comfort food

THE BEST THING I ATE THIS MONTH – January 2026

Skillet-Fried Chicken recipe by Bon Appétit Test Kitchen, Bon Appétit magazine, February 2012.

The Best Thing I Ate This Month
Skillet Fried Chicken, the Bon Appétit recipe that never lets me down

There are fancier things to cook this time of year. Dishes with pedigrees. Garnishes that require tweezers. Sauces that simmer for hours only to reduce into a glossy whisper you can barely taste.

And then there is fried chicken.

Not just any fried chicken, but the skillet fried chicken from Bon Appétit, a recipe I have been cooking for more than a decade. It has been with me so long it no longer reads like instructions on a page. It feels more like muscle memory. Like tying your shoes. Like calling someone you love without thinking twice.

Every year, I make it for my annual Southern Dinner with friends, a loose, comfort heavy spread that leans Southern in spirit but fully Canadian in execution. The table is gloriously crowded, bottles, bowls, and elbows fighting for space like nobody bothered with a seating chart. This chicken is the centrepiece. Not the mac and cheese. Not the dessert. Not whatever sad green vegetable I toss in to look like an adult. The chicken. (more…)

Guinness Beef Stew

Guinness Beef Stew excerpted from Passport to Flavor Copyright @ 2025 Abigail C. Cheshire. Photography by Kris D’Amico Photography.

Passport to Flavor Copyright @ 2025 Abigail C. Cheshire

Join social media sensation Chef Abby Cheshire on a culinary adventure on the high seas, in this internationally inspired, travel-infused cookbook with over 100 recipes from fourteen incredible locations around the world. No matter your location or kitchen setup, you can create delicious global cuisine right in your home with Passport to Flavor.

Yacht chef Abby welcomes you into her galley, sharing the international dishes that have delighted her passengers and guests for years—with menus imbued with regional flavour and fresh, local ingredients—from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean, from Asia to Europe and beyond.

Grab your passport (and spatula!) and get on board for this worldwide tour of flavour, which includes:

A full day’s menu, including breakfast, lunch, appetizer, cocktail, soup/salad, dinner, and dessert from fourteen different port cities around the world (locations like Puerto Vallarta, Mexico; Cinque Terre, Italy; Mykonos, Greece; Mumbai, India; Phuket, Thailand; and Prince Edward Island, Canada)
Inspiring food and travel photography
Tips for cooking in small spaces and in minimally stocked kitchens, and how to shop for fresh ingredients in your local markets
Your go-to “galley” or pantry list for internationally inspired meals

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Potato Knishes

Potato Knishes excerpted from RUSS & DAUGHTERS: 100 Years of Appetizing by Niki Russ Federman and Josh Russ Tupper. Copyright © 2025 by Niki Russ Federman and Josh Russ Tupper. Reprinted with permission from Flatiron Books. All rights reserved. Photography by Gentl & Hyers. Illustrations by Jason Polan, LLC.

Russ & Daughters: 100 Years of Appetizing by Niki Russ Federman, Josh Russ Tupper, Joshua David Stein From the legendary New York destination for Jewish appetizing, a beautiful and inspiring cookbook that encompasses history, tradition, and absolutely delicious food

In 1907, a Jewish immigrant named Joel Russ landed in New York City, where he took a pushcart of herring and built a legacy that would pass down through fathers and daughters (and sons and husbands and wives) for more than a hundred years. Four generations later, the ancestral heart of Russ & Daughters continues to bustle on the Lower East Side, with three more locations throughout the city.

Over the course of a century, Russ & Daughters has fed hundreds of thousands of customers, many considering a visit to the original shop on East Houston a family tradition, weekly ritual, or New York experience. Now, for the first time, Russ & Daughters brings its world-famous institution into readers’ homes. Its rich history is told through insider anecdotes from the family and characters on both sides of the counter; illuminating guides to its most famed offerings―smoked salmon, sable, sturgeon, herring, and caviar; and more than 100 cherished recipes for favorite foods like latkes, matzo ball soup, babka, and bagels, among many others.

Nothing can ever replace the experience of taking a number, kibbitzing with a slicer, waiting in line, and ordering your whitefish or belly lox. Yet this book captures some of that infectious Russ & Daughters appetizing spirit, and most importantly, brings families and friends together around the table. (more…)

Pot-Roast Chicken with Lentils, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme

Pot-Roast Chicken with Lentils, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme excerpted from Midlife Kitchen: Health-boosting recipes for midlife & beyond by Mimi Spencer and Sam Rice. Photography copyright © Issy Crocker 2017.

Midlife Kitchen: Health-boosting recipes for midlife & beyond by Mimi Spencer and Sam Rice

The Midlife Kitchen: Delicious Recipes for Perimenopause and Menopause

“No fads. No gimmicks. Just delicious, health boosting food.” — Daily Mail

As featured in The Times and The Daily Mail

This updated edition, revised by the authors and an expert nutritionist, reflects the latest research and guidance on nutrition for midlife health.

If you have reached a stage where health feels like more of a priority, the perimenopause and menopause years offer the perfect moment to reassess what you eat. Midlife is a time to take back control of your diet in the interests of long term health, happiness and vitality.

That is exactly what The Midlife Kitchen is about: celebrating beautiful, wholesome ingredients in the most satisfying ways to help you thrive through your forties, fifties and beyond. Mimi Spencer and Sam Rice share more than 150 recipes designed to restore, rejuvenate and revive, all with flavour at the forefront. (more…)

Topsy-Turvy Banana Gingercake

Topsy-Turvy Banana Gingercake excerpted from The Cinnamon Bun Cookbook: Recipes for irresistible cakes, bakes, sweet treats and more by Hamlyn and Eloise Goode. Photography Octopus Publishing Group.

The Cinnamon Bun Cookbook: Recipes for irresistible cakes, bakes, sweet treats and more by Hamlyn and Eloise Goode.

Smothered in small-town coffee shop in fall vibes, this recipe book is a love letter to the coziest season of all.

For fans of the runaway BookTok trend for heartwarming, small-town romances, now you can bring the coziness into your kitchen with over 40 irresistible recipes.

It’s the season to reach for warm cupcakes, sweet crunchy biscuits, gooey cinnamon buns and cozy up with a blanket to sip on a delicious cinnamon hot chocolate.

Fall is jam-packed with the heady tastes of cinnamon, ginger, apple, maple, and comforting warm spices. From Glazed Pear & Cinnamon Loaf for chilly mornings to Spicy Apple Parkin for toasty warm evenings, The Cinnamon Bun Cookbook celebrates the season with a charming selection of deliciously decadent recipes that satisfy even the sweetest tooth.

The Cinnamon Bun Cookbook has over 40 indulgent recipes to bake, poach or roast, packed with seasonal puddings that look sensational, but are not overly complicated or time-consuming to create. Discover your favorite cinnamon recipe with inspirational ideas that you’ll love, time and time again.

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Just Roast Chicken

Just Roast Chicken excerpted from Cook Once, Eat Twice: The ultimate guide to getting the most out of your time spent in the kitchen as featured in the BBC2 TV show by Nadiya Hussain. Photography by Chris Terry.

Cook Once, Eat Twice: The ultimate guide to getting the most out of your time spent in the kitchen as featured in the BBC2 TV show by Nadiya Hussain

Pressed for time to cook in a busy week?

Cook Once, Eat Twice is all about delicious convenience, showing how to get ahead in the kitchen by cooking more efficiently and economically.

Nadiya Hussain shares a host of creative time savers, including trusty batch-cooking and meal-prepping ideas, clever ways to spin leftovers into new meals, simple baked treats that are easy to store and eat later, and even recipes to use up your scraps.

With recipes such as:

Chick Pea and Chicken Tray Bake
Sticky Honey Mustard Toad in the Hole Burgers
Cheese and Lamb Samosas
Courgette Spaghetti
Cheats Biria Tacos
Paneer Karahi
Lemon Sherbet Loaf

Nadiya shows how easy it is to stretch your meals, reduce your waste and make life simpler, so you always have satisfying food at your fingertips.
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Book review: Heritage

I feel as though I have been searching for this book my entire life. See, I’ve had a full-on obsession with Southern cuisine as far back as I can remember. It is my favourite food. I am drawn by the cuisine’s hallowed traditions and unique cooking styles. And in this book, I have discovered someone that shares my love of one of the greatest cuisines of the world.

James Beard Award-winning Chef Sean Brock is an emissary of Southern food and culture. He is best known for his work in Charleston, SC, where he is the executive chef and partner of restaurants McCrady’s and Husk.

Heritage is his very first cookbook and offers a mix of traditional and contemporary recipes in chapters such as “The Garden” and “The Pasture.” The recipes (e.g., butter-bean chowchow; pork belly with herb faro, pickled elderberries, chanterelles, and sumac; buttermilk pie with cornmeal crust) range from simple to sophisticated. Pork rinds, for example, are cooked sous-vide and dehydrated before being deep fried.

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