October 2021 Cookbook Reviews

 

Farmhouse Weekends by Melissa Bahen

Melissa Bahen lives in a farmhouse in the country, but points out in the introduction that you don't have to live on acreage in the country to practice "farm ways" of living. She said that even before they found their dream farmhouse they were already canning, gardening, and making homemade food and you can do that just about anywhere. She and her husband aren't farmers and they both have jobs, but the weekends are for their farmhouse activities and that's what this cookbook is based on - recipes she's created for the weekends when you might have more time to cook. I love that the recipes are organized by season to focus on whatever ingredients are in season. I found several recipes I'd like to try. If you're looking for some good, homemade food to make this weekend I would definitely recommend this book.

An Unapologetic Cookbook by Joshua Weissman

I wasn't familiar with Joshua Weissman before checking this book out from my library. I really like that he focuses on making as much of your food as you can from scratch and from good quality ingredients. I think the media and food industry want people to think cooking from scratch is too hard or too time consuming. It's usually faster and easier than you think especially for basic dishes. In the first section of recipes Weissman gives tons of recipes for basic components - broth, condiments, pickles, etc, then gets into breads and starches from scratch. The rest of the chapters are your basic cookbook categories - breakfast, appetizers, meat, pasta, dessert, etc. All of the recipes use some of the basic components from the first section. This would be a great gift from someone just starting out on their own or trying to make more of their own food from scratch. Overall, I would recommend this one and did find a few recipes I'd like to try.

Peace, Love, and Pasta by Scott Conant

I love Scott Conant from watching him as a judge on Chopped, so I definitely wanted to check out his newest cookbook. Despite the title the whole book isn't pasta recipes. It's organized like a typical cookbook with chapters like staples, soups, salads, and antipasta, vegetables, etc. I did like that he included a chapter on Turkish cooking since his wife is from Turkey and he's grown to love many of the recipes and food from that area. He also tells some crazy stories from his life in the description of some of the recipes - like in the recipe for pork schnitzel he talks about working at a restaurant in Germany and Michael Jackson and his pet monkey coming in for a meal! Overall, there weren't a ton of recipes I wanted to try, but it is a good overall cookbook with a wide variety of recipes.

Once Upon a Chef by Jennifer Segal

Jennifer Segal is a busy mom so she created this cookbook to help families get meals on the table during the week. The Weeknight meals are a little faster and easier to throw together when everyone is home from work or school. The Weekend meals are when you might have more time to work on a meal or for something special. Most of the recipes looked easy to follow with no weird or random ingredients. There were a few I'd like to try as well.