Our Blog

Celebrity chefs? Exotic ingredients? Immersion blenders? Who needs 'em?!? Little Old Lady Recipes honors the extraordinary women who create pot luck dinners, church socials, wedding banquets, and the best desserts you've ever tasted. Every page features their simple, no-frills recipes for pot roast, meat loaf, dumplings, corn bread, fried chicken, bundt cake, and other mouth-watering favorites-along with gorgeous photography of the chefs at work and generous portions of their kitchen table wisdom ("Butter comes from a cow. Tell me where the heck margarine comes from, and then maybe I'll eat it!").

These Little Old Lady Recipes are simple, delicious, and ridiculously cheap and easy to make. So ditch the food processor, stop wasting money on overpriced organic frozen dinners, and start enjoying the 70 classic dishes, plus variations, that our aunties and grandmothers have made for generations!

Meg Favreau is a food writer and comedian living in Los Angeles. Someday she'll have a backyard raspberry garden like her grandmother had. Michael Reali is a photographer based in Philadelphia. In developing this project, he has helped many a little old lady cross the street.

Fat Bastard Chardonnay. Lazy Lizard Shiraz. White Trash White.

These three wines-and more than 100 others-can be found in Marilyn Merlot and the Naked Grape, a celebration of the oddest wines in the world. Some have strange names, like Cat’s Pee on a Gooseberry Bush. Others have bizarre artwork, like a Magritte-inspired UFO invasion. Still others have unusual production features (Braille typography, heat-sensitive inks, lenticular art, and more).

Along with brilliant reproductions of the original labels, we’ll feature brief stories about the origins of the wines, plus tasting notes from the author. Readers will learn about unusual vineyards (like Cleavage Creek, which donates its proceeds to breast cancer research) as well as the most innovative artists working in the wine label medium. Finally, there’s an appendix of resources that will help you buy these wines-so you can try them for yourself!

PETER F. MAY is a wine enthusiast and the creator of winelabels.org. He lives in England.

Just because you’re pregnant doesn’t mean you have to skip cocktails!

Margarita Mama offers a pitcherful of delicious “mocktails” designed specifically for moms-to-be. Every drink is 100 percent alcohol free. And they not only taste great, they also provide a healthful treat for both mom and baby! Recipes include twists on old favorites such as Mudslides, Mojitos, Cosmopolitans, and Mimosas, plus yummy new libations like the Materni-Tini, the Raging Hormone, and the Chocolate Crave.

Filled to the brim with whimsical illustrations and sprinkled with entertaining and informative sidebars, Margarita Mama makes the perfect gift for fun-loving moms-to-be everywhere.

When not concocting tasty beverages, ALYSSA GUSENOFF works as a pediatric speech-language pathologist. She and her husband recently welcomed their first child, Zachary. The family lives in Newton, Massachusetts.

There’s more to seafood than lobster tails and fried calamari. Today’s supermarkets are stocked with a bounty of delicious and delightful choices—everything from salmon and snow crabs to oysters, barnacles, and even sea cucumbers! But you don’t need a degree in marine biology to make sense of it all—just Field Guide to Seafood.

Award-winning chef Aliza Green explains everything you need to know about different types of seafood, fish, and prepared fish: how to select them, prepare them, serve them, and more, with a recipe for every one. Beautiful full-color photography depicts carp, catfish, clams, eel, squid, and more than 100 other swimmers. Don’t buy seafood without it!

Aliza Green is a chef, food writer, and teacher based in Philadelphia. She’s the author of Field Guide to Produce (Quirk, 2004), Field Guide to Meat (Quirk, 2005), Field Guide to Herbs & Spices (Quirk, 2006), and Starting with Ingredients. She is coauthor of the James Beard Award–winning cookbook Ceviche! Seafood, Salads, and Cocktails with a Latino Twist.

Field Guide to Herbs & Spices will forever change the way you cook. With this practical guide—including full-color photographs of more than 200 different herbs, spices, and spice mixtures—you’ll never again be intimidated or confused by the vast array of spices available.

Learn to discern the differences between the varieties of basil, the various colors of sesame seeds, the diverse types of sugar and salt, and even how to identify spice pastes like zhoug, harissa, and achiote. Each entry features a basic history of the herb or spice (saffron used to be worth more than gold!), its season (if applicable), selection and preparation tips, a recipe featuring the seasoning, and some suggested flavor pairings. Complete with more than one hundred recipes, Field Guide to Herbs & Spices is a must-have resource for every home cook.

Meals will never be the same again!

What puts the snap in gingersnaps? How do you bake the perfect pinwheel? What’s the secret to foolproof friands? Discover these answers and more with Field Guide to Cookies, a handy pocket reference to more than 100 cookie recipes, complete with helpful baking notes and fascinating historical trivia (the first known brownie recipe was published in the 1897 Sears, Roebuck catalog!).

Field Guide to Cookies includes traditional favorites and exotic treats from all over the world—everything from spritzgebäck to madeleines. Each cookie is photographed in glorious full color, with step-by-step instructions on how to prepare, bake, serve, and store your creations. With Field Guide to Cookies in your pantry, delicious home-baked confections are just minutes away!

ANITA CHU is a graduate of Tante Marie’s Professional Pastry program and a former baker for Bittersweet Chocolate Café. She channels her love of baking, writing, and photography on her award-winning Web site, Dessert First. She lives in San Francisco.