I found the most darling little cookbook written by Jessie Carry Saunders titled “Not on Love Alone: A Cookbook. 244 pages. Cute illustrations throughout the book, with recipes arranged by month so you can cook with the seasons.

Basics are covered like how to properly equip your kitchen and what to stock in your pantry. The recipes themselves are kept simple, e.g., poached shrimp, cream scones, roast chicken, etc., with the ingredients usually numbering around 7, so there’s not much here to overwhelm the beginner cook. At the same time there are a few that are a tad more challening such as lamb tagine and cinnamon sticky buns.

Within the chapters is a peppering of notes that make for useful and interesting reading, such as a primer on salts (that one covers only three: table, kosher and fleur de sel). Besides the drawings, the writing itself is engaging and personal — the author gives you a peek into her and hubby JS’ experiences with food and its preparation, always with a romantic sense of adventure. Saunders used to work for Food and Wine, so the tone is confident and knowledgeable, but never overbearing.

I’ve got a brother getting married in October, so you can be sure this is going to be one of the wedding gifts they receive from me. Whoops, probably shouldn’t have said that as they may peek here every once in a while. But I’ll take my chances:)