Cooking and Food

Popcorn

Popcorn has been celebrated as both a food and a decoration for at least 9,000 years.  Any time is the right time for popcorn but fall and winter are made extra special when served up with the treat. 

New Nonfiction

2021 has been a great year for nonfiction so far.  Here are four titles you may have missed:

If you're looking for some simpler, lighter recipes for the summer months, this beautifully designed cookbook will give you the inspiration you need.

Just the Good Stuff book cover

Just the Good Stuff has this magical quality where everything you make is somehow better than it ought to be.

Best American Food Writing 2020 book cover

The newest entry to the popular Best American series, Best American Food Writing started in 2018 with Ruth Reichl as the first editor and has been consistently outstanding.

Everybody bakes bread in one form or another.  Bread, the staff of life, is our past, our present and our future.

Start Simple book cover

Almost six months into constant cooking, you may feel in need of some inspiration.  Luckily, NPL has lots of eBook cookbooks that you can access immediately!

Nashville Kids Cook logo

When kids learn and succeed in the kitchen it gives them confidence to try new foods and to be creative. A new series from Nashville Kids Cook provides a chance to learn these skills!

December and January present a rich opportunity to explore how different cultural traditions celebrate the winter holidays. Branch out from snowmen, reindeer, and candy canes by learning about Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Three Kings Day.

Not sure what to bring to the table this Thanksgiving? Don't worry—I've got you covered.

A cookbook, an essay collection, a chef memoir, and a book by a James Beard Award-winning food journalist.

As a self-proclaimed “foodie,” I love trying new cookbooks and learning from different chefs. I recently discovered local Nashville chef and author Laura Lea Bryant, and her cookbook has quickly become a favorite.

June is Alzheimer's & Brain Awareness Month. Boost your brain health with these 5 mind-enriching nutrition tips!

Whether you have room for a acre mini-farm or a single pot in a sunny window, your child can benefit from growing things! 

I love this cookbook because instead of offering specific recipes, it teaches you how to pair ingredients, often without a trip to the grocery store!

There are a lot of little ways you as a parent or caregiver can help prepare your child for Kindergarten. One of these ways is to cook with your child.

Heart disease continues to be the leading cause of death in the United States, and 1 in 3 adults will be diagnosed in their lifetime. Show your heart a little love during American Heart Month with these healthy habit ideas and resources.

The new year is finally here, along with the pressure to make huge resolutions that most likely won’t last. If you are choosing to focus on your health this year, check out some of these simple dietary changes that can have a lasting impact.

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When it’s cold outside, the sun refuses to show, and no amount of hot tea is enough to cure your winter-time blues: it might be time to warm up from the inside out with a good book. 

During our annual Thanksgiving feasts, we gather around the table with those we love, and indulge in rich and delicious tradition. Health isn’t always the priority during the holidays, so here are a few simple tips and cookbook suggestions to make your Thanksgiving Day a little healthier.

A TV series that intersects at one of the few points where art and fine dining meet.

Doesn’t the cooler weather make you want to get out the crockpot and start roasting vegetables?  Check out these three recent cookbooks for ideas.

With the temperature rising, it's time for some yummy, ice cold treats to beat the summer heat! Here are some fun, easy recipes for summertime snacks that you and your children can make (and enjoy!) together!

African-American chefs, dietitians, and activists shed light on the health benefits of a plant-based diet, and its cultural ties to African and Carribean heritage.

If your New Year’s resolution was to cook at home more often, this is the cookbook for you.

It's December, which means it's time for "best of" lists everywhere you look. Hurray!

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Not enough poultry in your life? Then you need POYO!!!

I love this cookbook for so many reasons--its fun, veggie-filled recipes, its attention to fixed grocery budgets, and its PDF version with a creative commons license for online sharing.

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Happy Artober! Let's celebrate with a book about food math that is so cool, even a nonmath person (like me) will love it!

The holiday season brings with it tables full of home-baked goodness. Cookies, cakes, pies, turkey, ham, potatoes, casseroles – the list is nearly infinite. The next time all the cooking seems to be just too much for you – consider our foremothers a century ago.

One of our most prized possessions at the Metro Archives is a rare cookbook compiled for the first Tennessee State Fair, held in Nashville at the fairgrounds in 1906. There are few of these left, and it's an artifact that marks a tradition that has been part of Nashville's history for over a century.

Working downtown like I do it’s hard...no, nigh unto impossible to ignore the existence of the food truck phenomenon. A few of them even park directly in front of the library on 6th Avenue. And yet…I’ve never officially eaten at one.

Our whirlwind library culinary tour continues with one of my favorite ingredients - is it savory or is it sweet? Nope. It's just The Egg.

If Julia Child is the grande dame of cooking, then MFK Fisher is her counterpart in the land of food writers. There is no way we could possibly Savor Summer without mentioning her brilliance.

Food: the final frontier. These are the recipes of the Star Trek Franchise. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new dishes, to seek out new delicacies in new civilizations, to boldly go where no diet has gone before.

And now I want to go to culinary school. Don’t get me wrong I love my job and I really have no desire to start working every night and holiday in a hot, sweaty kitchen being yelled at by some Gordon Ramsey wanna be because my risotto’s al dente.

And yet.

Anyone who knows me at all knows that I love to watch the Food Network. I can watch hours upon hours of food TV even if I never make anything the fancy chefs are cooking. I do think, though, that my cooking has improved just by proximity. Watching all that good cooking - some of the tips and techniques had to get buried in my brain somewhere.