’Tis the season to think about food! Whether you are preparing a feast for 50, baking cookies for your book group’s cookie exchange or trying to stay on top of the meal prep for daily dinners, the library has books for you. We’re also a great place to preview titles under consideration for holiday giving. Need a few ideas on your next cookbook or food-related read? Head down to Redmond Library, and we’ll happily help you out.

Books for baking and food-related gifts

“How to Bake Everything: Simple Recipes for the Best Baking”

by Mark Bittman

Bittman’s series of “everything” titles continues to please, and here’s a new one just in time for the holidays!

“Dorie’s Cookies”

by Dorie Greenspan

From salted caramel to healthy breakfast cookies, all the best are in this volume. There are tons of ideas for cookie swaps within these pages!

“The Art of Pie: A Practical Guide to Homemade Crusts, Fillings, and Life”

by Kate McDermott

From the standards to modern riffs, there’s a pie for everyone in this book. If you’re interested in gluten-free crusts, they’re included.

Books to help you prepare for the day-to-day dinner dilemma

“Dinner Made Simple: 35 Everyday Ingredients, 350 Easy Recipes” from the editors of REALSIMPLE

Take an ingredient that you love (like salmon fillets) or one that is seasonally abundant (like butternut squash) and learn to make it 10 different ways.

“Fast to the Table Freezer Cookbook: Freezer-friendly Recipes and Frozen Food Shortcuts”

by Becky Rosenthal

Rosenthal provides ideas for prepping meals when you have the time, so you can get them to the table when life gets hectic.

“Oh She Glows Every Day: Quick and Simply Satisfying Plant-based Recipes”

by Angela Liddon

Beautifully illustrated and full of fast, healthy meals.

Books for gifting

“Meat on the Side: Delicious Vegetable-focused Recipes for Every Day”

by Nikki Dinki

Delicious, vegetable-focused recipes that aren’t vegetarian. Dinki includes several spaghetti squash recipes, perfect for this season!

“Scratch: Home Cooking for Everyone Made Simple, Fun, and Totally Delicious”

by Maria Rodale

Scratch cooking isn’t a trend — it’s Maria Rodale’s way of life. Enjoy recipes from breakfast to dessert in this cookbook that also includes vignettes and stories.

“Naturally Delicious”

by Dany Seo

Seo presents a variety of healthy, delicious foods that can be created with less time than you’d expect.

Fun food reads

“The Red Rooster Cookbook: The Story of Food and Hustle in Harlem”

by Marcus Samuelsson

Also included are music playlists, interviews with artists and musicians and stories of Harlem’s history and Red Rooster’s first years of operation.

“Molly on the Range: Recipes and Stories from an Unlikely Life on a Farm”

by Molly Yeh

A food blogger and musician moves to her husband’s fifth-generation sugar beet farm.

“Victuals: An Appalachian Journey, With Recipes”

by Ronni Lundy

Lundy does a lovely job of collecting stories and recipes from Appalachia.

To see this list in the library’s catalog, use this link: bit.ly/2fsGN7s, or search under Lists for “Redmond Spokesman.”

— Josie Hanneman is a community librarian at the Redmond Public Library. josieh@dpls.lib.or.usfa