The First Mess: Cookbook Review and Giveaway

Wow! When the publishers at Avery offered me a copy of The First Mess Cookbook, by Laura Wright, I had never heard of Laura's blog (The First Mess), so I went to check it out. What a lovely surprise! After checking out her blog for a while, I was pretty sure that I would enjoy her cookbook, and I was right! As you'll see, I've already made so many dishes from this gorgeous book, and I look forward to making many more.

The book is beautifully designed and laid out. The fonts are easy to read, and the ingredients and instructions are listed side-by-side in a very user-friendly way. Each and every recipe has a beautiful color picture (almost always full-page). There is a great index (I appreciate this so much, why is it so hard for so many cookbooks?!), and a great list of every chapter and recipe at the beginning of the book.

The First Mess Cookbook isn't gluten-free, but many many of the recipes are gf. Each recipe also features a series of icons at the top for nut-free, sugar-free, gluten-free, etc. The recipes are healthy, but not in an oppressive way! ha ha. If you know what I mean. I also didn't find the recipes to be overly fussy or difficult to make - it's quite practical and appealing in that way.

Tofu Noodle Soup with Coconut Lemongrass Broth

from Soups & Stews chapter

Yum! We loved this beautiful soup - visually enticing, and full with a great array of flavors and textures. The broth is stewed with the lemongrass in it (and is later strained out), which was a great technique to give the soup a great hit of lemongrass flavor and aroma. It's also got some heat and pungency from ginger and a hot pepper... plus the fresh flavors of broccoli & snow peas. I roasted my tofu cubes in the oven while I was preparing everything else, so that they would have a little more crunch and chew. I loved this soup and how good I felt after eating it too. In fact, that's true for everything I've made from this book, which is pretty cool.

perfect moment with perfect bowl of soup is perfect

Smoky Saffron Chickpea, Chard, and Rice Soup

from Soups & Stews chapter

Another beautiful dish full of colors and veggies and goodness. This nutritious soup gets its smokiness from a hearty dose of smoked paprika (yum!), and is packed with chickpeas, rice, chard, and a few other veggies. We've had a cold, wet, and rainy winter and this soup was a perfect dinner during those dark nights. It was robust, but not heavy -- and warming, but not overbearing. It was also simple to make and provided great leftovers, a feature I always appreciate in a recipe!!

Broccoli Caesar with Smoky Tempeh

from Salads & Dressings chapter

This was a fun spin on combining familiar flavors in unfamiliar ways! Steamed broccoli is drizzled with caesar dressing and some smokey tempeh crumbles... such a fun lunch. I tried it also with roasted broccoli, but I found the roasted broccoli to be a little too dry for my tastes. I like the caesar dressing in this book - but be warned, it is *super garlicky.* I had garlicky dragon breath all afternoon! ha ha. Even though I am a devout garlic fan, next time I'll dial it back a little, just for the sake of my poor yoga students.

watch out for garlic breath!

Roasted Chili Basil Lime Tofu Bowls

from Hearty Mains & Big Plates chapter

I love how "bowl" meals combine all the parts of a complete meal into one dish: protein, veggie, sauce, and starches. This bowl is a great example: roasted marinated tofus and broccoli, with some rice and fresh sunflower sprouts and a sprinkle of roasted sunflower seeds. It comes together easily and the component parts compliment each other nicely. I really loved the simple marinade and wished there was even more of it, so I think next time I'll double it! More is usually better, right? Ha ha.

Vegetable and Bean Pot Pies with Potato Crusts

from Hearty Mains & Big Plates chapter

I loved this idea! I had been thinking about pot pies for a few weeks, but didn't feel like dealing with making crusts and all that. These "crusts" made with thinly sliced potatoes &/or sweet potatoes were fun and beautiful. It always looks so cute when people prepare things in individual ramekins, but I don't own any (note to self!), so I used mini pie pans and mini loaf pans. That worked pretty well actually! The beany stew in these little pies was just lovely, perfectly seasoned enough to enhance the beans and veggies without overpowering them. The potato crusts are significantly "lighter" than a bready crust, so these feel lighter than traditional pot pies. I loved making these and eating them and how they were easy to create but also felt special and festive.

Roasted Cauliflower with Green Tahini

from Vegetables & a Couple of Grains chapter

This is technically listed as more of a side dish, but we had it as a light dinner on a night when we had already eaten a lot during the day and didn't need a big dinner. The cauliflower florets are lightly seasoned with za'atar (one of my favorite and under-used spice mixes!), and then roasted. The Green Tahini sauce is a great blend of tahini, fresh herbs, and seasoning. It calls for agave nectar, which I reduced, and will probably omit entirely next time, just because I don't generally like sweet flavors mixed with savory flavors. But this is purely personal taste, and not a fault of the recipe in any way. In fact, every recipe I made was absolutely clear to follow, behaved just as described, and held no confusion or unexpected surprises. It seems that these recipes were well-tested and are well-written, which really helps me build confidence in trying more and more recipes.

this recipe makes extra Green Tahini Sauce, which is excellent because then you can put it in a squeeze bottle and put it on salads and veggies and toast and other good things! 

Chocolate Chunk Ginger Cookies 

from Desserts & Small Treats chapter

I made these cookies for dessert when we had some special pals over for dinner. Our friends E&M had been in town for six months, and were about to head home to the Netherlands. We had such a nice good-bye dinner and I knew that cookies would be necessary. They look dark, so it's easy to think that they are chocolate cookies, but actually, they're dark with molasses and full of ginger and warming spices, as well as chocolate chips and chopped up candied ginger. What a great combo! I love candied ginger, and I love chocolate-covered candied ginger, so I guess it's no surprise that these are also great. The whole recipe also only has 2 tablespoons of oil, which is a nice feature. These cookies call for whole spelt flour, an ingredient used in several recipes throughout the book. We had 6-7 cookies left after our dinner party, and so I packed them up in a ziplock baggie for our pals to enjoy on their flight home. 

sharing cookies with your pals is the best!


As you can see, I've already made (and loved!) lots of recipes from The First Mess Cookbook, 

and I have so many more that I still want to explore and make:

Savory Ginger Green Onion Crepes

Toasty French Toast Bake

Meyer Lemon Romanesco Salad

Brussels Sprouts with Lime & Miso

Spaghetti Squash Noodle Bowls with Lime Peanut Sauce

Creamy Winter Vegetable Stew with Mustard and Lemon

Thanksgiving Panzanella Salad with Delicata Squash

French Onion Lentil Pots with Onion Cream Toasts

Cauliflower & Pine Nut "Ricotta" Toasts

Mustard-Roasted Broccoli Pate'

The First Mess Cookbook Giveaway

Great news! The publishers (Avery / Penguin Random House) have also offered to let me host a giveaway for a copy of The First Mess Cookbook to one lucky reader in the U.S. To enter the giveaway, please leave a comment on this blog post and include an email address or blogger contact so I can notify you. Tell me a story about something yummy you ate this week, which recipes in this post caught your eye, or your favorite way to make a big mess!