No comments about Capital Classics: Recipes from the Junior League of Washington.

2 comments about Colorado Farmers' Market Cookbook: Delicious Recipes & Tips Fresh from Colorado Farmers' Markets & Chefs.

1. I love this cookbook. We made a fresh peach and goat cheese bruschetta and a squash soup for a late summer dinner from the Colorado Farmers Market Cookbook. Our friends just raved about it. The book also has a lot of really nice color photos of Colorado farms, farmers markets and produce. Recommened as a gift for anyone who loves Colorado or cookbooks.



2. I purchased this book only recently and find that it is full of wonderful recipes, including lots of information in the back called Colorado Farmers Market Guide which lists all the Colorado Farmers Markets with phone numbers, websites, months that the Markets are open and where they are located. It also lists all the Farms themselves along with addresses, phone numbers websites and email information. Recipes are the heart of any cookbook so I will list several of them to give an idea of what you will find in this 224 page cookbook! You won't find much for pictures but the recipes make up for it, and very easy to follow instructions. So Here goes, it starts off with Salsas, Sauces & Condiments: which include recipes such as Honey Cranberry Relish, Fresh Honey Lemonade, Homemade Applesauce, Tomatillo Salsa, Perfect Pesto, Roasted Green Chile Salsa, Pizza Sauce, Summer Italian Tomato Sauce, even Pumpkin Dog Treats. The Next section gives recipes for Appetizers which include Goat Cheese-Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms, Cheese-Stuffed Chiles, Sirloin Steak Bruschetta, Sweet and Sour Veggies, Dilly Beans and Carrots, Cherry Tomatoes with Pesto, Eggplant Almond Pate, Tomato Salsa with Garlic Toasts, and more...then on to Salads and Dressings which include Rocky Ford Cantaloupe, Red Onion, Cucumber and Arugula Salad; Fava Beans Roasted Beets and Pecorino on Arugula, Quinoa Salad, Spinach Salad with Strawberries and Feta Cheese, Pear Gorgonzola and Walnut Salad, Spinach Salad with Tangerines and Pine Nuts, Raspberry Vinaigrette, Grandmas Potato Salad, Authentic German Potato Salad, Rustic Blue Cheese Salad Dressing, Chicken and Almond Waldorf Salad with Dijon Dressing, marinated cucumbers and more.... then on to Soups where you will find Cream of Zucchini Soup with Fresh Basil, Summer Corn Chowder, Tortilla Soup, Fall Vegetable and Beef Soup, French Onion Soup, Quinoa Soup, Black Bean Soup with Cilantro Cream, Sweet Potato Soup with Sour Cream and Jalapeno, Curried Butternut Squash Soup, White Corn Soup with Poblano Chile Puree and more.... then Breakfast and Brunch: Apple Coffee Cake, Honey Granola, Sauteed Apple Slices, Garden Tot Scramble, Pear Walnut Coffee Cake, Zucchini Frittata, Raspberry French Toast, Hearty Breakfast Casserole...then Side Dishes: Roasted Beets, Sugar Snap Peas with Mint, Sweet Potato Pie, Roasted Bell Peppers, BBQ Potatoes, Green Beans Braised with Tomato and Rosemary, Curried Quinoa, Carrot Pilaf, Zucchini Fritters, and more...then Vegetarian Entrees including: Blue Corn Enchiladas with Goat Cheese, Cabbage Rolls, Goat Cheese-Stuffed Eggplant with Curried Lentils, Harvest Moon Pizzas, Pasta and Market Vegetables with Orange Vinaigrette, Fresh Collard Greens with Pasta, and more...then Meat,Poultry Game and Fish: Colorado Potato Lasagna, Chile Relleno Bake, Beef and Couscous-Stuffed Roasted Peppers, Blue Cheese Stuffed Burgers, Southwestern Chipotle Sirloin Steak, Meatloaf in a Potato Blanket, Sausage Eggplant Parmesan, Chile Crusted Red Trout on Cornbread and Chard with Market Succotash and more... then there's the Breads, Scones Muffins and Bars: Very Lemon Bread, Pumpkin Muffins with Streusel Topping, Zucchini Bread, Zucchini Bars and more... then Pies: Cherry Pie, Rhubarb Pie, Mary Tigges Cinderella Pumpkin Pie, Special Peach Pie, Cheddar Pear Pie, Apple Apple Pie, Apricot Cake, Sugarless Apple Pie, Peach Raspberry Pie with Pecan Crust, Creamy Pear Pie Crunch.... then Desserts: Colorado Cherry Crumbles, Ruth's Chocolate Zucchini Cake, Upside Down Raspberry Cake, Boulder Chevre Cheesecake, Peach Sorbet, Bingham Hill Cheesecake, Sesame Honey Baked Fruit, Cherry Clafouti, Raspberry Sandwich Cookies, Wild Berry Crisp, Pumpkin Cookies, Orange Honey Cake, Pumpkin Cake and more....This is a fabulous book for helping you use Fresh Farmers Market Fruits and Vegetables. You will be thrilled to have this book if you love fresh produce! I recommend it highly!

5 comments about Georges Perrier Le Bec-fin Recipes.

1. I bought this book solely for the photographs, which I hoped would inspire me in plating food. However, I discovered that, beautiful as the food is, the recipes are the best part of this book. They are all elegant, delicious, contemporary but classically-based French dishes that are moderately complex but not beyond the ability of a skilled home cook. In addition, Chef Perrier's preface, in which he describes his background and cooking philosophy, is nearly as good as Andre Soltner's (in "The Lutece Cookbook"). If you enjoy cooking French food, I enthusiastically recommend this book. By the way...his mussel juice is a great alternative to fish stock; give it a try.



2. The author uses fine words to come out with excellent explanation. That makes it easy for readers to understand and follow the cooking steps. The book also contains gorgeous pictures of wonderful recipes. This stimulates readers to follow them and it is hard to put it down. We could say that this book is absolutely excellent. And it can stimulate our inspiration in French cooking!!!



3. It has been my pleasure to dine at Le Bec-Fin. And the book is no less a pleasure, even if you don't want to cook. The recipes are easy to follow and the "asides" are very helpful.

   M. Perrier knows his audience.




4. This is food for classy entertaining. If you can be bothered, which you should, the recipes are quite complex and time-consuming, but well within the scope of the keen home cook. And will they ever impress your guests!



5. This is one of the best cookbooks I own. I have often dined at Le Bec Fin and there is simply no comparison in Philadelphia. As far as the cookbook, I routinely prepare the Poached Turkey recipe (always to raving reviews), the Scalloped Potato recipe and the Lobster Bisque recipe for holiday dinners. The Lobster bisque is absolutely fantastic and the best I have ever tasted and it came from my very own kitchen. Tres bien!!
   
   Over the years, I have made many of the recipes and, even though they can be somewhat complicated sometimes, the results are just superior. This is truly a special cookbook. I own at least 75 other cookbooks and this is one of my favorites that I go back to year-after-year.

5 comments about Great Lake Effects: Buffalo Beyond Winter and Wings : A Cookbook by the Junior League of Buffalo.

1. This cookbook is a must have for anyone who has ever lived in Buffalo or is interested in learning more about Buffalo. The recipes that I have made so far have all been delicious. It has also been very interesting to read the facts and stories about Buffalo.



2. Laurels for all the effort put into this cookbook. I found the history tidbits very interesting! The pictures just beautiful. And the recipes mouthwatering. All this in a cookbook?! Way to go Junior League of Buffalo!



3. This cookbook is a five star winner. I have tried many of the recipes and they are all great. I love the artwork and I also enjoy reading about the history of Buffalo. A must have cookbook for all collectors of Junior League Cookbooks.



4. This book is great for anyone who collects Junior League cookbooks. It has beautiful pictures and little history tidbits about Buffalo. The recipes are diverse and easy to do. I can't live without the "Sherry Chicken for a Crowd" and the "Potatoes Foster" - both great for entertaining!



5. I find this book well organized ,with a lot of informations about the community,the town of Buffalo,nice old pictures and very good food,real food for real people.I appreciated expecially the chapter about bread and bakery and some appetizers,anyway all recipes are put down very clearly and it is evident that before writing everything was tested many many times

5 comments about Keys Cuisine: Flavors of the Florida Keys.

1. I found this to be the ultimate way to "eat" my way up and down the Florida Keys. Then to be able to take the flavors with me and prepare them at home is a real treat.



2. I used the recipe for " Manny's Key Lime Pie" p.189 All seemed to be going well - the key lime mixture tasted great. Problem was that the directions said to "beat the egg yolks and condensed milk until creamy". It did not say to cook it. I thought this was problematic. All those eggs yolks should have been cooked, not just beaten. I followed the book instructions and only cooked it when I had made the meringue and placed it on top. I cooked it for the required 5 minutes but it was still very liquidy. I have it in the freezer right now and am hoping that it works. Did you miss in the recipe ? Should it have been cooked instead of beaten ???



3. Keys Cuisine is one of the five best Florida/Gulf Coast cookbooks out there. Well, that's my opinion. I've been updating my Amazon "So You'd Like to Guides" and I have one on Key Lime Pie. Take a look at it if you want. Anyway, I've included fifty cookbooks (the maximum Amazon will allow) in all my guides, so I've had a chance to go through my collection. And quite a collection it is, I've got hundreds of cookbooks and I go through them all the time. That's my problem, how to organize them. While going through what I wanted to include in my guides, I started separating them into piles, the ones I couldn't live without and the ones, if I absolutely had to, I could give away as gifts, you know, like if we moved into a very small place.
   
   Keys Cuisine is one I could never part with. I love the food and the atmosphere of Florida and the Gulf Coast, have spent a lot of time there, as I'm a sailing lady. I'm also somewhat of a gourmet chef. I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, or galley, depending if I'm at home in the States or on our boat in the Caribbean. The recipes here will make your family, or even just yourself, if you live alone, drool. They are mouthwatering good and that's the truth.
   
   Review submitted by Captain Katie Osborne



4. I purchased this cookbook a few months ago, for the first time the other day I opened it and tried some recipes and they came very good. Highly recommend!



5. I have been going to the keys for over 20 years and I was so excited to find Manny & Isa's keylime pie recipe in the book and so it was the reason I purchased it, but disappointed that it didn't taste like the ones Manny once made. That being said, there are actually some good recipes for fish, so overall it was still a good choice in books.

No comments about The Grand Central Oyster Bar & Restaurant Complete Seafood Cookbook.

No comments about Gastropolis: Food and New York City (Arts and Traditions of the Table: Perspectives on Culinary History).

No comments about East Coast Wineries: A Complete Guide from Maine to Virginia.

3 comments about Welcome to My Kitchen: A New York Chef Shares His Robust Recipes and Secret Techniques.

1. In this cookbook, the author seems willing to actually part with secrets he has learned and acquired from his professional training and experiences as a chef. Rather than present yet another collection of recipes that readers can imitate, Valenti seems interested in promoting in the home cook useful cooking skills and ways of adapting to what food is on hand, what time is available, and what interest one has in creative cooking. The introductory sections are informative and different from most other books', and while the main part of the volume is a selection of recipes, the emphasis is on adaptions and flavor. The dishes are often unique and the book reads well. The author's love of cooking shines through on every page, and he is no snob-- he bears in mind the constraints of time and equipment that the average experienced cook faces.



2. When Tom Valenti wrote his second book, ?Soups, Stews, and One Pot Meals?, he must have been concentrating on simple dishes to atone for the relatively complicated recipes he put in this, his first book. As always, ?simple? and ?complicated? are loaded words in culinary procedures. What appears complicated to some because it involves cooking several different components of a dish separately may be simple to others because each of the individual steps are simple and the end result leaves the flavors of the ingredients intact, or pleasantly accentuated by the cooking procedure and seasonings.

   Valenti?s invitation to HIS kitchen is significant in that he is very fond of a few techniques which are uncommon among is colleagues in other restaurant kitchens. His most interesting twist is in the routine use of sugar as a seasoning along with salt and pepper. He is also exceptionally fond of using acids like citrus and white wine vinegars and bacon, especially smoked and double smoked bacon. It seems odd that a chef with Italian leanings and background is not dedicated to using pancetta; however, he finds it is a bit too salty to his taste. The author also shows an extraordinary respect for other common ingredients such as water. One comment on the author?s use of salt and pasta cooking water is to correct his adjusting the amount of salt to the amount of pasta. The proper technique should be to set the amount of salt by the amount of water. It is the concentration of salt in the water that is important, because that is the physical property that determines how much salt reaches the pasta.

   While it is not Valenti?s object in this book to simplify recipes, he does make a special point of showing the cook the places at which it is appropriate to parts of dishes ahead of service. This doubles the value of the book. The primary value of cookbooks by talented professional chefs is to provide recipes with a lot of pizzazz for entertaining. Valenti adds the restaurant tricks which allow the prep chefs to do the kind of advance work which makes the line chef able to put together the dish quickly at the time of service. The author even succeeds in describing how to bring a risotto to an almost complete state, and hold it ?in stasis? until it can be finished for service.

   Otherwise, Valenti does not skimp on the details. He provides a larger than average selection of stock and broth recipes, which impress me because they include a mushroom stock. Ever since I tasted the water left from rehydrating dried mushrooms almost forty years ago, I wondered why mushroom broth was not a more important ingredient in cooking.

   Valenti?s selection of dishes is an entertaining mix of old standards such as Panzanella salad and a Cuban sandwich with inventive original (or at least unusual) dishes. There are also some dishes that give a very useful twist on favorite combinations. Broccoli Rabe and sausage is a classic Italian combination (See Lydia Bastianich?s Italian cookbook). Valenti adds variety to the dish by adding orecchiette, making it a full veg / starch / protein dish. He also adds interest by incorporating a recipe for homemade sausage to make the dish even more interesting. I may be inclined to find his method for creating loose sausage meat just a bit too simple, but as the author points out, the homemade sausage will make a huge impression on your guests. Speaking of sandwiches, this is one of the very few cookbooks which presents a good selection of recipes for sandwiches. And, these are not your typical deli style fare. Some recipes such as the classic Poorboy are fairly simple, but others are pretty involved. Most recipes use both fish and vegetables in unusual ways as in the grilled vegetable sandwich and the saut?ed spinach sandwich.

   Aside from the chapter on sandwiches, the chapters are typical of almost every other Italian-centered cookbook, with chapters on Salads; Soups; Pasta and Risotto; Fish and Shellfish; Poultry and Game; Meats; Accompaniments; Vinaigrettes and Mayonnaises; and Desserts. The fish chapter is one of the largest, since fish and fishing is one of his passions. Valenti is true to his word at the beginning of the book as bacon appears in many recipes, even many fish recipes. Most of the desserts are fruit based and typical of an Italian sensibility.

   One of the more distinctive characteristics of this book is the clarity in which the author presents recipes that may be just a bit on the complicated side for inexperienced cooks. Every recipe has an informative headnote that may explain the origin of the recipe or something of its attraction. All ingredients are neatly presented in a nicely shaded box with clear prep directions. The main attraction is the fact that the procedure is broken down into simple sentences, each beginning with the most important operative word in the technique. It is crystal clear that each step is to Warm or Add or Transfer or Lay or Repeat or Remove or do something Carefully of Gently. Valenti has done exactly what I do when I transcribe recipes by breaking everything down into simple steps.

   Most dishes, especially main course dishes, are accompanied by a no nonsense wine recommendation.

   Highly recommended for dedicated amateurs. The author does not compromise on technique. Valenti makes it as easy as possible for you to follow his lead to spectacular dishes.




3. I recently received this book as a gift and I am very pleased I did. This is such a well-written cookbook, by an author who is clearly passionate about food. The personal, completely unpretentious tone of the author is so refreshing and makes for a very pleasant and easy read. I love how Mr. Valenti shares his personal experiences with food, from his (very tasty) upbringing in an Italian family, to his early years working as an apprentice in high caliber kitchens, to the accomplished chef he has become today. Though he never went to culinary school, Tom Valenti is undoubtedly a master of his craft, and all it takes is a taste of his wonderful dishes to learn that. What I really enjoy about his recipes is so many of them, when broken down, are based on simplicity, (a pinch of sugar here, a touch of vinegar there). Yet the end results are far from simple. They are gastronomic masterpieces! I feel confident that there isn't one recipe in his book that isn't heaven on a plate! My only complaint with this book is the fact that some of his recipes rely on ingredients that are not normally found in common supermarkets and more importantly, are not normal fare for the average home dinner table. Like the handful of recipes centered around rabbit, tripe, quail and guinea hens. I doubt I'll be cooking any rabbit in my future, though I'm sure his preparation of it is brilliant! Having said that, I still think this book is a treasure trove of fabulous recipes that are sure to become family favorites, because above all, Tom's dishes are almost always in the end "comfort food". And he knows how to feed your soul!

No comments about The Sommelier's Guide to Wine: Everything You Need to Know for Selecting, Serving, and Savoring Wine like the Experts.