Best food books

Everyone in the world should love the following things: napping and eating. And, to further love of the latter, the Chicago Tribune asked chefs to list their favorite non-cookbook food books. Hello, added to my reading list.

Breakfast time?

Cook something up with Coolio!

Seriously. He has a cookbook. And it comes out...today.

Little snacks on the prairie

I always liked Laura Ingalls Wilder (even though I recently found out she didn't really write her books all alone). Not only do we share a name, but she wrote about my favorite topic: snacks. Syrup treats frozen in snow, sticks of candy from the general store, meal after meal after meal—these were not books to be read without something to eat nearby.

For those of you who are also ye olde snack inclined, there's a Little House Cookbook, that Omnivoricious' Lauren (close enough to Laura) writes about:

Thirty years have passed since the publication of The Little House Cookbook in 1979, yet somehow, it feels more relevant than ever, especially in the context of our current efforts to obtain and eat food that is more wholesome, less processed, and made from scratch (preferably at home).

You hear that? Cooking like the Wilders is not only delicious, but twee and hipster too. Is there no end to Laura's greatness? If only she had known about waffle cookies...

Vook at that

So I may or may not have scoffed at the Vook (probably closer to "may"), and that may or may not have been because it sounded stupid. But, with the invention of the cookvook, I have seen the light.

Up until now, YouTube has been a big part of my cooking (when you say julienne, you mean...what? What's that quick way to chop onions (not fingers)? Define "saucepan."). Thus, instructions that include videos, that I can download to my cellphone and be all "Oh I'm just making calls not getting instructions I totally know how to cook what of course I won't poison you just go back to the table Mom" would be very, very useful.

Back me up, fellow cooking Vook converts. I know you're out there...