I want to think about cooking more so that I can think about it less. I like cooking, but I don’t like it as much as walking to the park or sitting down. On the other hand, I care about what I eat. I want the food I eat to be good for me and to feel good in me, to taste good, to be reasonably inexpensive, and I want to come by it more or less ethically. In that order, actually. It is lucky that these things do not need to be at odds with each other.

One way to begin cooking, the best way I know, is to begin with what you have. That’s what soup is.

Cooking As Though You Might Cook Again invites us to cook with our senses and to work with the passage of time. Licht’s lyrical recipes turn our attention away from strict measurements and towards the sights and smells of our own pantries, our own fridges, and our own imaginations. A new book that feels oddly like a familiar classic. A reminder of the pleasure and the importance of living with what we have.

“Cooking As Though You Might Cook Again is like an impossibly lucky yard sale find: a personal kitchen journal that was somehow written just for you. Like a handful of dry beans, Danny Licht’s recipes grow, with a rustic everyday magic, to fill all your pots. Follow the rhythm, as I have, of this stern and sweet set of instructions and it will become your daily beat.”
–Cal Peternell, author of Twelve Recipes