One of my greatest quiet joys is cooking from a well-written cookbook on a weekend night, music on the bluetooth and new scents and tastes filling the kitchen. My favorite cookbook that I've cooked from this year is Latinisimo: Home Recipes from the Twenty-One Country of Latin America by Sandra Gutierrez. Sweeping in its scope, it is an encyclopedia of the home cooking of Latin America today, and each of the hundreds of recipes is approachable and very doable for a cook like me. I'm not surprised. Sandra -- who grew up in Guatemala City but has lived in Cary, NC for decades -- is the former food editor of the Cary News, an historian, professional cooking instructor, and author of four cookbooks, including this latest. She is considered one of the top national experts on Latin American foodways, and she has a heart for the home cook. Sandra has been awarded the Les Dames D'Escoffier M. F. K Fisher Grand Prize Award for Excellence in Food Writing, and her work has been recognized as part of the permanent FOOD exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

Other episodes you might enjoy:

Southern Fork Sustenance: Talking Cookbooks and Editor Judith Jones with Author Sara Franklin

Diego Campos: CAMP, Modern American Eatery (Greenville, SC)