Monkey Rose's Reviews
Cookbook Reviews
3 books reviewed. Showing 1 to 3Sort by: Rating | Title 
Pie: 300 Tried-and-True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie
By Ken Haedrich
Harvard Common Press - 2004
You can't go wrong with the recipes in this book. I've made a lot of pie from many different books, but this is by far the best one. A wide variety of pies are covered (fruit pies, sugar pies, freezer pies) and oftentimes there are several of each kind. They're all desert pies so no savory pies here, sorry. The author also includes stories about many of the recipes and something he calls "recipe for success" where he gives tips for each recipe. Some of the recipes also include unusual or interesting ingredients - or nice pairings of flavors that you might not have thought of otherwise. For example, one of his cherry pies calls for peach schnapps, and several others call for almond extract. Delicious! I love trying the different toppings he suggests too.
Overall, a fantastic book for all of the pie lovers out there!
The Ultimate Vegetarian Cookbook
By Roz Denny
Smithmark Publishers - 1996
This was one of my first-ever cookbooks. It has lots of beautiful color pictures which seems to be a rare thing in vegetarian cookbooks. There are even pictures of many of the steps of the cooking process. That might be why a few of the recipes are hard to follow (no room for words because there are too many fancy pictures). It has a very dated early 90's feel to it now. The recipes are a bit hit-or-miss, but there are a few that I still go to fairly often.
Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone
By Deborah Madison
Broadway - 2007
This is a fantastic cookbook. I haven't had anything turn out badly and I've been using it for many years. It has recipes and suggestions for cooking very simple, basic dishes as well as more complex and interesting recipes. The only thing that I don't like about this book is that there are a handful of recipes that call for less common ingredients that I probably won't use too much. Also, she's apparently a big fan of parsley (I hate the stuff so I always leave it out).
I strongly recommend this book if you join a CSA and find yourself with a pile of vegetables that you've never worked with before. Have a heap of endives? There's a recipe in here somewhere for you.