1 comments about The Irish Spirit: Recipes Inspired by the Legendary Drinks of Ireland.

1. This is absolutely an awesome cookbook. Being Irish, wanting to go to Ireland, and loving to cook made this a must have.Highly recommended for anyone who likes to cook. Kathy

5 comments about Jane Brody's Good Food Gourmet: Recipes and Menus for Delicious and Healthful Entertaining.

1. This book taught me to cook! I was bored with my other cookbooks, always looking for recipes but too timid to try ones with "scary" ingredients like eggplant, tofu, canned salmon, dried beans, etc. Then I discovered this book, and became inspired by Jane Brody's encouraging descriptions of various dishes ("Lovely to look at and lovely to savor!"), along with comforting recommendations from her tasters ("Every taster begged for the recipe..."). I decided to go for it!

   Before long, I was turning out some of the most delicious, interesting, healthful meals I've ever enjoyed! Without even trying, my husband and I both lost weight, eating more veggies & less meat-- with no loss of taste! It seems whenever I make a Jane Brody dish for someone, they always ask for the recipe...and they NEVER suspect they've eaten "health food."

   Best of all, I've learned so much about cooking! Jane's recipes showed me how to put together a healthy, exquisite meal using beans, rice or pasta as a base that's then fleshed out with veggies and flavored with former no-no's like red meat, sour cream, cheese, etc. If you're a creative cook who loves to explore new tastes & techniques, you'll love Jane Brody. Alternately, if you're a new cook who'd like to branch out to gourmet fare, Jane Brody's a great place to start.

   However, if you're looking for an easy cookbook to feed a family of finicky eaters simple American meals like meatloaf & mac 'n cheese, "The Good Food Gourmet" is probably a bit too intense for you. Come back when the kids get older!




2. This is an excellent cookbook! Out of the 25 or so cookbooks on my shelf I can honestly say that Jane Brody's book has been used the most. The recipes are low in fat and very tasty. Many may be prepared in advance. The only negative is that Brody does not provide the reader with number of calories or nutritional information for the recipes.



3. I am a tremendous fan of all Jane's cookbooks and this one is my all-time favorite. Not only are the recipes easy to follow and delicious, they also really do make enough to entertain friends and family. I have made many of the recipes in this cookbook and many have become family standards. Friends always ask me for the recipe when I cook from Jane's book, and many of these recipes are now standards for their families too! Last, I will add that its easy to be a good cook with Jane Brody!



4. I have used this cookbook for years. I also use her original cookbook,Jane Brody's Good Food Book. The recipes in both are easy and delicious. Many of us have forgotten how good all those healthy carbs can be. Brody reminds us. Whenever I don't know what to prepare for dinner, I pick up one of these two books. I always find something tasty and healthy. Morrison's Minestrone and Jane's Everyday Vinaigrette are two of my favorite recipes.



5. I have used this cookbook for years. It's recipes never get old. They are healthful but always tasty. The most used cookbook on my shelf. Don't miss her "Guacamole Grande", homemade stock and then Turkey soup, and Quick Eggplant casserole.

2 comments about Food and Feasts in the Middle Ages (Medieval World).

1. These books in The Medieval World series (there are 20), published by Crabtree Publishing Company, serve myriad purposes. For the intended reading age, 9-12, they present medieval life--very confusing to our contemporary conventions--in a perfectly understandable fashion. For that age range, I could not recommend these books higher. If I'd had such materials when I was younger, I might have ended up as a medieval scholar.
   
   Yet they also serve a purpose that the publisher may not have intended, and that is for the casual researcher of medieval life.
   
   There are accessible texts for the casual researcher, this is true, but none that I've seen contain simple explanations and diagrams. For example, this book is full of wonderful illustrations that depict: a timeline that begins with the feudal system and importing rice to Spain from the Middle East in 700 ACE to Christopher Columbus and the introduction of new food around 1493 ACE; what different food shops looked like; taverns and inns; and a two-page diagram (with numbers!) of a noble's feast; and many, many more.
   
   Every page in this book (there are 32 pages in every book in the series), is presented in full color, the pages colored to resemble parchment, and the illustrations done to wonderfully evoke the period.
   
   The "chapters" included are:
   
   The Middle Ages
   Ideas About Food
   Farming
   Peasant's Food
   Markets and Fairs
   The Spice Trade
   Eating in Towns
   Food Shops
   Cooking in the Castle
   A Noble's Table
   A Noble's Feast
   Hunting, Hawking, and Fishing
   Feasts and Fasts
   Food in Other Cultures
   Glossary and Index (wonderful to have!)
   
   If you're a writer, and you're looking for simple information on what medieval life looked like, this series of books can't be beat. To buy the entire series may be prohibitive, but if you have an idea of exactly what you want, this is a great starting point.



2. The series is wonderful for the intended reader (ages 9 - 12) and taken as a whole, gives a very comprehensive look at life in the middle ages. As a stand-alone book, however, it is very narrow in it's scope. It deals exclusively with growing, acquiring, serving and beliefs about food during that time. While it has many lists of the kinds of food found in the area, along with who eats them and when, it does not have any descriptions of prepared dishes, and has only one recipe, which is basically melted cheese on crackers. For a child writing a report on food in the middle ages, this is a perfect book. For a child or adult wishing to host a recreation of a middle ages feast, this book is nearly useless. For a child who has just discovered a love of the middle ages, it is going to be the start of an expensive collection.

4 comments about The Scottish-Irish Pub and Hearth Cookbook: Recipes and Lore from Celtic Kitchens.

1. This book is easy, warm, and satisfying. Reminds me of home with family, freinds, good food and good conversations. If you like good "pub" feel, buy the book.



2. The recipes are great! I've done extensive research on Celtic dining and spoken to many a Scottish friends that grew up with the old Celtic Traditions and they agreed this cookbook is great! So far, the recipes i have tried have been outstanding! If you're looking for authentic recipes and enjoy great food... try this cookbook out!



3. `The Scottish-Irish Pub and Hearth Cookbook' by Scottish / American culinary writer, Kay Shaw Nelson is another cookbook offering by the relatively low-priced, low profile publisher, Hippocrene Books, Inc. which has a large selection of cookbooks about many of the lesser world cuisines in `The Hippocrene Cookbook Library' as well as several books on Scottish and Irish subjects.
   
   I have reviewed a few of these Hippocrene Books and compared to those offerings, this volume is superior to most, although it may not be the very best source for traditional Irish or Scottish recipes. On the other hand, I especially like this book for the fact that it seems to have very good versions of many recipes that may be so common that many flashier cookbooks may not even deign to cover them. My favorite here is the recipe for Scotch eggs, which recently came to fame as a dish prepared on `Iron Chef America' by the `Too Hot Tamales' (Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger) in a battle against Bobby Flay. The recipe made such an impression that while I remember it, I don't remember the secret ingredient or who won the battle.
   
   I also like the fact that there is a much greater similarity between the two Celtic culinary cultures of Scotland and Ireland than there is between, for example the modern cuisines of Spain and Portugal, which some have lumped together. The biggest difference between the two may be the time at which each was influenced by contact with the French. For the Scottish, during the era of Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots, when Scotland and France were active allies against Protestant England. For the Irish, it seems to be much later, beginning in the early 20th century, when Ireland first became independent, and preferred to trade with France than their former colonial masters, England.
   
   While every culinary tradition on earth seems to make a case that they are more congenial entertainers and friends of travelers than anyone else, the Irish can document the fact that not only do they really enjoy a good gathering over beer or spirits, there were actually LAWS passed, the Brehon laws of the Gaelic Celts of the 5th century AD, enforcing hospitality toward strangers and travelers.
   
   The chapters in this book are a great reflection of what is important to these Celtic cuisines:
   
   Starters, including meatballs, lots of oysters and prawns, and the famous Scotch eggs. I'm surprised to find a perfect recipe of the shrimp cocktail, which may have come to these shores from Scotland or Ireland instead of the more easily suspected French.
   Soups, especially featuring leeks, which seem to be a native and not a French import. The most famous, of course, is Scotch broth, which is heavy with lamb and barley.
   Egg and Cheese Dishes, featuring many dishes from the famous Scottish and Irish breakfasts, including that mysteriously named cheese dish, Scotch Rabbit.
   Barley, Oats, and Cornmeal with lots of porridges and cold cereals, such as Muesli.
   Seafood, including lots of finny animals from freshwater lakes and streams such as salmon and trout. The most famous recipe here may be kedgeree, a rice, fish, and egg casserole. I just wonder exactly how old this recipe actually is, as two important flavorings are Worcestershire sauce and curry powder, two very British ingredients which may be not much more than 150 years in the British Isles.
   Poultry and Game recipes look suspiciously like recipes from southwest France (See Paula Wolfert's great study of recipes from this region). This may either be primordial Celtic influence from Europe or later emigration from Protestant France to the British Isles.
   Meats includes a lot of beef as in corned beef and cabbage, corned beef hash, and beef tartare, plus lots of lamb dishes and, oddly enough, several hamburger recipes. Makes me think our favorite meaty fast food came from Ireland rather than northern Germany, as its name suggests.
   Vegetables is lots of mashed potatoes and what to do with mashed potatoes the day after. It also shows that the Gaelic cuisine is one of the very few outside Japan that features seaweed.
   Bread, especially quickbread based scones and soda bread, which don't use yeast, plus boxty, that famous refuge of day-old mashed potatoes.
   Cakes and Cookies, oddly, is separated from desserts, possibly because these are recipes for things served at tea and not after a late supper. The highlight is oatmeal cookies and Scottish shortbread.
   Desserts features lots of apples, pears, and berries, especially the classic blackberry fool
   Drinks, of course.
   
   As a source of both culinary lore and classic recipes, this may be the best available book I have seen on Scotch / Irish comfort food. It may not be quite as good as `Irish Traditional Cooking' by leading Irish cooking school owner, Darina Allen, which the author recognizes as one of the leading authorities on Irish culinary practice, but for a nice little inexpensive package, this book is very, very good. For more information on the intertwining of culinary lore and ancient Celtic celebrations, see `Celtic Folklore Cooking' by culinary writer and folklorist, JoAnne Asala.



4. The Scottish-Irish Pub and Hearth Cookbook is probably the easiest cookbook I've ever tested and reviewed. My family has gotten used to my cooking experiments. They always know when I have a new cookbook. Everyday for a week or two, I'll spend hours cooking up a storm. Then, they'll tentatively try the dishes and give me their verdict on whether I should make it again sometime.
   
   With The Scottish-Irish Pub and Hearth Cookbook, I completely confused my family. I cooked and they tried the dishes but the majority of the meals, snacks, and desserts were already familiar to them. They were my old standbys many of which I learned by watching my mother and grandmother cook. I even found a few dishes that I remember enjoying as a kid but couldn't find a way to replicate. Now I have the recipes and I can pass them onto my children and grandchildren.

5 comments about Arizona Gardener's Guide.

1. Excellent book. Has given me many ideas of flowers to plant in this area.



2. We moved to Arizona two years ago, and my wife wanted a good quick reference guide to use in planting and tending our desert garden. This book fills the bill nicely, providing descriptions and clear photos of approximately 200 plants, along with tips on how to best use them in a garden. Ms. Irish's writing style is straightfoward, even a bit plodding, but readable. A good companion to "Plants for Dry Climates" by Duffield and Jones.



3. Information from books written by authors without the experience of gardening in Arizona, do not work in this state. Mary Irish has spent her life working for a variety of Arizona gardening organizations. She knows the climate so her information works... simple as that.
   
   This book is good for making plant selections when planning your garden. It offers nice photos and hardiness information specific to Arizona climate and soil conditions. Use in conjunction with Irish's Month-By-Month Gardening in the Desert Southwest and you should succeed.
   
   There is a very short list of books required for Arizona gardening (see my list on Amazon)... but this one is high on it.



4. This is by far the best book written for Arizona Gardeners. Mary Irish knows more about desert gardening than anyone. Thanks!



5. This book is the best gardening book that I have found for Tucson, AZ. The author divides the information into sections, such as Annuals, Perennials, Shrubs, Trees, etc. For each plant there is a picture on the page with care, growing tips, where and how to plant it, mature size, blooming period, and other interesting tips for the particular plant. This book has saved me alot of money by not investing in something that will not grow well here in Tucson. So far, everything I have planted using Mary Irish's advice this spring is still growing and blooming, even in our 100+ degree heat!

5 comments about The Parting Glass : A Toast to the Traditional Pubs of Ireland (Irish Pubs).

1. When I'm in Ireland -- which isn't nearly enough -- I try to avoid the trendy new pubs and stick to the joints where the local people go, where you're still likely to find a session in the corner, where the food is simple but hearty, and where the Guinness is pulled with pride.
   
   Eric Roth, a Boston-based photographer, pays tribute to the "real" Irish pubs of Ireland in "The Parting Glass." Of course, there are thousands upon thousands of pubs to choose from, and the book had limited space, so after exhaustive research (read: going to lots of pubs) he picked 43 representative establishments to capture on film. Eileen McNamara, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Boston Globe columnist, went along for the trip and provided the text to support Roth's images.
   
   Of course, I have my own favorite spots in Ireland, and sadly, they're not included here. And yet, of the 43 pictured, I've been to only a handful, and they ALL look a delight!
   
   The book includes numerous large, colorful photos of pub facades and pub interiors. Too, you'll find distinctive pub signs and unique pub decor. Better yet, you'll see people manning taps and hoisting pints, people who make up Ireland's traditional pub scene as much as the Guinness-stained tables, peat fires, live music and pleasant conversation.
   
   There are city pubs and country pubs, ornate pubs and plain, crowded and empty. Roth's photos are gorgeous, rich in color, detail and personality. McNamara's narrative is equally colorful, informative and evocative of the pub experience. Combined, they create a desire to dive through the pages, take a seat and order a pint.



2. This book made a wonderful gift for my husband this Christmas. He and I went to Ireland a few years ago to see a U2 concert at Slane castle. To this day, it remains one of my favorite vacations of all times, and this book rekindled those wonderful memories. So much so, that after browsing through the pages together, my husband and I are planning a return trip "across the pond" as a gift to each other! We're even planning some of our itenerary around these cool cities and pubs.
   
   The photos are just beautiful and so are the stories of the owners, the bartenders, the patrons and pub histories. Neat facts are tucked in between the pages, making it more than a photo essay -- I learned that a special place called a "Snug" exists in the older pubs, where the women used to share a pint or two without the company
   of men.
   
   If you are looking for an unusual and thoughtful gift, I recommend this book. It would make a wonderful father's day gift, (or mother's day gift!), it would be great as a birthday present, a graduation present, a coffee table book for a new homeowner, or for any other occassion where you want to raise a pint in celebration. Cheers!



3. This book is for those who want to be swept away on a marvelous journey through a land of incredible scenery interrupted by warm and friendly people invigorated by mouth watering blends of spirits served in the most welcoming places short of heaven.



4. Great photography. Great for Irish conversation. Makes a great gift.



5. Great book if you're planning a trip to Ireland or if you just want to enjoy a pint in your own living room!

5 comments about Month-By-Month Gardening in the Desert Southwest.

1. This book is a great resource for anyone wanting to garden in the Southwest. It gives a month by month summary of each class of flora (bulbs, cacti, trees, etc.) and what you should be doing for each. As a newcomer to the area, it is very valuable in teaching me what I need to now to be successful at planting in the desert.



2. In my opinion as a Master Gardener, this book is the best there is for gardening in Arizona, period! I'm sorry to see that it is currently unavailable at Amazon, perhaps you can get it through the Maricopa County Cooperative Extension Service Service library.



3. This is a great month by month guide for everything you grow (fruits, vegetables, herbs, flowers,etc). It tells you exactly what to do each month.



4. I have spent several years now trying to get my backyard thriving w/plants but with low water use and a minumum amount of digging in this vexing soil. I have tried everything in garden improvements and still have not achieved what I want. It finally hit me that the only thing I absolutely needed to do was to find plants that grow in heavy clay soil that contains various amounts of caliche. If the roots can't grow through the soil then no garden. Mary Irish is a pro at dealing with these issues. This book along with a couple of others by her also have become my only garden books that I will be using this season.



5. This book has been indispensible for a novice gardener in the desert southwest. Great tips, planting suggestions, advice on fruit trees, shrubs, veggies, grasses, annuals - you name it! A must for anyone learning how to grow things in the southwest's challenging extremes.

5 comments about The Irish Pub Cookbook.

1. `The Irish Pub Cookbook' is the fourth Irish themed cookbook I have reviewed from Irish-American Margaret M. Johnson of New York. All four, including `The New Irish Table', `Irish Puddings, Tarts, Crumbles, and Fools', and `The Irish Heritage Cookbook' are of similar trade paperback format from Chronicle Books. They are also similar in that all seem to be collections of recipes from various culinary professionals in Ireland. They all also seem to repeat a lot of sidebar material, although I have yet to see any repeated recipes.
   
   To state a perfectly obvious fact, you probably only want to buy this book if you happen to want to cook recipes prepared at Irish pubs. That is, if you already own a fairly sizable collection of cookbooks, many of the recipes in this book will simply be variations on recipes you already have in either a standard book on Irish cooking or in books on Brasserie or Trattoria cooking. This premise, however, is no little recommendation. My personal experience of pub food in England, to which most of these recipes bear a strong resemblance, is that English speaking pubs offer a quality of food at least as good as their much more widely advertised French Brasserie and Italian Trattoria cousins. Like the famous Italian and French `bar food' recipes, these also have the virtue of being very fast to prepare. Either they cook very quickly or they can be cooked up ahead and reheated very quickly. The best model for Americans of pub / brasserie / trattoria food would be the kind of thing you will find at Chili's, Bennigan's, or Appleby's, except that my experience with the three European versions is that they tend to deal in less greasy and less cliched dishes.
   
   The seven recipe chapters are:
   
   Starters with 10 recipes with several based on seafood such as mussels, oysters, and salmon.
   Soups with 9 recipes emphasizing cream based soups, plus four recipes for homemade stocks.
   Salads with 9 recipes with lots of recipes using chicken, seafood, and cheese.
   Hot Pots, Meat Pies, and Savory Tarts (hot pots are rich, thick stews) with 12 recipes featuring pies, savory tarts, `Irish Stew', and brown soda bread.
   Meat and Potatoes with 12 recipes for, you guessed it, meat and potatoes, including pork (bacon and ham), lamb, fowl, and steaks.
   Seafood with 8 recipes featuring salmon, cod, haddock, and monkfish.
   Desserts with 11 recipes for cheesecakes, apple and pear cakes, puddings, mousses and pies.
   
   If your primary interest is Irish desserts, go for the author's, `Irish Puddings, Tarts, Crumbles, and Fools', although this book includes cheesecakes, which are not in the dessert book.
   
   Johnson certainly writes well about her recipes, although this may not be the best book for a green amateur, as there are few tips on techniques, although a fair knowledge of common kitchen techniques should be more than enough. I do tend to be just a little annoyed at Ms. Johnson's always citing Irish staples in her ingredients list such as `Kerrygold Irish Butter'. I feel that for a `comfort food book, it would have been better not to be expected to chase down a very specific, uncommon ingredient. The book also makes an important point that to the Irish, the pig is commonly divided into `ham' and `bacon'. This can easily be the source of the `Canadian bacon' label for smoked pork loin, as the Irish call everything not part of the rear leg ham to be `bacon'. While explaining this little bit of wisdom, the author seems to be not as clear as she could be in identifying exactly what kind of pork she means when she calls for `bacon'.
   
   A collection of Ms. Johnson's books will give you an excellent overview of contemporary Irish cooking and contemporary Irish hospitality, with a few insights into Irish culinary history. So, if all you want is the recipes, these books are quite good. If you want to go deeper into traditional cooking, start with `Irish Traditional Cooking' by leading Irish cooking school owner, Darina Allen and her husband's `The Ballymaloe Bread Book' by Tim Allen (not the comedian).



2. Photos by the author blend with food photos by Leigh Beish in a lovely book which arrived too late for St. Patrick's Day feature, but which deserves ongoing mention as an excellent focus on Irish pub cooking. If you've been to Ireland in the last twenty years, you'll know there's been many changes in the nature of pub grub: just look at the tomato tarts, ham and chicken pie, spinach salad with pears and other dishes you wouldn't have identified with Irish pub foods of the past. Recipes - and photos - come from some of the most celebrated pubs in Ireland and represent a fine cross-section of modern fare home cooks will find quite easy to follow.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch



3. This is the perfect book for us to use when opening our pub. Excellent resource.



4. I really enjoy this book. I am by no means a cook and as a single male living on my own I don't really cook "real food" a lot. However, I find the recipes in this book not only easy to follow but really good. The soups are awesome, even if they sound bad at first, the stews are great and the book also gives a little bit of information on pubs in Ireland. There are a ton of recipes from fish to poultry and from salads to soups. I was even able to make the soda bread for my parents. Plus there are a bunch of recipes for various soda breads. This book is a great buy and totally worth your time.



5. Very good book if you want to make your cooking taste like an Irish pube.

5 comments about Lobscouse and Spotted Dog: Which It's a Gastronomic Companion to the Aubrey/Maturin Novels (Patrick O'Brian).

1. For anyone who didn't read this series or read it only casually, this probably wouldn't be terribly interesting. However, for someone (like my husband) who read and very much enjoyed the entire series, (even the last, unpublished #21)this helped to clarify the day to day routine of the life of a middle class sea captain. All I can say is thank goodness I wasn't their cook.



2. I haven't cooked anything from this cookbook yet. It's not exactly family dinner fare. But I've flipped through it enough to know that the writers have done a great deal of research into the food, on land and sea, in the times and places of the Aubry/Maturin novels. In several cases, they offer two recipes for one dish, one that tells how it would have been cooked in a ship's galley and one that tells how to cook it in a modern kitchen. My husband has read all of O'Brien's books and has looked through the cookbook to find many dishes he remembers from the books. They're all there. It was everything I hoped it would be. Now if I could just find a good reason to cook this stuff! :)



3. I made both of the title dishes (and many of the others)and all were great. The writing was both entertaining and informative. The recipe for Millers in Onion Sauce almost makes me willing to try rat for dinner.



4. Lobscouse and Spotted Dog is a lot of fun for those of us who are both fans of Nelson's navy, and part time chefs as well. I sometimes think that a historically accurate dish somehow transports us back to those swashbuckling days when men were men, and walking the plank was not measuring your new hardwood floor at home depot.
   The recipes are apparently accurate, and the comments are drole. And if you've got a little time on your hands, there's a theme party waiting for you to create. Get your pals to dress up like Horatio Hornblower and break out the Admiral's Flip. Then the neighbours'll have something to talk about, damn your eyes! Beat to quarters, if you please!



5. Lots of fun for cooks. A pleasure for readers of Patrick O'Brian's novel (so you can find out what "drowned baby" consists of).
   
   Highly recommended!

5 comments about Irish Traditional Cooking: Over 300 Recipes from Ireland's Heritage.

1. I received this cookbook as a Christmas Gift and have used it several times. Everything I've made so far has been wonderful. The recipes are easy to follow and delicious. There are wonderful pictures and interesting tid bits through out. A great cook book for experts and novices. A wide variety of food and dishes.



2. This book is absolutely fabulous!! I served my family a dinner with a Celtic theme for my daughter's 23rd birthday. What a success!! Who knew that the Irish are such good cooks. We had 6 courses and everything was wonderful.
   
   In addition to the wonderful recipes, there is lots and lots of information about the history of the dishes. For instance, when baking Irish Soda bread, make sure to cut a cross in the top of the dough all the way down the sides before baking to insure that all the fairies get out!



3. When I went to Ireland I fell in love with many of the traditional dishes. I have been holding off on buying any cookbooks because they didn't even come close to what I had eaten in Ireland. As soon as I saw this book I knew I had to have it. Its wonderful! It has hundreds of traditional, easy to follow recipes. So far, each one I have cooked tastes great and is just what I remember. The best part is the recipes are mixed with history and folklore of the country. Its amazing. I am even planning on giving them as gifts!



4. I have not received the product, I have found that Items not sent directly thru amazon do not arrive. I ordered many items that are shipped from Amazon and arrive with in a couple of days, on the other hand I have ordered a total of 5 items from outside vendors that never arrived.



5. If you enjoy Irish cuisine or just want to try it this is an excellent cookbook to invest in. I received this just in time for St. Patty's Day and we enjoyed an excellent, traditional meal. Wonderful read as well.