Which is the best Nigella book?

[RooTwo]

I feel a need to have a Nigella book in my kitchen. I love her food and her over the topness about the joys of cooking. But which one to get - I want one that is as family friendly as possible, with really good meals that we can all eat together (DCs aged six and four, and DH and I) ... Suggestions v welcome as to which one is best! There are so many to choose from ...

How to eat, without a doubt....

Thanks both ... yes How to Eat has been the one that I've been leaning towards but I was wondering whether to go for Kitchen. I feel as if I need to rekindle my love affair with food - I used to be a pretty decent cook but six years of children and macaroni cheese and eating v quick suppers with DH has rendered me a bit crap in the kitchen and lacking confidence. Need to get the love back again!

I'm going to go against the grain here. As much as I love How to Eat, my absolute favourite is Feast. It's both the one I've cooked the most recipes from and the one I get the most pleasure from reading.

Another vote for HTE, just wonderful!

I do love feast, but it is mostly cooking for crowds and special occasions. How to eat is a great one for getting back into cooking, including feeding children (though some of the weaning advice is a bit dated in my copy!)

Nigella bites is a good follow up to HTE, very approachable, easy to prepare yet imaginative food. Aww, I love Nige!

oh Express is good too!

How to eat.

I'm not that keen on How To Eat - I didn't get it when it first came out and imagine I would have liked it then but find it a bit of its time, iykwim.

I use Feast and Domestic Goddess the most.

HTE is a great read but a bit fancy for family meals imo. I have everything she's written but Express is the one I actually cook from. That and Domestic Goddess.

I don't have How To Eat, but I bought kitchen two weeks ago, and it's overtaken Jamie in my cookbook favourites. Not a mean feat.

As an aside, if you are near a WH Smith, last week they had buy 1 get 1 half price on cookbooks. I would think it should still be on. I got Kitchen, and the Great British Bake Off book for £14. I only bought Nigella as the addition to GBBO, but I love it so much more.

I've made a lot from Domestic Goddess - but cakes and puddings rather than meals as such. Must get 'How to Eat'. I like express though. I've also made a lot from the Christmas book - not just at Christmas!

Feast is my favourite but I probably cook most from Kitchen.

I have had most success with nigella bites. Didn't like the layout of hte and had a couple of disasters from there.
I also like summer

I love Kitchen. Haven't got How to Eat but now tempted!

I use Kitchen and Domestic Goddess the most.

I recently bought HTE second hand as I'd heard loads about it- but was disappointed to see a large section of the book is about dinner parties and feeding 6-8 people- Very useful for larger families but not so much for me! Have used it a little bit, but the other 2 are tried and tested for me and recipes always come out perfect!

How to Eat and Feast - they are both wonderful to read, and I have cooked the most from these two.

Domestic Goddess - lovely to read but I have never cooked anything from it (am not a baker).

The rest of them are much of a muchness really and imho a lot less inspiring.

I have Feast and Kitchen.
Have never cooked anything from Feast, it's a lovely read, and the food looks great but not really meals for a family of two.
I've made loads from Kitchen, and I love the sheer variety of recipes in it. It has a bit of everything.

Can I ask all you Feast fans what you cook regularly from it? I have it and I love it, but more as a book to read in bed than to cook from. I do cook from Kitchen a lot, and I'm going to dig out my HTE on the back of this thread.

NettoSuperstar - cross posts!

I have them all and Express is the one I use the most. Domestic goddess comes a close second though.....

That's exactly how I feel Agent!
I've read it, cover to cover, several times, it's a lovely book, but none of the food seems to suit us?
Not all of the stuff in Kitchen does either, but it has such a variety, I swear by the everyday brownies, chicken potato and chorizo thing, salmon and cous cous and mexican lasagne.
I think I've done easily 25 recipes though and often try new ones.
It's one of the books I'd keep if forced at gunpoint to only choose 3 recipe books nooooooooooooooooooo

Feast is my favourite; we regularly have snowflecked brownies, some sort of oriental turkey salad with noodles, which is so gorgeous, malteser cake, quadruple choc loaf, kedgeree/risotto thing. Oh lots of lovely and very fattening things

Out of all the others and I have kitchen, express (the worst except the mirin salmon) summer and how to eat, I probably have only gone back to the one recipe. (the salmon one)

Saying that I am a baker more than a cook so that probably makes a difference, I do cook obviously, but without sticking to recipes so much.

Express or Domestic Goddess
there's a fair few savoury bits i do from Domestic Goddess, like the cheese pasties and the pizza, so it's not all puddings and cakes.
Express is as you would imagine - lots of good work/school night stuff, like the steak with white bean mash or chicken cacciatore. i like How to Eat, Feast and Christmas (all year round!) a lot, but find them strictly for weekends when I've got a while to potter in the kitchen.

Agent my sister gave me Feast one Christmas and for quite a while I just read it as a nice book with lovely pictures too, then one Easter I came to it and never looked back. The Easter recipes (the different lamb ones and the wonderful flourless chocolate cake) are used throughout the year, the Tunisian supper is a real favourite (you can make large quantities and freeze) and of course the chocolate guinness cake is to die for.

Tbh I think if you get half a dozen really good recipes from a cookbook that you make all the time it's worth it's place on the bookshelf.