February 28, 2013

"Verdure" by Gioietta Vitale

Verdure: Simple Recipes in the Italian StyleMy rating: 5 of 5 spoons
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One hundred healthful and delicious Italian recipes centered on the best fresh, seasonal produce From artichoke frittata to zucchini soup, Vitale offers simple and nutritious recipes dedicated entirely to vegetables. Providing tips on selecting fresh ingredients and bringing out each dish's unique flavor, Verdure represents the best of northern Italian cuisine, and is a must-have for anyone seeking no-frills meals using the best that any local produce market has to offer.

Fantastic cookbook centered around strictly vegetables prepared in the Northern Italian style. I love Italian cooking, and constantly look for ways to fix vegetables more and more in a way my family will enjoy and return for seconds. This book looks like a winner!! Each vegetable has its own section with a description, time of year it is harvested, best ways to prepare, other vegetables it goes well with an cooking times and multiple recipes. I can't wait to start cooking!!

I received a digital copy of this book from Open Road Integrated Media to read and review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

"Cooking With Herbs" by Lynn Alley

Cooking with Herbs: 50 Simple Recipes for Fresh FlavorMy rating: 2 of 5 spoons
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From the garden to the table, cooking teacher and best-selling cookbook author Lynn Alley shows cooks and gardeners how to make the most of ten popular fresh herbs--including mint, dill, rosemary, thyme, parsley, tarragon, sage, basil, cilantro, and oregano--in this giftable, merchandisable, full-color cookbook.

In the fresh, vibrant pages of Cooking with Herbs, cooking teacher and best-selling cookbook author Lynn Alley offers fifty delicious recipes for cooking with ten of the most popular culinary herbs, as well as tips for growing your own fresh herbs at home.


I am an avowed herbaholic. I love fresh herbs!! I couldn't wait to dive into this book! I was so surprised to find very little in this book. There is a tiny section on having an herb garden, but just your very basic information. The recipes were very simple to say the least! This might be a good book for a very beginner cook that wants to cook with fresh herbs, but it offered little to me.

I received a free digital copy of this book to read and give an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

February 13, 2013

Missing in Action

I realize this blogger must seem to be MIA.  I had an opportunity to travel out of state to visit my parents and my sister and her new husband who are on deputation to go to Botswana, Africa as missionaries.  No, I didn't bring cookbooks with me.  It's lots of fun just to visit for awhile.  I'm even getting to catch up with some aunts I haven't seen in ages.  I'm just enjoying the visit and I'll jump back into reviews when I get home.  Until them...

Happy Cooking!

February 6, 2013

"The Miracle of Garlic" by Dr. Penny Stanway

The Miracle of Garlic: Practical Tips for Home & HealthMy rating: 4 of 5 spoons
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I'm not sure what I expected going into this book, but it was way more than I thought it would be. If you want a book that pretty much covers anything you might ever want to know about garlic, this would be it. I will admit, portions of it were hard to read, being very dry, technical facts. There are some recipes, but not many. Honestly, most of the recipes did not appeal to me or were just basic recipes that you don't even need a recipe for. (Pasta with garlic and oil? Eggs with green garlic shoots? Who needs a recipe for those?!) However, there is everything you want or need to know about growing, preserving and using your garlic here, including a detailed breakdown of all the different medical uses. I'm looking forward to hopefully being able to put in a garden this year for the first time in a long time, and I was wanting to grow garlic, so this will be very helpful for that, and I love the home remedy section. The book is worth it by far for those two portions.

I received a digital copy of this book from Watkins Publishing Ltd to read and review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.