Extra Helping: Recipes for Caring, Connecting, and Building Community One Dish at a Time

It’s hard to put into words the importance and depth of this book. It's part cookbook, part life guide, part memoir, part love letter to humans, part community involvement toolkit, and part soothing balm. Take this book to bed to you to read Elbach's humorous, compassionate, and insightful prose. And wake up in the morning inspired and ready to nourish folks with her crazy delicious, cozy, accessible, and cleverly named recipes. When you read the book it feels like you're sharing tea with Elsbach at her home, and when you cook from it it feels as though she's right there with you guiding you and anticipating your cooking technique questions. Elsbach reminds us that the simple act of cooking for and feeding people is a most powerful tool for creating positive change individually, in our closest circles, in our broader community, and globally. I also love the "Resources" section in the back of the book that suggests concrete ways to be involved. To top it all off, the papercut illustrations throughout the book by Anna Brones are gorgeous and a perfectly complement Elsbach's writing. What a gift!

This is an essential cookbook-guidebook to help anyone offer simple comfort during times of need or just leave this book permanently on your kitchen counter for a complete and ready plan to feed your family and friends for the week and beyond. It offers carefully-considered nutritious comfort food for someone recovering from any hardship, be it illness, grief or life’s cosmic jokes. Load your quiver with recipes that cover any dietary restriction you can imagine and will also satisfy the masses. The biggest bonus of this book is Elbach’s voice and stories throughout. I think she shares a place along side Laurie Colwin with her conversational style, wonderfully insightful wit and humor, not to mention the perfection and ease of the not-fussy and beautiful recipes. This cookbook is a tome of love, compassion and just plain deliciousness.

If you are human, this book is for you. Janet Elsbach is like a latter day Laurie Colwin, writing with such compassion, humor and common sense that you are instantly won over. And there are the recipes, which are equally nurturing and thoughtful, not to mention delicious and healthy. Beyond being useful, the book is a great read, reminding us of the losses and triumphs we share and the ways in which food gets us through it all.

Every once in a blue moon, a book comes along that changes my life for the better. EXTRA HELPING will give you not only nurturing and delicious recipes; it will also gift you with a new way to look at your community and the role you play in it. Already, several of the recipes have made it to our family's short list: Chicken Congee, Bright Simple Salad, and Baked Custard, to name a few. Janet's writing is intelligent, witty, and above all, filled with compassion. I've already bought several books to give as gifts, usually delivered with a few jars of her insanely yummy Chocolate Pudding! Already looking forward to her next book!

What a treasure Extra Helpings is. We all know the pile-up of carbs and sugar that can arrive on the front step in difficult times. And - God bless those gifts! But Elsbach takes you by the arm and walks you through page after page of other choices that can be made. And writes about cooking for others with palpable love. It is beautiful writing about making beautiful, life-giving food- for all sorts of occasions. It's one of those books that inspires you to pick one of those recipes and up your food-as-healing-love game. Plus, the wood cut illustrations and total book design! The whole thing is a gift. Trust me. Start with the Chocolate Pudding page 186. You're welcome.

don't waste your money - this recipe book is less then adequate - sad

Treat yourself to a great read while sharing sustenance with those you love or those who need some love. The prose is filled with pathos and sass. The recipes are a fresh fun take on comfort food--low on dowdiness; high on hitting just the right culinary and emotional spot for all manner of human dis-ease. This is a salve for the reader and a balm for the eater!!! Can't wait to see what this author may do next.......

This is a beautiful book. Beautiful to hold, to read, to use. My deep thanks to Elisa Altman, who shared a photo of the book on her Instagram post. ‘Extra Helpings’ is just filled with Elsbach’s generosity of spirit, offering the reader a friendly roadmap for sharing the gifts of food. And she’s pretty funny, too.

I enjoy cooking for friends and family, and found some good recipes in this book.

The ginger pots. Enough said.