> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://go-fug-yourself.ghost.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Your Afternoon Chat: Your Favorite Cookbook
- URL: https://go-fug-yourself.ghost.io/your-afternoon-chat-your-favorite-cookbook-04-2016/
- Published: 2016-04-18T21:00:48.000Z
- Updated: 2016-04-15T04:20:15.000Z
- Author: Jessica  
- Tags: fugs, Your Afternoon Chat, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-10-07 07:46

Today's afternoon chat is a reader request, and I think it's going to be fun. There is nothing I love more than a cookbook -- I like to read them like novels, sometimes, because it's fun to imagine a day when you have nine hours to make Martha's Hand-Rolled Baklava Wreaths or whatever.

[![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/bf/b9/bfb99790-924d-4e41-a7e6-5e3c6e04fe57/content/images/static-gofugyourself-com/uploads/2016/04/martha.jpg "martha")](https://www.gofugyourself.com/your-afternoon-chat-your-favorite-cookbook-04-2016/martha?ref=go-fug-yourself.ghost.io)

Would you disobey this women? I would not. (In fact, I briefly interviewed Martha once, and she was humorously superior and detached to me -- just as you want and expect Martha to be; it was the platonic ideal of an interaction with Martha Stewart. She also told me everyone needs to know how to roast a chicken, a statement with which I agree. With the exception of vegetarians, I suppose.)

Anyway! Regular readers know that I personally am OFTEN singing the praises of Gwyneth's first two cookbooks (*My Father's Daughter*, and *It's All Good*, respectively); I have to admit that I use them perhaps more than any other cookbook I own. I LOVE them. (I also have the new one, *It's All Easy* and just so you know, it's VERY basic; it's beautiful, but many of the recipes are for people who don't know how to make scrambled eggs. Literally, there is a recipe for scrambled eggs. But I would recommend it for beginning cooks, because it actually IS all easy.) I also use everything Ina has ever published, The Big Fat Red New York Times Cookbook (not the real title), The Big Fat Blue Martha one (ditto; and I especially turn to this one when I want to doublecheck the 100% for sure correct way to make something, even if I don't plan to actually do it that way); SEVERAL random old local cookbooks, including a great one that the *LA Times* put out like ten years ago; and occasionally Bittman. I also have and love a LOT of cookbooks for Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine because I love it, but I don't use them as much on a daily basis, simply because the recipes from them that I whip up most often (salads, generally) I don't need a recipe for anymore. I'm sure I am forgetting several of my faves -- I really do *love* a cookbook -- but I want to add to my list. Tell me, what's your favorite cookbook? Which one do you actually *use* the most?