The Bitten Word: 24 Giveaway Winners + Thoughts on Paring Down Our Cookbook Collection

Our cookbook situation has gotten a bit out of control.

It's not so much that we're buying a lot of cookbooks. In truth, we've purchased only a handful of cookbooks this past year. When a new cookbook comes out that we really want to read, we first test drive it from the library before deciding whether to buy. Sometimes people send us books that they want to promote (which is a nice perk of writing this blog). If we love the book, we're eager to tell you about it. If not, we don't. But that still means that quite a few books come our way that we either give away or add to our shelves.

So we end up with a lot of books. We actually had to buy an additional bookcase earlier this year! But by November it was already full. And we just don't have enough space in our apartment to add more bookcases. So as the year winds down and we start to look at our food resolutions and evaluate how we're doing, it's obvious that we need to get rid of some books.

As we've looked at our cookbook collection and tried to decide what to keep and what to purge, we've probably kept too many. (In a future post, we'll share which books we still have on our shelves). But we found 24 books that we're going to go ahead and giveaway today. So 24 readers will get a cookbook!

But don't think you're just getting our cast-offs. For the most part, these are books we've read that we really enjoyed! We simply don't have space for all of them. So our self-imposed clean-out is your gain.

And the randomly selected winners from the comments on our December magazines gallery are....

1. Casey:

Whole Living is my favorite because its bright and fresh unlike I think winter will be

2. Jane:

I'm very interested in the fun looking cookies on Cooking Light! Also, thanks to you guys for your recommendation some time back on how to pick one food magazine to subscribe to-- I just subscribed to Everyday Food!

3. Ashley:

I love the Martha Stewart Living. Something definitely "magical" about it.

4. Emily:

The Martha Stewart Living cover is lovely, but since we're talking about food magazines here I have to go with the Fine Cooking cover. That roast looks wonderful!

5. Amanda:

Bon Appetit!! The meringues are magical, I want to pop one in my mouth right now!!

6. Karen:

Bon Appetit - those meringues are so beautiful and glossy!

7. Holly:

The Martha Stewart Living cover is breathtaking!

8. Travelin Jewel:

Martha Stewart Living cover! The serenity and hushness of winter illuminates in this cover! Fantastic! Bon Appetit is a good runner up!

9. Don:

"Fine Cooking" is THE best. Can't wait for our New Year's Eve dinner when we serve a prime rib roast.

10. Janice:

OK guys, this was a tough one. It was between Food & wine and Saveur. First, who doesn't love a beautiful lamb roast and wine! Second, pasta and seafood! That says it all. However, when it comes down to it, I had to give into my dream to become Italian. Saveur is the winner!!! A pasta driven meal at Christmas sounds amazing to me. I wish I had a Nona who could teach me how to make a fabulous Italian Christmas meal. Did I mention that I could eat pasta seven days a week!

11. Delaney:

Love the Bon Appetit cover shot!

12. Simon:

Food & Wine, it feels complete.

13. Arianera

I'll go with Fine Cooking. It's not a great cover, but I've been craving roast beef.

14. Fredda:

Food and Wine! The colors and textures of sliced lemons, apricots, and olives sitting atop the mahogany lamb evokes the essence of the season - and equals the most beautifully wrapped present.

15. Joan:

Cooking light. It looks like an old fashioned christmas sweets feast but it is cooking light so it seems to promise that in the end no one will confuse you with the neighborhood snow man
Now that's holiday magic

16. Chris:

Bon Appetit -- peppermint meringues look awesome

17. Gen:

Martha Stewart Living. It captures the idyllic winter scene.

18. Melissa:

The cover of LIVING makes me think of nightime snowshoeing trips and a thermos of hot chocolate. I love it!

19. Janice:

Martha Stewart Living is my choice - very subdued and spare.

20. Sharon:

Bon Appetit, because I made those cookies and loved them!

21. Mom24@Evermom:

Fine Cooking! I am loving the look of that beef.