is what I’m all about!
I love the Better Homes and Garden cookbook! But would love to have a new cookbook!
I don’t use any all that much, mostly the internet. If I do, I use a family cook book, with all the recipes we ate growing up!
Well I’ve used Betty Crocker alot in the past, but lately, I’m just trying to get back into cooking so I refer frequently to your blog and a family cook book I have. I love your recipes! AND…today is my son’s 3rd Birthday so I should totally win.
I used to use Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics every night! Everything in it is wonderful! But now i’ve discovered blogs….
Why, this here blog is my go-to cook book. Does that count? Before I found this blog, I used Betty Crocker’s cookbook. I still do, on occasion.
I mostly use recipes off the internet but if I HAD to pick one cookbook I used the most it would be Betty Crocker.
These look super easy!! My most used cookbook? Betty Crocker’s Big Red Cookbook- it’s got a litte bit of everything!!!