Book Review: The Mexican Slowcooker

A collection of 55 fix it and forget it recipes for Mexican favorites from an award-winning Mexican cooking authority, in a stylish, engaging package.

When acclaimed chef and cookbook author Deborah Schneider discovered that using her trusty slow cooker to make authentic Mexican recipes actually enhanced their flavor while dramatically reducing active cooking time, it was a revelation. Packed with Schneider’s favorite south-of-the-border recipes such as Tortilla Soup, Zesty Shredded Beef (Barbacoa), famed Mole Negro, the best tamales she has ever made, and more, The Mexican Slow Cooker delivers sophisticated meals and complex flavors, all with the ease and convenience that have made slow cookers enormously popular.

My Review:

I adore Mexican food. I love it.  I also adore my slow cooker.  I also love it.  Big time.  Who doesn't love sticking some food into a pot and having it cook itself in a few hours.  You can leave and come home to a house full of delicious smelling, awesome tasting food or you can be there all day and smell the goodness.  

This book is beautiful.  It is filled with colorful pages and great recipes.  It is the exact kind of cookbook that I love.  There are hardly any Mexican recipes to make in a slow cooker so I was very excited to see this book.  I really love it and now treasure it as a part of my collection.

I received this book for free in exchange for my honest opinion.

Book Review: Against the Grain (cookbook)

Revolutionary all-natural recipes for gluten-free cooking--from the owner of Against the Grain Gourmet.

Nancy Cain came to gluten-free cooking simply enough: Her teenage son was diagnosed with celiac disease. After trying ready-made baking mixes and finding the results rubbery and tasteless, she pioneered gluten-free foods made entirely from natural ingredients--no xanthan or guar gums or other mystery chemical additives allowed. That led her to adapt many of her family's favorite recipes, including their beloved pizzas, pastas, and more, to this real food technique. In Against the Grain,Nancy finally shares 200 groundbreaking recipes for achieving airy, crisp breads, delicious baked goods, and gluten-free main dishes.
     For any of these cookies, cakes, pies, sandwiches, and casseroles, you use only natural ingredients such as buckwheat flour, brown rice flour, and ripe fruits and vegetables. Whether you're making Potato Rosemary Bread, iced Red Velvet Cupcakes, Lemon-Thyme-Summer Squash Ravioli, or Rainbow Chard and Kalamata Olive Pizza, you'll be able to use ingredients already in your pantry or easily found at your local supermarket.
     With ample information for gluten-free beginners and 100 colorful photographs, this book is a game changer for gluten-free households everywhere.

My Review:

I have a gluten intolerance so when I saw this book as one to choose to review I jumped on it.  Although my family seems to handle gluten just fine, it is easier to make everything similar and it is also an opportunity to take out unnecessary gluten (and usually unhealthy) filled foods at the same time.  This book is beautiful, which I really appreciate in a cookbook.  The recipes have been about 70% able to be duplicated.  Cooking or really more baking gluten free is not the easiest thing to transition to.  Overall, I am very happy having this resource in my home and love the ideas I get from it.  

I received this book for free in exchange for my honest opinion.  

Book Review: The Soup Club Cookbook

Food-sharing is the hot new thing in the "getting dinner on the table" conversation, and in The Soup Club Cookbook, four friends share not only their formula for starting a soup club--which gives you at least three meals every month when you don't have to worry about dinner--but also 150 fantastic recipes for soups and sides and storing tips for stretching those meals across the week.

 

The Soup Club began when four friends (who, between them, have four husbands and ten hungry kids and several jobs) realized that they didn't actually have to cook at home every night to take pleasure in a home-cooked meal. They simply had to join forces and share meals, even if they weren't actually eating them together. Caroline, Courtney, Julie, and Tina happen to be neighbors, but a soup club is for anyone: colleagues, a group of workout buddies, a book club. All you need are a few people who simply want to have more home-cooked food in their lives.

In a soup club each person takes a turn making soup--and sometimes other dishes for sides or for when everyone needs a break from soup, so if a club has four people, in a month each person will have dinner delivered three times--a dish that can start as a full meal and stretch into more dinners or lunches or even morph into a sauce. Soup is forgiving, versatile, and perfect for sharing; it can be spiced to taste, topped elaborately or not at all, and dressed up or down. It travels well and reheats beautifully.  The Soup Club Cookbook also has dozens of tips for cooking in quantity and for tailoring soup to individual tastes and needs. Here, too, are simple guidelines for starting your own soup club, anecdotes, and a few cautionary tales  that will inspire anyone to share food and eat well. 

 

Recipes include quick and easies, classics, twist on favorites, and dozens of flavor-rich new crowd pleasers:  

   * Carrot Coconut and Chicken Chili, 

   * Senegalese Peanut Soup 

   * Faux Ramen 

   * Red Lentil Curry Soup 

   * Potato Cheddar Soup 

   * Sun Dried Tomato Soup 

   * Jeweled Rice Salad 

   * Cheddar Cornbread, 

   * Summer Corn Hash 

   * Soy Simmered Chicken Wings

My Review:

This is my new favorite cookbook!  I love the way it is written... like a conversation between 4 friends.  The recipes include so much more than just soups.  They added in sides to go with the soups, salads, and pastas.  Each of the friends also added in tidbits of what toppings or seasonings they added to each of the soups.  I really cannot get enough of this book.  I could have sat and read the whole entire thing like a novel, which I've never said about a cookbook before.  I highly recommend this book (obviously)!

I received this book for free in exchange for my honest opinion.