Sweet Paul Eat & Make by Paul Lowe

The angle: Food is about more than ingredients — Make it beautiful and share it with friends

Recipes for right now: Baked French Toast with Strawberries & Vanilla Syrup; Smoked Salmon Hash with Scallions, Dill & Eggs; Red Cabbage & Grapefruit Salad; Fennel & Garlic Mussels; Orange & Hazelnut Cake

Who would enjoy this book? Anyone who loves making food look beautiful just as much as they love making the food itself.

• Who wrote it: Paul Lowe

• Who published it: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• Other highlights: I have been a fan of Sweet Paul ever since its first days as an e-zine, and I’ve watched in delight as Paul Lowe grew his magazine’s unique combination of recipes, simple home projects, and entertaining ideas into a print publication. Make & Eat is his first full cookbook, and it is a keeper.

The book is arranged by Morning, Brunch, Noon, and Night with an “Eat” section (recipes) and a “Make” section (small projects) with each chapter. The recipes are a lot of favorite comfort foods with a distinct Scandinavian spin inspired by Paul’s Norwegian childhood. Think: breakfast hash with salmon and dill, Norwegian meatballs with mashed rutabaga, and pavlova with blackberries.

The projects run the gamut from easy enough for anyone with two hands to those requiring a little more familiarity with a hot glue gun. I tend to the “have two hands” side of things, and am particularly drawn to projects like using washi tape to make easy drinking straws and bending antique forks to make bookends for my cookbook shelf. If you’re feeling more crafty, try your hand at felted flower vases and punch bowl pendant lamps.

There’s just something about Sweet Paul that makes you want to live inside whatever colorful meal or beautiful dining room or sparkly party being shown. Everything he does seems so effortlessly lovely — I start thinking that, hey, maybe I can make that pendant lamp after all and then throw a party to celebrate.

Find the book at your local library, independent bookstore, or Amazon: Sweet Paul Eat & Make by Paul Lowe

• Visit the author’s website: Paul Lowe

Apartment Therapy Media makes every effort to test and review products fairly and transparently. The views expressed in this review are the personal views of the reviewer and this particular product review was not sponsored or paid for in any way by the manufacturer or an agent working on their behalf. However, the manufacturer did give us the product for testing and review purposes.