I drive my husband crazy with my cookbook obsession. I have an entire bookcase filled with cookbooks as well as some stashed here and there. What I’d like to do as a new regular feature is test a few recipes from a cookbook and let you know what we thought about that cookbook. While he is more experienced and experimental, I am a true recipe follower and will be giving you the scoop on how easy the book is to follow.
This week’s
book is Ina Garten’s Back to Basics. I’d been dying for this book. I love Ina’s
show and all of her recipes seem simple and easy to follow, and like us, she
loves to entertain. This weekend, however, I was a little under the weather so the
recipes were experimented on with family for our weekly family meal night and
not so much with friends or Supper Club night.
Denise
Says:
Important
in a cookbook to me are photographs, and these are beautiful. In this book, Ina
Garten provides little extra tips, important when you consider yourself a
novice, as I do. The tips are not drivel,
as in some cookbooks, but truly useful information such as basic ingredients to
have on hand or adding coffee to your chocolate desserts.
I’ve
watched some other cooks on TV that want you to buy the best of everything. In
some cases it just doesn’t matter. Ina lets you know which ingredients that you
will need to get high quality. Also important to me was that the recipes called
for ‘normal’ ingredients. By this I mean foods we can find locally and not have
to hunt for to complete a recipe. I hate that!
Another
important factor of this book, it lays flat when open. Cookbook manufacturers, when are you going to
get it? How are we supposed to follow a recipe when it closes on us?
Dave says:
I am what I
call a more meat and potatoes/comfort food/ old-fashioned kind of guy. While I
truly enjoy cooking and like to experiment, I am not into odd foods. While she
does drive me crazy with her cookbook obsession, I was really excited to try her
choice in this cookbook. “Back to Basics” sounds like normal, easy to find
foods. When we started looking at all of the recipes, we found it hard to come
to the conclusion on what to make. They all look so wonderful!
While
Denise enjoys pictures, they are not as important to me; however, the pictures were
mouth-watering.
This cookbook
may be called ‘Back To Basics’, but they do take some time to execute. These are
not 30 minute meals. To me, these recipes are good for family as well as entertaining.
What do WE think?
This cookbook is a definite buy! Loved it! Easy to follow, great pictures, delicious recipes... what more could you ask for?
Our first test
was Coq Au Vin. I was intimidated by the name alone. Dave being the more experienced
and experimental of the two of us is never
intimidated. However, this was extremely to follow, even for me. We thoroughly enjoyed
the final product, as did the family. This recipe is a keeper and we will surely
make it again.
For the next
test, my wonderful hubby let me sleep in and he made Easy Sticky Buns for breakfast.
Isn’t he a doll? He said they were oh-so easy to accomplish since you use puff pastry
and he didn’t have to make the dough. These were quite delicious and would make
an awesome presentation for a breakfast for company!
And for the
final test, again that wonderful husband of mine made BC Company Pot Roast for Sunday
dinner. I was doing laundry and ironing for the work while he slaved in the kitchen.
This turned out ahh-mazing! Since it was just the two of us last night, we are delighted
there will be leftovers of this magnificent roast. For lunch today we will be having
pot roast sandwiches made from the leftovers!
As we make more from this and other cookbooks, we will continue our series. And as a final note, we highly recommend this cookbook!
19 comments:
Ina Gaarten is my FAAAAVORITE! Love her. I make her lasagna recipe from FoodNetwork.com
Thanks for coming by and linking up to THIS WEEK'S CRAVINGS "Hubby Cooks"!
I can't wait to see all the recipes we get linked up this week, be sure to come back and check them out!
http://momscrazycooking.blogspot.com/search/label/THIS%20WEEKS%20CRAVINGS
(Sneak Peak.. next Monday is "Bring out your best Egg dish")
There's lot of yummy meals planned this week.
Have a wonderful week.
love the initiative - so many recipes out there to try! i'll definitely be trying those sticky buns. glad i found your blog.
Sounds like your husband can COOK! :-) Those sticky buns look amazing. Thanks for linking up! - www.delightfulcountrycookin.com
You had me at sticky buns! :)
Thanks so much for joining in this week's Mingle Monday. What a FUN week!!!
These look FANTASTIC!
Thanks for sharing them at this weeks Seasonal Sunday Event!! :) Hope you will come back soon!
xo- Brittany
Your hubby did a really great job! Thank you for linking to Masterpiece Monday. Have a great week, Mary :O)
Looks so yummyyyy.... Thank you for sharing!
Hugs, Rleen
YUMMO!!!!!!
Thanks for linking up to What's in Your Garden!!
Abbi
So many wonderful recipes! Thanks for sharing this great review.
Hi!!! I'm stopping by and following from Catch A Wave Wednesday. I hope you'll check out my blog Frazzled Mama at http://frazzled-mama.com and follow me back. Have a great day.
That's so sweet your hubby cooks! Those sticky buns looks great! And you can't wrong with Ina!
I have this cookbook too! But I haven't even tried anything out of it yet, because I've been busy trying recipes out of two of her other cookbooks! I think the chive risotto cakes sound good though!
Sticky buns are my favorite and I am in search of the world's best! This looks like a good one! Thanks for sharing.
great post
please stop by and say hi
www.itsybitsybrianna.wordpress.com
xoxo
bB
Isn't it great to have a husband that cooks? Mine does too and I just love it! We have the best time in the kitchen together. Those sticky buns look delicious I will definitely have to try those!
Yummy sticky buns!! Lots of cook books are a good thing too. :) Thank you for linking to my K.I.S.S. blog bash this past week. I so appreciate you taking the time to share your yummy recipes. Tomorrow is another blog bash, please drop by & share more of your inspiring ideas!
Drop By The Tattered Tag
Yes please!
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