Though this is a lovely book, I was very disappointed that most of the recipes include alcohol of some type for flavoring. I wanted to use this for my family which includes small children. There is also a significant emphasis on chocolate, which also is not good for children, particularly in the evening. I previewed it carefully but was unable to observe those issues.
In response to ybronw from Canada...Perhaps the duplication of receipes and or illustrations in this book were for the simple reason that it is a KEEPSAKE book..in my opinion , the perfect small gift for that special person that you want to remember for a special occasion. Perhaps, it will introduce the receiver to the incredible talent and sensitivity of the author/illustrator! I enjoy reading the KEEPSAKE books over and over when I only have a few moments to relax and renew my soul with Ms. Branches gentle creativity. When I have more time I pick up her fullsized books for a bigger "taste of peacefulness and tranquility". These are not just cookbooks but reminders of a slower richer way of life.
I took a crepe making class just to learn the technique and take the fear out of crepe making. While I took away from that class a few recipes, none were interesting enough to make at home. This book is wonderful--what closed the deal on purchasing it was when I saw that it included a recipe for blue corn crepes. While vacationing in Santa Fe, I fell in love with their blue corn pancake/muffin mix. I can't wait to make the blue corn crepes with the blue corn mix I brought back to Houston. The recipes in this book are exactly what I was looking for--diverse and simple to follow.
This book is chalk full of fun. It's humorous. It offers great self help lifestyle advice. Plus, it makes a neat cookbook. It is a chalk full of great advice and good laughs.
I really missed California as I was thumbing through Jill Silverman Hough's book,'100 Perfect Pairings.' Hough, a teacher and food writer from Napa, CA, has put together a book featuring dozens of easy yet artful recipes and provides just enough wine pairing information to enable a food lover to select a wine with confidence.
The recipes that caught my eye were my kind of food - simple to prepare, but had just one or two ingredients that vaulted them from "that tastes good" to "ooh, what's in there." The fresh corn with citrus butter, a match for Sauvignon Blanc, adds the zest of an orange, lemon and lime to unsalted butter. Cinnamon cream cheese sandwiches are recommended as an afternoon pairing with a glass of Gewurztraminer. Syrah is a match for a salami, mozzarella, walnut and herb topped pizza.
The recipes are the star of this book, but I absolutely loved the way the author presented several essential food and wine pairing tips in the sections 'A Really Brief Discussion of Food and Wine Pairing,' and 'Fine Tuning Tips.' This part of the book, just a short four pages, gives food and wine pairing novices many of the tools I teach at my food and wine pairing classes.
The book is small enough to keep in the kitchen or bring to the grocery store. 100 Perfect Pairings would make a great gift for a new bride, a housewarming gift for a friend who loves to entertain, or a solid culinary addition to a wine lover's bookcase.
I love this cookbook. The wine and food pairings are awesome, the recipes always are wonderful, the pictures are beautiful. I have yet to be disappointed by a recipe from this book. Yes, they take a little time and maybe more ingredients than some people prefer to use, but they are most definitely worth it.
This cookbook has taken the #1 spot in my cookbook collection. The selection of recipes is superb. I am a huge dessert person and this cookbook has a recipe for every sweet tooth in my mouth! The family photos and shared memories are the "icing on the cake." Great gift for loved ones!!
As someone with a sweet tooth, this book appealed to me.
The book itself is beautiful and contains many color photos of tempting treats. I'm only giving it four stars because although there are a few recipes in it that I might enjoy, I seriously doubt that I'd ever make many of them.
As others have already pointed out, many appear to be saltier versions of common recipes.
Probably a good book for someone who loves to cook desserts, but not a mainstay, go-to book for many of us. I'd recommend it as a gift book for someone who collects cookbooks or loves making sweets.
Having worked and lived in Western Australia for some time, Benjamin Christie was well qualified to take us 3 hours south of Perth down to the wine growing region of Margaret River where he visits Vat 107 Restaurant and a number of wineries. Margaret River is located near the coast between Cape Naturaliste and Cape Leeuwin and boasts a variety of vineyards growing high-quality table wine grapes in the Mediterranean climate of the region. Some of Australia's most popular wines are produced in Margaret River with well known brands such as Amberley Estate, Brookland Valley Vineyard, Brookwood Estate, Cape Mentelle Vineyards, Clairault Wines, Cullen Wines, Driftwood Estate, Evans & Tate, Howard Park Wines, Leeuwin Estate Winery, Madfish Wines, Moss Brothers, Palandri Wines, Sandalford Wines, Voyager Estate and Xanadu Wines. Owned and operated by Jenny Spencer and Gary Cream, Vat 107 is a unique establishment bringing a little of the city to the country. Vat 107 has stylish decor, polished floorboards and marble bars ooze style and city slick. Chef Jamie Farrer, who has been with the Vat since its opening in April 1999, designs his menus with an extensive and intelligent knowledge of local produce. Jamie is a great advocate of local foods and uses fresh seasonal produce from around the south-west region. While Benjamin was there Jamie cooked, flame grilled Western Australian marron with a Greek salad, tempura oysters with sweet soy dipping sauce and twice cooked duck with ...
We made the toffe cookies with dark chocolate glaze. They were wonderful! Saltysweets is a wonderful cookbook with amazing photographs that tempt the taste buds. This is a great cookbook for those who are looking to change-up their holiday baking.
I recently purchased and read "The Sweet Life in Paris" by David Lebovitz. Wow. That's all I can say, wow!. It is a fantastic book. First of all it has some amazing recipes to accompany the stellar writing. (Especially the one for Chocolat chaud, yummy!) Being a frequent visitor of Paris myself I really feel that his tips and experiences are very true to life and useful. Fantastic easy read. Definitely worth it.
This book is perfect for beginners and intermediate cake decorators who enjoy learning new tips and tricks. The step by step photos and instructions are clear and easy to follow. Not only will you learn a thing or two but it will also give you some great ideas and inspire you to take your cakes to the next level!
Excellent book. A good addition to any chef-in-training's repitior of cookbooks. I keep this book around as a reference for design plating inspirations and to expose my growing vocabulary of exotic ingredients.
Its also nice to see a Canadian authoring such books of high skill level amongst the more simpler books (ie Canadian Living). The Dubey's are masters in their fields, chocolate, and I had the honor of meeting them during a demonstrations.
This book comes highly recommended by a student of the arts.
Wine has become a very popular drink. Sales over the last decade in the United States have increased by over ten billion dollars! While Americans consumption of the fruity alcohol has raised their ability to successfully pair it with food has remained about the same. For new aficionados pairing wines with the food dish that will accent both equally is an exceedingly difficult task. Thankfully, the book market is starting to recognize the need and has begun publishing simple books to help wine and food lovers to enjoy both their hobbies concurrently.
Jill Silverman Hough's //100 Perfect Pairings// is an excellent example. Hough's book is so great because it isn't written for wine geeks or food buffs, it's simple and in its simplicity it opens up the world of wine pairing to the rest of us who are bewildered by all those Sommeliers books. //100 Perfect Pairings// has an introduction to wine pairings and talks about how the attributes of wine work with food flavors and quickly delves into delicious recipes and the wines that best accompany them. It being summer I especially enjoyed the pinot grigio and chardonnay sections of the book, though both reds and whites are dealt with. An excellent introduction to wine pairing.
This is one of my favorite cookbooks, and I've only had it for one week! It has wonderful recipes, all of which have standard ingredients that I always have in my kitchen. The instructions are very easy and the results delicious! I've made several items from it so far. It even has a recipe for cookie dough to eat raw! The illustrations are inspiring and it is extremely well organized. Yet another wonderful book from Gooseberry Patch!
If you are cutting back on sugar and missing dessert this book is an excellent introduction. With easy to follow receipes that even beginners can cook. And even the more advanced can use this as a jumping off point.
I would recommend this book to anyone but perhaps in particular the pairing novice. Jill's recipe writing is always clear and concise. You feel that she is sitting in the room with you giving instruction and hints. Coupled with her clear and simple wine descriptions and why the foods included in the book pair well, you'll be on your way to pairing on your own. This little gem also works in reverse, you have a bottle of wine and what would go well with it. One a recent afternoon three friends and I paired six dishes with five wines and (with minor recommended in the book tweaks to two) they were indeed perfect pairings.
Being a wine lover myself and wanting to discover its wonderful range of flavors and labels, I found this book an easy and fun way to get more acquainted with the art of knowing, serving and buying wine. It's easy to read and understand and gives you a relatively clear view of what lies ahead in terms of names, labels, flavors, prices.....for people like me who are willing to take the first steps towards being a connoiseur and who knows? a wine expert one day.....
I am very impressed with the recipes in this book, but I am disappointed that they're not illustrated. Having quality photos of the finished product is very helpful when trying a new recipe. When photos are omitted, it makes one think the publisher was hesitant to spend the extra money on the book. That's a mistake.
Wow!!! The ultimate jam and jelly book for any home gardener! Nicely sorted by type of fruit, it's a breeze to find the fruit you happen to have on hand... and find something creative to do with it. And creative this book definitely is. I love that the author has thought outside the box and explains how to can naturally... the way it used to be done! Instead of having to use pectin in the recipes, the author uses the fruit at it's ideal jam stage, thereby using the pectin within the fruit itself. REALLY neat idea, and works great!! I can't wait to try out all the recipes in this great book!
I fell in love with this cookbook after seeing Kate at the chocolate show in NYC. Her demo was wonderful and fun. So after meeting her I went and bought the book later as she was signing them. I have so far made 3 things from it. The way she wrote it makes it so easy to create such beautiful pastry dishes. The tips and tech terms she breaks them down and makes them so easy to understand. Just the way the book is laid out makes it so easy to understand and follow along so all of us can enjoy the ease of these great fun filled dishes. If you love to cook and love cook books. This is a must have, trust me. Kate has skill that many of us only can dream of having. Buy this today, you will be thanking yourself and Kate.
Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, invites you to live the excitement and adventure of her annual Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire of jousting knights and royal delights. Thirty-five acres of mirth and merriment await as hundreds of colorfully-costumed characters breathe life into an authentic recreation of a 16th century English Village complete with dozens upon dozens of authentic Tudor buildings. Musical performances, magic acts, fire-breathing stunts, puppet shows, Shakespearean plays and comical mud beggars are just a few of the many shows, over 90 stage shows daily, unfolding on 12 stages. Enjoy period foods, micro-brewed ales and sweet wines from 23 Royal Kitchens or shop from scores of Renaissance merchants. www.parenfaire.com
I have so far tried the peanut butter cookies and the lemon moon cookies... and they were unedible. I'm hoping some of the cakes and pies are better, but the two cookies I tried so far are terrible! No one in our household will eat them.
After all the positive things I had heard about Stevia, I decided to give it a whirl. Coming by good Stevia recipes is quite difficult ... perhaps because many people don't know about it and/or because it doesn't taste exactly like sugar. I have tried several recipes out of this cookbook, and I haven't liked all of them. So why am I giving it 5 stars? Because it beats the competition. Also, I think that if you have never had Stevia before it takes awhile to acquire a taste for it. The recipes that I liked the most were ones that had another "sweet" ingredient in it to help dampen the bitterness of the Stevia. For example, I love the Carob Chip Cookies, Carob Brownies, the fruit sauces and the oatmeal banana bread. I did not like the coconut peanut butter cookies or the lemon pudding. If you try a recipe and do not like it, don't give up! Move onto the next one and try again!