March 2014 Cookbooks

Southern Casseroles by Denise Gee

This book not only had TONS of casserole and casserole-type side dish recipes, but I really liked that the author gave a lot of good tips at the beginning of the book. She walked through pantry staples to keep on hand, how to determine what size dish you need to cook your casserole in, basic recipes for sauces and types of casserole toppings. There are definitely a few recipes I'd like to try - the squash casserole, corn casserole, and two variations of sweet potato casserole are at the top of my list to try. I would definitely recommend this one to casserole and/or Southern food fans.

The Healthy Homemade Pet Food Cookbook by Barbara Laino

In theory I would LOVE to be able to make homemade pet food for my cats. A few years ago when my husband and I drastically changed our diet by only buying our meat and milk at the farmer's market and as much produce as I can too, I reevaluated our cat's food too and changed them to a more natural-based cat food (Blue Buffalo) that doesn't have any "animal by-product" included. I figured if I didn't want to eat mystery meat from the grocery store why should my cats eat the even worse by-products left over from that mystery meat! As much as I would like to make their food it would be pretty pricey. Plus, one of my cats is pretty picky and the other LOVES any kind of food. I could see one cat eating all the homemade food and the other one either not getting much or forcing me to have to feed them separately. I think the premise is great, but not realistic for most people. I did appreciate that she does include a list of some "high-quality commercial food brands" as well. Overall, if you have lots of extra time and money this would be great for your pets.

The Farmstead Egg Guide & Cookbook by Terry Blonder Golson

I really liked this book. It was half how to raise chicken and half egg recipes. I don't have chickens (yet), but I imagine if you have a few you will need lots of different recipes to use up all the eggs you'll get. The author even talks about how to freeze eggs which I'd never heard of before. There were quite a few recipes I'd like to try and I would definitely come back to this one when/if I get some chickens someday. I would definitely recommend this one!

Modern Pioneering by Georgia Pellegrini

I think the title of this book is a little misleading. It's mostly recipes and there is information about gardening, even on a very small scale, and looking for and using wild edibles. There was also a little information about canning, but I would recommend reading more than one chapter in a book before canning at home! There were a couple recipes I'd like to try. Overall, it was pretty good, but not great or amazing.

The Italian Vegetable Cookbook by Michele Scicolone

I love Italian food, but often Italian cookbooks are a little complicated and mostly pasta (which I don't mind). This one is all vegetable recipes, but not just side dishes, there are also sandwiches, soups, pasta of course, sauces, side and main dishes, and desserts - all vegetable centered. There are a few recipes I'd like to try and overall I liked that it had a wide variety of recipes and dishes.