February/March selection: Miss Eliza’s English Kitchen

Please join me in reading Miss Eliza’s English Kitchen by Annabel Abbs for the February/March Cook the Books selection.

About the book (from HarperCollins Publishers)

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

Good Housekeeping Book Club Pick * A Country Living Best Book of Fall * A Washington Post Best Feel-Good Book of the Year * One of the New York Times's Best Historical Fiction Novels of Fall

In a novel perfect for fans of Hazel Gaynor’s A Memory of Violets and upstairs-downstairs stories, Annabel Abbs, the award-winning author of The Joyce Girl, returns with the brilliant real-life story of Eliza Acton and her assistant as they revolutionized British cooking and cookbooks around the world.

Before Mrs. Beeton and well before Julia Child, there was Eliza Acton, who changed the course of cookery writing forever.

England, 1835. London is awash with thrilling new ingredients, from rare spices to exotic fruits. But no one knows how to use them. When Eliza Acton is told by her publisher to write a cookery book instead of the poetry she loves, she refuses—until her bankrupt father is forced to flee the country. As a woman, Eliza has few options. Although she’s never set foot in a kitchen, she begins collecting recipes and teaching herself to cook. Much to her surprise she discovers a talent – and a passion – for the culinary arts.

Eliza hires young, destitute Ann Kirby to assist her. As they cook together, Ann learns about poetry, love and ambition. The two develop a radical friendship, breaking the boundaries of class while creating new ways of writing recipes. But when Ann discovers a secret in Eliza’s past, and finds a voice of her own, their friendship starts to fray.

Based on the true story of the first modern cookery writer, Miss Eliza’s English Kitchen is a spellbinding novel about female friend­ship, the struggle for independence, and the transcendent pleasures and solace of food. 

I hope you all enjoy this historical fiction novel as much as I did and find plenty of foodie inspiration!

Please comment below with your recipe link by Tuesday, March 31 to be added into the roundup.

Happy reading!

Amy (Amy's Cooking Adventures)

Bite by Bite: The Roundup

It's time for the roundup of Cook the Books' Club December 2025/January 2026 edition for which we read the memoir in lyrical essays Bite by Bite by Aimee Nezhukumatathil. 

As I've done in the past, I will present our club members' contributions as a menu organized in courses. For each dish, I will give you the official information (author, blog name and post title) and a quote from it, a taste: follow the link and read the author's take of the book and how the reading inspired the cooking. 

Cook the Books Club's Bite by Bite-Inspired Menu 

Breakfast

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

Homemade Granola

Snack:

Hot Honey Pecans

Main dish:

Chicken Curry with Potatoes

Mushroom Risotto

Umbrian Lentils with Honeynut Squash and Vegetables

Dessert:

Hummingbird Cakes with Cream Cheese Frosting 

Make yourself comfortable and enjoy the menu.

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Amy of Amy's Cooking Adventures prepared Cinnamon Roll Pancakes 

"Pancakes are already delicious on their own but what if we combine them with another breakfast-dessert - Cinnamon Rolls!... While this sort of compilation is not my typical style, I could appreciate that each chapter was inspired by a food. The cinnamon chapter was an informational chapter that read more like a textbook than some of the other chapters that were centered around the author’s memories or musings. It was interesting enough and a great inspiration for these pancakes!"

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Deb of Readerbuzz shared My Mom's Homemade Granola

"Some of the foods are exotic to me... Some of the foods are foods I use often... Some of the foods are so familiar to me that I actually grow them in my yard and cook with them all the time... Here's a recipe I make that uses several of these foods... My mom would collect and refill our granola storage container every year as her Christmas gift to us... Every time I make granola, I think of my mom."

December/January selection: Bite by Bite

For the December 2025 / January 2026 edition I chose the memoir Bite by Bite by Aimee Nezhukumatathil (April 2024)

Although I've known Aimee Nezhukumatathil's poetry for some time and enjoyed reading it, I was not familiar with her essays until I saw this collection. After scanning the first few chapters, I decided to select this for our club. It is a memoir centered on 40 different kinds of food that evoke recollections of childhood, family, travels, and more.

From the publisher:

Aimee Nezhukumatathil explores the way food and drink evoke our associations and remembrances... From shave ice to lumpia, mangoes to pecans, rambutan to vanilla, she investigates how food marks our experiences and identities and explores the boundaries between heritage and memory. 

I hope the lyrical essays will be a stimulating read and provide culinary inspiration. Should you be curious about her poetry, there is a selection on this page of the Poetry Foundation website

The poem Baked Goods resonates particularly. Here are a few lines: 

Too hot to bake this morning but
blueberries begged me to fold them

into moist muffins. Sticks of rhubarb
plotted a whole pie.

I hope you will enjoy Nezhukumatathil's style and will find inspiration among the many foods she writes about in the book.

Simona, briciole

Deadline for contributing your post: Saturday, January 31, 2026.

Leave a comment below with a link to your post or email me at simosite AT mac DOT com

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Remember that membership in our book club is open to anyone and we hope you will join us by reading these selections and creating inspired recipes. New participants are always welcome and so are returning ones. For more information about participating, click here.  

Maame: The Roundup

I had the pleasure of hosting Maame by Jessica George for the October/November round. I recommended it without reading it first. That's always a bit scary but I was pleasantly surprised. I was also a bit surprised when I realized that this was George’s first novel. George captures the voice of a twenty-something and all the heartache (and humor) that is involved with adulting and self-discovery. Some of our readers found that endearing; some found it annoying.

Let's see what everyone thought and how Maame inspired some food. This might be the most eclectic menu we've had in a while.

Wendy was first up with a beet smoothie. 

Wendy writes a great synopsis of the novel. (Check it out.) She enjoyed the book "with all of the teenage angst that was delayed until Maddie was in her twenties.  It was interesting to read about a person of color being raised in London while her parents clung to their Ghanaian culture." Her inspiration for the beetroot smoothie comes from a sad episode in the book (Maddie's father's death) and a good friend who invites her to lunch to check on her. 

Unbelievably, I was not the last one to post. (I am never the first.) I started the novel early and finished it in record time. Maame really took me back to being twenty-five, being clueless, and the anticipation that living life was just around the corner. I was so caught up with Maddie's story that I really didn't keep track of the food. Instead I focused on Ghanaian food. I found an interesting recipe for a salad with pork and beans. I couldn't resist making it.

That's my "Salad for Maame."

Amy was next up. She wasn't a fan. "It was a depressing read and the main character’s over-reliance on Googling everything was both bizarre and annoying." But, Amy did create a spectacular dessert: Bannoffee Sundaes. "When she is dating some rando at the beginning, he loves to cook for her.  One of the things he serves is a Banoffee Sundae."

Marg was next up and she did enjoy the book.

This is a book that tackles big topics. Whilst Maddie is British, her family expects her to still be Ghanaian so it is looking at the idea of identity. It also tackles race issues, grief, and almost is a coming of age novel, albeit with our main character being in her mid twenties. There are times when it is difficult to read but in the end it was ultimately hopeful, and I enjoyed it very much. I have added the author's next book to my list to read next year. It's out in February and is called Love by the Book.

 Marg was inspired to make Jollof Chicken and Rice.

Co-host Simona, describes the novel in this way:

As readers, we cheer Maddie on her journey to a more assertive and realized self. I found the beat-to-beat narrative a bit tiresome and the continuous asking Google life questions quickly lost freshness. I guess the slow pace is a metaphor for Maddie feeling stuck in a situation that leaves her unfulfilled.

Simona was inspired by the cultural foods in the book and looked to the culture of Native Americans and the tradition of "Three Sisters."  Her Beans, Corn and Winter Squash "is a great combination of flavors and textures."

Claudia, another co-host for CTB, made me laugh with the title of her post. She was not a fan but I liked how she put it in perspective:

Truthfully, I was getting so depressed by and outraged at the central character, Maddie, for her attitude of victimization and not standing up for herself, that I just put the book aside and went on to life and other reads.  Then, when time was growing short for some sort of review, decided to do one of those sneak peeks to the ending.  Okay, looking much better, and worked my way backwards.  Things do improve, in life and sometimes even in books.  She does eventually take control of herself and her life, basically after her dad dies and frees her up in a sense to move on; after being his care giver, and mainstay of the whole family for so many years.  I won't give the ending totally away for those who haven't yet read the book, but if you can press on, it's a good lesson in giving people a chance and understanding what may have caused their dysfunctions.

Claudia did a riff on a Marcus Samuelsson recipe, subbing in ahi tuna for snapper. She parceled them up in banana leavers, a West African tradition.

Just to revisit our menu, we have a weird salad, traditional Ghana recipes, some riffs on other West African traditions, a Native American inspired recipe, a smoothie, and a dessert. Like I said eclectic.

Thanks to all that participated, those that enjoyed the novel and those who persevered. :)

Simona is hosting the next round for December/January with Bite by Bite by Aimee Nezhukumatathil. Look for an announcement post soon.

Coming to My Senses: The Round-Up

We at Cook the Books Club have been reading and posting about Alice Waters' Memoir, Coming to My Senses, The Making of a Counterculture Cook.  And we have a fun selection of dishes here for our Round-Up meal, with quite a divergence of opinion on the book. Also, please forgive this Round-Up delay, caused by extreme computer issues! Be sure to visit the full posts, as these are only teasers.

 Believe it or not I (Claudia of Honey From Rock) was first to post, due only to the fact that I thought the posting deadline was closer than it was! :).  

Alice's restaurant premise was spot on, and there was some humor, together with a large selection of tempting meal descriptions.  I made a Garden Salad, inspired by Alice's own contribution to a gala New York Celebration of award winning restaurant owners.  She brought a salad!  On a special plate loaned her by James Beard.  

Next in was Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm, who prepared us a delicious medley of  Eggplant with Sweet Corn, using fresh local produce and fresh mint from her garden, all very Alice like in concept.

Cam, of Culinary Cam brought us Butter dipped and Salted Radishes.  Simplicity itself!  And of course fresh, tasty, and directly from the book, put together in true Alice style.

Amy, of Amy's Cooking Adventures made a Tarte Tatin!  Just fabulous in my humble opinion.  If you have apples available, then go for it.  She wasn't all that enthralled with the book, though was inspired by all the food mentions.

Debra of Eliotseats arrived with some yummy Grilled Chicken Breasts au Poivre, based on a recipe from the Chez Panisse Cookbook. Which Alice Waters' book she actually preferred.

Finally, Simona of Bricole prepared us a side dish of delightful Roasted Poblano Peppers and Corn.  I wish both of those grew better here in my own garden.  She mentioned that she doesn't "have any of Waters’s cookbooks, but I share her focus and delight in cooking with fresh, local, seasonal ingredients."  I think those of us who read the book would all agree with that sentiment. 

And, I hope you'll all read and enjoy our newest Book Club selection, Maame, hosted by Debra of Eliot's Eats.