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Miscellaneous Food Book Reviews (A-L)


The California Pizza Kitchen Cookbook
by Larry Flax and Rich Rosenfeld

This cookbook is beautifully illustrated, well written and designed to drive home this message: pizza is the ultimate food treat of the 90s. Containing more than 26 pizza recipes from seafood to vegetarian -- California Pizza Kitchen Cookbook will help anyone create an unbelievable slice of pie.


Casseroles
by Jim Fobel

Blasting away all preconceived notions of casseroles being boring and bland food, Fobel reveals how fresh, smart, and entertaining-friendly this classic American meal can be. Fobel is known to be a master at infusing flavor into food, in this new book, he turns his flair for flavor to improve one of his all-time favorite dishes. So often wrongly perceived as bland leftovers, casserole cooking has been largely ignored over the years. Here, Fobel changes that misconception, offering more than 85 mouthwatering, comfort-filled recipes to bring this dish the culinary excitement it deserves. Easy to prepare and requiring little attention while cooking, casseroles allow plenty of time to unwind or calmly entertain guests. With fabulous recipes like Black Bean Tamale Pie, Creamy Salmon and Linguine Casserole, or even Brewsky Cheese Grits, Casseroles is sure to inspire or renew your own love for this one-dish meal.


The Chanterelle Book
by Olle Persson

This book contains tons of historical facts, recipes and illustrations on this sought-after fungus. The Chantarelle Book covers the biological, historical and ecological signifigance of the mushroom. Look for the recipe "Soufflé of Chantarelles" for a true gastronomic treat!


Cheese Primer
by Steven Jenkins

For all the cheese lovers out there--this is the perfect cookbook. Cheese Primer is a useful guide to the world's cheeses.


Chicken Classics:
Chicken Masterpieces From Around the World

by Patricia Stapley

Chicken is versatile, easy to prepare and delicious, making it a favorite food in every cuisine. Chicken Classics presents nineteen international chicken recipes seasoned with a sense of place. Each recipe is accompanied by menu suggestions and a glorious full color illustration. Whether you're in the mood for spicy Lemongrass Chicken from Thailand or a succulent Chicken Pot Pie from England, Chicken Classics offers a mouthwatering dish to suit any taste or occasion.


Chips and Dips
by Claudia McQuillan

Chips And Dips has over fifty recipes for, you guessed it, dips and chips that can be prepared easily at home. Inspired by a range of ethnic traditions, the recipes include both beloved standbys and a few new favorites for bean, vegetable, cheese, and seafood dips, as well as bagel, tortilla, vegetable and pita chips. McQuillan offers easy-to-follow instructions to her recipes, as well as often including ways to reduce fat and sodium. The full-page color photographs also provide great presentation tips. This is an unusual, specific cookbook.


Classic Dinners in One Hour
by Tom Griffith

No need to spend hours in the kitchen preparing dinner. No need to coordinate timing from several recipes and no need to worry about everything being ready at the same time. Classic Dinners in One Hour contains over 50 complete dinner and brunch menus that can be served in one hour or less, preparation and cooking time included. This is a unique cookbook, it has taken professional cooking techniques and adapted them for the kitchen without the use of commercial equipment or appliances, allowing you to cook quickly and efficiently.


Cooking to Beat the Clock:Delicious, Inspired Meals in 15 Minutes
by Sam Gugino


Ready, set, go. From the moment the alarm clock sounds in the morning until you close your eyes at night, life seems like a big race. Whether you are running from one meeting to the next or driving the kids to yet another soccer game, there just never seems to be enough time in the day. Most of us don't have the time and energy to spend even 30 minutes preparing dinner, but a satisfying meal is a pleasure that's a shame to miss.

In Cooking to Beat the Clock, Sam Gugino has created the perfect kitchen companion for today's busy lifestyle. The book offers dozens of mouth-watering recipes that let frenzied folks put a casually elegant dinner on the table in just fifteen minutes--including the time it takes to chop vegetables, peel potatoes, and boil water! And that's not all. Sticking to his four basic principles of Flavor, Organization, Focus, and Creativity, Gugino shares his secrets of working efficiently in the kitchen and stocking a pantry with the essentials that make fast meals possible. He explains how to get organized in a hurry, and his brilliant time-saving tips drastically cut the preparation time for delicious meals. He also encourages readers to think beyond recipes, so they can exercise a bit of creativity if they do not have all of the listed ingredients.


Crazy for Corn
by Betty Fussell

I started to worry about Betty Fussell after reading her introduction to Crazy for Corn. This is where you find out how the grain -- also the subject of her previous cookbook The Story of Corn -- compares to sex. "At this very moment, corn's got the edge," writes Fussell. The way she describes it, you'd think the two were one and the same. In a passage on how to prepare corn on the cob, Fussell writes, "Personally I like the feeling of the silks on my fingers and so I remove them by hand; it reminds me that each silk was once attached to a single kernel and furnished the route for a speck of pollen to do its work and turn an embryo into a plump juicy youth." Her two great passions -- making the case for corn as the foundation of civilization in the Western Hemisphere and preserving corn's genetic diversity -- have inspired a book that benefits anyone who cares about America's culinary heritage. The author has spent the last 10 years mastering corn cookery. This is just a nano-second, given that its history dates back to the beginning of civilization in the Western Hemisphere -- a long, long, long time ago. Think Inca. Crazy for Corn contains a classy collection of more than 170 recipes. There's at least a dozen to choose from for every course on your Thanksgiving menu. You could start with Sweet Corn and Scallop Soup; move onto the turkey stuffed with All-in-One dressing featuring, in addition to corn meal, sausage, dried berries and buttermilk; serve this with Pumpkin Corn Pancakes; and then wrap up the feast with a Plum Corn Meal Torte. But recipes aren't Fussell's sole strength. She also provides a detailed rundown of corn anatomy as well as descriptions of cooking and drying methods. These tidbits, besides being informative, also pack a potent "wow!" factor. Where else would you learn that you can boil or grill corn in the husk and use the cobs to season soup? Enough said. Perhaps falling in love with corn ain't so "crazy" after all.


Elizabeth Berry's Great Bean Book
by Florence Fabricant

Beans take center stage in this tall and narrow soft cover filled with lush color photographs. Featured are over 35 common and exotic beans, from Aztecs to Zunis. Each bean is profiled with a photograph and description,
including shape, color, size and flavor, and is accompanied by delicious, user-friendly recipes gathered from America's top chefs, as well as historic and nutritional information about this increasingly popular family of legumes.


Fine Kettles of Fish
by Deborah Benoit McGarry

This copious cookbook offers up a handful of basic tenets for preparing seafood chowders, bisques, soups, and stews. McGarry starts with the much loved comfort foods she enjoys preparing for her own family and adds different recipes from all over the world. Most of her recipes are simple to prepare and rustic to the taste, although she does include recipes for the more adventurous food enthusiast, such as Portuguese Squid, or Sharkfin Soup, from Wenzhou, China. Fish lovers will find this a must-have for their libraries.


Flatbreads & Flavors, A Baker's Atlas
by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid

The 1996 winner of both the James Beard Foundation Award and the IACP Julia Child Cookbook Award, this book showcases the travels of the husband and wife authors who searched the world documenting the many cultural barriers this basic food has crossed.


Goat Cheese: Delectable Recipes for All Occasions
by Georgeanne Brennan and Ethel Brennan

A compendium of all manner of goat cheeses, this whimsically illustrated book provides introduction and inspiration to those with a taste for this ancient delicacy. Written by a mother and daughter team of Ethel and Georgeanne Brennan, it offers two dozen recipes starring this tangy and versatile product. In addition to recipes that cover a wide range of appetizers, main dishes and desserts, Goat Cheese includes a detailed guide to the many varieties of chevre produced in this country and abroad. The book is charmingly illustrated by Philippe Weisbecker, whose drawings mimic the centuries-old appreciation of the goat and this, its yummy by-product. Both novice and expert cooks will be tempted with tantalizers such as Grilled Eggplant and Goat Cheese Rolls, or Poached Winter Pears with Sweet Goat Cheese. The Brennan's include tips for cooking, serving and storing goat cheese while also demonstrating how to


The Good Cook's Book of Tomatoes
by Michele Anna Jordan

Continuing in her series that includes Oil & Vinegar and Mustard, Michele Anna Jordan has added The Good Cook's Book of Tomatoes. As with the first two, she has painstakingly researched her subject and created more than 200 recipes that pay homage to one of nature's most versatile and popular vegetables (or fruit, depending on which school of thought you belong to!). She provides nutritional information, the latest info on commercially grown tomatoes, history, a chart listing a few dozen cultivars for home gardens, and even some insight into the vegetable vs. fruit debate that has been going on since Europeans first laid eyes on tomatoes 500 years ago. So, whether you plan to grow them or are just looking for some new recipes, this book is a winner.


A Good Day for Soup

by Jeannette Ferrary and Louise Fiszer

The ultimate one pot meal, soup is as versatile as it is flavorful and comforting. A Good Day For Soup includes over 200 international recipes for any occasion from light starter bisques to hearty main dish stews to traditional Old World favorites. Easy and economical to prepare, simple to freeze and store, these bountiful bowlfuls offer an inspiring collection for the expert and beginning cook as well.


The Goose
by Germano Pontoni

This collection of recipes drawn from 16th-, 17th- and 18th-century sources provides compelling evidence for the passion that the goose has inspired in kitchens over many centuries. This addition to the History, Folklore, Ancient recipes series is a comprehensive inventory of the great gastronomic heritage represented by the goose. In addition to the 35 original recipes, included also are fascinating historical accounts which illustrate the role that the goose has played from ancient times to the present day. While aiming to recapture a past that has perhaps been too long forgotten, Pontoni also hopes to encourage the reader to indulge in some real delights, such as foie gras, goose charcuterie, goose crackling and cured goose meat.

Not available from Amazon.com at the time of this writing 12/99.

 

Great Adventures in Food
by Ellen Haas

This is a user's manual for your grocery, refrigerator and dinner table. Ellen Haas, a pioneer in the field of nutrition and healthy eating, has brought together everything we need to know about what we eat--from choosing the best ingredients to adding variety, flavor and fresh ideas to every meal. The read could learn a great deal just from reading Haas' Phenomenal Pasta Guide alone. Great Adventures in Food presents 100 delicious recipes, complete guides to selecting and preparing the best fruits and vegetables, grains, meal, fish, poultry, herbs and spices and more.


Great Bowls of Fire!
by Dave DeWitt

Containing over 90 recipes for anything from soups to chilis, Great Bowls of Fire! is a must for those of the spicy persuasion. Each recipe has a Heat Scale and easy to read instructions.


The Great American Meat Book
by Merle Ellis

When butcher Merle Ellis put out his first consumer guide on meat in 1974, the goal was to assist "avid meat-eaters," a term that characterized most Americans at the time, in getting more for their money, despite the skyrocketing prices that triggered furious consumer boycotts earlier in that inflationary decade.

Through Cutting up in the Kitchen, Ellis helped them become reacquainted with the butcher, with whom they had lost touch as a result of mass production methods introduced to the meat industry over the previous 20 years. Be it beef,
pork, lamb or veal, Ellis taught them the name of cuts, how they differed from one another, what made sense to use in one dish, but not another, and, most important, how to spot a good value at the meat counter.

Boy, have times changed.

Today's meat has become relatively inexpensive and, after falling out of fashion in the '80s, high consumption is back in a big way, which is why Ellis' Great American Cookbook is more concerned with recipes than economy. Still, the consumer orientation is clear. Ellis includes plenty of detail about the cuts themselves, addressing how meat differs from the days of Cutting up in the Kitchen.


The Great BBQ Sauce Book: A Guide with Recipes
by Ardie A. Davis

In his crusade to track down the most irresistible, lip-smacking sauces around, Ardie Davis combed the countryside in search of the best pit-masters and sauce-fiends in the land. From the spiciest roadside rib joints to backyard bottlers, he sampled countless secret recipes. Now with over 300 reviews, the Great BBQ Sauce book profiles the most mouth-watering sauces Ardie could find. Over 100 sauces are photographed and evaluated, then used in recipes for pork, beef, chicken, sides and even desserts.



I'll Taste Manhattan
by The Junior League of New York City

Illustrated with photos of food and landmark buildings, it is a culinary walk through the architectural marvels of the city. Containing more than 180 recipes, this cookbook is a culinary celebration of the nation's largest city.


The Irish Heritage Cookbook
by Margaret M. Johnson

Blessed with a wealth of fresh ingredients, modern Irish cooks are creating a sophisticated, contemporary style of cookery. These delicious dishes of Ireland--both modern and traditional--can be sampled now through the recipes found in Johnson's soft cover. Roughly 44 million Americans of Irish descent have grown up deprived of the culinary traditions of their ancestors, and she's prepared to remedy that, so prepare your palate for such delectable delicacies as Peppered rack of Pork, Smoked Salmon on Oatmeal Pancakes with Cucumber-Dill Sauce, Wild Duck with Root Vegetables, and Medallions of Venison with Cumberland Sauce. The dishes here are uncomplicated and can easily be prepared by the novice home cook. The book is organized by topography--hillside, dale, waters, and orchards and fields. In addition to the succulent recipes, chapters include historic sidebars and anecdotes, giving the reader a true sense of the land from which this food comes.


Joan Kohn's It's Your Kitchen: Over 100 Inspirational Kitchens
by Joan Kohn

Using photographs and descriptions of a wide variety of professionally designed kitchens to inspire readers, the author-host of HGTV's Kitchen Design and Bed and Bath Design-provides a pretty and practical guide to kitchen design and renovation. Because "a well-designed kitchen draws the family together and sets the tone for the day," Kohn believes the design of one's kitchen is key to the overall feel and function of one's home.

Last Dinner on the Titanic: Menus and Recipes from the Great Liner
by Rick Archbold & Dana McCaauley

When the Titanic embarked on its maiden voyage in April 1912, it was not only the largest liner ever built, it also carried the most advanced culinary facilities afloat. In three huge galleys, a staff of 80 toiled around the clock to prepare nearly 6,000 meals a day. For the Titanic's passengers, the meals were the highlight of each day. This charming book, filled with Edwardian character, conveys just what it was like to dine aboard the most famous of all ships. Last Dinner on the Titanic offers an on-board tour with fascinating descriptions and anecdotes, archival photographs and memorabilia. Fifty dishes featured on the Titanic's menus have been researched from period sources and tested for modern kitchens. There are recipes for Quail Eggs with caviar, Lobster Thermidor, and Oranges en Surprise. First class passengers dined on Consomme Olga, Poached Salmon with Mousseline Sauce, Filets Mignons Lili, and Chocolate Painted Eclairs. Complete directions for hosting a Titanic dinner include ideas for sending invitations, setting the mood, and decorating the table, as well as choosing the wines and present each dish. As the string orchestra plays and the champagne is poured, step back into a world of lost elegance aboard the liner of legend.



License To Grill
by Chris Schlesinger & John Wiloughby

Over 200 recipes packed with bright, loud flavors greet us in this daring, challenging, exciting, yet casual collection of live fire cookery expertise. This is grillimg designed for the novice or pro, dedicated man woman or child. Schlesinger and Willoughby add several new, lighter dimensions to their grilling canon, with more grilled vegetables, more seafood, more pasta, and suprisingly, grillable fruit. Vibrant and adventurous, the recipes combine fresh herbs, chiles, citrus and spices with that indefineable grilled flavor to create dishes that both satisfy and intrigue. The book includes an in-depth briefing, including tips on easy fire starting, and fireplace grilling. There is a chapter devoted to grilling on skewers, as well as a wide selection of grilled salads, which use grilled fish, meat and vegetables to add a great smoky flavor. There are also chapters on spicy hot dishes, slow cooking and a bevy of side dishes. In short, here's a book for anyone who's ever wanted to put food over fire. So go ahead and unleash you "griller instincts" and give yourself a License to Grill.


Light the Fire - Fiery Food with a Light New Attitude!
by Linda Matthie-Jacobs

This treasure chest is filled with an array of very exciting recipes which fires the imagination and the tastebuds: new healthy recipes with a spicy touch. Not just a low-cal cookbook, this is a flavorful collection of recipes which are a delight to read and also easy to follow. Matthie-Jacobs writes with a sense of fun and adventure and peppers her book with amusing anecdotes and interesting facts. The book is beautiful, with gorgeous full-page photographs that inspire. Linda takes a global view of spicy foods, bringing in dishes from the Southwest, the Caribbean, and the East Indies, while not leaving out Barbeque. The anecdotes about chile peppers and hot foods makes Light the Fire a fun read as well as an exciting cookbook. Look for recipes which combine low-cal, low-fat, low-sodium, no-cholesterol chile peppers with like ingredients to produce light, hot and spicy recipes that burst with vibrant flavors. The book comes with useful, convenient menu suggestions that offer wonderfully festive gatherings of dishes, from a full Caribbean dinner to a delicious cocktail party with fiery drinks and hit-the-spot finger food...a very exciting array of recipes.




Note: This information was accurate when it was published. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the businesses in question before making your plans.

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