La Cucina Italiana is great--haven't had a bad issue yet. I enjoy Southern Living's recipes, too, although there are a lot of other topics in that one, other than food.

I like Bon Appetit and Cooking Light. I also like the recipes in Southern Living as marlingardener says though they have more in each issue than just cooking! Try a few from the newstand before you subscribe and see what you like best!
Joann

I got Cooking light from the time it first came out....but found as time went on half the magazine was on "fitness" things...only half devoted to cooking.
I just renewed my subscription to Bon Appetit...
For a number of yours, because my husband company advertised in many, every cooking magazine that was came to our house for free. Some because there was an ad in it and others because they wanted to be included.
I was drowning in cooking magazines!
I loved Cuisine....is it still out there?
Watch Amazon....they often have a year subscription for not much more than the cost of a copy on the news satnd.
My current subscription of Bon Appetit was $10.
Linda C

Gourmet is closing down before the end of the year. Read it on Seriouseats.com. Just announced today.

Makes me sad to lose Gourmet. It's a sign of the times...like newspapers folding, getting smaller, etc. People don't read print anymore, just what they can read for free on the internet.

I liked Cook's Illustrated for years, but am tired of it now. I'm part of the problem, I guess.

Wow! Had no idea about Gourmet magazine. Thanks for the heads up!

I did buy a few Southern Living cookbooks on eBay a few years ago. Maybe I should dust those off and pick up a copy of the magazine to see how I like it. I do love the cookbooks (a year's review of recipes. I forgot what years I have though). I just forgot about them.

I read Gourmet through most of the '70's, '80's, and '90's, but in recent years I had no interest in it at all.
Rereading the old ones you really see how it changed.

I picked up a copy of Cooking Light last month for the first time in years at the grocery store. I really enjoyed reading it. Some good recipes and lots of useful nutritional info. I might subscribe again based on what I saw in that edition.

Hope this helps.

Kate

Hi Boo:
I don't subscribe to any, so I can't help you.

I have a Cookbook from 1939 that is great.
If I could cook and bake everything that's in it, I would be happy.

I spend enough time trying to make my own new recipes and

try to do some things that you don't see anywhere.
LOU

I'll second Cooking Light and Cooks Illustrated. I LOVE Bon Appetit, but find some recipes a little too exotic for me to make. Still, it's fun to pretend.

Southern Living is a favorite, but I can get their annual recipe book at the end of the year. Same w/Penzeys, as they now have their "How We Became One" cookbook out.

And of course, there's the CF!!!

You're going to be disappointed if you try to resubscribe to Penzey's One. Everyday Food is good and basic, I love it for the seasonal menu ideas. I also like Fine Cooking.

I canceled several subscriptions to some of the more upscale cooking mags a while back after I got annoyed by the sheer number of luxury watch ads. They seemed to be targeted towards someone I was not interested in being...

I get La Cucina Italiana, but only because I'm on some media list. It's pretty, the recipes are good, but to be honest, I don't really pour over it. The internet inspires me more. On the other hand, we all need bathroom reading, right?

If you find a magazine you like, check out QSP.com for purchasing a subscription. Schools use this site to fundraise, and I have found them to be one of the cheapest as well. You can find a local school to support via their search function and do a good dead while you are shopping.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cooking magazines at QSP.com

I like Cuisine at home, good recipes with great instructions (not near as detailed as Cook's illustrated)but up to date recipes, good hints and nice illustrations.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cuisine at Home

I am sad to hear that Gourmet is going...
Magazines are all about the ads....they pay for the magazine, the money brought in by subscriptions pretty well is just paying for distribution.
So the fact that Gourmet is going bust, says more about who's advertising than much else. It's an expensive magazine, so they need lots of advertisers to keep it going.
I just re-upped my subscription to Vanity Fair.....now talk about advertising!!
Linda C

Thanks for the good advice everyone. Keep it comming! I'm so bummed about Penzey's One! I really enjoyed my subscription.

hope no one catches my typo....

For everyday meals I like Martha's "Everyday Food." The recipe ingredients can be found at most local grocery stores. Even though the dishes are not generally labor/time intensive they are based on fresh, rather than packaged or processed, ingredients.

I also like Cooking Light. Fine Cooking gives detailed instructions on different techniques and offers nice, doable recipes for "special" meals.

I don't subcribe to "Saveur" but pick it up at the newsstand when they are featuring a food/ingredient or style of cooking that interests me. I like it for their articles about food and the countries/regions they're from. I always learn something new. The current issue features lamb, which I do not eat, so I'll be skipping that one.

Jessy:
I did !!! Your dead !!!

Thought you were showing your Halloween spirit, Jessy. LOL! No, I didn't catch it the first time.

I caught it, but it was too late, you already caught yourself!

Add me to the people who like Cooking Light. Also Eating Well, it doesn't have to be all about cooking, just about food and nutrition and I get ideas on how to make what I like, but a little healthier.

I get Cook's Illustrated from the library, it's like...$6 an issue or something. It sure isn't that good.

I agree on Taste of Home, but I do like their cute ideas for holiday cookies and things I can make with the Grandkids, so I use their ideas and give Amanda their recipes. The recipes are much like the ones I've cooked my whole life, and I'm looking for something new, but Amanda likes it, it reminds her of my cooking when she was a child, LOL. Win-win, I suppose. There's sure a lot of high fat/high calorie cooking going on there too, and I try to avoid that. Sometimes....

Annie

Another vote here for Cooking Light and Cuisine at Home, and I too am sad to hear about Gourmet.

I am rarely disappointed in the recipes for either.

The only cooking magazine I've ever subscribed to was Vegetarian Times. I didn't renew because I realized that I would look at it, but never make any of the recipes. Somehow I acquired one of their cookbooks, too, but don't like it very much. I don't remember why I don't like it, but it has sat on the bookshelf a long time gathering dust. I just never found anything in it that inspired me.

That's sad about Gourmet Magazine.

Sally

Over the last several years, I think I have subscribed to every cooking magazine known to man. A lot of what we like is probably a personal thing. I have cookbooks(many, many) that are in pristine condition. I love to look at the pictures just as I like to see pictures of the food y'all cook. Don't really enjoy the ones without pictures. I have dropped a good number of my subscriptions as they gradually ran out since I discovered this forum. I get much more than recipes here. I will continue to subscribe to Cuisine at Home, Cooking Pleasures (for members of Cooking Club of America), Cooks Country which is another magazine Cooks Illustrated puts out and Bon Appetit just made me an offer too good to refuse so I reupped that one. I don't get Everyday Food any more but I probably will at some point. I like Southern Living for the gardening articles as much as the food and other aspects of it. I hang my head in embarrasment, but I have ALL their Annual Recipe books. It's a sickness with me but cheaper than therapy. Williams Sonoma catalog ain't bad either. Whoever does their food styling rocks!

My problem is keeping all of them, as if I'm going to go back and look at all of them again. My memory isn't good enough to remember where I saw a particular recipe. I'm sorry to hear about Gourmet but they were way over my head in many ways. Cooking Light was too much on fitness etc., just made me feel bad!

jude

Cooking Light is my longtime favorite. I also like Fine Cooking once in a while but have never subscribed. I used to subscribe to Cooks Illustrated and Cuisine at Home but they didn't really work for my cooking and eating habits. We are pretty health and fitness conscious.

Cooking Light is the only magazine I subscribe to and even then I like to look at recipes online, read reviews, etc. And now that I have an iPhone everything like that is always at my fingertips no matter where I am. I think all magazines are going to go by the wayside and quality online content will eventually be available only with a subscription.

It really depends on how you use magazines. I use recipes as road maps rather than as gospel, and I like a magazine that I can learn from. My favorites reflect that, and are different than if I just watned recipes or warm-fuzzy stories.

Everyday Food is an addicitve little magazine. I pick it up now and then because they do such a good job, but it's seldom I actually learn anything from it.

Cooking Light seems to have refocused on cooking, although there is still more than enough about makeup and spas.

My personal favorites are Fine Cooking and Saveur because I usually learn something and anything I've made from them has turned out well. Eating Well is another good one, although I've stopped buying it because the print is so tiny.

One that my husband (who cooks) started bringing home was Weight Watchers! He's not on a diet, but he thought the recipes looked great. We usually end up making soemthing from them each month, and it's usually good. (The desserts aren't so much to our taste because we don't like artificial sweeteners.)

I don't care for Cooks Illustrated. Kimball has a my-way-or-the-highway approach that sets me off. And I haven't cared for Bon Appetit since Fairchild became editor. I haven't liked Southern Cooking in years - not since they started awarding recipes full of convenience foods huge prizes in their contests. Their recipes seem to be more and more driven by the advertisers and makers of convenience foods.

Thanks everyone! You have helped me narrow down my choices! I'm am sorry to hear about Penzey's One & Gourmet, but was glad to be told about them. You even gave me an idea for a Christmas present for usually hard to shop for people!

Cooking Light and Cuisine at Home are my favorites. I used to get Gourmet and Bon Appetit, but I much preferred Bon Appetit to Gourmet. I have found, however, grat recipes in both. I love Cuisine at Home though.
I am so happy you are back Boo. You were much missed!

Jessy, thanks for the website. I like Cooks Country and Taste of Home. I am trying to pare down grocery store magazine purchases and subscribe to those that I really enjoy and benefit from. My cooking skills aren't of the same caliber as most of you so the more simplistic and instructional mags make me happy.

Jessy, you are so cautious so you get a free passsize>

LOL, Mustangs, I don't know about my cooking skills, I'm just looking for something different (and healthier) than I've been making all my life!

Having grown up on beef or pork in all incarnations, au gratin potatoes, fried chicken (and fried everything else) lots of veggies in different sauces and anything you could possibly put an egg into, I'm wanting to branch out.

Heck, I even bought a couple of issues of Vegetarian Times so I could figure out how to cook vegetables without breading, frying, using a pound of butter or a pint of cream, or covering them with cheese. And thus, Cooking Light came to me as a subscription.....

Annie

Ya know, I've been thinking about this thread again, and I thought I'd mention something that is (and at the same time isn't) a cooking magazine, but might be of interest to at least some people here.

Imbibe Magazine is a fun little read for people who take pride in mixing a good cocktail (or pouring a good glass of wine, beer, coffee or non-alcoholic drink). It's full of recipes, beverage history, culture and back stories, and is upscale without being pretentious. I just started my subscription a couple of months ago, and I've enjoyed reading the issues cover to cover. I've learned a lot I didn't already know.

I take pride in mixing good, fresh, and not ridiculously trendy, gack-tastically sweet or fake drinks from fresh ingredients. This magazine is to the liquid portion of the meal what the others are to the solid, and I think it has a place at the table.

I like the recipes in Real Simple. It's not a cooking magazine but there is always a hefty portion of the magazine devoted to cooking. I've also found that I can omit oil/substitute ingredients and make the recipes healthier. Just something different to throw in the mix

So, have I kept you in suspense long enough? Yes, I did order some magazines for Christmas presents to myself & my brother-in-law. My brother-in-law is a vegan and my sister is vegetarian, so they will be getting Vegetarian Times. For myself, I ordered Southern Living & Saveur. I ordered them on Black Friday from Amazon and they were cheap. However, it seems to take forever for them to ship the first issue. So actually they will be more like happy Presidents' Day gifts.

Hey Becky, are you free on the 15th? It's our cookie exchange again. Same place as last time. Let me know if you're free and I'll send details. Hope you can join us.
jo

Bon Appetit is no longer the class act that it used to be. Even the front covers are cheesy, and yes, the recipes do tend to be too exotic for our tastes.

One that I used to love to get at this time of the year was Southern Living's Home for the Holidays. It went to the dogs too, and they started that classey version of it up under a new name with the new price of $9.99. Haven't bought one since!

One by one the subscriptions have been dropped - so sad that the magazines don't have the pizzaz they used to. Sorry if I offend anyone here, but I think that the same people are who are designing today's clothes, are now doing the design layout for the mags... ugh to both!

I subscribe to Cusine, I pick up Cooking Light and I get Cooks Illustrated on line.

I have the new Food Network magazine and when I have time I do read it. It features different people from the shows, tips, articles etc. If you are near a Sam's club, they have a good selection of magazines you can buy to see if you like it.

I think Bon Apetit is one of my favorite cooking magazines. I used to really like Gourmet. It just got sorry and sorrier thru the last few years so it's no wonder it's going out. I will not renew my Cooks Illustrated, although I enjoyed reading it, it's too expensive and I don't want another recipe for Crispy Chicken, Meatloaf or Beef Stew. Recipes for things like that are much better from the T&T recipes here.

I saw an issue of Fine Cooking once and was impressed so I subscribed at a reduced rate for three years and I'm sorry I did. I haven't been nearly as impressed by anything I've recieved.

Cooking Light just has too much information other than cooking and too many advertisements to suit me. I quit taking it years ago.

When Amazon had a Southern Living subscription for $5 a year a week or so ago I did subscribe to it. I would not subscribe at their regular price, although I enjoy the decorating and gardening parts, I really don't like all of the processed foods they have started using in their recipes.

Nobody has said anything about the Food Network Magazine. I love it, over 100 recipes in each magazine. My other favorite is Saveur, a little more technical, no so much like Taste of Home which is a little too crockpotty for me.