We love getting glimpses into the lives of some of our favorite writers, especially when it comes to their tastes in food! Did you know that Walt Whitman loved oysters and meat for breakfast? Or that Allen Ginsberg had a famous and "uncompromising" Borsch recipe? Read on for these secrets and more, including a roundup of terrific food journals, a peek inside a literary food-themed dinner party, and Beatrix Potter's recipe for gingerbread. More

Deborah Madison is one of the most gifted and inspired cooks I know. And generous, too. From The Green's Cookbook to Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone to Local Flavors and beyond, Deborah has shared thousands of recipes and her honest, deeply-flavored, vegetable-centric style with millions of readers. Today we're going to keep it focused with just five of her simple yet astute recommendations and a few words about her forthcoming book, Vegetable Literacy.
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Treasured family recipes are priceless, which is why they can easily be transformed into special gifts with minimum expense and just a little time. From turning handwritten recipes into tea towels to making beautiful cookbooks for less than $5, here are our four favorite ideas for giving family recipes as gifts. More

Q: Almost two years ago, I lost my mother — she was 54 and I was 25. Many of her personal items were also lost during this time and I've always been heartbroken over losing her handwritten recipes and books. She was a wonderful cook, and especially loved to cut out recipes from newspapers and magazines. More

In the hours before Thanksgiving, most cooks are so focused on getting the meal on the table that appetizers are the last things on their minds. And that's just fine, says Sam Sifton. Appetizers don't belong at Thanksgiving. More

Sometimes when I'm planning for a big meal or party, I lose my head. I start thinking about all the projects I want to tackle and recipes I've bookmarked, and the list of what I plan on cooking seems to grow and grow. I'm a cook, so I should cook for people, right? I think, while wondering if I have time to buy lemons to make from-scratch lemon curd for the layer cake I'm also making from scratch. Should I make cookies too?

At times like these, I stop, take a deep breath, and think about my friend Ian and his cheesecake platter. More

Maria Popova of the blog Brain Pickings always unearths the most interesting stories, tidbits, and other tidy pieces of information from history and the far corners of the internet. Yesterday she revealed excerpts from John Keats's Porridge: Favorite Recipes of American Poets, a 1973 book by poet and self-taught chef Victoria McCabe. The book contains 117 favorite recipes from some of that era's most illustrious literary minds, including Allen Ginsberg, Edward Abbey, Claire McAllister, and Joyce Carol Oates. More

When Yotam Ottolenghi's cookbook Plenty was published here in the United States last year, it was an immediate hit and consistently found its way to the top of everyone's best cookbook lists, including our own. Yotam has followed up that effort with an equally stellar but perhaps more personal cookbook called Jerusalem, which he co-authored with his co-chef and business partner, Sami Tamimi. They sat down with me over mint tea last week to generously share some of their kitchen wisdom for home cooks. More

The November issue of Food & Wine includes a brief interview with director David Lynch that is weird and wonderful, especially in an issue so focused on Thanksgiving and holiday cheer. Who can talk turkey when the man behind Eraserhead and Twin Peaks is talking about his very specific food preferences and describing his ideal kitchen? (Spoiler alert: it's a little disturbing.) More

When I first visited Quail Hill Farm in late March, the new batch of farm apprentices had only recently arrived. Farm work is typically a one-season contract, so young farmers move around a lot, working on new farms every year. I've always been curious: who are these young farmers who've signed up for a 5-8 month contract working on a CSA farm? How did they come to farming? Do they have time to eat what they grow? What do they think about city folk like me coming out to ask them a bunch of questions? Meet Barrie, Rachel, Kate, Sean, and Calvin. More