My kitchen in the wintertime is all about cozy. Warm, comforting, and nourishing. Hot tea, filling soups and stews, roasted seasonal veggies, hearty baked goods, and yummy crunchy pickles. This season’s kitchen essentials list reflects the habits of my winter kitchen.

Welcome to my Colorful Inspired Easter Brunch Recipe Line up. I wanted to connect with you and share some of my favorite Easter Brunch recipes perfect for this spring season. I hope you enjoy them.

Welcome to my Soup Recipe Line up. I wanted to connect with you and share some of my favorite soup recipes perfect for this winter season. I hope you enjoy them.

Welcome to my Fall Recipe Line up. This is not technically my quarterly newsletter but it will be coming soon. In the meanwhile I wanted to connect with you and to begin getting you in the fall spirit. Summer has come and gone and with its’ departure we welcome a slate of fall seasonal tastes and textures which come with the harvest. Flavors get richer and textures more robust. I also am including some of my favorite kitchen items which will hopefully help inspire you and bring you into the kitchen. I have included my favorite tea kettle because officially entered tea season. A gorgeous serving piece from Athena Calderone’s collection with Crate and Barrel for entertaining. A wonderful collection of bakeware as I know you will be baking more as the holidays approach. There are some other handy items to have on hand, if you don’t already.

I have three collections, knives, mortar and pestles and cookbooks. By far I have the most cookbooks compared to my other two collections, hundreds at this point, I have been collecting them for years, so, honestly it is difficult to narrow it down to only 5. So I didn’t. The books I am sharing with you today are 5 OF my favorite cookbooks and in the future I will share more with you.

Okay, so these are not my only 5 kitchen essentials. They are just 5 of my kitchen essentials. I will be sharing more  of my favs periodically but these were the first 5 which came to mind. Some of you had requested learning more about what tools are an integral part of my cooking process here in the Amalgam Kitchen. So here we go.

How many times have you been in the grocery store or farmer’s market and picked up an unusually shaped winter squash with a rock hard outer layer, only to wonder, “how on earth do I cook this”? Even as a long time cook, there have been moments where I have felt intimated  and simply walked away, only to move onto something more familiar and seemingly simple, like a garnet yam.