1 comments about Austin Leslie's Creole-Soul: New Orleans' Cooking With a Soulful Twist.

1. Austin Leslie remains one of the greatest chefs to come out of New Orleans. His untimely death, as a result of Hurricane Katrina, makes one appreciate even more his remarkable skills and his charismatic personality. These recipes sum up the whole of Creole and soul cooking. The book includes all of his famous recipes, including those for fried chicken and barbecued shrimp. The book's format is organized and easy to follow, important points for any cook. I'm so glad this book is available, because Chef will live forever. I'd recommend this to anyone interested in New Orleans' style cooking.

No comments about Mom's Caribbean and Americas Soulfood Cooking for Excellent Health and a Long Life (Caribbean and American Soul Food).

2 comments about Aspects of Afro-American Cookery.

1. Howard Paige has looked deep into historical records and rare cookbooks to survey African-American cooking up to the Civil War. This is the only in-print source I know for recipes from Tunis Campbell's 1840s book, and gathers evidence thoughtfully and without bias. My copy lacks many of the footnotes, but I have found no glaring errors, very unusual in this area where generalizations and layers of racism make all secondary sources suspect. The quotes I have been able to check are accurate and thorough.



2. A compilation of foods - Creole, Cajun, Deep South, Gourmet, Contemporary and Soul as prepared by Afro-American cooks from Colonial American to thrugh the 20th Century:
   
   The Beginning
   
   Colonial Cooks
   - Colonial Williamsburg
   - Plantation Cooks
   - Field-hand Cooks
   - Colonial Holidays
   
   Seldom Considered Aspects
   - Cowboy Cookery
   - Civil War Black Cooking
   - Afro-American Cooks on the Railroads
   
   20th-century African-American Cooking

3 comments about 173 Pre-Prohibition Cocktails : Potations So Good They Scandalized A President.

1. "Like a great civilization, the cocktail flourished, went out of fashion, and faded. These are recipes from the great exodus." says Mark Brown, Food Writer at The Tulsa World. "You never really miss something," says Tom Rush, bartender,"until you don't have it." "D. J. Frienz found Rufus Estes in her mother's kitchen. But to find Tom Bullock, she had to go online. There was just something about Estes' 1911 cookbook. Gravy-splattered and grease-spotted, it told a story that Frienz couldn't let die. In 1999, she published "Good Things To Eat As Suggested By Rufus" so it wouldn't. . . . . This time, it's Bullock and his 1917 recipes from 'The Ideal Bartender.' It's a remarkable collection of cocktail recipes from a remarkable, if mysterious, barman. Up to and perhaps beyond Prohibition, Bullock mixed drinks at the St. Louis Country Club and the Pendennis Club of Louisville and was quite revered for it." "Behind the bar at the St. Louis Country Club, Bullock shook cocktails for such drinkers as Teddy Roosevelt and George Herbert Walker. Sound familiar? His great-grandson is your new president." . . . . Frienz' "concoction is '173 Pre-Prohibition Cocktails." As with Estes, she's taken Bullock's original text and shaken it up with anecdotes, quotes, sources and all sorts of imagery from the cocktail's primevil period. It's a longing for the classics that inspired her." "I love things that last," Frienz said, "things that are deep and have meaning. A perfect cocktail is a beautiful thing." . . . . . "Somewhere in St. Louis, his [Tom Bullock's] old house still stands. Like the cocktail of pre-Prohibition America, it's all but condemned."



2. Includes 7 absinthe recipes and a handy reference guide for ordering it over the internet. Just what I needed after seeing Moulin Rouge!



3. The only beverage book that includes lost and almost-lost cocktail recipes from before 1920, 173 Pre-Prohibition Cocktails: Potations So Good They Scandalized A President is an amazing glimpse into the history of liquor in America, as well as a collection of so many different drink preparations that even the most gregarious connoisseur is certain to find something new and especially intoxicating. In addition to the drink mixes themselves, this book also memorializes the life and times of the recipes' original author, Tom Bullock (1872-1964), the first African-American to write a drink book. Present-day co-author D. J. Frienz has added over 40 illustrations, 20 pages of little-known facts about the history of drinking, and suggestions as to where to purchase ingredients that might be hard to come by. 173 Pre-Prohibition Cocktails is a "must" for anyone who enjoys mixing their own drinks, or is searching for a new taste in their cocktail glass.

No comments about Fruits of the Harvest: Recipes to Celebrate Kwanzaa and Other Holidays.

2 comments about Mama's Tea Cakes: 101 Soul Food Desserts.

1. If like me, you enjoy cooking, old style southern meals, you will enjoy this cookbook.



2. This book was purchased as a gift for my sister who is a formidable cook. This book quickly became one of her favorites. The recipes are great, but the stories surrounding them are great!

2 comments about Welcome Table: African-American Heritage Cooking.

1. Even though I'm not African-american ( except in the cultural sense that ALL Americans are somewhat African-american...our culture owing so much to Africa ), I LOVED this book! It explains so much about what I grew up calling "soul food", and in a way that neither puffs-up it's subject or trivializes it in any way. The depth of this book simply must be seen and experienced to be appreciated. there is no way, for instance, that this book could well lend itself to making Afroamerican cooking "chi-chi", as has happened to so many other cuisines that have become trendy. The title says it all: "Welcome...whoever you are. Sit down and eat. Enjoy!" But, the book never panders to the hip and trendy. I also liked the recently published Tuskegee University cookbook, which was, unfortunately, stolen recently. Buy this book if you are at all interested in the origins of many things that most Americans think of as "American", but are actually African in origin.



2. This is my favorite cookbook. All of the recipes are practical,the ingredients are easily found (you probably have most in the kitchen already) and they are for food that everybody likes to eat. A short history and sometimes photographs accompany most of the recipes. My favorite recipe from the book is the one for sweet potato pie, it is always a crowd pleaser. My parents actually purchased this book several years ago when I was in high school, when I left for college I made sure to take it with me.

   The Welcome Table at times seems like a novel, the author's personal notes draw the reader into her life experiences and its easy to forget that this is a cookbook.

No comments about Not Just for the Money: An Economic Theory of Personal Motivation.

No comments about The American Beach Cookbook.

2 comments about My Pop Pop and Me.

1. For far too long there didn't seem to be children's books that celebrated relationships between grandparents and their grandchildren. My Pop Pop and Me by Irene Smalls has contributed to what I hope is a growing trend of stories that are fun, informative and celebrate the love between generations.
   
   Pop Pop and his grandson spend the day together in the kitchen cooking. Yes, two guys are cooking! How wonderful. They explore the kitchen and make a luscious lemon cake. The author even shares the recipe with the readers.
   
   The illustrations are cute, big and bold with soft, inviting colors. Children will be drawn to the kitchen scenes and the relationship between grandpa and grandson. I'm always looking for books with racial diversity and My Pop Pop and Me fits my criteria with the African-American characters.
   
   Armchair Interviews says: Grandparents, this is a perfect book to purchase for that special grandchild. You can bake the cake together and then snuggle on the sofa reading My Pop Pop and Me.



2. This is a wonderful book that shows the relationship between a grandfather and his grandson. I love the subject of having the relationship take place in the kitchen.
   As the story progress the kitchen gets messy, and it shows child washing his hands cooking and cleaning... The pictures jump off the page. They show the little boy doing boyish things in the story...Beautiful book very warm and I love the ending.