Cookbooks Books

Everyone is always complaining about spam and frankly I do not know why. This stuff is quite healthy and a great alternative to most those veggie burgers the vegan nazis are trying to get me to eat. Nothing like real meat though but anyways why is everyone always complaining about spam and associating it with email? This cookbook is a marvelous one yes it sure is.

This is a bold and imaginative cookery book. Eggers shows flair with a daring East/West fusion in her Thai influenced Spam with Mint and Brocoli: tender chunks of luncheon loaf stir-fried with fish sauce, chili, brown sugar and brocoli then topped with fresh mint. Look out too for her Spam en Croute - slab of reconstituted pork coated in a rich mushroom pate and wrapped in filo pastry. It's a triumph. That distinctive taste of the abbatoir floor you get with Spam comes through best, perhaps, in a simple yet delicious Spam Tartare - raw Spam, ground with anchovies, egg yolk, mustard, oil and Worcestershire Sauce. Mmmmmm. Heaven.

Whatta concept! Whatta design! Tell all your friends

The recipe on page 20 is wonderfu

We threw a Spam themed birthday party for a friend - everyone had to bring a food item made from Spam. Just when I was freaking out about not knowing what to bring, I discovered this book. (Which proves that there is a book on everything!)

Since I'm not a cook nor too creative in the kitchen, I was pretty nervous about making food and expecting friends to eat it. But then I realized, hey it's Spam, no one expects it to be good! The recipe I picked was the Spam Risotto. It was super easy to make and - gasp! - it tasted really good!

I loaned this book to another party go-er and she whipped up the Spam loaf (with salmon) and it was surprisingly tasty as well.

Previous to purchasing this book, the only way I'd ever had Spam was fried up and in a sandwich, but now the door is open to many possibilities.

This little book has all the kitch to make it cool and some damn good recipes inside!

This is an Outstanding Cookbook by Rebecca Wood! In this book you won't find much for pictures, it's strong point is the wonderful recipes for Grains with Vegetables, Fish, Poultry, Meat and Fruit. I love it when reviewers list a variety of recipes in a book, that alone will make me want to purchase a book!
The Contents are divided into categories such as Native American Grains which include Wild Rice, Corn, Mesquite, Amaranth, and Quinoa. Native Asian Grains which include Buckwheat, Millet, Rice, and Job's Tears. Native Near Eastern Grains which include Barley and Wheat. Native European Grains which include Rye and Oats. And Native African Grains which include Sorghum and Tef. This book also includes Mail Order Sources if needed.
There are 394 Pages of information and Fabulous Recipes such as:
Wild Rice Tortillas With Poached Huevos Rancheros and Ginger-Peach Salsa, Elderberry Blossom and Wild Rice Griddle Cakes with Hot Apple Syrup, Mom's Wild Rice Stuffing, Whitefish Stuffed With Wild Rice, Traditional Grits, Cornmeal Mush, Posole From Scratch, Creole Corn Oysters, Corn and Clam Chowder with Roasted Parsnips, Herbed Posole Salad with Dried Cranberries, Stir-Fried Dried Scallops with Baby Corn and Bean Sprouts, Southwestern Cheese Sandwiches with Sweet and Hot Pepper Sauce, Greens and Herbed Cornmeal Dumplings with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce, Honey Carmel Corn with Roasted Almonds, Sage and Blue Corn Skillet Bread with Fresh Corn, Santa Fe Spoon Bread, Corn Tortillas with Marjoram, Chili Flavored Tortilla Chips, Corn and Quinoa Raspberry Muffins, Hominy Breakfast Cakes, Strawberry and Blue Corn Waffles, Popped Amaranth Cold Breakfast Cereal, Pinon Crackers, Quinoa and WInter Squash Potage, Quinoa Soup-Saigon Style, Quinoa Carrot Cake, Quinoa Butterscotch Brownies, Homemade Buckwheat Noodles, Jicama and Buckwheat Salad, Panfried Buckwheat Breaded Catfish, Baked Blinis with Strawberry Sauce, Buckwheat Rolls with Thyme and Oregano, Buckwheat Waffles with Peach Butter, Buckwheat Pumpkin Muffins, Overnight Millet Buckwheat and Coconut Waffles, Apricot Millet Breakfast Cake, Vietnamese Spring Rolls, Chinese Almond Cookies, Purple Amasake, Barley Poppy Bagels, Barley Flatbread with New Mexican Chilies, Yellow and Purple Bean Tabbouleh, Eggplant Zucchini Tofu and Penne Salad, Dutch Apple Pie, Wheat Pastry for Pies and Tarts, Pueblo Bread Pudding, 100% Whole Wheat Bread, Thin-Crust Pizza, Easy Rye Bread, Boston Brown Bread, Pumpernickel Bread with Currants and Walnuts, Coarse-Grain Sourdough Rye, Cream of Shiitake and Broccoli Soup, Irish Tabbouleh, Orange and Coconut Drop Biscuits, Oat Groat Pancakes, Granola, Vegetable Stock, Chicken Stock, Fish Stock, Shiitake Dashi Stock, Tofu Mayonnaise, and so much more! This is just a sampling of the Varieties of Recipes you'll find in this book. I felt it was important especially in this book of Grains to list many recipes, as you can see these Healthy Grains can be much more than a side dish! You cannot go wrong with this cookbook! If you are looking for different ways to use grains this is definitely the book for you!

Who says whole grains have to taste like health food? Rebecca Wood lays out everything you need to know about the common grains (oat, wheat, barley, rice), the not-so-common (quinoa, millet, amaranth, buckwheat) and the downright rarely eaten in this country (tef, Job's tears). For each one she explains how/where it is grown, how to buy and store it, what it is used for, its nutritional advantages, etc. She gives basic recipes for cooking the grains plain or nearly so, as well as more complicated recipes and suggestions for what to pair with what. The chapters are divided first by the continent to which each grain is native and then by the grains themselves, and then for each grain there are recipes for plain grains, soups, main dishes, side dishes and desserts. I like this organization, although if you want to make a whole grain dessert, for instance, you'll have to look through the chapters on the various grains or in the index, as there is no organization by type of dish, e.g., soups, desserts, etc. The intros to each dish give you a good idea of what to expect, the instructions are pretty clear, and the results are spectacular. The Winter Squash and Quinoa Pottage is amazingly great (especially if you make it with homemade stock -- it is particularly awesome using the vegetable stock recipe from The New Basics Cookbook, but was also good with Swanson low-sodium chicken broth), is ridiculously easy, and extremely high in protein and vitamins. Just wash the quinoa really well first. Takes less than 1/2 hour plus the time to wash the quinoa and cut the onion and squash. The pinon (pine nut) crackers with amaranth are all whole grain, super easy and the only problem with it is that it's hard not to eat the entire batch myself as soon as it's done. Recipes include a good mix of vegetarian items and ones with meat so it's a good book no matter how you eat. My only quibble is that measurements for baked goods are given solely by volume, rather than by weight, which is more accurate, but it's a small one. This is my new favorite cookbook.

I initially checked this book out at the library and just had to have my own copy. The author has done years of research and provides very detailed and interesting information about various grains to include their origins, historical uses and various methods of preparation. There is also a section detailing little-known places where you can order seeds to grow your own or purchase ready to use grains/grain products. This book should be in every home cookbook collection!

I knew nothing about this book when I checked it out of the library, except that it had recipes for some of the more unusual grains. It is only now that I looked it up on Amazon that I discovered that it won the James Beard award. I am not the least bit surprised, however, because all the recipes I have tried have been consistently delicious, wholesome, and creative. You will find very few run-of-the-mill recipes in this cookbook.

I check many cookbooks out of the library, but for many I can't find any recipes that I want to make, or if I do find recipes to try, once I make them I am generally not impressed. So I was amazed when I opened this cookbook to find so many intriguing recipes, each of which turned out better than the last.

Some highlights: The grilled millet and butternut squash cakes had so few spices I was sure they would be bland, but they weren't. They were subtle but sweet and crunchy and addictive. The millet, quinoa, and burdock pilaf again looked underseasoned, but the burdock adds a great earthy depth to the pilaf, and again, I could not stop eating this dish. Wood's recipe for Locro, a South American soup, has a large number of ingredients, but it is well worth the effort. The barley and beans that make up the bulk of this soup make it substantial and extremely filling. The celeriac is sweet and delicious, the anise seeds add a subtle mysterious note, and the roasted New Mexican chili and the kombu create a great tasty broth with more depth than a typical vegetarian soup.

The only recipe that I was disappointed in was her basic recipe for "steamed" amaranth. Wood swears it's the best way to cook amaranth, but I thought it turned out exactly the same as it always does when I cook it--gooey, but tasty. Also, as a previous reviewer noted, Wood doesn't use too many green vegetables in this cookbook, but since it is a grains cookbook I can forgive this one shortcoming.

Overall, this book is full of healthy, nutritious, creative, well-tested recipes that please the palate and the body, and are reasonably quick to prepare. The flavorings are generally subtle, but perfectly balanced, allowing the taste of the ingredients to shine through. If you like very strong tasting food, however, you might find the recipes a bit bland. The recipes are not all vegetarian, but there are enough vegetarian recipes that I just returned my library book and ordered this book on Amazon.

Wood's book is a must have for any cook serious about understanding how to cook with whole grains.

Only Jane and Michael Stern could have written this hilarious historic cookbook. They combed archives and libraries and found quintessential recipies reflecting American domestic cooking, dating from approximately the 1930's to the early 1970's.

Where else could you find a book that includes a recipie for Creamed Chipped Beef on Toast for 100 (from the World War II chapter,) horrifying things to do with bananas (from the nursery foods chapter), and the hilarious high point--the Luau in Your Living Room circa 1957. I won't ruin this for you other than to inform you that it involves cabbage, vienna sausages, toothpicks and a can of sterno.

I've made a few recipies from the book and they've all turned out great. So, not only is it a hoot, you can find recipies for real down home American cooking.

Where else could you find these recipes, in such a colorful and
humorous collection? A great book - and a great read, even for those who "can't cook"!

If you are like I am and enjoy reading cookbooks, this book is a real pleasure.

The recipes all turn out wonderful. They are type of recipes that are real stick to your ribs type of pleasers. The history of the recipe and the US intermingled with the recipes is interesting.

This is one cookbook that I am glad is sitting on my shelves.

This was billed as a revised edition, and it is not a truly revised edition. It is a re-formatted edition, with some new archival illustrations, but the text has not been altered at all.Since the printing of the first edition of Square Meals, some things have changed, particularly the potential danger of salmonella poisoning. Many of the recipes in Square Meals call for raw eggs, and it would have been a real service if the Sterns' had added a notice about the potential danger of raw eggs. I have actually cooked from the first edition, and the recipes I have tried have worked well.It is good to have this back in print, but this is not a true revision.The original forward by the great MFK Fisher has been retained.

I have an edition which was published 1984 by Alfreed A Knopf. Now i see that there is a revised edition abd I'll have to get another!

I first ran into yhis book one saturday in '90. By Sunday evening, I Had read the entire thing, been back to the bookstore just before it closed to get another copy as a gift for my mother. I have never read a cookbook that I have so thouroughly enjoyed just Reading! Not to mention the recipies contained in it. The style of wriring is delightful, imagine listening to you favorite "Elder Relatives" talking about the way things were cooked, and WHY they were cooked. It is as much a history of cooking and cooking styles, as a cookcoook.
My favorite sections are Nursery Food, and Victory Dinner and Mothers Sunday Dinner. Wherever you go, in within this book you will find many gems; like how the rationing system chaned eating and menues in WW II. Or the 3 pages on how to properly prepare toast!
You'll love the wit and research that have gone into this book! You can't go wrong with this one! .. Now i'm off to get copy #3 (just in case!)

A fine addition to yor collection. Geared towards children but still great for the geek in me. Makes a great gift.

I Bought Both Star Wars CookBook II & Star Wars Wookie Cookies CookBook For Some Good Reasons, I am a Star Wars Fan Too, (Just like I'm a trekkie for the past 21 years.) Some of the recipes look absolutely delicious. If I try some recipies, for example Yoda Soda, Droid Dot Pizza, Anakin Apple Crisp or any other recipe I will let you know. May The Force Be With You.

This was a good cookbook. The recipes look mostly fun to make. I recommend buying the other books in this set, too.

My 5 year old son may already be a bigger Star Wars fan than myself. He has always enjoyed helping cook as well and these cookbooks couldn't be better for him. Not only do they make it fun with the Star Wars theme but the recipes are also quite good and easy to make. My son also really enjoys just looking at the pictures.

It's a nice cute little cookbook to use that's simple to do and fun for any age.

It's a great novelty for a Star Wars fan to do a little fun and simple cooking
Delivery was timeley and the book was in excellant condition.

Thanks

I just married a Romanian while he was on tour in the U.S. for six months. Having only been here for a year he was terribly homesick. After ordering the book I was able to surprise him with a full Romanian meal, and it was so easy! Highly, highly recommended!

This book is an all-around great cookbook. To be honest, I had never heard of Romanian cuisine before and picked up the book on a whim. I'm glad I did because the book introduced me to a delicious culture that I had never sampled before. The recipes in the book are grouped into the following chapters: appetizers, salads, egg dishes, soups, polenta, fish dishes, meat dishes, poultry dishes, vegetable dishes, dumplings, sauces, desserts, wines, preserves, and Jewish dishes. I found good recipes in each chapter, some fancy, and some that can be whipped up in minutes. Interspersed throughout the book are short history lessons about Romania, fairy tales, and poetry, as well as Klepper's comments explaining the cooking culture. The book also includes a bibliography, a place and personal name index, and English recipe index, a Romanian recipe index, a brief pronunciation guide, an English-Romanian-French food dictionary, and even an American-British food dictionary (surprisingly useful!). If you're looking for a Romanian cookbook, this is a great one. And if you're just looking for some interesting and tasty new recipes, you'll find some here.

Somehow, everyone in Romania seems to believe that their heaviest food is also the tastiest. In Romanian restaurants both in Romania and accross the US, in cookbooks -- all I'm finding are the stuffed grape or cabbage leaves, the pork products, the mamaliga. What happened to all those seasonal (in Romania) meals centered around the great vegetables that abound in Spring, stuff that a family would actually eat everyday at home? The light and flavorful zuchinni with yoghurt, the spinach puree, all the many ways to prepare mushrooms, celery roots, even the lowly potatoe? The great sour soups that wake one up with their taste? What about some of the staples, like bors (not to be confused with Russiona borscht), the sour grain vinegar that is so good in those soups? Or all the pickled vegetables that spice up ones winter meal? Also, there are all the holiday preparations, such as a stuffed goose, duck on sourkraut, and, for the kids, the "sweet bites", sort of like a gingerbread cracker, but thicker and with a soft, molasse-like consistency (turta dulce for those of you out there who know :-)...
I'm not a great Romanian cook myself and I bought this book hoping to fill in some of my childhood favorites. It does do a good job of the recipes it presents. I handed the stuffed grape leaves recipe to the chef in charge at my wedding and it ended up being a favorite with my (mostly non-Romanian) guests!
The other complain I have is that some of the ingredients have been "adapted" to suit most American supermarkets. I won't complain about getting some of the fat out (although most of it stayed...) but what about the tarragon, the lovage, dill --they're all available here, with a bit of effort. Why not do what many asian cookbooks do and require the original ingredient, with an easy-to-find alternative where in doubt? And what about those simple salads that "parsley-up" and liven up any Romanian family's dinner?
Maybe it depends on the region -- Transylvania does have its share of heavier food, and with no outlets to the Black Sea, people there don't really enjoy eating fish. But Romanian cuisine has so many other flavors that I constantly see neglected, yet they are the easiest to include in a balanced diet...
And a final word of praise: the romanian wine list at the end is worth the price of the book -- and brings the stars rating to 4. I've been looking for something similar for a while, and I was really glad to find it in this book.

This is a fantastic book. So many of the recipes I remember from my mother's and grandmother's cooking. It's also nice to get a little bit of a history lesson, along with Romanian poems and folktales. I purchased it for my daughter and sons. Since I left Romania at 15 (over 18 years ago), it's nice to remember some of the Romanian cooking I grew up with.
Now, if I could only get my American husband to try some of the recipes, that would be a victory indeed. :o)

I am Romanian and have lived in the US for just a short time. I got this book as a Christmas gift for my mother in law who is American. She loved it and wants to try cooking some of the recipes in there!!! It has great traditional recipes and some history lessons to help a novice understand Romanian culture. I was so happy to find the book on amazon and I recommend it to anyone who wants to explore Romanian culture.

I absolutely LOVE this series! I am brand new at learning how to cook and I have somewhat been scared at trying to learn recipes. This series has taught me everything I know, and fixed any fears I have of trying new foods to cook. Every recipe in this book comes out perfect the first time I try it.
They put cooking into simple terms - and test each recipe until it is perfect. Their recipes make me look like a professional chef! They have taught me everything I know about spices and herbs as well; they don't use strange ingredients that are hard to find in small-town grocery stores.
I've tried several recipes from this book, and I love them all. For instance, the Sunday roast chicken and stuffing was to die for! The cream biscuits were as easy as making biscuits from a "box" - but MUCH better. They have a light and fluffy texture. I am looking forward to trying their "lighter chicken parmesian", "lighter macaroni and cheese", and their potsticker (wonton) recipes.
I got this book along with the DVD set for the 2007 TV series, and I watch the episode before I try the recipe from the book. That way, I know what to expect before I make it. That has proven to be an effective teaching tool for me.
I highly recommend this along with the boxed DVD set!

This is a Christmas present and has not been used yet. We have a smaller model and like it very much.

Another delicious hit...but then I do have most of their publications and love them all...

America's Test Kitchen is similar to Consumer Reports, but for food. They will try a recipe 100 times, with every variation possible, experimenting with ingredients and techniques, until they can give you an informative article and a winning recipe.

I have tried about 14 recipes from this book and every one has been terrific. The carbonnade has a more complex flavor than carbonnade I ate in Belgium! We've also enjoyed the chicken parmesan, fish and chips, , chicken kiev, the pepper-crusted filet mignon (with a fantastic cherry-Port reduction), , stir fried chicken, hot and sour soup, potstickers and buttermilk coleslaw. And the strawberry cream cake is gorgeous and delicious. I am so confident in ATK's recipes that I've made a recipe for the first time when company was coming over, and it was wonderful.

Articles are supplemented with terrific sidebars that typically rate ingredient brands, compare kitchen tools or show a technique.

My only complaint about the whole series of ATK books is that they are organized idiosyncratically (sorry, but that is anathema to a librarian!) and have extremely poor indexes. For example, I knew the recipe for carbonnade was in the 2007 book. I looked in the index -- nothing under "carbonnade", nothing under "beef"! So I went to the table of contents. Nothing about carbonnade, but a chapter called "Best Beef Stew" -- could that be it? Luckily, yes, but that is no way to run a cookbook!

You cannot go wrong with these great books -- consistently reliable and delicious recipes.

I decided to buy the book when I saw the show for the chocolate layer cake, and I am glad that I made this purchase. The cake was dark, moist and rich. Their method of getting more chocolate flavor into the cake was dead on. The "ribbon" method described in the book was easy to follow and made for a soft tender crumb. The frosting was tasty and held up well even in my exeptionately hot kitchen. Just make sure that the chocolate that you use for the frosting is one that you enjoy eating eating raw, because the taste and texture really affects the taste of the frosting. I used Bakers Chocolate in my cake; the unsweetened version in the cake was fine, but the semi sweet kind in the frosting was so-so. As I flipped through the book, I saw a tasting lab review that stated raw Bakers Chocolate had gotten a mediocore review, but when cooked into a cake was perfectly fine. My preffered brand of chocolate is Ghiardelli, and I think that I will stick to that brand although it is pricier. The next recipe that I will attempt will be the "Fish and Chips."

I love this wine guide! It is clear, informative, and---best of all---fun to read. The writers of the guide (Evan Spingarn and Fred DuBose) have none of the snobbery or condescension common in the wine-tasting world. The writing style is engaging and clever, with a subtle sense of humor. The emphasis on pairing wines with food is another special attraction of this guide. Each wine descriptions gives suggestions of foods to serve with the wine, and the index of Wines for Food in the back of the book is a handy reference for planning dinner parties or casual dinners at home. Being a novice with wines, I found the descriptions of wines both clear and enticing. I recommend this book highly to those both experienced and new to the wine world.

If you love to eat and drink in style, then this book is for you. Refreshingly straight-forward and unpretentious, "The Ultimate Wine Lover's Guide" not only covers the spectrum of fine wines, but tells you how to pair them with what you're cooking tonight. A great value!

I know one of the authors personally (the one who's actually TASTED thousands and thousands of wines over years of retail buying experience) and I wouldn't be writing this if I didn't want to, so listen up...

Evan Spingarn's "Wine Lover's Guide" is one of just a handful of wine books you'll likely ever need or want. Why? Because, for beginners, it lovingly provides a sound foundation on which to build a lifelong love affair with wine, and yet for enthusiasts, there's enough refinement, detail, and real wine-wisdom for the book to serve as a reference.

There are texts, there are tomes, and numerous wine books containing mountains of detailed information, but all this won't necessarily increase your enjoyment of wine and may, in fact, make you a real pain-in-the-ass to be around. Evan's book avoids this common trap, cleverly distilling years of professional tasting experience into a witty, populist, text that takes you by the hand and walks you through the true essentials of the wine world, all the while serving up tasting notes on over 1000 fascinating pours (for all budgets) that have actually passed the author's lips.

Sure, wine geeks will go on to consume libraries but most of us can stop right about here, toast the author's help and guidance, and avoid turning the joy of wine into yet another chore.

Why four stars instead of five? Because a "5" is perfection on earth. What?

Faced with hundreds of bottles that start to look the same, it's no wonder we so often walk out of the wine shop with a bag of not quite what we had a taste for (but the salesman said is a nice oaky Chardonnay that goes with everything). Fred DuBose and Evan Spingarn pilot us through the fog with hundreds of specific suggestions and, more importantly, descriptions of each variety of grape so we will never end up on the rocks again.

This book kicks the snobbish, uppity arse of all those despicable high falutin' wine guides. I'm not impressed by fancy adjectives and food pairings with foods I can neither pronounce nor afford. This great book simplifies and demystifies the entire wine experience. I no longer break into a clammy sweat when the fancy waiter brings the wine list. I can now navigate my local wine store with bravado. Bottoms up!

I managed to somehow pick up this book in a remainders section while it was out of print and it proved to be incredibly good luck. All the recipes are very easy to make and almost all have recieved rave reviews.

I love to cook and have many many cookbooks - this is the one I take with me when I travel to a cottage - I know it will have something for every time - the company, the family, the lazy night - all delicious and nothing too intricate - you can put together a great meal relatively quickly- I particularly love the suggested menus in the margin on each page - makes life pretty easy - lots of "a bit different' touches in this book - I now give it regularly as a gift, which is how I got it! buy this book if you like to cook!

I just picked up a copy of this book (and the original Uncommon Gourmet) ... and it wasn't [amount] only [amaount]. I was also told that there is a new book coming out by Ellen Helman in November. They are both wonderful books and I am glad that both are now readily available.

I have been trying to find a copy of this book for a year and a half! I have been borrowing it from friends who own it! Why is it out of print? Please bring it back. Anyone have one to sell?

This book is elegant, simple (to the point of being foolproof), and full of variety. It's one of my very favorite cookbooks. I wanted to send it to a friend as a present, and I was astounded to find that it's unavailable, because it deserves to be a best seller! I hope it comes back soon.

Best cookbook i have ever purchased! Amazing real Italian recipes! If I cooked these dishes for my other non vegan family members they would have no clue that it was a vegan dish! i highly highly recommend it.

This is the best Italian (vegan) book out there. There is nothing in it I would not like to make...highly recommend!

I've had this book only for a few weeks but I have used it many times already. It is often the first cookbook I head for when looking for something to cook.

That's because it is full of simple recipes using common ingredients, many of them quick and easy to put together. A really good everyday cookbook. The only reason I didn't give it a higher rating is that it didn't have more recipes.

My son was pleased to receive this cookbook. He has made many recipes from it and all are good.

I bought this fairly recently and I've made a number of dishes from it that have all turned out perfectly. I'm thrilled to have found a vegan cookbook that uses simple, healthy ingredients with no tofu or meat substitutes in sight!

I've served a couple of these meals to non-vegetarians and they were super impressed! Donna Klein is my new favourite vegetarian cookery writer.

Yay!

Finally the new hardcover edition of this wonderful book is out, and it's only around $20 bucks. Now I can get copies for the whole family. Amazon has them using isbn 0925417556.

Enjoy

A great title and great unofficial advertising on Emeril Live. But it could have been much more diverse. I relize that was not the point of the book. But there had to be some recipes that people comonly made but were not creole. I guess I would have liked one or two exotic recipes.

Although I wasn't raised in Lousiana, I love the food, and I love this book. The home recipes and the family memoirs are too good to put down, in the kitchen or the easy chair. If you only buy one cajun cookbook, buy this one.

My mamma's a Crochet, I am Catholic and my husband and I can each make a roux. I, also, am Cajun, know Marcelle and can attest to the authenticity of the recipes and accompanying stories. Many try to capitalize on the Cajun food craze, but few are the real deal. The only thing better than the recipes in Marcelle's book is enjoying them with she and her husband over dinner from their kitchen.

This book is a compendium of recipes that the author has collected over the years but it is also a book that helps you understand the area around New Orleans. It is a fun read and the recipes are marvelous! I have never met the author of this book but would love to meet some day, preferably over a good pot of gumbo for a lively discussion of the region's most famous past time - good eating!