D*S:  The images you share on 101cookbooks are every much as inspiring as the food.  How do you decide which images you will post to illustrate recipes and your travel?

Wow, thank you! I try to keep the framework of my site in mind. Each post I do is about how my life intersects a recipe in some way – either through a book, or an ingredient, or a restaurant I visited, or a place I’ve traveled to. I do my best to illustrate that in a personal way. So, in addition to what I’m cooking, I like to show the little details of places I’ve been, the ones I’ve found inspiring – colors, textures, architecture, fonts. I also tend to pick the photos I don’t want to forget. The site works a bit as a scrapbook in that regard.

D*S:  You’ve written a bit on your blog about how super natural every day started with a notebook of ideas, recipes, photos.   How did you decide what made it into the book and what didn’t?

I had all the early shots in a box initially – starting with the ones I used in the proposal for the cookbook. I added to that collection over time. Over a few years I’d just keep shooting and adding to the box – film, and also printouts of all the shots. Every once in a while I’d put them out on a big table, or tack them to a wall, and take a look. I’d get rid of some, make note to reshoot others, that sort of thing. I shot as I was writing the book, and submitted the photography with the manuscript to Ten Speed, and we went from there. I was lucky to be working on this book with Toni Tajima, who designed my last book. She’d design sections of the book and send them to me. If she wanted other photo options for a page or a recipe, I could go back to the black box, or do something on the fly for her. In the end, she actually made the final call on which shots went in, and which ones didn’t.

CLICK HERE for the rest of the interview and giveaway details after the jump!

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1. Items for the kitchen + furniture, handmade from reclaimed wood and fallen trees, by Andrea Brugi.  Pictured:  Olive wood cutting board (starting at €60), olive wood salt cellars (€50 each).  2.  Cup and saucer by Karin Eriksson. ($70)  3.  Handmade porcelain products by Caroline Swift.   Visit website for new products.  4.  Christmas ornaments made from the discarded wood pieces from Andrea Brugi’s work.  By Samina Langholz 5.  Inscribed plate by Sabine Csampai, set of two (120).  6.  Espresso cup (powder, $22), small dinner plate (dust, $47), dipping bowl (white, $35).  Three of five new shades of white introduced by mud australia this year.  Find the perfect color to match your friend’s interior.  7.  Espresso cups with gold stars and dessert dishes by Le Petit Atelier de Paris. (Contact for details)  8.  Zinnia soap dish by Molly Hatch.  9.  Maple flour scoop by Herriott Grace.  For prices for custom pieces, please contact artist.

1.  Hard to find initials, or interesting typography.  Pictured large aluminum letter, found in a Parisian market.  K is not easy to find!!  2.  A contribution to a worthy cause that you know your friend cares about, in your friend’s name.  An example here based on food, World Food Programme.  3.  Tartine Bread cookbook.  Bake a great loaf, wrap it and take it to someone.  4.  Print your own artwork and have it framed.  Pictured “Art Depot” by Kristina Gill.  5.  Doughnuts cookbook by Lara Ferroni.  Bake and deliver, or have them waiting when family and friends come over.  6.  A gift subscription to a magazine.  The gift will come throughout the year!  Pictured, Australian Gourmet Traveller.  7.  Tender Volume II by Nigel Slater.  All about fruit, all about dessert.  Bake something with winter bounty to take along to a party.

Before I dive into the book, I’ve got a small confession to make: I’ve always been (and probably always will be) someone who lives to eat, rather than eats to live. I know it’s not the healthiest philosophy, but food has always provided me with a comfort that’s hard to put into words. Whether I’m happy or sad, a great meal always makes things better. I know I should go for a run or take a boxing class to work through stress, but for me, there’s no greater comfort that that first big bite into an amazing piece of cake or a deliciously fudgy brownie. We all have our vices and well, sweets are mine. So to say that Baked’s desserts are the most comforting (non-Mom-made) desserts I have ever eaten is the highest compliment I can give.

Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented is packed full of the heart-warming and tummy-pleasing recipes that I love about Baked. From gooey Monkey Bubble Bread breakfast recipes to classic Whoopie Pies, Baked’s second cookbook has it all and then some. And this time around, that “and then some” means a few unexpected surprises like recipes for Pumpkin Cheddar Muffins, two versions of Mississippi Mud Cake, Strawberry Jell-O Salad with a pretzel crust and my favorite “What The?” recipe, Tomato Soup Cupcakes with Mascarpone Frosting. Sound a little wacky? Sure. But will I be buying the ingredients to try them this week? Absolutely. Primarily because I trust just about anything the Baked boys (Renato Poliafito and Matt Lewis) tell me will taste good. Something about Renato and Matt, both personally and baked good-wise, has always felt special to me. Maybe it’s because they share my love of the deep South, or that they remind me of all the classic Southern desserts my grandmother would make when we visited her house in Richmond, but reading through this book felt like coming home to me.

I plan to take this book with me in a few weeks when we visit my family in Martha’s Vineyard. Aaron and I are cooking for the entire visiting family and I know that any one of these recipes (even the Tomato Soup Cupcakes) would be a hit. So as I bookmark my favorite pages to try next month, I hope you’ll consider picking up a copy to try in your own kitchen. I very rarely say things like “I guarantee you’ll like it,” but this one is a home run for me. The recipes are fun and approachable and Tina Rupp‘s photographs are the perfect combination of baking-meets-Brimfield antiques. Click here to pick up a copy online ($19.77 at Amazon) or if you’re in Brooklyn or Charleston, stop by Baked’s bakeries to taste their sweets for yourself. You won’t regret it. Congrats to Matt and Renato on another wonderful book! xo, grace

• living in: national velvet
• we like it wild: thanksgiving arrangement using ingredients from the supermarket
• new sneak peeks: alex marshall, susan williams of swans island, katie kirk of 8 hour day, sandrine place, anne lise kjaer
• diy projects: david stark’s twine snowmen, crocheted plastic bag placemats, pretty fabric pumpkins, vintage crate shelves
• before & afters: seating + office makeover, wendy’s elementary school to studio makeover, loveseat from swankyswell, nadia’s bathroom
• small measures with ashley: practicing gratitude
• new recipe: in the kitchen with oh joy’s frozen yogurt and mochi
• cookbook reviews: sweet tooth baking books
• misc.: new rugs from bev hisey, nyc stamp set from yellow owl workshop, wallpaper from eskayel, newsprint posters from the pencil factory, yellena james glass shades for schoolhouse electric,

Baking Unplugged by Nicole Rees (Wiley). Baking Unplugged is the hands down winner in my spot recipe testing. The recipes are good, easy, and practical. The simple philosophy behind the book is that you can make great desserts without any electrical equipment (except an oven, of course). The preliminary chapters at the beginning review tools, ingredients, methods, and how to read a recipe. The books chapters are then divided into types of baked goods, with no dearth of explanation of technique. The book is clear and concise, easy to understand. I wish I had had this book when I started out baking. This is a book for anyone who wants to get back to basics in the kitchen, someone who has a small kitchen with only a few tools, someone who is lazy and doesn’t feel like plugging in the equipment. It’s a perfect book for beginners– I am a firm believer in the ‘learn in the manual way’ in order to excel in the automated world. I really really like this book. One last important note– there are no photos at all in the book. But please don’t let this discourage you.

All Cakes Considered by Melissa Gray (Chronicle Books). For one year, the author (a producer at National Public Radio’s program All Things Considered) brought in a cake to work every Monday, and this book is the result. It is a fantastically entertaining book. The recipes are a mix between previously published recipes, and the author’s own (bequeathed by friends and family, or tweaked and ‘co-opted’ for personal use from other sources), so of course they have been tested and retested. What I love about the book is the author’s voice, the way the instructions are written, the stories, all of the written text. What I do not like about the book– you need a 10″ tube pan to make the majority of the recipes, or you need shortening. If you live in a place where it’s difficult to find either (especially the latter), you’re out of luck. Comb the internet to find a shortening alternative. If you can get over those two things (I’m still smarting), then this book is a winner. There’s even a chapter on non-cakes (cookies etc)!

The Craft of Baking by Karen DeMasco and Mindy Fox (Clarkson Potter). [TOP IMAGE ABOVE] I was so looking forward to this book, a collection of recipes which are a bit less common than you’d normally find in American baking books– recipes like like Lamington cupcakes, pine nut tart with rosemary cream, nut and cherry nougat. As a whole, the collection of recipes is elegant- definitely a notch above average. You’d make a great statement if you served one of these recipes to your friends. And although I had a bit of difficulty with the Ultimate Chocolate Brownies (The cooking time didn’t work out for me?), my shortcoming has been like a challenge to me, which has made me want to come back and try more recipes in the book, maybe toward Christmas when I usually try to bake up five to ten different baked goods and give little boxes of mixed goodies to friends as gifts (You always want unique things people haven’t tried before in those gift boxes). For people who like to experiment with different flavors and adapt recipes for different types of desserts, you’ll appreciate the notes after each recipe which offer tips on how to do just that! In sharp contrast with Baking Unplugged, there are plenty of pictures in this book of the final recipes up close, so you can compare and see how your efforts measure up! While the recipes are generally quite easy to execute, this is definitely the type of book for the person who believes that a tiny bit more effort can produce great desserts.

CLICK HERE for the reviews and chili-pepper chutney recipe after the jump!

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