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Our First Cookbook Is Here (And You Can Choose the Cover)

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purewow cookbook cat
Victoria Bellafiore

We’re always down to try new recipes, but certain ones really stick with us. They become staples in our weeknight dinner rotation, our go-to brunches for holidays, the desserts we talk about in reverent tones because there’s no way something that looks as impressive as an ombré citrus upside-down cake came from the hands of someone known to burn toast. We realized our favorite dishes are the ones that look incredible but don’t require a ton of prep, skills or effort—and that we needed to share our all-time favorites with the world. So, we set out to create Only the Good Stuff: PureWow’s Top Recipes of the Past Decade.

Divided into five chapters—breakfast, main courses, sides, appetizers and dessert—it’s a compendium of the recipes that never fail to impress. We’re talking things like a skillet-sized cinnamon roll (served by the slice), absurdly tender chicken tikka masala meatballs, dangerously addictive popcorn cauliflower and a sausage and broccoli rabe gnocchi one editor’s family loves so much they make it almost every week. And that’s just a tiny sampling of 68 recipes we’ve featured.

purewow cookbook interior
CANDACE DAVISON

But it’s not just a roundup of our biggest crowd-pleasers; we wanted to create a cookbook that was worthy of your bookshelf, so we included a few special features:

  • You can choose the cover. We’ve given you four options, so you can choose the book that best fits your aesthetic, whether you’re more of the “summering in the Hamptons with my mini lobster rolls” type or the “every night should be pasta night” kind. Plus, if you’re giving it to someone, you can personalize it with their name, just to give the book an extra special touch.
  • It’s hardcover—and spiral-bound. Have you ever fought to keep a cookbook open while cooking? That’s no longer a problem here, yet it’s still durable enough to withstand the chaos of the Tuesday night dinner scramble.
  • Yellow icons in the margin make it easy to ID recipes that fit your needs. Want dinner in less than 30 minutes? A one-pot meal? Looking for something kid-friendly? And/or something vegetarian-friendly? There’s an icon for that, that, that and yes, that.
  • Illustrated sidebars help you get more out of certain recipes. We don’t want to bog you down with details, so these little additions make it fast and easy to riff on a recipe or master a new technique. (Psst: You’ve got to check out the one on our fave homemade chicken nugget dipping sauces!)

We hope you love it as much as we do.



candace davison bio

VP of editorial content

  • Oversees home, food and commerce articles
  • Author of two cookbooks and has contributed recipes to three others
  • Named one of 2023's Outstanding Young Alumni at the University of South Florida, where she studied mass communications and business