Cooking Month Bonus – Guest Review

This article is by Laurie C. and was originally published on her blog, Bay State Reader’s Advisory. If you like this review and the recent cook book reviews, you should check out her blog and as well as the weekly cooking meme she participates in: Weekend Cooking hosted by Beth Fish Reads.

After almost 30 years of putting dinner together a few times a week, I turn to the same cookbooks again and again: the Moosewood Restaurant cookbooks and cookbooks by Mollie Katzen, originally part of the Moosewood collaborative.

Cooking Month Wrap-Up

This past month, I had a lot of fun using and reviewing a variety of cookbooks. Enough fun that cook book reviews may continue to show up occasionally, although not with the same frequency as last month! Here’s a quick overview of the four books I reviewed:

Eating Well – Serves Two

Title: Eatingwell Serves Two
Author: Jim Romanoff
Source: gift from family
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Review Summary: Some good pictures, clear instructions, but the whole “cooking for two” idea seems pricey and inefficient.

College Cooking

Title: College Cooking
Author: Megan & Jill Carle
Source: starting college gift
Rating: ★★★★☆
Review Summary: This cookbook has nice easy to follow directions, some tasty dinners, and my go-to, easy to make, dessert.

Just Add Water

Title: Just Add Water
Author: Lauren Chattman
Source: library
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Review Summary: Nothing special about the book and the recipe I tried was proof that sometimes just adding water isn’t enough.

Like the slow cooker cook book, this was a book I picked up because it contains a lot of quick recipes requiring few ingredients. It also made the claim that any one who can boil water could make these recipes and let me tell you – I boil a mean pot of water.

Slow Cooker Recipes Review

Title: Sensational Slow Cooker Gourmet
Author: Judith Finlayson
Source: library
Rating: ★★★★★
Review Summary: Very focused on convenience and does a good job of spelling everything out – plus it finally got me to use my crock pot.

This book of slow cooker recipes was a great fit for my busy schedule and most recipes don’t look like they’d be too pricey for my poor college student budget either In fact, the recipe I made cost me less than $20 for ingredients and will probably make at least 6 meals. But before we get into the recipe, lets start with the book…