Review: I've Reviewed Many Cookbooks - But Few Like This
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 24, 2014
It's easy to write a crappy cookbook.  You steal a bunch of recipes that rely on commercial products  like Cool Whip that more closely resemble Plastic Wood than real food, and you paste them together without even bothering to try them out.Even of the recipe is good, the ingredients can change without your realizing it. Mama had a recipe that used Coco Wheats, a chocolate-flavored hot cereal.  Recently, I bought a box of Coco Wheats only to discover that the company had gone out of business, and the brand name had been sold to Malt-O-Meal, to slap on some horrible crap. I'd been eating Coco Wheats since the 1050s, and they'd always been consistently good but as George Harrison sang, all things must pass,I first read the author's recipe for honey oat bread, because I have a great recipe I developed myself. It was almost identical to my old recipe.  (I've since switched from oik to lard, because oil gives a softer crust, and lard give a slightly more buttery flavor.) Then I checked out the recipe for tomato pie. She adds golden raisins, which sounds like a great variation on the pie I love.All the recipes are like that.Some cookbooks are great for giving you ideas about what to fix for supper.  Some are great at teaching the fundamentals of a new cuisine, such as egg drop soup, etc.  Some are handy references when you make something infrequently, and don't want to forget to include the tumeric or mace.This one, though, is the workhorse cookbook to give to the new bride, tekling her how to make real food that tastes really great and keeps her family healthy.  By the time she makes all these recipes, she'll.have neighbors begging her to open a restaurant, so they can eat something decent for a change instead of boxed meals from Kroger, delivery from Papa John's, garbage from Applebees and styro foods from fast food restaurants,This isn't a recommendation.  This is an imperative. You NEED a cookbook like this. SIX sears!