Weekend Cooking- Things Were Cooking at BEA

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food!

Things were cooking this year at the annual Book Expo of America, held at the Javits Center in NYC June 4-7.

I managed to pick up a few food-related items this time around, as you can see in the photo:

I got a blad of The Barefoot Contessa's new book, Foolproof, scheduled to publish on October 30th. On the back is a recipe for raspberry crumble bars. I make many of Ina Garten's recipes, and her Chicken with Shallots from how easy is that? is in our current rotation.

David Venable from QVC has his first cookbook coming out on October 9th, Comfort Foods That Take You Home, and he was signing blads and handing out aprons, which was nice. He took the time to talk to everyone in line, and spoke of the fact that the first time Paula Deen was on TV was on his QVC show, in the kitchen with David. There are five recipes in his blad, including one for Southern BBQ Chicken that looks good.

Not a flattering picture of David Venable

Bravo TV's Top Chef had three alumni there, including Carla Hall, who now co-hosts ABC's daytime show The Chew. She had a very long line, and I didn't wait to get her signed blad of her upcoming cookbook, Cooking With Love, as I have seen her a few times at tapings of The Chew. She is a hoot!

Carla Hall

Mike Isabella had champagne and rainbow cookies at his signing at the Perseus Books booth, a welcome diversion. He signed blads of his upcoming Mike Isabella's Crazy Good Italian and chatted with people.

Mike Isabella

The last Top Chef alumnus there was Angelo Sosa, who was promoting his book, Flavor Exposed. I did not get to see him as I was waiting in a loooong line to get Chris Colfer's (Kurt from GLEE) book.

Bon Appetit contributor Jenny Rosenstrach's turned her blog, Dinner- a Love Story into a book from Ecco, a Harper Collins imprint. I'm looking forward to reading this one. Jenny and her husband believe it is important to cook dinner for their family every night, and this book chronicles that story, along with recipes. (I agree wholeheartedly with her; I tried to cook for my family every night, and when my sons went to college, they cooked and ate with their roommates almost every night.)

Moll Anderson handed out samples from her upcoming book, Seductive Tables for Two, but I'm not sure about this one. The photos are beautiful though. 

The book I'm most excited about is Marlene Koch's Eat More of What You Love. Perusing it I found several recipes I'm going to try, including Steak Diane, (how apropo!), which I made tonight and was pronounced delicious by those lucky enough to be served it.  It only had 265 calories per serving, and I love that along with the nutritional information at the end of each recipe, she lists the Food Exchanges too, including Weight Watchers Plus Point Comparison.

I can tell that I will be using this book alot, the recipes are all of food my family would eat, not necessarily 'diet food'. 

If you went to BEA this year, did you get any cookbooks?