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It’s easy to forget that it was just a few short weeks ago that we were all staring blankly at our televisions as the news came in about the earthquake in Haiti. It was awful, and I knew that I wanted to do everything that I could to help. Giving money is one thing, but I also wanted a way to motivate others to give.

A few other bloggers has similar thoughts, and together we decided that the best thing to do was to pool our talents and create a cookbook, with 100% of the proceeds going to the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders. And create a cookbook we did – with the support of West Canadian Graphics and Blurb, we put together 100 full-color pages filled with recipes from some of your favorite bloggers. And, staring today, it can be yours.

Click the image above to be taken to a page where you can order either a softcover ($25) or hardcover ($50) book. West Canadian Graphics/ Blurb have agreed to match donations (up to $10,000) and until Febuary 12, the Canadian government will match that. I know that the economy is bad and money is tight, but if a gorgeous cookbook that was put together with love and the knowledge that your contribution wil be tripled isn’t motivation to give just a little bit more (since I know you all gave already, right?), I don’t know what is.

In our first day of sales, we’ve already raised over $7,500. That is amazing, and I am so proud to be part of a community that has come together in this way to make a difference in the world. I’m especially proud of Julie for organizing the effort and making things happen, as well as all of the other contributers:

Chef Michael Smith,
Dana McCauley,
Emily Richards,
Catharine from Weelicious,
Cheryl from Backseat Gourmet,
Jeannette of Everybody Likes Sandwiches,
Nishta from Blue Jean Gourmet,
Lauren of Celiac Teen,
Charmian from Christie’s Corner,
Shaina from Food for my Family,
Marisa of Food in Jars,
Shauna and Danny from Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef,
Alice from Savory Sweet Life,
Tara from Seven Spoons,
Jess of Sweet Amandine,
Helen from Tartelette,
Gail from The Pink Peppercorn,
Pierre of Kitchen Scraps,
Tim from Lottie and Doof,
Tea from Tea & Cookies,
Jamie from My Baking Addiction,
Lori from Recipe Girl,
Melissa from The Traveler’s Lunchbox,
Brooke of Tongue-n-Cheeky, and
Aimee of Under the High Chair.

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I thought would try something different today – a cookbook review! If you’re anything like me, you plan to use some money that you got for Christmas for a new cookbook or two, but with so many out there it can be a bit daunting to figure out which ones are worth the money.

Before I received a copy to review, I don’t think I would have ever thought about buying Michael Symon’s book. I love iron Chef, but I’m always slightly disappointed when he’s the one picked. We joke that the challenger picks him when they want someone who will take it easy on them. This book changed my opinion of him though, and I have a new respect for Michael Symon.

First though, let’s talk about the book itself: as you can probably tell from the blog, I’m a very visual person. I like pictures. And I most likely won’t look at a recipe in a cookbook twice if there isn’t a picture to go along with it. I was very happy to see that this book is full color and loaded with mouth-watering photographs. Not all together in a little section in the middle either- the photo is right there with the recipe. And a lot of recipes even have multiple photos! That’s my kind of cookbook.

The second thing that I noticed about this book were the chapters – in addition to standards like “meat,” “soups and sandwiches,” and “salads” there are categories for things like “charcuterie” and “pickles.” Fun! But it also demonstrates that this isn’t your everyday cookbook. Certainly some of the recipes can be made easily on a weeknight, but others – like cuing your own bacon and pancetta – are pretty involved and not for those of you who are easily intimidates in the kitchen. other recipes looks awesome, but are pretty impractical for the home-cook – I’m not sure where I would find ingredients like beef cheeks or suckling pig head.

That aside, this cookbook is pretty awesome. I tried a few recipes from it, and they were huge hits. First I made braised pork belly, which took a long time but was very easy to make (95% of it was inactive time that it spent in the oven). The pork belly was great on it’s own, but even bette when used to make pork belly croutons to go on a salad with an egg and Symon’s Sherry Vinaigrette! This was a really fun play on bacon and eggs and we loved it. The flavors went beautifully together. I’ll be making the vinaigrette a lot.

The next recipe I tried knocked it out of the park though, and is what really changed my opinion about Symon. The recipe for Crispy Gnocchi with Morels and Spring Peas is easily worth the price of the book. Love, love, love! I had to use porcini mushrooms and frozen peas, and it was still awesome – I can only imagine how great it would be with the right ingredients! the gnocchi was light and fluffy, with a crispy exterior and a bright lemon flavor. The brown butter sauce was amazing with the mushrooms and peas. AND it was easy enough to make on a weeknight. I can’t say enough about this dish. Seriously buy this book and make it ASAP.

The verdict: This isn’t a book for the casual home-cook, but if you’re a little more adventurous in the kitchen it’s a great addition to your cookbook collection. None of the recipes are particularly difficult, but some are pretty involved and have multiple steps or use hard-to-find ingredients. You likely won’t be able to (or want to) make every recipe in it, but its a beautiful collection of solid recipes that will inspire you to try new combinations of ingredients and think a little differently about some old standards.  

Would I buy this book? While I never would have given it a second look before, I would definitely buy this book for myself or for a food-loving friend.

Michael Symon’s Live to Cook is available at Amazon.com for $23.10.

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