Note to self: a bowl of curry is perfect this time of year. A fact that annually slips my mind. If I'm not careful March, April and May can slip right by without a single pot making an appearance at my table. Not this year. Today we enjoyed a bowl bright with peas, asparagus, and tofu swimming in a fragrant, not-overly-rich green chile broth. I humbly suggest that the key to a good springtime curry is to keep things on the light side. And by light I suppose I mean leaning (just a shade) toward the brothy end of the spectrum. I love this kind of food - a seasonal, on-the-fly, one-pot meal that leaves you invigorated and not bogged down.

I might be getting ahead of myself (it's only May after all), but I suspect I've discovered what will become my favorite cookbook of the year. Written by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi, Ottolenghi: The Cookbook is a collection of 140 recipes from the hugely popular UK-based Ottolenghi establishments. This is my kind of food - abundant family-style platters, big color, bold flavors, and generous use of whole grains. Today I'm featuring Ottolenghi's beautiful red rice and quinoa recipe - a substantial, color-flecked platter showcasing citrus-dressed grains punctuated by pistachios, dried apricots, and arugula.

To get a better sense of the type of food you'll find throughout the rest of Ottolenghi: The Cookbook I'll share it's opening paragraph, which (appropriately) sets the tone from the start,

"Our feast is, literally, a feast of bold colors and generous gestures. It is driven by an unapologetic desire to celebrate food and its virtues, to display abundance in the same way that a market stallholder does: show everything you've got and shout its praise whole heartedly."

Accordingly, many of the beautiful photos featured in the book show platters overflowing with rustic, colorful, generous food - peaches grilled and shimmering with juices, a tray of muffins crowned with ripe red plums, lemon slices nestled in a hill of fava beans. You get a full range of Ottolenghi greatest hits here, both sweet and savory. Sections in the 288-page volume are broken up into beautifully photographed sections - pulses and grains, macaroons and meringues, bars, biscuits and truffles, fish and shellfish, poultry, soups, and plenty more.

Seeing a series of Ottolenghi platters lined on the cover you realize everything a contemporary deli or buffet counter could (and should) be. Open the book and the pages show you the way.

Congratulations to Yotam and Sami on a bright, beautiful, and dynamic book. I look forward to visiting one of the Ottolenghi locales in person someday - in the meantime the book should keep me quite occupied and inspired.

Related LInks:

- Ottolenghi Website
- Ottolenghi blog
Yotam Ottolenghi's 'The New Vegetarian' column on the Guardian

Serve me this soup daily for lunch and you'll hear no complaints. Tender, translucent pasta pillows, pale green from their pea-stuffed bellies, are buoyed by yellow lentils in a simple clear broth. Golden puddles of olive oil are suspended across the surface, pooling in various cracks and crevices. Your lips will glisten after a few slurpy bites.

Remember the pea dumplings I posted not too long ago? I've been using them twenty different ways ever since. This soup was a quick thing I threw together for lunch the other day while trying to use the last of them. There was a bowl of cooked yellow split peas over-staying its welcome on shelf two of my refrigerator and all it took was a good broth to bring the two together.

Don't feel like you need to make dumplings from scratch to enjoy this soup, although that would make the soup extra special. Your favorite stuffed, fresh pasta will substitute nicely for homemade dumplings - ravioli, tortellini, tortelloni, etc.

This stunning berry-studded breakfast quinoa is from Dr. John La Puma's recent release - Chef MD's Big Book of Culinary Medicine. I've written about just a handful of books this year (more to come, I promise!), but I wanted to highlight this one for a few reasons. It's a fantastic healthy-cooking (and eating) primer written by a someone who is both a doctor and chef. The book is text heavy and photo-free, but for those of you who want to dive into some of the ways food can work for you, this is a good overview. A chapter in his book opens with the following passage,

"...I have begun to think of a home kitchen in much the same way I think of a health spa - a place where people can come to be restored, feel better, experience pleasure, and become healthier. And this is how I'd like you to start thinking about your kitchen. Your kitchen is at the heart of your health.

In your home, you probably keep your medicine chest in the bathroom. I'm offering a second medicine chest, one that helps prevent diseases and symptoms and that you keep right in your kitchen cupboards, fridge, freezer, and pantry."

There's a lot going on here (in a good way). One chapter outlines the fifty foods that should be part of your pantry - those of you already cooking from a natural foods pantry have a big head start. To make the cut each contender had to demonstrate "that if eaten regularly it could prevent, and in some cases, actually treat - specific conditions and symptoms." The good news is, many of the fifty foods are flat-out delicious in their own right, and for those of you who are regular readers here, you'll find a cast of familiar characters - oats, quinoa, lentils, beans, greens, and agave nectar, avocado, and berries. Another chapter tells you which foods to eat (or avoid) based on forty common conditions.

The quinoa berry bowl is typical of what you'll find in the recipe section. Broadly speaking, the recipes are concise and approachable, with every ingredient working for you on both the flavor and nutrition fronts. You'll find recipes that are both vegetarian and non-vegetarian, and many that are easily adaptable either way. A few other recipes that caught my attention; Butternut Barley Risotto, Cinnamon Orange Dreamsicles, and Walnut Scented Dessert Pancakes. Now I know many of you will only buy cookbooks that have cover-to-cover photography, but I hope the shot at the top with give you a little glimpse of what you might be missing.

My diet is far from perfect, but I've learned over the years that if you surround yourself with delicious, healthy, real ingredients you'll discover and create amazing ways to use them. This book is full of ideas, helpful information, and ingredient-based inspiration. At the very least flip through it the next time you pop into a bookstore, and in the meantime enjoy the quinoa berry breakfast bowl you see up above.

Whitney Moss and Heather Flett are two crafty, creative ladies - I'm lucky to call them both friends. Remember the cute baby shower (waaaay back) where guests painted onsies and made do-it-yourself waffles? That was at Whitney's house. Some of you might already know them because of their Rookie Moms website or new book (The Rookie Mom Handbook) - today they are going to share their favorite kid/family-friendly cookbooks with us.

WHITNEY & HEATHER'S COOKING STYLES:

Whitney keeps it simple in the kitchen preparing healthy fresh foods and saving the cookbooks for entertaining. She and her husband, much like their three year old son, don't mind having the same things over and over again, so when a new favorite evolves, it's sure to show up on their table every week. Latest discovery: Veggie Tikka Masala from Cooking with All Things Trader Joes

Heather on the other hand obsesses over being June Cleaver in the kitchen- every night expecting the family to sit together at 6pm for dinner no matter what. Except that she's ditched her Ohio roots culinarily-speaking in favor of the variety of crazy California produce available in Berzerkely. If she makes meat and potatoes, it's likely organic free range chicken and organic sweet potato fries.

FAVORITE COOKBOOKS (the ones Heather & Whitney turn to most):

- With the little guys at our sides: Pretend Soup and Other Real Recipes: A Cookbook for Preschoolers & Up. This was a gift from Heather's mom and Holden and Julian (3 year olds) love it! Shows pictures of ingredients and the steps of the recipes.

- Favorite every-day cookbook: The Best 30-minute Recipe: A Best Recipe Classic (Best Recipe Series). Fast, fresh, really good. From the folks at America's Test Kitchen, this cookbook appeals to Heather's geekier nature. Although, c'mon with a preschooler at your leg and a baby climbing up the stool, nothing is a 30-minute meal.

- Favorite every-day cookbook: The Six O'Clock Scramble: Quick, Healthy, and Delicious Dinner Recipes for Busy Families. The website even has printable grocery lists to make the trip to Berkeley Bowl a little smoother. All meals are seasonal and easy.

- Encyclopedia of baby food:Super Baby Food. The gold standard for getting started making your own baby food as far as we're concerned. Heidi note: Ths is one of the books I bought for Whitney when she was pregnant with Julian - a great resource.

- Beautiful baby food: First Meals (New Expanded Edition). Creative with gorgeous presentation, a book to turn to when you need a spark of inspiration.

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To keep up with the Heather and Whitney, check in with them at the Rookie Moms website.

Related links:
- Rookie Moms Website
- Rookie Moms Blog
- Rookie Moms on Amazon.com

- Past cookbook list: Fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi shares his favorite cookbooks.
- Past cookbook list: Grace Bonney of design*sponge shares her favorite cookbooks.
- Past cookbook list: Cookbook author Eric Gower shares his favorite cookbooks.

A big THANK YOU to Heather & Whitney for sharing their favorites with us.