September 2006 Cookbook Giveaway

I was thinking of ways to shake things up around here for my second year. I thought it was kind of serendipitous that there was a mix up in one of my cookbook orders and I ended up with two copies of the same book and they told me to keep the extra copy with their compliments. I immediately knew what I was going to do with it - give it to one of you!

I think a cookbook giveaway is very much in keeping with the spirit of this blog. You can find recipes anywhere and everywhere but you know very well that I favor cookbooks. They're sturdy, portable and available for duty 24/7 regardless of power outages or computer viruses. They'll still be sitting on your bookshelf long after your computer crashes and you lose all your favorite food blog links.

Here's how it works - just leave a comment on the giveaway post pledging that you'll use the cookbook for your own pleasure (cooking, reading, staring at it on your bookshelf) and you won't turn around and sell it on E-bay, at a yard sale, etc. No, you don't have to write that out - if you comment, I'll assume your motives are pure. I just need an e-mail address (if your profile links to an e-mail, you don't need to type it out, I'll find it). Entry is open until the last day of the month. First chance I get after that, I'll put all the names in a hat and pick two names. The winner will have a week to give me their address after I contact them. If I don't hear from that person, the book goes to the second name I picked. I'll pay the shipping, of course.

It pains me to say this, but I'll have to limit this first giveaway to readers in the USA since as far as I can tell from the postal service site, it would be too expensive for me to ship this book outside of the USA. Some months I may have smaller, pamphlet type cookbooks to give away that I afford to send anywhere but not this 2+ pound monster.

So what cookbook am I giving away this month? Lidia's Italian-American Kitchen. Many of you probably know the author, Lida Matticchio Bastianich, from her PBS show. She also owns several restaurants. I have not had a chance to cook from this book yet but the reviews on Amazon are quite postive. The recipes are pretty standard Italian-American fare but if you don't have an Italian Nonna in your kitchen, this cookbook might be for you. Even if you already cook these dishes, it's always interesting to see someone else's take on them, especially when that someone is Lidia Bastianich.

This isn't the most visually stimulating cookbook I've come across but there are a couple of sections of color photographs. She also has family pictures dispersed throughout the book and instructional black and white photographs accompanying some of the recipes (if you don't know how to clean squid - here's your chance to learn.)

So, just a leave a comment if you're interested. Again, I can only ship within the US this time.

****Update: Tina was the lucky winner.******