southerncooker's Reviews
Cookbook Reviews
117 books reviewed. Showing 101 to 117Sort by: Rating | Title 
Cat Cora's Classics with a Twist: Fresh Takes on Favorite Dishes
By Cat Cora, Ann Kruegar Spivack
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt - 2010
This book contains casual recipes that look as if you spent hours but only take minimal time. It includes healthy meals and is said to be meals that Cat makes after work for her own family. Cat puts her Greek and Southern roots twist on many foods and sneaks out calories when ever she can without sacrificing flavor. She encourages you to twist the recipes to make them your own. Her and her partner have 4 boys all under the age of seven and she includes some of their favorites such as Enchilada Pie, Easy Chicken Curry, Bucatini Pasta with bacon, and crispy baked fish sticks with honey mustard dipping sauce.
This book has wonderful color photos, mostly of the food but a few also of Cat and two of her and her partner's four sons preparing food. I love the layout of this book The recipes are on one page or continued on facing pages, where if the book is open then you can see the complete recipe, and sometimes a photo of it as well. The type is black with the names of recipes and headings in a green that matches the cover of the book.
Cat includes a note at the bottom of many recipes and a paragraph or two at the beginning. There are also boxes included at the bottom of some of the recipes called Twist It. In them she gives you hints and tips on doing something a little different with the recipe or some of the ingredients. Sometimes a recipe will be followed by another recipe also with Twist it at the top where you can turn one recipe into another recipe. There are even a few called Twist it again where you take the first recipe even farther. Sometimes a bonus recipe will be included following the main recipe. These are called chef's touches and can be served as a stand alone dish but also can be used to enhance the main recipe.
For instance one of the recipes I plan on trying is called Tom-mozz Skewers with Bloody Mary Vinaigrette and the chef's touch is Crispy Buttermilk-soaked Onions. The onions are served on top of the skewers if desired. In the paragraph along with the onions she tells how they compliment the Skewers and that they also go great with the Ginger-Marinated Steak recipe.
Contents: Introduction; appetizers and drinks; soups and salads; main dishes and sides; desserts; good to know; resources; index. In the Good to Know chapter there are recipes for things like stocks, homemade mayo, infused oils, pesto, salsas, herbes de provence, roasted garlic and southern corn bread.
Carolina Thyme
By Junior League of Durham & Orange County
Favorite Recipes Press (FRP) - 2001
This is an excellent Junior League cookbook from the Junior League of Durham and Orange Counties in NC. It has wonderful sounding recipes and my copy looks like a porcupine with all the little post it's sticking out of recipes I hope to try.
Butter Sugar Flour Eggs: Whimsical Irresistible Desserts
By Gale Gand, Rick Tramonto, Julia Moskin
Clarkson Potter - 1999
Chapters in this book are divided by ingredients: butter, sugar, flour, eggs, chocolate, citrus, fruit, nuts, cheese, spice, and finally one each for holidays and drinks. After the introduction is a chapter on the basics. If you are a seasoned baker you may already know and follow these basic tips, but it's helpful for those who don't bake often or are just starting. Even if you bake often you may find a helpful tip you hadn't thought of or maybe had forgotten.
There are lots of great dessert recipes included in this book. Some of them you may have saw on the food network and others on Baking with Julia on PBS. Still others may have been served at one of Rick and Gale's restaurants. I love the side bars included with each recipe, interesting things about the recipe. Each recipe also come with a drink suggestion.
This is Gale and Rick's 2nd book together, their first being American Brasserie, which was published in 1997. We've always had great results when using Gale's recipes. If you are looking for a dessert book you can't go wrong if you choose this one.
The Bon Appetit Cookbook
By Barbara Fairchild
Wiley - 2006
This is a giant cookbook with more than 1,200 recipes. The recipes are best loved recipes from Bon Appetit magazine. It has a few color photos scattered through the book.
Bobby Flay's Throwdown!: More Than 100 Recipes from Food Network's Ultimate Cooking Challenge
By Bobby Flay, Stephanie Banyas, Miriam Garron
Clarkson Potter - 2010
Are you ready for a Throwdown? If you're a fan of Throwdown with Bobby Flay then you're familiar with that phrase. This book includes recipes from Throwdown seasons 1 through 7 and the pilot episode. For each episode you get the recipe from Bobby and the person he challenges. There are also favorite throwdown moments and behind the scenes peeks.
If you enjoy the show then you'll love this book. You can try some of the recipes and decide if the judges make the right picks. Even if you're not a fan of the show you might still enjoy this book as it's filled with regional favorites from across the USA.
Biker Billy's Freeway-A-Fire Cookbook: Life's Too Short to Eat Dull Food
By Bill Hufnagle
Cookbooks - 1999
This is a vegetarian cookbook filled with spicy recipes which range from mild to extremely hot. Besides the recipes there are also tips for growing, buying, handling, and cooking with the hot peppers that make the recipes sizzle. The Burpee Seed Company named an extremely hot hybrid jalapeno after Biker Billy. This is his second cookbook, the first being, Biker Billy Cooks with Fire.
In the first chapter there is a Scoville unit list and a list dividing the peppers into - mild, medium, hot and atomic. He also lists them by fresh and dry and describes each. He shares his biker pantry. There are recipes for salads, pasta, appetizers, breads, main dishes, and even drinks.
One thing some people might find irritating is that the names of recipes and list of ingredients are in a red ink.
If you are vegetarian and like you food on the spicy and sometimes wildly hot side or just want to add more wild and spicy vegetable dishes to your life, then I think this is a good book for you.
The Best-Kept Secrets of Healthy Cooking: Your Culinary Resource to Hundreds of Delicious Kitchen-Tested Dishes
By Sandra Woodruff
Avery Trade - 2000
This book lists nutritonal information for every recipe and includes tips and
hints among the recipes on how to make dishes lower in fat and healthier.
Besides the frittata we made there are several other varriations that also sound
good and may have to try soon as this makes a wonderful weekend breakfast -
Zucchini & Tomato, Spring Vegetable, Sausage Pepper & Onion, Shrimp & Bacon, and
Spinach & Ham. Other breakfast items I've marked to try are Cottage Cheese
Pancakes and Honey-Orange Syrup.
I love this book and think it will be one I'll cook from often as it has post its sticking
out in all directions. Don't know why it took me so long to plunge into this
one. I have a few others by the same author and plan to cook from them soon too.
Best of the Best from North Carolina Cookbook: Selected Recipes from North Carolina's Favorite Cookbooks (Best of the Best State Cookbook)
By Gwen McKee, Gwen McKee, Barbara Moseley
Quail Ridge Press - 2006
This is the Best of the Best from my home state, NC. It is filled with select recipes from North Carolina's favorite cookbooks as collected by Gwen McKee and Barbara Moseley. As with all the BOB state cookbooks it is illustrated by Tupper Davidson. ISBN: 0937552380 It is a spiral bound book and lays flat nicely when you want to cook from it. All the ones I have are spiral bound except the California one.
One of my favorite features of the BOB cookbooks is the catalog of contributing cookbooks listed in the back. I have eight of the thirty-eight listed in the NC edition. Of course I now have several more of those on my ever growing wish list. NC is one of my newest additions to my BOB state cookbook collection and I haven't cooked from it yet. It's kinda funny that I'd bought a few BOB NC ones to give away in swapson cookbooksetcetera but hadn't gotten one for myself until awhile back when I got it from paperbackswap.com
Barefoot Contessa How Easy Is That?: Fabulous Recipes & Easy Tips
By Ina Garten
Clarkson Potter - 2010
I love the Barefoot Contessa books and this one is no exception. As with her other books this one includes fabulous photos and inspiring recipes.
Not only does this one include easier recipes but also great tips and a list of Ina's must have things for the kitchen. The recipes may be easy but they sure aren't boring. Even so most ingredients are easily found in a regular supermarket. She does use a few rather expensive ingredients in some of the recipes. For instance truffle butter. That is one thing I can't find in a regular supermarket but for the most part it's standard ingredients.
Most of the recipes are ones I'd love to cook and eat. I'm sure I'll be using this one for some time to come. I've already made the Herb roasted turkey breast for our Thanksgiving and the spicy turkey meatballs and spaghetti and both were fantastic.
Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics: Fabulous Flavor from Simple Ingredients
By Ina Garten
Clarkson Potter - 2008
If you like the Barefoot Contessa's other books I think you'll enjoy this one also. I love the green used in this book, it's my favorite color. Like her other books it has wonderful photography. You know the kind that makes you want to lick the pages!
In this one she gives you some hints and tips and even shares some of her food secrets at the beginning of the book. Also included on one page at the beginning of each chapter she gives you some good advice about different topics. At the end she answers some FAQ's to help with some basic food questions. She says you can go to her website barefootcontessa.com to see an ever evolving list. On her website are also menus using all her previous books and this one as well.
The book is divided into the following chapters: cocktail hour, soup, lunch, dinner, vegetables, dessert, and breakfast. She also includes a sources page, barn sources and resources, menus, index and a recipe index.
I also like the little tid bits she includes at the beginning of each recipe, something like when she made the recipe, where it came from originally, how she came up with it, or a hint or tip about it. There are also little tips included beside some of the recipes.
Barefoot Contessa at Home: Everyday Recipes You'll Make Over and Over Again
By Ina Garten
Clarkson Potter - 2006
I love watching the Barefoot Contessa on the food network and get great ideas for meals as well as trying many of her recipes. This book has beautiful color photos - one for almost every dish.
Each chapter begins with some interesting comments from Ina about topics such as: making a grocery list, outdoor parties, planning a menu, designing a kitchen, and developing a recipe. Included with each recipe is a paragraph just under the recipe title. Also on the side of almost every recipe is a hint or tip sometimes even two. These hints and tips as well as the recipe names are written in bright colors -- orange, green, blue, purple and red. The recipes and paragraphs before are in black ink.
Bake Happy: 100 Playful Desserts with Rainbow Layers, Hidden Fillings, Billowy Frostings, and more
By Judith Fertig
Running Press - 2015
I recently won this book and Cake Therapist by the same author from http://thecookbookjunkies.com/. Will do a review of Cake Therapist as soon as I’m finished reading. Today I had my first chance to cook from this book. I made Lime Chiffon Cupcakes with Blackberry Buttercream and they were so good. Light as air with a hint of lime that complements the taste of the blackberries in the frosting.
If you’re wondering if you really need another baking book then the answer is YES! Since this book has so many new and interesting flavor combinations. Things like Blackberry and Lavender Turnovers, Meyer Lemon and Pomegrante Tart, Venezuelan Spiced Brownies, Coconut Lover’s Cupcakes with Secret Filling, Saffron Creme Burlee with Rosy Strawberry Compote, and so much more. There are recipes for bread puddings, flans, souffles, meringues, cakes, tarts, curds, cookies, pies, and lots more. The book is filled with 100 playful desserts to help you bake happy.
Not only will these recipes satisfy your sweet tooth they’ll help you have fun in the kitchen. There are quiet a few photos for those of us that love pictures with our recipes. I also like that there is some information included with each recipe that is fun to read and often filled with helpful information. I’ll be turning to this book often when I start craving something sweet or need something sweet to share at a celebration.
Back to the Table: The Reunion of Food and Family
By Art Smith
Hyperion - 2001
This is a wonderful book to read. You can almost feel the love of cooking and feeding those that are special to you in Art's writing of this book. It is filled with great recipes you can make for those you want to share a table with. This is what he considers family, anyone you welcome to your table to enjoy food with.
I enjoyed reading the little blurbs included with each recipe. The names of the chapters are wonderful as well: Back to the Table; Setting the Table; Bless the Table; Breaking Bread; The Family Meal; Family Traditions; Food as Love; Family Celebrations; and finally Friends as Family. The book starts off with a list of all the recipes. It is filled with great photos as well.
I made the Red Beans and Brown Rice. This is noted as a healthful vegetarian version of the Creole Classic and was easy to make and delicious. I'm sure I'll cook more from this one. I've been wanting this one since I saw it on Oprah. Art is or was her personal chef and has appeared on her show several times.
The Art and Soul of Baking
By Sur La Table, Cindy Mushet
Andrews McMeel Publishing - 2008
This is a huge book. It weighs just over 5 pounds. It's filled with wonderful color photos of not only some of the finished products but some step by step photos as well. I won this book in a Project Foodie contest. (projectfoodie.com)
The first two chapters help you to learn what you need in a bakers kitchen and also the bakers pantry. Next are chapters on yest breads and rolls, layered pastries, quick breads, Pies, Turnovers, and dumplings, Tarts, fruit desserts, cookies, bars, and brownies, cakes, custards, bread puddings, and cheesecakes, souffles, meringues, and pate a choux, and finally basic recipes and finishing techniques.
The book is laced with some boxes with tips called What the Pro Knows. There are also many tips for success in your baking adventures. Did you know there are eight main ingredients in baking? Well you can find out what they are if you read this book.
There is lots of information included with each recipe, and often variations after the recipe to help you turn something into something even more. If you are a baker or just want to become one then this is the book for you. It's fun to read, browse through and bake from.
The American Century Cookbook
By Jean Anderson
Clarkson Potter - 1997
This book is filled with wonderful recipes from the 20th century. It's also a great read. If you're interested in food history then this is the book for you.
1999 Taste of Home Annual Recipes
By Kathy Pohl
Country Store Reiman Pubs - 1998
A year's worth of Taste of Home recipes in one place. What could be better? You're in for some good meals with these books.
1995 Taste of Home Annual Recipes
By Jean Steiner, Heidi Reuter Lloyd, Julie Schnittka, Julie Schnittka, Mark Hagen, Julie Schnittka
Reiman Assoc - 2000
I love the Taste of Home annual cookbooks. They contain a full years worth of the recipes from the magazine. I've enjoyed almost every recipe I've tried from them and many have become family staples.