Reviews (2)

I have mixed feelings about this book.
I have owned a 4-quart Romertopf for a few years and wanted a cookbook to try things beyond my current self concocted recipes for turkey parts and duck. The title of this book sounded very promising, but if I had looked through this book in a bookstore, I would not have gotten it.
Easy Entertaining
I love to cook and I love to try new recipes.The recipes are easy to understand and once the meal is in the oven you can forget it until time to dish-up.Sesame Chicken is sensational!A great book for anyone who doesn't mind spending a little time getting the ingredients together. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Clay pot cookery    2. Cooking    3. Cooking / Wine    4. General    5. Methods - Special Appliances    6. Cooking / Special Appliances   

Subjects:  1. Cooking    2. Cooking / Wine    3. Methods - Special Appliances    4. Cooking / Special Appliances    5. Electric cookery, Slow    6. Food & Drink / Cookery    7. Gadget cookery   

Reviews (35)

Absolutely Reliable!
I LOVE this book.I've had it for years.Good information on Bread Machine Usage and Ingredients.Every recipe I've tried has worked (unlike some other books and recipes I own.)I love the Christmas Anise Bread and the Peanut Butter and Jelly Bread.So unique!I don't use - or feel I need - any other bread machine book, though I'm thinking of buying another one of hers just for fun.I LOVE IT!

Great Bread Machine Book
I love this book!! I've owned it for about a year now, but just got it back after a very long visit to my mother-in-law. (3 months) She loved the book also and didn't want to give it back! She bought one of her own! Thank goodness! I think she got tired of reading the recipes over the phone to me! lol! Anyways great book, lots of information. Also great for what ever size machine you have. Does small (1lb), Med. (1 1/2lbs.) and large (2lbs). for each recipe.

"borrowed" this book from friend and "forgot" to give back
great book, good recipes.Never a dud in the bunch.I highly recommend this book.
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Subjects:  1. Automatic bread machines    2. Bread    3. Cooking    4. Cooking / Wine    5. Courses & Dishes - Bread    6. Methods - Special Appliances    7. Cakes, baking, icing & sugarcraft    8. Gadget cookery   

Reviews (5)

Taste and creativity reign in this book
Don't think "heavy" when you think "Heartland"--this book features a very broad range of recipes that include basic nutrition information.Not overly-loaded with fat, carbs, sodium or calories, these dishes are much more creative than you will find in many other 'crockery' cookbooks.Some recipies we've enjoyed include veal shanks with apple cider that's delicious enough for company and a wild rice vegetable dish that has been a hit with vegetarian friends.This is not a book that relies on packaged sauce mixes or dump-and-dial-up-the-cooker techniques.Neither over-wrought nor under-thought, these recipies allow you to do just enough cooking to feel that you've made something special, and let you come in the door at the end of the day to delicious smells that only need a tweak of seasoning or reduction of sauce.Glad it's still available!

Hearty Heartland cooking
I'm a morning person, so the notion of preparing dinner while I'm at my most active is a very appealing one, and a slow cooker or crock pot makes this feasible.I own several crockery cookbooks, but this one is my favorite, perhaps because the author uses lots of herbs and spices in her recipes, so the dishes don't turn out as bland and watery as they sometimes do with recipes from other, similar books. My Favorite Cookbook Ever!!
I have owned this cookbook for a couple of years and use it all the time for everyday cooking and for when I have family and friends over.Some of the recipes take some time and special care to prepare, but I don't care because I love to cook and because the meals turn out so wonderful--full of great flavor and, when made with meats, very tender.If you love to cook and enjoy good, wholesome food, don't pass this one up! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Casserole cookery    2. Cooking    3. Cooking / Wine    4. Electric cookery, Slow    5. General    6. Methods - Special Appliances    7. Regional & Ethnic - American - General    8. Cooking / American / General   

Subjects:  1. Cooking    2. Cooking / Wine    3. General    4. Methods - Quick & Easy    5. Methods - Special Appliances   

Reviews (1)

big disappointment
Unfortunately this book is filled with ordinary recipes with a lot of bragging and inflated ego. Not worth the price. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Buffets (Cookery)    2. Cookery    3. Cooking    4. Cooking / Wine    5. Methods - Gourmet    6. Methods - Quantity    7. Methods - Special Appliances    8. Quantity cookery    9. General cookery   

Reviews (8)

A Must For Campers Everywhere
I used this book for the first time this past weekend. Everything was delicious and very easy to make : San Francisco Cioppino, Cheesy Biscuits one night, and pancakes made with the multipurpose baking mix the next morning. I am dying to try more recipes when we go again in three weeks.
For both the hardened camper and the novice; for the camping trip and the backyard grill; for the basics and the super-spreads
This book received high marks from me before I even opened it--it has a compact format and a sturdy paperback cover, perfect for packing in your camping gear without excess weight or bulk.By compact, I am referring only to the cover dimensions; this is a thick recipe-packed book that is well worth the cover price.
The cookbook that saved the Fourth of July
San Francisco, July 3, 11:45 p.m.:Warm with summertime spirit and several pints of ale, I spontaneously invited several people over to my apartment for a Fourth of July BBQ.
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Subjects:  1. Cookery    2. Cooking    3. Cooking / Wine    4. Methods - Outdoor    5. Gadget cookery   

Subjects:  1. Cooking    2. Cooking / Wine    3. Dutch oven cookery    4. Methods - General    5. Methods - Special Appliances    6. Cooking / Culinary Arts & Techniques    7. General cookery   

Reviews (1)

Great introduction to a healthy alternative way of cooking.
In its roughly 50 parts, all written by experienced cooks and cook book writers, HP Books' "The Book of ... Cooking" series takes you to the cuisines of various regions of the U.S. and around the world; all in easy to follow, well-explained recipes.Read more

Subjects:  1. Gadget cookery   

Reviews (1)

Im a Beginnerin grilling
This book is easy to read and recipes are great, and you
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Subjects:  1. Barbecue cookery    2. Cooking    3. Cooking / Wine    4. Methods - Barbecue & Grilling    5. Methods - Special Appliances    6. Sale Books   

Editorial Review

Kafka believes in "hot ovens, short roasting times, and rare meat," so most recipes in this cookbook start with "heat oven to 500x F." The result is food with profound flavors that is sensible, even primal, yet has the flair you'd expect from an opinionated pro. Despite controversy over her recipe for roast turkey, this book so impressed her peers that they voted it a Julia Child Cookbook Award in 1995. Herbivores rejoice: There are over 100 mouth-watering recipes for vegetables and some fruits, too, along with those for roasted meats, poultry and fish. ... Read more

Reviews (27)

You had better have a self-cleaning oven
Don't buy this book unless you have a self-cleaning oven. The recipes are good, the method produces juicy rare meat, and I've always liked Kafka's opinionated palate. But unless you enjoy cleaning your oven wait until you hire a maid or have a self-cleaning method to rid yourself of the cooked on spatters from this method of roasting. I had a new clean oven, good thermostat, and followed her methods to the letter. I produced juicy meat with crisp skin (chicken) in record time. But the entire oven needs cleaning after each roast. Not fun. If your grill will crank up to 500 and hold that heat for an hour you might be able to make these recipes. Otherwise think twice if you have an ordinary oven. The pan sizes given for various roasts also seem pretty small and tend to drip the fat all over the oven floor.

Besides the oven.....
Great book. For roasting we use our large fireplace insert, during the winter months only, of course. It works great as the inside temp must be something akin to 500 degrees!? With energy prices so high why not use it if you have it. Works great for baking also, but you have to experiment and you have to have a large fireplace insert.Get the fire going good. Let a bed of coals develop. Use a small grate to elevate the cooking pan. Your great great grandma probably cooked like this!
Changing the Way we Roast
Perhaps once in a decade there is a book which changes the way we think about cooking. Julia Child's introduction to French cooking did this in the 1960's and started culinary revolution in the United States that still rages. This book's influence may not be quite so profound, but it will forever change the way we think about roasting meats and vegetables. Or at least it ought to do so.
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Subjects:  1. Cooking    2. Cooking / Wine    3. Methods - Baking    4. Reference    5. Roasting (Cookery)    6. Cooking / Reference    7. Gadget cookery   

Subjects:  1. Barbecue cookery    2. Cooking    3. Cooking / Wine    4. Methods - Barbecue & Grilling    5. Cooking / General    6. Gadget cookery   

Editorial Review

A bento box is a lacquered square divided into four equal compartments. Japanese cooks use the bento box for serving carefully orchestrated, beautifully arranged meals composed of four dishes. While Ellen Greaves and Wayne Nish designed their 12 seasonal menus to be offered in the elegant setting of bento boxes, the food is still remarkable served conventionally, so do not let the idea of using an authentic presentation keep you from enjoying their book. As long as you present the four dishes in a menu simultaneously, the choreography of flavors, textures, and colors will come through. Equally important, the recipes really are simple and easy, and most require familiar ingredients. The fall menu of Arugula Salad with Parmesan and Pickled Shiitake Mushrooms; Ratatouille; Pasta with Raw Tomatoes; and Poached Shrimp with Beans, Celery, and Saffron proves the point. It also shows the heavy Mediterranean influence in Greaves's and Nish's fusion cooking.Short-grain Japanese rice is probably the only Asian ingredient you'll have to pursue. Perhaps the one caution is that high-quality ingredients are essential for optimal success in this kind of minimalist cooking. If this is a problem, you can always feast your eyes on the exquisite pictures in this slim volume. They may even inspire you to contact the mail-order sources provided so you can collect some of the tableware lovingly photographed by Nish. Read more

Reviews (3)

Not a Japanese cookbook
Although I agree with the other reviewers in that this is indeed a beautifully photographed and organized book, (for which I give it the four stars), I wasn't aware until I purchased it that this is not a Japanese recipe book-its Western cuisine presented in an aesthetically Asian manner.However, it does give a good history of bento boxes and the recipes are simple and delicious.If you are looking for authentic Japanese bento recipes, I recommend _Japanese Meals on the Go:Bento Boxes_ by Naomi Kijima.

Simple and Elegant Gourmet Cooking
What a wonderful cookbook. The recipes are simple and relatively quickto prepare.The artful photography, so excellently done by Wayne Nish,makes it easy for the user to duplicate the elegent presentation.Whethera romantic dinner for two or intimate dinner for four,use this cookbookfor those special occassions. If you're a novice, try this one out whenpreparing for that special someone.Cooking such beautiful and deliciousfood doesn't get more easy than this!It is sure to impress. It's beautiful, it's innovative, it's healthful!
This is the first cookbook in a long time that has sent me straight to the kitchen to start trying recipes.Am actually working my way right through the book trying every one!The authors have presented a beautiful, innovative book with very simple recipes of fresh healthful ingredients that are exciting to create and a joy to present to guests. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Bento cookery    2. Cookery, American    3. Cooking    4. Cooking / Wine    5. Food presentation    6. Methods - Special Appliances    7. Regional & Ethnic - American - General    8. Regional & Ethnic - Japanese    9. Tablesetting    10. General cookery    11. Japan    12. National & regional cuisine   

Reviews (10)

For Pasta Lovers who want to go a step further
Excellent book to prepare your own pasta at home. The book is adapted to both hand-cranked and electric extruder pasta machines.
Interesting, but...
I bought this book when I first got my hand-crank pasta machine.It's kind of fun, but most of the recipes are far too elaborate and highly flavoured. Very few of them sound like something you'd want to do start to finish.I agree with the Italians -- pasta is fairly basic -- have fun with the sauces.(I do wish I had the patience to make those cute little candystriped "packets", though.)
Interesting ideas, but...
I bought this book with real excitement as I had read that it contains recipes for gluten-free pasta. It does, but only about 2, not the 15 it claims - most of these are based on kamut or spelt - neither of which are gluten-free. They may be fine for some people with a mild wheat intolerance, but for any medically diagnosed Celiacs they could cause a serious reaction.
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Subjects:  1. Cooking    2. Cooking / Wine    3. General    4. Methods - Special Appliances    5. Cookery by ingredient    6. Gadget cookery   

Reviews (2)

a great cook book
every recipie is wonderful! Gave it as part of a group of cookbooks for a wedding gift and it's her favorite. The additions to the main meal are simple and appropriate.

My favorite cookbook!
My husband bought this cookbook for me, and of all the cookbooks that we tried, this turned out to be my favorite cookbook that I use the often. Reasons are many -- many dishes look fancy but are often easy to do and taste very fabulous, and they usually don't require hard-to-find ingredients. Another plus is that you don't use a lot of pans and stuff -- you just use the same skillet for everything (though you'll need to transfer some foods to a waiting dish for some recipes).Read more

Subjects:  1. Cooking    2. Cooking / Wine    3. General    4. Methods - General    5. Quick and easy cookery    6. Skillet cookery    7. Cooking / Culinary Arts & Techniques    8. Gadget cookery   

Reviews (1)

Yummy Recipes!!!
I have tried at least half of the recipes in this book and have had excellent results every time.There is a great variety of all different kinds of bread.I highly recommend it! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Cooking    2. Cooking / Wine    3. Courses & Dishes - Bread    4. Methods - Special Appliances    5. Sale Books   

Reviews (2)

Excellent Cookbook
I wrote this review when I had just finished eating my second recipe from this book. The food was excellent, and the recipes were very easy to follow. This is a great book
When I bought a pressure cooker, I wasn't sure which book to buy out of the myriad books in the store.The reason I bought this was because it was the cheapest!It just goes to show you that something cheap can be a rare and wonderful find. The recipes are just delicious and very easy to make, even for a novice cook.I've had great fun experimenting on my husband and son and nothing beats a hearty stew in the middle of a Calgary winter.What used to take me all day in a slow cooker, now takes just 30 minutes, even with the cheapest, toughest cuts of meat.Buying this book has certainly made my meat purchasing easier, because I'm saving money buying cheaper cuts but not sacrificing quality in the end result.Read more

Subjects:  1. Cooking    2. Cooking / Wine    3. Methods - Special Appliances    4. Cooking / Special Appliances    5. Gadget cookery   

Reviews (6)

Recipes Did Not Sell Me
I was not happy with this book.The recipes they provided were not recipes you would use on an everyday basis.In my mind, I was looking for rib, roast, and chile recipes.I found myself just thumbing through the book with no desire to cook anything in there.I believe there are better books out there.Save your money.

Picky eater
I'm sure this book may be helpful for some people, but I was looking for more simple recipes for a very picky eater. Things that had more pasta, ground meat, etc. There are things in some of these recipes that I don't even know what they are or where to get them,and I'm sure my son wouldn't eat. Also some of the prep time was quite long, I want things I can put in there and forget it. If I spend 45 minutes preparing a meal, I shouldn't have to wait 2 or more hours on the slow cooker to finish it.

Love my Crockpot, this book helps me use it!
I love my crockpot. I use it all the time. It is so easy to have a complete meal on the table. Cheaper cuts of meat come out tasting great, no hot ovens and stove tops for little fingers to get burned on, easy to use, and good results. Read more

Subjects:  1. Casserole cookery    2. Cookery    3. Cooking    4. Cooking / Wine    5. Methods - Special Appliances   

Reviews (5)

Highly recommended for any clay pot owner, whether new or seasoned cook
The revised edition of a classic guide, Cooking in Clay, comes from an author with a degree in both biology and the Cordon Bleu School of Cooking, and it doesn't disappoint, providing over a hundred dishes for clay pot fare ranging from soups to seafoods and breads. Success is nearly guaranteed through numerous tips and insights on how clay cooking works, paired with appealing dishes such as a Ham and Raisin Stuffing or Garlic Braised Spareribs. Highly recommended for any clay pot owner, whether new or seasoned cook.
Clay pot cooking
I bought this book after I created several clay pots myself in my pottery studio. Not only did the pots work great with many of the books recipes, I found myself making more casseroles for friends and relatives.

Only if you cook using cans of soup
This is a vastly overrated book. The recipes are pedestrian at best, in lineal descent from Betty Crocker. The author apparently thinks of food as 'food products.' Touted as including microwave cooking in clay, it doesnot, just offers a page of advice. If you like to cook, buy a differentbook. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Cooking    2. Cooking / Wine    3. General    4. Methods - Special Appliances    5. Gadget cookery   

Reviews (3)

Not worth buying
I was more interested in technique and tips for cooking with my new convection oven and this was a poor resource The recipes are ordinary. Personally, I wouldn't have bought it had I known how mediocre this book was.

Convection Oven Cooking
Not enough basic recipes and not enough information.I returned this title, it just didn't appeal to me.If you want some more intricate recipes and some great basic convection oven info - try "The Best Convection Oven Cookbook".Personally, I'd like to see some one write a book with roasting times, chocolate chip cookie recipes and more of the basics.

A beginers guide
A beginers guide to convection ovens.Some very basic receipts for everyday meals, but does not have receipts one might use when entertaining guests. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Convection oven cookery    2. Cooking    3. Cooking / Wine    4. Methods - Special Appliances    5. Gadget cookery