Review: Interesting Recipes, Oddly Written Instructions
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 30, 2014
There are some unusual and interesting recipes in this book, but I'm wondering what makes them Canadian. Except for one meat pie recipe, Pie Quebec Style, which was more like a shepherd's pie than a tortiere, and Salmon and Asparagus in Foil recipes, there is little here that says Canadian to me unless the author is Canadian or perhaps the recipes were borrowed from Canadian sources.The sub-title of the book claims these are "recipes for healthy life," but approach them with caution since several are heavy with cheese, salt, fat, and pasta. To be fair, there are many recipes that would qualify for the healthy tag such as Vegetarian Lasagna and Apple Chicken Salad, just be advised that some recipes are much more healthy than others. Overall I'd say that the adjective better suited to most of these recipes is "hearty" rather than "healthy."What bothers me with this book are the wording and formatting of the ingredients lists and instructions which are very awkward and amateurishly done. The choices made for capitalization of words, the syntax of the instructions, and even the odd misuse of a lower case "o" instead of a zero on the temperatures are exactly the same poor choices as were made in ebooks by another cookbook author, Debra Jamison. To further arouse my suspicions, even the requests for reviews at the ends of the books are the same, asking for "your prestigious review." It's too unusual a phrasing to be a coincidence. While I have no problems with authors using pen names, I do wish the author would at least try to polish his/her presentations and not be so obvious about it by repeating the same mistakes under multiple names.The bottom line is the the ideas of the recipes themselves are fine, but the presentation of them is poorly done. Mildly recommended with reservations.