Easy Cooking

Author(s): Jennifer Brennan
Publisher: Perigee Trade
Publication Date: 1984-06-04
Pages: 318
Review: I’m really impressed with this old-school cookbook. I can’t imagine many of the ingredients were available back in the 80s and even now probably only in major metropolitain areas.

Anyhow, I am impressed by the authentic recipes inside the book. Yeah there are substitutions, but she puts down the original ingredients for each recipe.

If you love authentic non-americanized Thai food, I’d definitely suggest this book. I have been collecting Thai cookbooks for years - and I still go back to this one. Starting eating Thai food in LA, CA - where you could get the “real” thing. It was hard to find Thai cookbooks back then and this was one of the first available. It isn’t fancy like the newer cookbooks, but I don’t buy based on them being a “coffee table book”. “Pad Thai” is like spagetti (sp), so many variations on a theme - the recipe in this book is good, and I adjust it to suit my tastes. For a real delight, try her soup recipes - wonderful!I was an exchange student in Thailand in 1975. I was lucky enough to live in two homes during that year’s stay that had outstanding cooks, one in an affluent home and one on a ranch/factory where I ate in the “executive” dining room three times a day. Meals would usually consist of 4 or 5 entrees, so during that year I sampled about every conceivable Thai recipe.

Jennifer Brennan’s book’s recipes produce the taste of real Thai cooking. If you want to cook Thai food like you get in a Thai home or on the streets in Thailand this is the book for you. Start with the Green Chicken Curry. For me this is the acid test, any Thai restaurant or cookbook that doesn’t do curry right should be avoided. Other recipes I think are great are the Combination Fried Rice, Hot & Sour Shrimp Soup, Braised Chicken in Spices(outstanding), Chicken in Peanut Sauce, Sate, Thai Beef Salad(just like a Bangkok restaurant), Sweet & Sour Cucumbers, and Chopped Beef with Garnishes.

Unfortunately, many Thai cookbooks focus on glitzy pictures and the “Thai” food that you find in American Thai restaurants. The only time I every ate Pad Thai in Thailand was on a Western Hotel’s tourist lunch buffet. If you spend the time to make your own curry pastes and cook these curries you will be rewarded. You will have authentic Thai food. This book is your guide to the real deal!I’ve had this book for years and although there’s a lot that’s good about it (and the recipes are tasty) this book has a pretty typical problem: it was written in 1981. Most experienced cooks know that cookbooks from this time period suffered from at least one of two problems: 1 (and this is not this book’s problem) the confusion that oleo or veggie oil is butter or 2 (and this is this book’s problem) a general lack of availability of authentic ingredients which leads to ridiculous substitutions which just don’t quite work. No matter how many great stories JB tells, she still substitutes ketchup for tamarind paste and as much as I love my Pittsburgher Heinz 57 Lovin’ soul, ketchup ain’t tamarind.

Otherwise, not a bad cookbook, which I do reference often, if just to read JB’s stories.Recipes would be more user-friendly if formatted to make it possible to, at a glance, peruse the steps to follow, rather than have to read through the paragraphs and try to separate out the “to do” information. We like recipes to appear on one page, if possible, or at least to lay out so that ingredients and at least most of the preparation steps appear together.

Recipes could be simplified by using–or at least pointing out– possible shortcuts making use of products available through Thai grocers. This cookbook would make Thai cooking more accessible if it informed users/cooks that these products are an option that in many cases, could simplify the recipes.
Price: $15.95   Buy This Book

Author(s): Rafael Marcos
Publisher: Hippocrene Books
Publication Date: 1999-12-01
Pages: 123
Review: I got this book for my wife for Christmas. It’s great, and has Spanish on one page and English on the opposite, so you can learn some words and phrases if you feel so inclined. There is a wide variety of recipes, and they’re great. My wife loves to cook, and this has become one of her favorite cookbooks.I purchased this book because my family is from Havana, Cuba, and I felt I could get some good authentic recipes. I was very dissapointed. My grandmother who has shown me how to cook cuban food was even surprised at some of the ingredients in the recipes. The recipes are from foods we eat but the ingredients were way off. Sorry just my opinionThis was an interesting, early attempt at compiling a cookbook of Cuban recipes. Having the book in two languages may help your local library, but most chefs speak one language or the other — the result is a lot of wasted space. The simple graphics and lack of photos are uninspiring and there is nothing here that will entice or motivate you. A better choice for contemporary Cuban cuisine: Three Guys from Miami Cook Cuban .

There’s a wonderful Cuban restaurant on our neighboring island of St. Croix. So, I was thrilled to find this charming book. Easy to understand and filled with mouth-watering recipes to remove the drudgery of cooking. If you like this book, you’ll love Angela Spenceley’s two new cookbooks “Just Add Rum!” and “A Taste of the Caribbean”. Both books are valuable additions to any good cookbook library.
Price: $14.95   Buy This Book

Author(s): Andy Pforzheimer, Sasa Mahr-batuz
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Publication Date: 2009-06-16
Pages: 224
Review: The Connecticut restaurant Barcelona chain has a well deserved regional reputation for food that is especially elegant with flavor and cultural culinary subtext. Now the team of Sasa Mahr-Batuz and Andy Pforzheimer (with the assistance of Mary Goodbody) has compiled an equally elegant compilation of recipes for dishes served in the Barcelona restaurants. Superbly illustrated throughout, there are chapters dedicated to cocktails and wine, cold and hot tapas, main courses, party dishes, and desserts. The recipes range from a Clementine Crush; Goat Cheese with Mojo Verde; and Lobster Risotto; to Morcilla Sausage with Caramelized Onions; Grilled Sea Bass with Warm Salad of Fingerling Potatoes and Wax Beans with Broken Shallot Vinaigrette; and Crepas Salguero. Enhanced a listing of sources for Spanish ingredients and foods, an extensive metric conversions and equivalents table, and a handy index, “The Barcelona Cookbook” is a welcome and highly recommended addition to personal, professional, and community library ethnic cookbook collections!

As a college student who often cooks dinner with her 6 housemates on any given night, it is hard to find a cookbook that has recipes for delicious food that are actually possible to pull off well. The Barcelona Cookbook is one of those few that offers the combination of easy-to-follow directions for amazing entrees and appetizers, cool information on Spanish culture and cuisine, and (most importantly for us!) instructions on how to make killer cocktails. We also really appreciate that almost every recipe is paired with a great picture, so we know what the meal should look like - very helpful! I’ve been to two of the Barcelona restaurants before, and while I could never perfectly replicate any of the yummy food I’ve gotten there, the Barcelona Cookbook helps me come pretty darn close.I have an extensive collection of cookbooks, including cookbooks in Spanish which I bought in Spain, but this cookbook has brought great Spanish and mediterranean cooking into my kitchen like no other. In addition to the fabulous photography and excellent writing and explanations about wine and party menus, what is striking about this book is that it accomplishes both simplicity and sophistication in all its recipes. This means that these recipes should be accessible to any home cook and to anyone who loves to entertain in style (but with low stress). I’m not a big drinker, but the cocktails like blood orange margaritas, clementine crush, and red and white sangrias, are too tempting to pass up. Some of my cookbooks end up downstairs in my bookshelves, but this one is going to stay with a coveted few in my kitchen.A long-time patron of the fabulous Barcelona Restaurants, I was anxious to incorporate their signature dishes into my repertoire…and this book does not disappoint. There are recipes for both cold and hot tapas, main dishes (including Barcelona’s great “chicken al pimentos”) and party food. I especially like the chapter on Spanish wines and cocktails (blood orange margaritas top my list!) and the wonderful ideas for outdoor entertaining. The book is easy to read and easy to use — great for anyone who likes to eat and loves to entertain!
Price: $29.99   Buy This Book

Author(s): Noemi C. Taylor
Publisher: Capital Books
Publication Date: 2003-03-28
Pages: 256
Review: Thumbing through the book you can practically smell the food cooking and you can absolutely feel the friendship these four women have forged over the years. That a daughter collected their creativity for all to share is a dash of spice. I and a friend prepared the first dish I tried for a dinner party with several friends. I’ll be dipping into this book many times!This book is a wonderful resource for an endless variety of tasty dishes! The recipes are easy to follow and prepare, and the stories are equally heartwarming. A great book for anyone who cooks because they love to. Salud!Ms. Taylor hit the nail on the head with this one. This is a fantastic compilation of delicious mouth watering recipes, I can’t believe Ms. Taylor put them in writing. I would have thought these recipes are “secrets”. I’m no pro but I was able to make delicious food quite easily. My kitchen is smelling so good at this point, I look forward to coming home from work and enjoying it. A great cookbook!!This cookbook is excellent. It features recipes of the Spanish -American culture,while also providing informative and entertaining information about the recipes. This cookbook not only focuses on delicious recipes, it also expounds on the history of four remarkable Spanish-American women who have remained friends throughout decades. These four women provide accounts of their friendship, as well as recipes for the many meals they have shared together. The recipes range from simple to semi-difficult. None are impossible, or take a ridiculous amount of time. The selection of recipes is excellent, and each chapter has its own table of contents, making that perfect recipe easy to find! I would recommend this book to anyone looking to liven up their recipe collection with some unique and delicious meals with some cultural history! This book is also very helpful if planning a dinner party. There are endless combinations of appetizers, salads, side dishes, vegetables, entrees, and desserts for all appetites.This book was a very well written book. The colors used and the layout of the book are excellent. I really like how for each food, it describes where the recipe comes from (Spain, Columbia, Argentina, Peru). It is also nice to see how each contirbutor to the book shares something personal about herself. I know from having had these foods how tasty they are. Ms. Taylor did an excellent job putting this book together. I reccomend this book to everyone who enjoys cooking and to those who enjoy a little variation in their diet. Great job!
Price: $17.95   Buy This Book

Author(s): Susan Serrano, Juan Serrano
Publisher: Hippocrene Books
Publication Date: 1997-05
Pages: 270
Review: This is the best cookbook I have. Not that I don’t use others probably more but when I’m entertaining or cooking for a crowd this is the cookbook I reach for because the recipes are clear, detailed, and the food is incredible. The one drawback is that there are times when the term “season to taste” is used… and you do need to determine what spices and herbs you’d like to use. If you have a preferred way of preparing various items (fish, meat, chicken, rice) this gives you the versatility to flavor things your own way. They don’t do this for all recipes… some call for very specific flavors and they give you specific quantities.

They provide many varieties on various recipes - how to substitute or where the meat is optional - and they usually explain fairly clearly what works and why. It’s not as technical as Cook’s Illustrated, it’s more like someone taking the time to write down how and why your grandmother cooked the way she did.

I can highly recommend this to anyone who is looking for a good Spanish cookbook to prepare anything from Tapas to Paella and everything in between.
Price: $11.95   Buy This Book

Author(s): Adela Hernandez Gonzmart, Ferdie Pacheco
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Publication Date: 1995-09-28
Pages: 320
Review: Can anyone tell me if they have the recipe for their cuban bread in it? It is by far the best I have ever had!A recent salad made wonderfully by a friend convinced me that there is just about as much art in making salads as anything else. It made me think of the excellent 1905 Salad at the Columbia Restaurant which we get every time we’re there. It has just the right combination of things and an especially fine dressing. But here’s a case of “Don’t try to do it at home” unless you are really accomplished at that sort of thing. The time we tried to do it, following the recipe provided exactly, it didn’t taste anything like what you get at the restaurant. And we had purchased their own dressing. Anyways, they have have a new location in Palm Beach which I want to visit. The best we’ve tried is the one in Sarasota. You can go afterwards to see the Rubens tapestry cartoons at the Ringling Museum of Art. That’s a fun afternoon.Wow, this is some cookbook. I picked it up in the Orlando Airport, and have been enjoying it ever since. Highly recommend it.This is a wonderful recipe that also goes into the history of the restaurant. I love the columbia and always got to the one at St. Armands circle when I am in Florida. I love the ropa vieja and cuban snawhiches are quick and easyThis is such a wonderful cookbook. In South Florida, I visited Columbia and loved the food. I purchased it to try something new. The recipes are authentic with some background narrative woven in there. The language is easy and you can follow the recipe without any problems. Of the recipes I tried, most could be prepared from a well-stocked pantry, not necessarily a huge trip to the grocery store like some cookbooks demand. There are some really great seafood recipes in here too. You’ll love the simple Cuban sandwich in here too. I believe this cookbook is well worth the price.
Price: $24.95   Buy This Book

Author(s): White; Katona; German; Simmons
Publisher: Bristol Publishing Enterprises
Publication Date: 2003-09-01
Pages: 360
Review: Pros: This book has a lot of recipes. A ton of recipes. If you know what you’re looking for, go to this book. The recipes I’ve tried have been tasty.

Cons: This book has no pictures of the recipes or descriptions of the recipes. I enjoy trying new recipes, but only if I know what I’m making. I’d hope to use this book as a resource for recipes to serve when entertaining, but I don’t have background knowledge of what some of the recipes are.
Price: $14.95   Buy This Book

Author(s): Meredith Deeds, Carla Snyder
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Publication Date: 2006-08-24
Pages: 352
Review: There are plenty of good recipes in a well organized format in this cookbook. The recipes are relatively simple and include “make ahead” suggestions to assist in party planning. I tried a couple of them recently for a big party and the ones I made were excellent. The major drawback for me is that there isn’t a single photograph. I am an avid party giver and always appreciate a good cookbook for those miniature ‘meals’ I like to serve. This book whacks a punch and has some wonderful recipes that are both delicious and easy to prepare. Great addition to anyones collection.This book has more than 250 recipes but not a single photo except the cover. I am sorry, but I don’t care how good those recipes are because I need beautiful photos of each dish to make me want to cook. I put this book back on amazon for sale as soon as I got it.Just got it and very impressed with recipes, breadth of ideas, and innovativeness. And don’t take my word for it: This cookbook was one of three in this category nominated for a James Beard Award!!! Didn’t win but a wonderful honor for these up and coming cookbook authors. I was so pleased with the last book that these authors wrote that I really looked forward to this book. It is very well thought out in it’s presentation of recipes and handy tips, and the recipes themselves are to die for. What I especially like about this book is the “Find it Fast Index”, which breaks down the recipes into several categories from “Quick and Simple” to “Freezer Friendly” and several in between. It also has a very helpful Menu Planning Chapter for those of us who appreciate help in figuring out what to serve with what! I am still working my way through the recipes, but my favorite right now is Pear, Gorgonzola and Hazelnut Bundles. It is so delicious, and so quick and easy to prepare. I really like the variety of recipes, all the way from Nachos to more sophisticated recipes. The icing on the cake is that this book has been nominated for the best book in America in the Entertaining Category of the James Beard Foundation Awards, which is the equivelant of the Academy Awards, so I must not be the only one who loves it. I’m glad it’s being recognized for the great book that it is!
Price: $19.95   Buy This Book

Author(s): Gooseberry Patch
Publisher: Gooseberry Patch
Publication Date: 2007-08-01
Pages: 128
Review: There are some good recipes but the book is very small. I would not buy it if I had seen it first.
Price: $7.95   Buy This Book

Author(s): Chad Evans, Karen Johnson, Kathy Aragaki
Publisher: Publications International
Publication Date: 2007-08
Pages: 160
Review: Nice pictures (a must for me), but not too many recipes that sound appealing to the average person.
Price: $12.98   Buy This Book