This Will Make It Taste Good by Vivian Howard

I am always on the hunt for new, fabulous cookbooks that will add something unique to my own cooking experience. Vivian Howard's This Will Make It Taste Good: A New Path to Simple Cooking is certainly that kind of cookbook!

While I appreciate the standard cookbook formatting, divisions mostly made up of type of dish, Howard's approach is very different. Chapters in her book are actually what I would call mother recipes. And each dish within that chapter uses the header/mother recipe as a component. 

In other words, recipes that will make the other recipes (some of them otherwise standard fare) taste good!

The book opens with Little Green Dress, a briny, herby condiment that is then used to transform dishes such as biscuits, a twist on deviled eggs, ranch dressing, and tuna salad, amongst others. In addition to each chapter's actual recipes, there's also a list of simple ideas for using the mother recipe that includes things like adding it to basic dishes like baked potatoes, mixing it into guacamole, using it as a topping for soups, you get the idea. 

There are a total of ten of these mother recipes: Little Green Dress, R-Rated Onions, Can-Do Kraut, Red Weapons, Citrus Shrine, Community Organizer, Herbdacious, Quirky Furki, V's Nuts, and Sweet Potential. All of these can be used in sweet and savory dishes and some of them can even be doubled up—the I Wish I Was a Cheese Baller is a fantastic baked cheese dip that uses both V's Nuts and Sweet Potential, for example. 

Each of the mother recipes keeps for a bit (depending on how you store them) and are essentially canning and pickling recipes, if you really think about it. 

I'm still just so blown away by how different this book is compared to the others on my cookbook shelves. And if you follow Howard on Instagram, she's been featuring one of the recipes each month, inviting folks to cook along with her and show off all of your creations with the recipe!

This is the perfect cookbook for anyone looking for something a little different. Nothing is overly complicated, everything is incredibly tasty, and you'll have a pantry and fridge stocked with some amazing and versatile new must haves :)