My Kitchen Year

 My Kitchen Year by Ruth Reichl

I thoroughly enjoyed this, finding it much more interesting than her novel, Delicious!, that I read recently. This one is her own personal story about the year after Gourmet Magazine, of which she'd been editor for ten years, shut down, and how she coped with that abrupt loss in her life. The novel tells a similar story about a fictional character but I found the writing better in the telling of her real life experience and the story far more engaging. Each chapter shares a bit of her life that first year after losing her job - a year of finding solace in cooking - followed by a recipe or two, all appealing and lots of them useful even to a plain cook like me. I must have written down more than a dozen of them. I'm eager to try... Apricot Pie, Easy Bolognese for Pasta, Roasted Winter Strawberries with Ice Cream, Lemon Panna Cotta, Turkey Hash with Fried Egg, and especially Mrs. Lincoln's (Mrs. Abraham Lincoln!) Genuine Sponge Cake. The author's luscious descriptions of fruits, vegetables and other foods -  and it's not just how she sees them but how she feels about them that mesmerizes you - and the infectious joy she finds in preparing them, make this book an absolute delight. Excellent reading.