First of all Glorious Grits is a book with some awesome photography. I wasn’t expecting the images to be as dramatic and beautiful as they are, after all…we are talking grits here.

(That is the chair in my bedroom where I curl up next to the fireplace and read)

But that wasn’t the only surprise.

The recipes are things I would actually cook! In fact, they are a combination of unique variations on well known comfort foods and completely new ideas (at least to me).

Some of the recipes that caught my eye were:

• Cornbread Pudding with Whiskey Sauce
• Lime Chess Pie with Coconut Cornmeal Crust
• Panko and Cornmeal Fried Okra
• Grits Alfredo
• Breakfast Shrimp and Grits (a southern classic!)
• Creamy Grits with Ham and Red Eye Gravy

The book is yellow! It is a happy book to look at, cheerful, sunny, and definitely worthy of getting up for. I will be sharing a recipe from it soon…I sort of have a recipe log jam happening right now.

Interspersed on the pages are tips, ideas, and snippets of history that keep it from being another how to manual.

The only thing I did not like…and it is a personal thing…is that the recipes are all to serve 4. I realize most families are 4 or less these days but I get tired of multiplying and creating fractions to create meals for 8 or 10 or 12. Glorious Grits is a great addition to your shelves or a gift for your favorite foodie.

Grits are comfort food. This is a comfort cookbook, one you can easily pick up just to read, or look at the photography. I liked it a lot. Hardback with book cover, and it seems to be well made. I have an issue with books that fall apart in the first month of use! Find it on Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

image:marye audet

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The Food and Wine Quick From Scratch Italian Cookbook has amazing images. That is always the first thing that I look for. It was kind of disappointing to me that my own cookbook was to be without images (not my choice). The images in the Food and Wine cook book are big and close up. You get a good idea of what the dish should look like which is nice. Each recipe is on one page with a full size image on the facing page.

The recipes are imaginative. For example the Fennel and Red Onion Salad with Parmesan looks amazing. The steps are clearly and easily laid out, there are no real surprises or difficult techniques. The book will allow even the most inexperienced cook to make classic as well as classically inspired Italian dishes.

Most of the recipes will go together easily in 30 minutes or less and the emphasis is on fresh ingredients.

The one thing I did not like in the book was the dessert section. Each dessert is based on an ice cream or custard of some sort. Italian desserts are amazing and flavorful and I was disappointed in the desserts they chose.

I mean, that IS the most important part of the meal, right?

If you are looking for a cookbook to help you learn classic Italian cooking techniques this is not it. However, if you are looking for a cookbook that allows you to serve something besides Kraft Macaroni and Cheese on weeknights this may be exactly what you are looking for.

image:marye audet

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I just got the news this morning that the author’s copies of the book are on their way. I should be receiving them sometime in the next week.

With being just a week post thyroidectomy I am feeling overwhelmed, flustered, excited, and dismayed. How’s that for a combination? I am feeling very well but my energy drains sooner than usual and it has been hard to keep up with my writing and editing duties. Trying to behave so that I will heal properly and quickly, and I am not so great at that either.

I have set up a site for the book, Everything Cookies and Brownies. This is still my primary recipe site, of course(!)but I wanted to  have a place where readers could go with questions or where I could let you know about errors I found, etc.

So, I am looking for a couple of bloggers that are interested in reviewing the book? I am not sure how many people are going to want to review it, and I only have so many copies, so if you will leave me a comment and a link to your blog I will get back to you, ‘k?  I will even autograph the copy for you…if I can still write. I have used a keyboard for so long I am not sure!

Anyway, thanks so much, y’all. You have been so supportive, so awesome, and so amazing through this past couple of years that I couldn’t have done it without ya. {{{Gargantuan Group Hug}}}}}}

image: Amazon

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It feels very odd.  I always wanted to write and have a book published, and now I have.    My brain, working the way that it does keeps telling me that this doesn’t count because it is a cookbook and not a “real book”.  You know, with characters, and plots, and themes…

Whatever.  I don’t listen to my brain half the time anyway.

The cookbook is put out by Adams Media, and is part of their Everything series.  Mine is Everything Cookies and Brownies. Three hundred recipes and 600+ pages of cookies, brownies, and bars.  The publisher website is here, but the books will be widely available, I saw that series in the local Barnes and Noble.

WOW.  Maybe I will get to do a book signing?

Anyway, I will let you know as it gets closer.  Some of the recipes will be familiar to you from the pages of Baking Delights, like chocolate chip cookies, orange chocolate chip cookies, etc.  Some I just haven’t made for the blog…yet.

I am WAY excited.

Image: SXC

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When Tess sent me the copy of Secret Suppers she also sent a fascinating book called Cooking with Les Dames D’Escoffier.

This is more of a cookbook/who’s who list than anything.  I really enjoyed it.  The book is broken into sections as any cookbook would be but then each section is broken down into recipes by certain Dames d’ Escoffier…Julia Child, Dorie Greenspan,  Joanne Weir, Marcella Hazan…the list goes on.

But it doesn’t stop there. There is a little triva about each of these amazing ladies to go along with the recipes.  I did not know, for example, that Dorie Greenspan was in a doctoral program for gerontology when she abandoned it in favor of becoming a food writer!

This is not a small book with twenty pages of recipes.  This is a serious work, a fantastic anthology if you will, of some of the best in the history of food.  320 pages!

Some of the recipes are:

• Winter Minestrone with Butternut Squash and Kale from Abby Mandel
• Phyllo Fontina Cheese Bites from Linda Hopkins
• Scandanavian Cardamom Braid from Beatrice Ojakangas
• Catalan Pasta with Garlic Sauce from Marilyn Tausend
• Burgundian Spiced Caramels from Jennifer McGlinn
• Gingered Sweet Potato Parsnip Puree from Lee Wooding

I have made a few of the recipes, and I have played with a few of the recipes.  The Anise & Vanilla carrots were based on the Anise carrots in the book.  The recipes are easy to follow and interesting but not so unusual that you would not actually make them.  This is real food, stuff the husband and kids will eat without making weird jokes and odd remarks..and fixing themselves peanut butter and jelly instead.

So, what do you think? Is this something you think you would want to add to your collection?

Feel free to ask questions about it and I will try to answer…

Image:MaryeAudet

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