Cooking Basics For Dummies (For Dummies (Cooking)) Review

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(More customer reviews)My idea of the "For Dummies" books is that they are supposedto be for the beginner and not intimidate anyone. As an aboveaverage cook who is regularly asked for a recommendation on where a newcomer to the kitchen should start, I had hoped that this could be my answer. Unfortunately, there is a fatal flaw that make me hesitate and certainly give a disclaimer with any recommendation I might provide.
My biggest reservation has to do with the chapter on equipment. While I will certainly not disagree that I can cook slightly better with better equipment, I also know that you can be a perfectly good cook with 50 cent knives and $5 saucepans. This chapter should have been an appendix - "When you're ready to buy the best tools" instead of such an early chapter. At most the chapter should have contained a discussion about what each item is used for, and stopped there. As it stands, it succeeded mainly in putting off the less experienced cooks I showed it to.
This is a shame, since much of the rest of the book is useful, funny and informative. I have since recommended it to one person with the caveat that they should ignore that chapter until they could afford not to. But most people just starting out can't afford what's in there. (Heck, I'm well beyond starting out and can't afford much of it. Then again, I regularly produce gourmet meals on a $20 set of knives and a $50 set of pans. So can anyone.)
In the end, the author broke what I consider to be the cardinal rule of the "For Dummies" books - MAKE IT ACCESSIBLE. In the end, a $50 knive and a $100 pan are just not accessible and also, not NECESSARY to be a good cook. Learning the skills of cooking can be done on almost ANY equipment (the tops have to seal and the knives have to cut - that's about it). This book made it seem necessary to drop a $1000 or so before you could start boiling water and that's not just inaccessible but intimidating, too.

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Slow Cookers For Dummies Review

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(More customer reviews)This is not so much a recipe book as a manual that teaches you how best to use a crock pot. It teaches you how to convert your favorite recipes to a slow cooker, which is my favorite part of the book. It gives you some "master" recipes (meat sauce, chicken broth) that you can put in the freezer and use as a base for fast, delicious meals. That part of the book is also brilliant.
There aren't many recipes, but the great thing about the recipes they do have is that they are NOT the "add a can of condensed mushroom soup" variety. There are some hearty chicken and potato recipes that my family just adores - using real food such as herbes de provence and fresh mushrooms. But at the same time, the recipes are not complicated and the ingredients are easy to find in a regular grocery store.

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Food Network Kitchens Favorites Recipes Review

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(More customer reviews)I found this book at the library and picked it up, thinking it'd be full of frou-frou recipes that would be entertaining to watch a chef create on TV but not practical for a real kitchen. Boy, was I wrong. This book is full of true recipe gems. I went straight from the library to Amazon to get my own copy. Definitely recommended for anyone who likes to cook.

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• More than 250 favorite recipes from the food staff that work behind the scenes in the Food Network Kitchens.
• Kitchen tips and techniques that will ensure recipe success.
• Exquisite photography provides inspiration and confidence that every dish will be a success.

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Julia's Kitchen Wisdom: Essential Techniques and Recipes from a Lifetime of Cooking Review

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(More customer reviews)I love cooking shows and often read cookbooks for pleasure, picking up tips from each author and pondering what recipes I'd like t try, but I have to admit that I've never been a part of the cooking cult that worships Julia Child. I do remember watching her shows as a child, with my mother, and know she pioneered the genre, but the meals she made rarely appealed to me--too time consuming, too "fussy" and just too "strange" for every day taste. (If I have to visit eight different shops and peruse three mail order catalogs to make a dish, I'm probably not going to try it.)
Recently, I picked up "Julia's Kitchen Wisdom" at the library and was quickly sold. I am now ordering a copy to keep. The book is filled with useful basic recipes and techniques, as well as lots of helpful time-saving tips that Child has picked up over the years. It's not really a recipe book per se, though tried-and-true formulas for things like Hollandaise sauce and pastry dough do appear, it's more of a kitchen guide. It's full of ingredient substitutions, serving suggestions and definitions of terms you may come across. More useful to experienced cooks, it's also a helpful guide for the best technique, according to Child, for things like braising, searing, roasting and folding. Child's years in the kitchen have made here at master and I was pleasantly surprised to find many time-saving techniques and places were Child says the "easy" way is actually better.
This slim volume really packs a wallop of cooking information and I think it would make a nice addition to any cook's bookshelf.

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The "I Don't Know How to Cook" Book: 300 Great Recipes You Can't Mess Up Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought this book at a public book show put on by Scholastic outside a cafe where I sometimes eat lunch. I'm not unfamiliar with the kitchen and cooking, although I'm by no means a gourmet. But I've long been embarrassed by the fact that I just plain didn't know how to make a lot of "basic" items that a lot of cooks learn from experience. There were also a lot of gaps in my knowledge: for example, I knew what separated eggs were but I didn't know how to do it without making a gawdawful mess and imperfectly separated parts.
Enter this book. It's got a lot of good basic stuff, the kind that doesn't require expensive ingredients or unusual cooking implements. It's more than enough for good meal planning and many of the recipes are useful for the fairly competent cook who just wants something quick and cheap, but still tasty. The format of the recipes is also very easy to follow: ingredients are listed in the order of appearance and there are notes that explain timing issues ("while you are waiting for this to happen, do that.") There are also useful sidebars about various cooking-related issues; including, to continue my example above, one about methods for separating eggs.
Those looking for more adventure in the kitchen are probably going to be sorely let down, and mentions of microwaves are few and far between. But for someone looking for the basics in order to facilitate good meals and meal planning with good time management, this is an excellent choice...even if the title is a little bit embarrassing.

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Gone are the days of macaroni and cheese from a box, frozen dinners, and takeout. With this cookbook, anyone can make a deliciously easy meal. With beginner recipes, separated into easy, medium, and hard levels, this book is the perfect primer to ease the stress of fearful folks in the kitchen. Completely updated with new delectable dishes and unique twists on some classics, this cookbook teaches readers that they can cook?one delicious meal at a time!

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