Our Normal Event Spot is Being Pre-Empted by They Draw and Cook, at the Request of Rochelle (Maybe).

It's been a long weekend. Pam's coming in early to vacuum. This is what the carpet looks like today. Thanks, Pam!

Our friend Rochelle has been upset that I haven't been featuring some cookbook with artwork in it. The sad truth is that I wasn't exactly sure which book she was referring to, because much of our conversation about this was through Sharon, another part was when I ran into her at the Buy Local Gift Fair, and the rest of it was conducted on Facebook, which I must admit I am not on as much as some would like.

I think the book she likes is They Draw and Cook: 107 Recipes Illustrated by Artists from Around the World, by Nate Padavick and Salli Swindell. Gee, I hope it is, because that's the book I'm featuring in today's post.

The book is based on a blog started in February 2010. Like many of these sorts of things, the selections are based on contributions to the site. You never know what you are going to get, but apparently you can get a very high quality of illustration.  I can't tell about the recipes because I haven't made them, which of course, is the problem with judging any cookbook. I used to tell booksellers that you couldn't really personally recommend a cookbook unless you made three things from it.

I can see why Rochelle liked They Draw and Cook so much, assuming this is of course the book to which she was referring. The illustrations are mesmerizing and it really makes me want to cook something. The only issue that I have is that I think each contributor should be listed with their recipes. There's an index in the back, but neither the pages nor the index are numbered. I guess the thought was that this would interfere with the artwork, and I must admit the full bleed on the layout is the best way it could be done. So I guess it's just a tradeoff--them's the breaks.

As they note in the introduction, some of the recipes are detailed while others are open to interpretation. And maybe you didn't need a recipe for cheese sandwiches with chocolate hazelnut spread.  But on the other hand, maybe you did.

One of the hoops I always find exhausting is getting the okay (and images) to show interior plates. Cutting and pasting from the blog seems like a permissions issue so I am instead going to take a picture of one recipe. Alas, it's not a very good photo. The whole package is nicely priced, sized, and designed. Stop by and take a look.

More on the brother-sister team that puts this together here.