The recipes are tweaked from one kitchen to the next, but many a family meal begins in the pages of Chatelaine magazine.

If you, like us, turn to this Canadian institution for tips and inspiration on what to cook for dinner, then you will love Chatelaine: Modern Classics ($39.95). Stacked with tasty ideas for breakfast, lunch and dinner, this future staple focuses on fast, fresh and seasonal food for every palate.

We’re bypassing dinner tonight. With recipes like sticky toffee pudding with caramel sauce who needs anything but dessert?

Chatelaine: Modern Classics is available at the Cookbook Store, 850 Yonge St., Toronto, 416-920-2665, www.cook-book.com

Claire Tansey, food editor at Chatelaine will be at The Cookbook Store October 23, from 2-3 p.m.

This summer, if you can’t get to a Tuscan table, bring the table to you.

Packed with mouthwateringly fresh recipes from peaches and zabaglione to strawberry risotto, Recipes from an Italian Summer is the perfect way to bring a little dolce into your summer vita.

The images are breathtaking, and the recipes are culled from popular holiday spots such as Tuscany, Sicily and Sardinia.

Tonight, it’s faro and shrimp salad, with lots and lots of vino bianco.

At the Cookbook Store, 850 Yonge St.,Toronto, 416-920-2665, www.cook-book.com

Animal crackers, black licorice, IKEA hotdogs—yes, we’ve been pregnant too.

The B.C. author of the new Gourmet Pregnancy writes this amusing recipe book that acknowledges cravings (recipes for tempura pickles and M&M granola bars) and morning sickness (plain potato chips) while providing recipes with needed nutrients for the baby bump (vitamin K, for example).

Now if only it came with the recipes for post-baby meals that can be eaten with one hand in under 30 seconds.

http://gourmetpregnancy.com

$18.77 at Amazon.ca

Step aside Nigella, there’s a new goddess in the kitchen whipping up wholesome treats like cauliflower cheese, pear and ginger muffins and grilled bananas with Greek yogurt and agave.

Model turned writer, Sophie Dahl brings a sweet, nostalgic voice to the subject of food in her first cookbook, Miss Dahl’s Voluptuous Delights ($36.99). “A welcome dream was a cloud made of trifle, a slick spring bubbling with chocolate or a fountain bursting with forbidden Sprite or Cherry Coke, ” she writes in her intro.

Herewith, a recipe for Clover Dahl's (Sophie’s younger sister) Carnation milk jelly:

1 packet strawberry jelly

125ml cup hot water

1 can evaporated milk

Slices of strawberry, swirls of cream and curls of chocolate to decorate (optional)

Dissolve the jelly in the hot water. When the mixture is cool, whisk in the evaporated milk until the mixture is thick and frothy. Leave it to set for at least two hours. Cover the jelly with strawberry slices, swirls of cream and curls of grated chocolate, if you wish - the camper the better, really.

At Good Egg, 267 Augusta Ave.,Toronto, 416-593-4663, www.goodegg.ca

Call us shallow, (actually, please don’t) but we often pick books on the merit of their cover.

What can we say, we’re suckers for pretty things.

I Know How to Cook ($49.95) by Ginette Mathiot practically leaps off the shelf it’s so charming. Similarly, the images inside (by French illustrator Blexbolex) are simply gorgeous.

From a simple omelet to a coq au vin and a crepe suzette, the recipes in this translated French classic are délicieux and easy-to-follow.

In one cake recipe, the instructions even finish with the useful note: "turn off the oven."

Handy advice for kitchen clumsies like us.

I Know How to Cook is available at Good Egg, 267 Augusta Ave., Toronto, 416-593-4663, www.goodegg.ca

Packed with scrumptious recipes from sticky rice to saucy noodles, Bite Me ($29.95) is sure to be a hit in kitchens across the country. Here authors (and sisters) Julie Albert and Lisa Gnat share a favourite fall recipe.

Broccoli, Grape and Cranberry Salad
“Raw? Broccoli? Salad?” my husband asked as I set down his plate. “I might not be an ex-prez, but if George Bush doesn’t have to eat broccoli, neither do I.” He was skeptical and I couldn’t really blame the guy—he’s not a vegetable lover and, to his ears, this sounded like spa food. But, one bite of this creamy, crispy, sweet, sour and salty broccoli salad was all it took to make him a believer.

Ingredients
2 large heads of broccoli chopped into small florets
1 ½ cups of red or green grapes, halved
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup dried cranberries
¼ cup salted sunflower seeds
Dressing:
2/3 cup mayonnaise
½ cup sour cream
5 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp white vinegar

Method
In a large bowl, combine uncooked broccoli, grapes, celery, cranberries and sunflower seeds. Set aside.
For the dressing, in a medium bowl, whisk mayonnaise, sour cream, sugar and white vinegar. Pour dressing over broccoli mixture and mix well.
Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving. Serves 6-8.

Available at Indigo Chapters across the GTA. Heather Reisman will be interviewing the authors tomorrow at 7 p.m. at Indigo Manulife Centre, 55 Bloor St. W., Toronto.

“It's the old chicken that makes good broth.”
--Greek saying

Anyone with a penchant for pasticcio and a taste for tarama should dip into Vefa Alexiadou’s simple and delicious new culinary tome.

In Vefa’s Kitchen, the Hellenic Martha Stewart shares classic recipes for dolmades, saganaki, moussaka and more. With over 650 recipes and 200 photos, this is the bible of Greek cooking.

Time to crack open the Retsina, blare out the bouzouki and picture yourself at a taverna in the Aegean.

At Type Books, 883 Queen St. W., Toronto, 416-366-8973, www.typebooks.ca

Potatoes roasted in goose fat; turkey stuffed with panettone; pudding doused in brandy—no other holiday is quite a gluttonous as Crimbo.

Bursting with festive cakes, cookies, sauces, preserves and trimmings, the recipes in Nigella Christmas will guarantee a holiday of decadent feasting.

Chapters include "The More the Merrier" (Cocktails, Canapés and Manageable Mass Catering), "Seasonal Support" (Soups, Salad, Sauces and Serve-later Sides) and "Joy to the World" (Christmas Baking and Sweet Treats).

Who’s washing up?

Available at Teatro Verde, 7 Avenue Rd., Toronto, 416-966-2227, www.teatroverde.com and at Amazon.ca ($31.50).

When a book has the prettiness and tactility of Maggie’s Harvest ($75), it’s hard not snap it up based on its cover alone.

Thankfully, every page of this cooking tome is as delightful as its embroidered fabric cover.

From Aussie cook, author and restaurateur Maggie Beer, the book features 350 recipes presented by season and food (eg: Autumn—Rhubarb).

Don’t you love the sound of seared tuna with persimmon and fennel salad? And what about figs in puff pastry with crème anglaise?

With recipes this delicious, we may just start using the oven for something other than storage.

Available at Type Books, 883 Queen St. W., Toronto, 416-366-8973, www.typebooks.ca