February 2023 Cookbook Reviews

 

Seinfeld: the official cookbook by Julie Tremaine

If you're a fan of the TV show Seinfeld this cookbook is a must have. There is a brief introduction to the main characters at the beginning of the book (I mean who is picking this up that has never seen the show though?) then it gets into the recipes. The recipes are organized like a traditional cookbook - breakfast, snacks, soup, main dishes, and dessert - but they are named more for the show like "no soup for you" for the soup chapter and "no double-dipping" for the dips chapter. Any memorable dish/meal from the show is in here like Steinbrenner's special calzone, Elaine's big salad, Fusilli Jerry, and my all-time favorite George's "What the Hell? I'll Just Eat Some Trash" eclairs. There are also some that are plays on things from the show like Puffy shirt pastry tarts and Mr. Pitt's knife and fork snickers cake. I didn't try out any of the recipes but they do look like actual recipes that would work. I'll probably end up buying this one just because I'm such a huge Seinfeld fan. Definitely worth checking out if you're a fan of the show about nothing.

Fix Me a Plate: traditional and new school soul food recipes from Scotty Scott of Cook Drank Eat by Scotty Scott

I LOVE Southern food so I'm always interested in a new Soul Food or Southern cookbook. Scott's cookbook has a good variety of Soul Food recipes and some variations on classics - like pimento cheese hush puppies. The recipes organized like a traditional cookbook by type/meal - breakfast, main dishes, seafood, sides, etc. I liked that he included a chapter called "sauce and spice" that gives sauce and seasoning mix recipes. I wasn't wild about the way some of the recipes were written in the book. There were instructions like, "Whisk errythang...in a bowl until smooth." I have no problem with speaking more casually in person or on video, but to write it out like that just seemed really odd to me. There were similar things throughout the whole book. My other main complaint was the mac & cheese recipe - mac & cheese is one of my all-time favorite dishes and it's how I judge any Southern restaurant. Scott's recipe calls for 2 cans of Cheddar cheese soup! Ugh. to me that sounds awful, but as the subtitle says these recipes are "traditional and new school Soul Food..." so I guess that's his new school version. Overall, I do think it's a solid cookbook with lots of traditional and new variations of Soul Food dishes.