I’ve been a fan of the blog Smitten Kitchen for a long time. Deb’s recipes are always fantastic. Her attention to detail and quest to find the perfect version of a meal means that any time I cook her food I’m floored with the fantastic results.

When I heard she was coming out with a cookbook, I waited and waited. And waited. It was released at the end of October this year, and I snatched it up immediately.

Let me start by saying, the photography is beautiful. The book is divided into seven sections: Breakfast; Sandwiches, Tarts, and Pizzas; The Main Dish: Vegetarian; The Main Dish: Seafood, Poultry, and Meat; Sweets; and Party Snacks and Drinks. I tried to make something from each, but missed a few.

I ended up made the following recipes:

• Fingerlings Vinaigrette with Sieved Eggs and Pickled Celery
• Kale Salad with Cherries and Pecans
• Slow-Cooker Black Bean Ragout
• Spaghetti Squash and Black Bean Tacos with Queso Fresco
• Harvest Roast Chicken with Grapes, Olives and Rosemary
• Buttered Popcorn Cookies
• Salted Brown Butter Crispy Treats

In particular, I liked the crispy treats, kale salad and bean ragout.

As much as I love her recipes, it’s always the inventive ideas that floor me. Here were my favorites:

• Brown butter in rice crispy treats is addictive. Her instructions also give you a great texture.
• In the fingerling  potato salad, you sieve hard-boiled eggs. It creates creamy clouds of egg, which was a little tricky to do, but completely worth the effort. The dressing for that salad is also delicious.
• The combination of grapes and kalamata olives was new to me, and I loved it. I found myself taking a grape from the bunch and an olive out of the bowl and eating them while I made the harvest chicken recipe.
• Oh! and she microwaves the spaghetti squash! Absolute genius. It takes no time and works perfectly.

She has number of recipes in the cookbook that are on the blog. Here are few I could find for you.

• Cinnamon Toast French Toast
• Whole Wheat Raspberry Ricotta Scones
• Apricot Breakfast Crisp
• Apple Cider Caramels
• Brownie Roll-Out Cookies
• Mom’s Apple Cake

If you follow me on Facebook, then you know I’ve already started tackling my December cookbook. It’s Nigella Kitchen. I’m excited to dig in to it, but am sad to leave this one behind for a little while.