Cooking Books

"Holy Smoke: The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue" by John Shelton Reed and Dale Volberg Reed ($30, University of North Carolina Press, 316 pp.). This book does a great job of telling its story through its content supported by loads of pictures (although only black-and-white here). However, this book has a juicy back story that goes past being just an ode to the barbecue of its region. Everyone knows of the rivalry among the four major barbecue regions as to which one is the best. But North Carolina has its own rivalry within that rivalry between barbecue of the Piedmont and barbecue of Eastern North Carolina. The authors do a great job of telling that story, making this book all the better. This book, like the others, covers its topic in such a detailed manner that you'll be an expert by the time you finish the book no matter if you've ever set foot in the Tarheel State or not.

This book is an excellent overview of North Carolina barbecue. What sets this book apart from others on the subject is the amount of detailed research. The authors not only did their homework, they interviewed many of the major figures in North Carolina barbecue first hand.

The unique structure makes the book very readable. First they give a detailed history of barbecue in North Carolina while touching on the debates that echo within the state as to what constitutes "real" barbecue and what does not. This ranges from the style of sauce and what cut of the pig is used, to what fuel does the cooking (wood vs. gas, electric, etc.) Second, they go into the food in detail giving many excellent recipes and enough detail that even a barbecue novice could produce their own 'cue. Finally (and my favorite part) are the interviews. The authors scoured the state, interviewing the important restaurant owners and pitmasters who make North Carolina the epicenter of barbecue as we know it.

Highly recommended for fans of good food and history.

This is a great book on North Carolina barbecue and is worthy of a spot next to "North Carolina Barbecue" by Bob Garner, another good read. They make you want to hit the NC barbecue trail!

I got this book as a gift for my husband for Christmas. Let me just say that we LOVE North Carolina barbecue. My husband has thoroughly enjoyed Holy Smoke. It is a great reference for the historical and cultural aspect of NC barbecue and also includes some very interesting and authentic recipes. The pictures are great too. He has several other books dedicated to North Carolina barbecue, but this one is unique.

Bought it for my father-in-law for Christmas. We took turns reading it over the holiday. He and I agree of all the BBQ books we've read, Holy Smoke might just be the best.
It covers every aspect from history to recipes to making excellent BBQ at home. Highly recommended for fans of North Carolina barbeque.

I really enjoyed this book and it's what I turn to whenever I'm having a "blah" moment. The drawings are easy to follow, the writing is short and brief and there are tons of little extras throughout the book (stickers, punch outs, etc). It's more of an activity book than a drawing book and even if you have no interest in drawing, you'll enjoy the wit and whimsy of the words and illustrations. A great buy at the original price, but a fabulous bargin at anything less!

How to Draw a Radish: And Other Fun Things to Do at Work
How to Draw a Cup of Coffee and Other Fun Ideas for Home & Garden
How to Draw a Clam: A Wonderful Vacation Planner
All three books, by Joy Sikorski

I have owned these three wonderful books since the late nineties & have re-visited them many times.

In the field of what I would like to term as 'deliberate doodling', I consider these three books to be the best in the genre. Unlike the common doodles, which seem whimsical, 'deliberate doodling' involves some form of structure & purpose. I am very impressed by what the author has done in the three fun books of hers.

All three fun books are spiral bound, each with almost two hundred pages of inspirational doodling techniques, on top of various other discovery games & paper crafts for professional & personal entertainment. Each is sturdily constructed with two pockets for special projects, organised with ten card-board dividers & yet small enough to fit into your briefcase.

From my personal perspective, they are wonderful toys for grow-ups: playful, instructive & absolutely worthwhile!

The author has actually written another similar book, entitled 'Squeaky Chalk : And Other Fun Things to Draw (And Do) When There's Nothing to Do!' but for some strange reasons, I did not lay my hands on it.

For the benefit of readers, let me share this personal experience of mine: I have combined the 'deliberate doodling' techniques from Joy with the 'rapid viz' techniques from Kurt Hanks, & integrated them into the 'private writing' processes as formulated by Mark Levy in his wonderful book, 'Accidental Genius: Revolutionize Your Thinking Through Private Writing .'

I use what I often like to term as my 'scratch pad', the type artists use, foolscape size, spiral-bound, 100 pages per pad, 100 gms weight, in conjuction with a multi-colour/multi-utility pen from Rotring. At one point in time, (for about 3 years) I used the Bienfang spring-bound note/sketch pads until the only local supplier went out of business unexpectedly.

On many occasions, I have astonished myself by being able to wrestle with the valuable business & life insights from my own seemingly disparate "private writing"/'deliberate doodling'/'rapid viz' pages. The doodles & illustrations often add a perceptive visual dimension to my seemingly random thoughts on paper. My scratch pad is always a visual smorgasbord of relatively heavy text, mystical doodles & logical illustrations (thanks & no thanks to my engineering training!). I have translated many of my valuable insights into pragmatic projects. One of the sideline projects is writing reviews on amazon website.

To all readers: If you really want to use both sides of your powerful brain to generate valuable insights, I can guarantee that these three books can drive your imagination engine into hyper-speed mode.

I simply love this little book. I found it on clearance and thought "Hey, what can it hurt?" It didn't hurt at all, obviously. I love the whimsical flow and little extras like the herb labels and "postcards." It's also very informative, teaching you how to doodle things like cups of coffee, mice and peanuts, and the ever-honorable peccary. This would make an excellent gift for those who like a little silliness in their everyday life.

A delightfully silly and surreal book. I enjoyed the drawing lessons most.

If you are looking for a fun gift look no further! this book is an exellent peice of work from people of all ages! It is fun and creative and never boring! Read it and give it a try!

Excellent and informative book. Yummy recipes and the authors anecdotes about his daughter are priceless.

This man, Matthew Amster-Burton, is hysterical! He is witty and insightful on how the inner-workings of a toddler's mind work, in particular that of his beautiful Iris. I enjoy the fact too, that he uses research I would not have access to to talk about food allergies and the like to explain his theories regarding toddler-feeding methodologies. It's so interesting my hubby and I are both reading the same book at the same time, dogearring different sections at a time. I have two girls, one a newborn and one a 4 year old. I only wish I had had this book the first time around, as my older one might have been more adventurous in her food choices if I had been more informed.

Great book. Great info. I hope he follows it up with more, even if it is on topics unrelated to children.

What a great read! Page-turner, funny, and yummy. I share Amster-Burton's baby-feeding attitude. My son is just 8 months old, so we're just starting down this path - in fact I blog about it at chowfunbaby.blogspot.com. This book gives me much to look forward to.

This is an extremely funny book based on foodie dad wanting to expose his young daughter to all foods, not just the manufactured "kid-friendly" ones. So it's a trip through the spice cabinet, the joys of pad thai, and the exotic language of sushi rather than Chef Boy-are-you-uncertain-what's-in-here and powdered yellow stuff with macaroni.

Setting aside the overall aim, the recipes are also quite good. And if other parents want to argue with you about what you're feeding your child, there's information to refute them here as well.

Fun book that connects parenting with good food. Maybe we'll see lots of folks carrying this around this summer, a year after they were carrying In Defense of Food...

I finished this book today and gave it to my husband so he could read it while on a business trip. I am already regretting that decision because I won't have Hungry Monkey in my hands again for 6 whole days. As soon as I read the last page I wanted to start over again with some little sticky flags in my hand to mark recipes I wanted to try and passages where Amster-Burton says specifically that kaiten sushi is ideal baby food. But no, I was all, "This book is hilarious. It's about cooking and kids and Seattle. You're going to love it. Why don't you take it to LA with you?" And now I can't make dumplings or cornmeal pizza crust until Friday. If you know me at all, and you might not, you'll understand why these four reasons alone merited my five-star rating of Hungry Monkey:

-Amster-Burton writes about Seattle and makes me feel like an insider, even though I live in Bellevue;
-he references Bread and Jam For Frances multiple times, which is possibly the best book ever written;
-he got a 5 on my humor rating scale, meaning I was laughing out loud to myself AND making my husband listen as I read funny parts aloud;
-the way he talks about food and feeding his family is equal parts Anthony Bourdain and M.F.K. Fisher, which is no easy feat.

What I was drawn to most in this book is the author's respect for both his daughter and the food they make together. Their relationship as depicted in the book is really quite lovely and illustrates that one does not have to dumb down conversations, expectations, ideas or flavors just because one lives with someone who happens to be a toddler.

And, on a personal note, as I sat in a nearly empty restaurant today and waited for our order that I could SEE on the warming tray for over 15 minutes (including one child's order of mini hamburgers and grapes...yawn) while my own toddler got increasingly flappy and bouncy in her high chair, I thought about our last visit to our favorite sushi place where she happily ate her fill of tamago sushi and edamame as soon as we sat down. Then I thought about Hungry Monkey and realized that I'm glad to have its message, its spirit and its recipes to guide me through these next several years of eating, cooking and throwing food on the floor.

My Grand Daughter Came home one weekend from culinery school with this book she had checked out from the library and was really impressed with it. So as a gift I went on line to Amazom.com and bought her her own copy. Wow was I ever glad I did. This is now her favorite cooking book. She really rants and raves about how great this book is. I know if I would ack her she would recomend this book to anyone who likes cooking. It's full of helpfull hints, receipts, conversion tables and etc. This book would make a good text book for cooks. The book got to me way before delivery date. It's been a great experance for me, THANK YOU

After realizing that almost every recipe I was drooling over on [...] came from this cookbook, I bought it and I'm so glad I did. There is a picture of every recipe, and although they are beautiful photographs, they are not intimidating. I'm also very pleased with the wide variety of cuisines represented, as well as useful tips for menus and more.

I bought this for my sister-in-law after I had recieved it from a friend. I love this cookbook! There are appetizing pictures of every recipe, and directions on how to do things like pipe meringue in the back of the book. I've cooked about ten different things from this book and everything has been delicious. I highly recommend it!

I love this book with all my heart -- I am so happy I purchased it. I read it almost every day ... just for fun! The photos are gorgeous and the recipes are out of this world. So far I have tried a handful of them and they turned out great!! Buy this book!!

This is a great cookbook that has all types of foods. It also has a section in the back that gives you alot of hints and how to's. It would specially be good for a new cook, but anyone who has been cooking for years can also profit by it.

Another wonderful cookbook from Julia Child. She invites Master Chefs to cook with her using their own wonderful recipes. I have been watching (and taping) her series on Public TV that goes along with this book. It's great to have the exact recipe and view it with Julia and the guest chef as they prepair these great foods.

As if Julia Child, the pragmatic, industrious doyenne of the kitchen, weren't enough, she joined forces with 26 chefs who prepared dishes in her kitchen for her television series. She presents these plus many more recipes in this beautifully illustrated volume, which is a tribute to American cooking at its best.

Among the 150 prize recipes are a Mixed Game Grill with a tangy berry relish contributed by Michael Lomonaco, former Executive Chef at New York City's "21" Club. He suggests serving the game with home fries and a fresh green vegetable. Carol Field's Rustic Country Bread is a marvelous surprise with a slightly chewy texture and the actual taste of grain.

A personal favorite, Chef Joachim Splichal of the famed Los Angeles restaurant, Patina, and his French bistro, Pinot, offers an unparalleled Potato Lasagna - wafer thin slices of potato layered with sauteed mushrooms.

Bon Appetit!

- Gail Cooke

This is a wonderful book to use for special ocasions. It does not give you everyday meals but instead you find selected recipes that are surely going to turn out fantastic. The recipe for paella is not only authentic but quite easy, as well as the pan fried fish. Every single dessert I've tried was superb, the best apple pie, the best chocolate cake ever and the most beautiful mousse towers. I am not an experienced cook and this is the book I use when I have to cook for guests.

This book is a must in any kitchen. It covers many of the basic recipies and even some of wonderful deserts that compliment any meal, such as Baking Powder Biscuits, Fried Chicken, Peach Tart, Buttermilk Fudge Cake, and so on. The lists of ingredients are the kind that you should be able to find just about anywhere. And yes, it does have recipies included that are more complex, and elaborate as well as variations for many of he recipes. She has included several sorbet, custards, herbed butters, to name a few.
She has very descriptive and precise with her directions to accomplish even the more complicated dishes that are included in this book.
It keeps with Julia's normal format of telling you exactly what equipment is needed to complete the dish, to wonderful photo's of almost each dish, without going overboard on the number of pictures.
I have found the tips that are included on so many of the subjects/recipes, quite helpful and informative.
The book also does not get overly wordy when she tells you about each of the cooks that are included in this book.
I have found this book a great asset to my kitchen, and it has taught me quite a bit.

This book is a must in any kitchen. It covers many of the basic recipies and even some of wonderful deserts that compliment any meal, such as Baking Powder Biscuits, Fried Chicken, Peach Tart, Buttermilk Fudge Cake, and so on. The lists of ingredients are the kind that you should be able to find just about anywhere. And yes, it does have recipies included that are more complex, and elaborate as well as variations for many of he recipes. She has included several sorbet, custards, herbed butters, to name a few.
She has very descriptive and precise with her directions to accomplish even the more complicated dishes that are included in this book.
It keeps with Julia's normal format of telling you exactly what equipment is needed to complete the dish, to wonderful photo's of almost each dish, without going overboard on the number of pictures.
I have found the tips that are included on so many of the subjects/recipes, quite helpful and informative.
The book also does not get overly wordy when she tells you about each of the cooks that are included in this book.
I have found this book a great asset to my kitchen, and it has taught me quite a bit.

My husband and I traveled to Ireland in 2002 and fell in love with the country. We ate at local pubs for almost every meal and decided that we needed to learn to replicate many of these meals. He bought me this book for Christmas several years ago and I have used many of the recipes over and over again.

We have a St. Patrick's party every year and have used this cookbook almost exclusively. We consistantly make the Blue-Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms, but have made a few changes with it. The Seafood Chowder is a crowd pleaser. I also love the Bacon, Blue-Cheese and Courgette (Zucchini) soup. The star of our cookbook, though, is the Black and White Guinness Mousse. I make this dessert 4 or 5 times a year. It is my most requested dessert and it is a wonderful presentation. My cookbook literally opens up to that page on its own.

Coming from a woman who has hundreds of cookbooks, this is one of my favorite. I am lucky enough to have Kerrigold butter sold in our local supermarket and I can also source true bangers, which makes a nice treat for our family. I would highly recommend this if you are looking for truly authentic Irish recipes. Slainte!

This is a beautiful book! The pictures of the food are stunning. The pictures of local Irish pubs are less amazing, but still neat. The short blurbs about the featured pubs and Irish pub culture are interesting and concise - a nice added feature to back up the recipes. There seems to be quite a range of foods listed as well. Haven't tried any of the recipes yet, but they seem to have a range of diffuculty levels. If they turn out anything like the pictures, we'll be pleased. This book would make a great gift for someone who loves to cook and is very into their Irish heritage.

Very good book if you want to make your cooking taste like an Irish pube.

This is the perfect book for us to use when opening our pub. Excellent resource.

I really enjoy this book. I am by no means a cook and as a single male living on my own I don't really cook "real food" a lot. However, I find the recipes in this book not only easy to follow but really good. The soups are awesome, even if they sound bad at first, the stews are great and the book also gives a little bit of information on pubs in Ireland. There are a ton of recipes from fish to poultry and from salads to soups. I was even able to make the soda bread for my parents. Plus there are a bunch of recipes for various soda breads. This book is a great buy and totally worth your time.

London's River Cafe is famous for it's excellent meals and innovative approach to Italian fare.

I first borrowed this book from the Library and the minute I opened the book I knew I had to order my own copy.

Nicely arranged and easy to follow recipes for exquisite Italian food.
I am a firm believer that a beautiful cook book needs beautiful photos to do it justice. This book IS beautiful.

I would highly recommend you add this one to your collection.

Every page of this book inspires me to cook and has for several years now. The recipes are delightfully simple, both in terms of number of ingredients and in technique. There are no blurbs about travels and parties. The food alone entices. I've never had a bad meal using this book.

Great italian recipes. Ingredients wonderfully spelled out,easy directions and beautiful pictures.Presented in such a way that you will want to cook Italian every night!!

This cookbook is set up in a very unique which sets it apart from others in this genre. The dishes are rustic yet sophisticated; definitely a nice fixture for a beginner but also for a seasoned cook looking for some inspiration.

I cannot believe that only two people have reviewed this book! It is by far one of the best books I own, and I have quite a collection. It is better than anything Giada DeLaurentis has done, simpler than Mario Batali, and as much as I love Jamie Oliver, is better than his new Italian cookbook as well. The book is simply beautiful. The layout and the photography make everything look irresistible. Even more importantly, everything I have made from here has been exceptionally good. The bruschetta ideas are inspiring. Almost everything in here is so simple, you wonder, why didn't I think of that? And yet the simplicity is deceiving as the outcome is beyond delicious. The pea and scallion pasta with prosciutto is insane. The sea bass with potatoes divine. The veggie dishes are so good I recommend this book to vegetarians despite the fact that it is not a veggie cookbook. If you buy one Italian cookbook, this is the one....

I have read quite a few series, however this one is the best one I have ever read. There are parts that you will fall off your chair laughing, and then there are parts that will make you cry. There is something for everyone. I would recommend it to anyone who wants a nice family type reading.

these books are the best i ever read. you can see the places described by herriot in your mind. i've read every book several times, and will read them all several more.

The seller sent me one book with first 2 stories in it. It was supposed to be four books. I accept that change without being asked. But the seller never sent the second book. I have emailed several times without any response at all. I will never buy from this seller again.

I had a dear aunt give me a copy of "All Things Great and Small" as a kid. I began to read it out of boredom as it was summer and school was out. I remember how each chapter was it's own story--some sad and some quite humorous and in my mind James Herriot allowed me a accompany him on each vetinarian visit. Trully a wonderful book series. Now as a parent I can see how this book might make for a great bed-time story book for children.

Since I want to become a vet, I thought that this would be a great book to read. From the first sentence to the last I was enthralled. The words James Herriot uses in his books make you feel like you are standing right beside him when he is talking. This book will make you literally laugh out loud and also will make you cry. The story in this book is not one easily forgotten.

My daughter does not eat meat (8 years old), so I find this book very helpful since we only eat Japanese food in our home.

It's a pretty cool little book, with the theory of Japanese cooking and eating, explained earnestly and clearly. Yes, it does call for ingredients that you'll have to schlep to an Asian market to go get, but many of them (miso, nori, sushi rice, tofu) are easily found in a grocery store, and the special ingredients (for which you do need to make a trip) are explained in such a way that you'll know just how to use them. There's a couple of recipes that do call for outright omnisubs, like vegan mayo and vegan sausage, but that's only two.

So far, I'm fairly pleased, because the author has made it easy to access Japanese cooking, eating, and thinking, while showing us all how it's done in your own kitchen, with what you have around the house. That's the other part: you don't need special equipment.

Just moved to Japan and with this book we are able to save money while cooking our favorites at home. And we have learned so much about different foods we have not yet tried.

It's hard to search for a cookbook when you can't view it personally so I took a chance buying this and am extremely happy with it! The recipes are authentic and easy. There aren't any photographs but a few drawing to illustrate technique. The recipes are the core of Japanese cooking and the ingredients are consistant and easy to find. Exactly what I was looking for and would definatly say it was not a waste of money. This is getting alot of use.

I came across this book while researching vegan recipes for a family member who is on a really restricted diet. I am not a vegan, but I have loved every recipe from this book that I've made. The maze gohan (Japanese pilaf) and Yasai Zosui (mixed vegetable 'risotto') have become some of my favorite foods.

The book is nicely laid out and it's the perfect size book. It's long enough to contain a wealth of recipes, but not so large that it is unwieldy and awkward to actually have in the cooking area. The directions are extremely clear, and the author does a good job of explaining unfamiliar ingredients.

Vegan or not, this is one of my favorite cookbooks.

As a fan of Americana and good, home-cooked meals, I was looking for a book like this for a while, and found it here. Almost any well-known American meal/sidedish/dessert is included in the 200 recipes, and the fact that the author has tried to make them low in fat is even better. Each recipe also includes a small paragraph of extra information, which is interesting to read.

I was reciently diagnosed with high cholestrol. I've been haunting the library for cookbooks for food I can eat. This book was sitting on the shelf and reached out and grabbed me. Fried chicken and gravey, wow. This works for me, so I just ordered a copy.

I was impressed with the ease of putting the recipies together, and amazed that low fat could taste so GOOD! This is a great cookbook !

I was reciently diagnosed with high cholestrol. I've been haunting the library for cookbooks for food I can eat. This book was sitting on the shelf and reached out and grabbed me. Fried chicken and gravey, wow. This works for me, so I just ordered a copy.

Homestyle Cooking Made Healthy is a throughly impressive and "kitchen cook friendly" compilation of two hundred classic American dishes recreated in a low-fat format but still retaining all the original flavor of higher-calory, higher-fat versions of years past. From Carrot-Raisin Salad; Twice-Baked Potatoes; Scampi with Spaghetti; and Chicken Croquettes; to Chicken-Fried Steak with Country Gravy; Crunch Grain Waffles; Lobster and Broccoli Stir-Fry; and Black Bottom Pie, the recipes comprising Homestyle Cooking Made Healthy live up to the promise of lower fat content with no sacrifice to taste. Each recipes comes with a "Homestyle Makeover" side-bar showcasing before and after calorie and fat gram counts. Homestyle Cooking Made Healthy is a welcome and enthusiastically recommended addition to any health conscious kitchen cookbook collection!