Zabar's Blog

Recipe for Snowman Cocoa Bombs

from Cocoa Bombs by Eric Torres-Garcia
Cookbook review by Tracey Zabar

Cocoa bombs are spheres of tempered chocolate, with cocoa powder and little marshmallows inside. You place one inside a mug, and pour hot milk over. The bomb explodes, and there's your sweet treat. Buy the book for detailed instruction on how to temper the chocolate and fill the molds. What to make next? Perhaps the adorable dark chocolate reindeers with pretzel antlers or one with peanut butter and milk chocolate. I will sit in front of the fireplace and decide with a mug of this hot chocolate.

Get the recipe.

Recipe excerpted with permission from Cocoa Bombs: Over 40 Make-at-Home Recipes for Explosively Fun Hot Chocolate Drinks by Eric Torres Garcia, Ryland Peters & Small 2021. Photograph by Alex Luck © Ryland Peters & Small 2021

Click on the book cover to buy:

Get the recipe.

Recipe for Chocolat Chaud

from Fireside Food for Cold Winter Nights by Lizzie Kamenetzky
Cookbook review by Tracey Zabar

There is a gorgeous French onion soup that was calling my name, and a goulash too. But this French hot chocolate called louder. Next on my list: Swiss chard gratin; a Bubbe-worthy schnitzel; and Gateau de Savoie, a light, lemony cake, studded with bits of citrus peel and served with whipped cream and boozy cherries. Lovely.

Go to the recipe.

From Fireside Food for Cold Winter Nights: More than 75 Comforting and Warming Recipes by Lizzie Kamenetzky, Ryland Peters & Small Photo: Nassima Rothacker © Ryland Peters & Small 2015, 2021

Click on the book cover to buy:

Go to the recipe.

Recipe for Turkey Leftovers

from Betty Crocker Best 100
Cookbook review by Tracey Zabar

I love old-fashioned recipes that work today. After the holiday, try this wonderful pot pie instead of another turkey sandwich. Then, bake some sweets from this amazing cookbook. Perhaps a pumpkin loaf, studded with chocolate chips; an apple bread glazed with caramel; or some rainbow-frosted doughnuts.

Go to the recipe.

Recipe excerpted with permission from BETTY CROCKER BEST 100: Favorite Recipes from America’s Most Trusted Cook © 2021 by Betty Crocker. Photography © 2021 by General Mills. Reproduced by permission of Mariner Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.

Click on the book cover to buy:


Go to the recipe.

Recipe for Banana & walnut bread

Cookbook review by Tracey Zabar

There are lots of yummy banana bread recipes in this sweet cookbook, some with caramel or chocolate chips. I loved a clever version with passion fruit in the batter and dried banana chips topping the sweet icing of the finished cake. But start with this classic, studded with nuts. Next on my list: tea bread that is soaked with booze; Japanese sponge cake; and pain d’épices, a spicy cake that is way better than any gingerbread I have ever tasted.

Go to the recipe.

Recipe excerpted with permission from Banana Breads, Loaf Cakes, & Other Quick Bakes: 60 Deliciously Easy Recipes for Home Baking, Ryland Peters & Small Recipe: Julian Day, Photo: Steve Painter © Ryland Peters & Small

Click on the book cover to buy:

Go to the recipe.

Marcella Hazan’s Tomato Sauce

from The Essential New York Times by Amanda Hesser
Cookbook review by Tracey Zabar

This amazing cookbook is bursting with over one thousand recipes. You will be cooking through the book for years. Buy the book to get the marinara recipe. Your repertoire needs that one too. Next on my list: baked mushrooms from 1877; sweet potato Cecelia; Lee Lum’s lemon chicken; the classic purple plum torte; and the world’s best chocolate cake.

Go to the recipe

Excerpted from The Essential New York Times Cookbook: The Recipes of Record, 10th Anniversary Edition. Compilation copyright (c) 2021, 2010 by The New York Times Company and Amanda Hesser. Used with permission of the publisher, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.

Click on the book cover to buy:

Go to the recipe.

Recipe for Little Jam Flower Cookies

from La Vita è Dolce by Letitia Clark, photographs by Charlotte Bland
Cookbook review by Tracey Zabar

These little morsels can be made in any shape for your sweetie. Buy the book for the jam recipe mentioned in the headnote. Next on my list: Torta della Nonna; Chocolate, pear, brown sugar and hazelnut cake; and the One True Apple Cake. What could be better?

Go to the recipe.

Recipe excerpted with permission from La Vita è Dolce by Letitia Clark, published by Hardie Grant Books, June 2021

Click on the book cover to buy:

Go to the recipe.

Recipe for Semolina gnocchi in broth from Istria by Paola Bacchia

Cookbook review by Tracey Zabar

What to cook this weekend? Gnocchi. These little dumplings will warm your heart and tummy. Next on my list: hand-rolled macaroni with asparagus, walnuts & mint; goulash; and apricot strudel.

Go to the recipe.

Recipe excerpted with permission from Istria by Paola Bacchia

Click on the book cover to buy:

Go to the recipe.

Recipe for Peanut butter & jelly brownies

from Brownies, Blondies, and other Traybakes (Ryland Peters and Small)
Cookbook review by Tracey Zabar

Peanut butter and jelly, great combination. Peanut butter and chocolate, even better. But, good grief, pb&j and chocolate? So good I can barely stand it. For your next month or two of baking, try this brownie goodie, then butterscotch blondies, then Bakewell slices, then gingerbread brownies, then pistachio, and then cherry. Finish with Brookies, which are an adorable cross between a cookie and a brownie.

Get the recipe.

Recipe excerpted with permission From Delicious Brownies, Blondies and Other Traybakes: 65 Delicious Recipes for Home-Baked Sweet Treats, Ryland Peters & Small, 2021

Click on the book cover to buy:

Get the recipe.

Recipe for Pasta alla Norma

from Sicilia by Ben Tish, photographs by Kris Kirkham
Cookbook review by Tracey Zabar

This lovely book is an armchair traveler’s dream, filled with recipes of my grandparents’ home. Here is Pasta alla Norma, a quick and easy dish to make for dinner. It's the perfect pairing of tomatoes and eggplant. Next on my list: flat bread with grapes; spaccatelle pasta with ricotta and pistachio pesto; and the adorably named Kissing Biscuits. Buon appetito!

Get the recipe.

Recipe excerpted with permission from Sicilia by Ben Tish (Bloomsbury). All rights reserved.

Click on the book cover to buy:

Get the recipe.

Recipes for herb-crusted roasted chicken with lemon garlic orzo and curried chicken sheet pan dinner

from Cook Once Dinner Fix by Cassy Joy Garcia
Cookbook review by Tracey Zabar

Preparing a meal and reserving some of the ingredients for tomorrow. So clever. Try the herb-crusted roasted chicken with lemon-garlic orzo for your first dinner, and reserve some of the meat to make second meal—a sheet pan, bursting with veggies and curry. Another night, make some tuna steak with chili-lime sauce, serve it with quinoa, and use some of the fish for a tuna-noodle casserole for another dinner. A falafel bowl morphs into goat cheese-mushroom quiche for tomorrow’s lunch. The book has tons of tip on how to transform the recipes to lower your carbs, or eliminate dairy, gluten, grains, nuts, or eggs. Healthy and delicious. What could be bad?

Go to the recipe.

Recipe excerpted with permission from Cook Once Dinner Fix by Cassy Joy Garcia, photos by Kristen Kilpatrick (Simon & Schuster, Inc). All rights reserved.

Click on the book cover to buy:

Get the recipe.