Our Second Cookbook is Here!

Yes, we did it again!

The S&L debut hardcover cookbook, Everyday Essentials, was (and continues to be) a resounding success, and our readers have been asking when a second book was coming. After all the work that book 1 entailed, my sister and I were possibly a bit nuts to sign up to do it all over again. Alas, here we are, and we could not be more proud of our second hardcover baby!

Tell me more.

It’s called Good Taste (because we have good taste, duh). Just like with our first cookbook, Everyday Essentials, we opted to self-publish this one with the same boutique publisher/designer (and our cats as helpers, of course). If you’re curious about the self-publishing process, we wrote in detail here how it went for the first book. It’s pretty fascinating!

Ideas for book 2 began percolating around the end of March 2025 despite us swearing to never, ever do it again. Slowly but surely it took shape, starting from recipe names scrawled on index cards, then progressing to a spreadsheet, and eventually becoming a tangible manuscript by October, and then turned into proofs with the design elements and endless editing after that! It’s a long and very involved, painstaking process to get it perfect. Tracking the container ship is maybe the most fun part because we’re dorks. It’s also so cool to get those first advance copies.

What you can expect

We wrote Good Taste to be another volume of our most popular, most loved, and most special recipes from the website. If you love book 1, book 2 is right up your alley! Thematically, it’s basically a continuation. The format is very similar to Everyday Essentials, with over 100 easy-to-follow recipes, and each recipe is accompanied by a beautiful full-page color photograph.

Both books will look terrific on your bookshelf side by side. They complement each other and also stand alone! You can expect a well-rounded mix of recipes that include more of your familiar comfort food favorites, quick weeknight meals, and a few tasty surprises and personal favorites of ours that you may have not discovered yet on the website.

Along with clear instructions and notes for success, each recipe has a QR code like in book 1, where you can easily access the blog post for step-by-step photos, storage/leftovers info, nutrition info, and you can leave a review or question about each recipe (we love reviews).

A peek inside

Some reader favorites we included in Good Taste are creamy chicken enchiladas, Mongolian beef, baked pork chops, marry me chicken pasta, stick of butter rice, baked spaghetti, cheesy potato soup, creamy Tuscan shrimp, and best coleslaw, among so many others. You’re going to be real excited about the selection of recipes! There’s a flipbook over on the cookbook page you can take a look at as well. It’s a whole lotta good food.

My sister and I (and family and friends) also did a completely new lifestyle photoshoot for the book, which was a little nerve-racking at the time (hello, introverts) but turned out to be really great and silly, and we’re excited to showcase those photos in print! The design part is also super fun, and you’re going to love the fonts/graphics/design elements we chose too.

Compared to our first book, deciding on the cover photograph was a little bit less stressful. There wasn’t the pressure to put THE signature recipe to define the S&L brand on the cover like with Essentials. We decided on a gorgeous pasta that has always resonated with readers. That’s about it. Easy peasy!

And finally…

I want to thank YOU for your continued support of Salt & Lavender. It’s because of our loyal, wonderful readers that Good Taste exists at all, and we hope that you’re as thrilled about it as we are! It’s the perfect gift for the foodie or cookbook collector in your life (or as a treat for yourself, which you certainly deserve), so grab a copy here. We’d be absolutely delighted.

I cannot wait to hear what you think of Salt & Lavender: Good Taste. Tag us on Instagram stories when you receive your book, send us an email, tell all your friends, whatever. We love it all and appreciate it so much. Thank you!!