Speaking of cheese (as we did in our prior post), if Dad is a cheese lover, there’s a book about “life on the wedge” written by a cheesemonger—someone who pursued his passion to work in cheese.

Dad might enjoy it along with a pound of something special, or a gift certificate to the local cheese store.

If Dad prefers Scotch, he most assuredly would like a copy of Michael Jackson’s Complete Guide To Single Malt Scotch…perhaps with a bottle of his favorite Single Malt.

Bourbon aficionados will want a copy of The Kentucky Bourbon Cookbook, with tempting ideas for appetizers, soups, salads, side dishes and main courses in addition to the more frequently found cocktail and dessert recipes.

See our Father’s Day book ideas for more choices.

Cheesemonger: A Life On The Wedge will appeal
to cheese-loving dads.

You can find films and books titled “Love At First Bite.” This version is “The Complete Vampire Lover’s Cookbook” with “More Than 300 Suckulent Recipes.”

Essentially, this is a basic cookbook that mines the current vampire craze by titling recipes with vampire themes: Embrace The Darkness Frittata, Frightful Filet Mignon Caesar Salad, Suffering Suck-O-Tash, and so forth.

There are also “Tasty Tidbits” about vampires, such as:

Curiously, some legends make mention that a stake is only to be hammered into the vampire’s chest in one blow, for if it’s struck twice, the revenant can reanimate and return to its vampiric state. So remember that, when you’re faced with killing a vampire.

A revenant, by the way, is a person who returns after a lengthy absence, or one who returns as a spirit after death—a ghost, for example. (Are the undead “spirits?”)

A cookbook for those obsessed with all
things vampire.

While this is not a cookbook for experienced cooks, it could be an entry level volume for young fans of The Southern Vampire Mysteries, True Blood, Twilight, The Vampire Chronicles, The Vampire Diaries and other fangsome literature and films.

If you’d like to teach someone to cook, or encourage him or her prepare feasts for their friends, a gift of “Love At First Bite” could be in order.

The reason other people might be interested is the list of some 100 cocktails at the end of the book that will keep you going for many Halloweens to come: Black Death, Devil’s Blood, Howl At The Moon and Satan’s Whiskers, to name a few.

You can buy it on Amazon for less than $10.00.

In her second cookbook, Daisy: Morning Noon and Night:Bringing Your Family Together With Everyday Latin Dishes, chef and television personality Daisy Martinez’s second cookbook offers flavorful Latin recipes that are easy to understand and execute.

Daisy also helps the novice Latin cook by explaining the ingredients used in each recipe—their origins, what you can substitute and where you can find them.

Daisy reminisces about traveling around the world with her family and discovering new foods, as well as finding new spins on dishes she’s made for years—the “everyday” recipes that are in this book. To her, eating should be and is a great adventure as well as an education.

We’ve included two popular recipes that we enjoyed mucho. With great flavors and easy cooking instructions, this is a cookbook that’s sure to please.

Arroz con pollo is a great party
dish. Photo courtesy Simon and Schuster.

Create your own family cookbook (or any
type of album) with a customized Picaboo
book. Photo courtesy Picaboo.

Have you always wanted to create your own recipe book?

Do you want to create a memorable volume of recipes from different generations of your family?

Do you want to create a memorial to Grandma by publishing her recipes?

Do you have a special group of family members and friends who would treasure copies of a professionally bound, great-looking book of recipes, photos, memoirs and anything else you’d like to add?

Picaboo could be the answer! Picaboo is a fun and easy way to create a customized book of photos with captions, essays and more. You can create your own cookbook of family recipes, vacation journals, wedding albums, family photos for the grandparents—just about anything.

It’s not spaghetti, but you could try to fool
your friends! Photo by Katharine Pollak |
THE NIBBLE.

We love a good joke—especially around April Fool’s Day. So when we were handed “Spaghetti” by Carla Bardi, we were wondering why someone was giving us what looked to be a spaghetti package from a supermarket shelf.

It took us a minute to realize that it’s a spaghetti cookbook, which contains more than 130 ways to prepare a plain box of spaghetti.

The recipes are creative and generally easy; the photos are tempting. The pasta is varied—not just spaghetti but bucatini, linguine and ziti. The gimmick is cuter-than-cute and sure to delight any home cook.

Reminiscent of Cosmo Kramer’s coffee table book on Seinfeld,* Carla Bardi has published a book of spaghetti recipes that looks like a box of spaghetti.

At first glance it seems to be a spaghetti package from a supermarket shelf. If you hand it to someone, they’ll think you’re giving them a box of spaghetti.

But look again: It’s a spaghetti cookbook with more than 130 ways to prepare a plain box of spaghetti. The recipes are divided into five separate sections, each one named for the main ingredients:

The recipes are creative and generally easy; the photos are tempting. The pasta is varied—not just spaghetti but bucatini, linguine and ziti. The gimmick is cuter-than-cute.

*If you didn’t see the episode, Kramer authors a book on coffee tables that looks like a coffee table. The “table legs” pull out of the four corners of the book, and the book can stand on its legs. He showed this as a guest on “Regis and Kelly” (who were fascinated).

April Fool’s: It’s a book about spaghetti.

The only problem is that reading the book—much less keeping it open as you cook the recipe—is like trying to read the newspaper when it’s folded into quarters. People who commute via the New York City subway have mastered this system (as there’s no place to unfold your paper in a packed subway car). It isn’t the optimal way to read, but it is what it is. People who want to use this cookbook will have to develop their own system.

But, the incentive might be recipes such as spaghetti with fried meatballs in a sauce of onions and chopped tomatoes, or an exotic spaghetti with red rose and sunflower petals in a basil-wine sauce. A red ribbon place marker is bound into the spine, but perhaps the publishers should have taken a tip from Kramer and made the covers bend back into a cookbook stand.

Still, the book sold out on Amazon. You can place an order for the new shipment, arriving soon, or head to your nearest bookstore.

This quick read can tell you if you should
seriously consider a culinary career.

Want a career change? Can’t find a job in the recession? Love to cook?

Many people consider careers as a chef de cuisine, pastry chef or caterer. But what’s the reality versus the dream?

Some insights come from Dorothy Cann Hamilton, founder of the French Culinary Industry, in a new book, Love What You Do: Building A Career In The Culinary Industry.

This quick-read is as easy as sitting through a talk by Ms. Hamilton, as she discusses the costs, training and other requirements of preparing for a culinary career. (Note to Food Network enthusiasts: Don’t expect to become a highly paid celebrity chef or a TV star. You’ll be working long days at an average annual salary of $40,700 (less to start: the national average salary in the first four years of employment is $33,700).

Ms. Cann covers the practical side: how much you need to live on while you attend school, full-time versus part-time, tuition, career paths, how to get hired and what to expect in your first year.

It’s a very interesting read for people who love food and want a peek behind the scenes; and, as a paperback, a great gift for anyone thinking of a culinary career.

What do you do after your blog has been turned into a highly-noticed book and Meryl Streep and Amy Adams have starred in the film version?

You become a butcher! “Julie And Julia: My Year Of Cooking Dangerously” author Julie Powell has released her next book, “Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession”, her “Julie and Julia” marriage gone awry “set against a backdrop of butchery.”

Most of “Cleaving” was written while Powell was an apprentice at Fleisher’s, a grass-fed and organic meat butcher shop in Kingston, New York. We haven’t read the book, but a colleague who did passes on her wishes for “more food and less sex—does anybody care about Julie Powell’s sex life?” (Yes: People who buy books to make into films will probably like it just the way it is.)

Fleisher’s has launched a formal butchery apprentice program that has already graduated three successful butchers. If your New Year’s plans include training in the culinary arts, learn more about Fleisher’s butcher classes.

As the Fleisher’s folks say, Carne diem!

This could be you, learning the craft (and
trade) of fine butchering. Photo courtesy Fleisher’s.

Tomorrow is National Champagne Day (appropriately, it’s New Year’s Eve).

Most people bring a bottle of Champagne as a gift to New Year’s Eve parties. Add a book about Champagne, and your gift will be remembered long after the bubbles are gone.

See one of our favorite books on Champagne.

Photo courtesy Sugardaddy’s Sumptuous Sweeties.

The Story Of Harry & David: Entrepreneur
Samuel Rosenberg had no farming
experience but was inspired in 1909 to
buy the orchards that produced the award-
winning Royal Riviera pears.

Harry & David, America’s favorite source for gourmet food gifts, celebrates its diamond anniversary this year. Seventy-five years ago, entrepreneur Samuel Rosenberg paid $300,000 for 237 acres of pear orchards that grew the Doyenne du Comice pear, now known as the Royal Riviera pear.

Developed in France in 1849, it was called “the fruit of kings” because it was favored by royalty. Difficult to grow, the Comice demaded a delicate climate and soil combination found in few regions of the world…but one of those places turned out to be Medford, Oregon, in the Rogue River Valley.

Introduced there in 1897, the pear—which can weigh as much as a pound—thrived in the Bear Creek Orchard, established in 1886. The original owner sold the orchard in 1900, and the new owner set a world record for crop yield. After seeing an exhibit of the orchard’s award-winning Comice and d’Anjou pears, Samuel Rosenberg inquired about the property.

The interesting thing is that his two sons, Harry and David, attended Cornell University’s School of Agriculture with the intent of raising prize-winning merino ship. But the premature death of their father, from pneumonia, took them on a detour—and turned them into one of the most beloved names in fine fruit.

The Comice pear has a stubby, almost round shape with green skin; it often has a significant red blush on one cheek. It is best eaten as a hand fruit, or paired with blue cheese as a dessert.