The Bride and Groom's First Cookbook Review

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(More customer reviews)This is one of the best cookbooks we received when we got married. The recipies are grouped together in menus that work for different occasions. The brownie recipe makes the most decadent brownies we have ever tasted. Would recommend this to anyone who needs a starter cookbook with more original dishes than a basic cookbook!

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A simple teaching cookbook for busy young couples who will be sharing cooking and entertaining tasks furnishes a wide variety of recipes and menu suggestions, each of which includes a list of essential utensils, a set of do-ahead instructions, and serving tips. Tour.

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Off the Eaten Path : Inspired Recipes for Adventurous Cooks Review

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(More customer reviews)I recently got to meet Bob at a book signing and had a chance to taste two recipes- the Shrimp on the Bar-B (grilled shrimp in a chipotle dry rub arranged around a Barbie doll) and grilled asparagus. Truly AWESOME food. I've had the chance to make some of the recipes in the book already and can't wait for the next opportunity to try one. Maybe some time this weekend I'll try cooking the lemongrass shrimp on the car engine. There aren't a lot of recipes in the book, but Bob tends to emphasize quality over quantity; all of the recipes are incredibly easy and unlike a lot of cookbooks out there that offer easy cooking but leave you wishing you had made reservations instead, the results are invariably as good or better than your local expensive restaurant.
By the way, in case you're wondering what a pressed-cheese sandwich is, it's just like a classic grilled cheese except that you cook it with your iron. If you want that know how and all kinds of other great information (like taking the luck out of a potluck party), Off the Eaten Path is waiting for you.

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Black Family Dinner Quilt Book Review

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(More customer reviews)I've enjoyed owning The Black Family Reunion Cookbook for many years, not only for its excellent recipes but also for the many narratives.
Once again, the Council has issued a winner. The recipes I've tried out of this new book have worked as well as their original cookbook. Actually, I didn't notice that these recipes are supposed to be 'healthier' until I began to write this review!
I've particularly enjoyed the black-eyed pea soup, the mustard greens and potato soup, and the collard greens and turkey wings. The pound cake recipe is standard, but the pear upside-down cake is terrific. The banana oatmeal cookies will be a hit for you. The chicken broccoli casserole is yummy!
I could go on, but I'll just say that every recipe I've tried has worked well. This is good home-style cooking, nothing too fancy, and the recipes are well written.
However, it's the stories and parables running through the book that make it special. I've always been a fan of Ms. Bethune, and the narratives here about her are particularly enjoyable.
This book is not only excellent, but it's also an excellent buy!

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As a shared meal nourishes the body, so a quilt, passed from generation to generation, warms and nourishes the spirit. Both recipes and quilts preserve the culture and history of a people and their social, historic, and artistic connections to their past and their future. Celebrating both these traditions, The Black Family Dinner Quilt offers recipes based on both traditional and contemporary African-American cuisine with recipes full of down-home flavor but lower in fat, salt, and sugar. Southern Ham and Shrimp Soup, Country Chicken and Biscuits, Jamaican Pork, Creole Beans and Rice, Creamy Macaroni and Cheese, and even Bethune Sweet Potato Pie are just a few of the healthful and soul-satisfying dishes you'll find in these pages.

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Solo Suppers: Simple Delicious Meals to Cook for Yourself Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm sort of baffled as to how to review this cookbook, because I think it's great for her intended audience, but the marketing is a bit misleading. Someone who is looking for truly SIMPLE meals to make for one person may be a bit dissappointed. So I'll just sum up my impressions of it so far.
First of all, it's a beautiful book. Nicely laid out, gorgeous photographs, personal antecdotes - it's just the sort of book I love browsing through when I'm feeling excited about cooking. I like the stylistic layout of the recipes, with the ingredients in a separate column on the side, and it's printed on thick, quality paper. It's a high quality paperback, perfect for laying flat on the counter.
Her attitude throughout is kind of gratingly pretentious at times. It's as if she expects the readers to look at her as some kind of culinary snob, so she deliberately makes comments to diffuse it, but the comments are sort of more pretentious than just snobbiness. For example, discussing eating polenta straight from the pot with a spoon: "... I make no apologies for my childish eating habits." Or, discussing microwave cooking - "... I will confess I have reheated coffee a few times. I am no longer a total culinary snob." Besides blatent examples like that, her tone and choice of words throughout are sort of exclusionary. I find it amusing and charming, but I'm sure other people will be put off by it.
In her introduction, she plainly says that this is not another book of quick meals for singles. Alot of the dishes in this book are rather lengthy and complicated. Her persian meatball soup, for example, requires mixing and rolling 30 tiny meatballs, soaking and precooking 2 different dried grains, and has 20 ingredients - all for 1-2 servings. On top of that, it's a yogurt based soup, which I found very difficult to not curdle and ruin. Is it good? I'm not sure, because I've tried it twice, investing hours each time, and haven't been successful. My mom saw the recipe and laughed - she's started calling this my "snooty single person cookbook."
Alot of the flavors she likes are strange. Lots of exotic herbs and ethnic spices, (cinnamon in the meatballs was a little strange). The recipes also seem pretty high in fat and cholesterol. Here's my favorite quote of the whole book (about spaghetti alla carbonara): "Yes, I realize that this is a high cholesterol special, but I don't care. I only eat this pasta twice a year. The rest of the time I am a model of Mediterranean dietary restraint." Haha. I guess she doesn't eat the other recipes in the book that call for several eggs, butter, cheese and heavy cream.
But if you can get past the pretentiousness, the apparent unhealthiness, and the complicated nature of some recipes, - most of them are REALLY good. The poached salmon is SO delicious that it's my new favorite way to eat salmon. All of the egg dishes are great, so are some of the soups.
I consider myself somewhat of an amatuer gourmet. I enjoy grocery shopping and reading cookbooks and trying new recipes, and most nights it is just me for dinner. I like this book because the food is good, and reading it makes me want to become a true gourmet. I think that I'm probably close to her target audience.


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Indian Vegetarian Cooking at Your House (Healthy World Cuisine) Review

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(More customer reviews)My husband and I both love Indian cuisine and have tried many times over the years to cook it, much to our disappointment. We've purchased many Indian cookbooks, but we could never get the recipes to turn out very good. We had almost given up and resigned ourselves to only eating Indian food at restaurants. Then I found this book. It came recommended to me by some Indian friends who said it was easy, authentic & they enjoyed most of the recipes. So far, every recipe we've tried has been great. I am getting results as good or better than restaurant fare for the first time in years! And the recipe presentation is so easy, I'm even trying to make some of the recipes that I used to think would be too hard, like some of the stuffed breads. I have a lot of cookbooks, but I find myself making recipes out of this one all the time. There are also plenty of quick recipes, so even if you've had a long day, you can still have great Indian meal in a half an hour. If you like Indian food, you won't be disappointed with this book.

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Learn the secrets of authentic Indian cuisine from native-born cook Sunetra Humbad. With the collaboration of Amy Schafer, most of the cooking methods, techniques and ingredients in these recipes are basic and familiar.Each recipe has a separate listing of ingredients needed to make shopping and planning easier.Menu plans help put it all together.

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Sylvia's Family Soul Food Cookbook: From Hemingway, South Carolina, To Harlem Review

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(More customer reviews)My family is entirely from Kentucky (except for myself, I was born in New York) and I grew up on good southern cooking.Though I love to cook, I never learned to cook real southern food. I regret not taking the opportunity when my great-grandmother was alive and my grandmother is too ill to teach me now.
Sylvia's book covers many of the staple recipes my family whipped up and they are truly *easy* to prepare. She even has several more health conscious recipes for those who must have them (Southern and healthy are not synonymous).
I've prepared many of her recipes with great success. The tuna croquettes are easy and yummy! You probably already have all the ingredients in your cupboards. The smothered pork chops are to die for, and I finally can make a gravy my grand mother would be proud of! There are a few recipes I simple will not try. I wouldn't as a kid and I'm not starting now! (Eeewww chitterlings! ), but if you're adventurous or your taste bud run that way, enjoy! If you love real southern cooking, you can easily make it yourself with this book.
It's also filled with lots of interesting stories and anecdotes about her, her family and her restaurant. She's a wonderful woman whom I hope writes another cookbook soon!

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Sylvia's Family Soul Food Cookbook begins as Sylvia recalls her childhood, when she lived with both her mother and her grandmother -- the town's only midwives. The entire community of Hemingway, South Carolina, shared responsibilities, helped raise all of the children, and worked side by side together every day in the bean fields. Perhaps most important, the community shared its food and recipes. When Sylvia set out to write this cookbook, she decided to hold a cook-off back home in Hemingway at Jeremiah Church. Family and friends of all ages shared their favorite dishes as well as their spirit and love for one another. The recipes offered at the cook-off were then compiled to create this incredible collection, along with many of Sylvia's and the Woods family's own recipes.Here are the kinds of recipes you'd find if you visited the Woods family's home. Sylvia's daughter Bedelia is well known for her Barbecued Beef Short Ribs, which are as sassy and spicy as Bedelia herself. Kenneth, Sylvia's youngest son, has loved to fish ever since he was a child, spending his summers by the fishing hole in Hemingway. Now Kenneth's son, DeSean, enjoys fishing, too. Kenneth's Honey Lemon Tilefish, DeSean's favorite, is just one of Kenneth's special recipes presented here.And there are many, many other wonderful dishes, too. In this remarkable cookbook, Sylvia has gathered more than 125 soul food classics, including mouthwatering recipes for okra, collard greens, Southern-style pound cakes, hearty meat and seafood stews and casseroles, salads, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and more. These recipes are straight from the heart of the Woods community of family and friends. Now Sylvia gives them to you to share with your loved ones. Bring them into your home and experience a little bit of Hemingway's soul.

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