How to Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food Special Edition with CD-ROM Book Review

Rating: 10 Quills

When I moved overseas, it was without benefit of the four major food groups: microwave, frozen, delivery, and instant. When I went to the market, I stood in awe of the bustling women with their shopping bags full of fresh produce. They knew what to do with it! They knew good from bad! For me, anything that wasn’t brown, moldy or crusty had the potential to be good. I had no idea what I was about when in a farmer’s market.

Through the help of those kind-hearted market women (food is a universal language), my friends, and How to Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food, I came back to the US ready to handle anything. Farmers market? No problem. Homemade pizza crust? No problem. Spaghetti sauce from garden tomatoes? Bring it on! Give me a bunch of veggies and some basic staples and I can whip up a passable, no, quite decent meal. I won’t buy brains or tongue, here or there or anywhere; but that doesn’t matter, because Mr. Bittman doesn’t include such specialty recipes. You’ll have to head over to the Joy of Cooking for that stuff.

I’ve purchased How to Cook Everything twice now. My first copy was left overseas, broken binding and dog-eared, for others like me who found themselves in a strange country and not sure how to go about feeding themselves. I ordered my new copy before our return to the US so it would be waiting for me when we arrived.

Imagine, me–who only thought yeast was something to see the doctor about, making my own pizza crust. With confidence, I may add. Or rolling out pie dough. It may not be pretty, but that’s not the fault of the recipe or the many diagrams on how to roll out and crimp the dough. It sure was tasty though. Hand me a pile of tomatoes and I can produce Basic Tomato Sauce in twenty minutes plus thirteen different versions when that gets boring. Got some frozen chicken cutlets? You’ll find eleven variations of a basic recipe. Fifteen ideas for pizza toppings and six ways to make pizza crust more flavorful mean there are no more excuses for delivery. There is even a “Boiled Water” soup recipe: water, garlic, bay leaf, salt, pepper, bread, and cheese. What could be easier than that?

Mr. Bittman has a way with words and explains everything in clear, simple, easy to understand terms. He emphasizes natural ingredients and fresh food and veggies plus simple techniques to prepare them. In the introduction, he discusses the five distinct elements of good cooking, and why simple is best. There are chapters covering equipment, techniques, menus, quick recipe index, glossary, fifty cookbooks he’d rather not live without, mail-order sources, a list of illustrations (top notch, by Alan Witschonke), and a full index. Each of the nineteen recipe-related chapters (including the basics of appetizers, soups, fish, poultry, beans, vegetables, desserts, and beverages plus specialty chapters covering eggs, breakfast and brunch dishes; sauces, salsas, and spice mixtures; or pizza, bruschetta, sandwiches, pitas, and burritos) starts with an introduction to that section covering the basics, what to look for, how to store, etc.

This version comes with a CD. I used it once then put it back. I had a hard time figuring out how to get it started and how to exit. The information on it is useful, you can even figure out whole meals. It’s got fifteen thousand searchable recipes and eighty guides including instructions for carving a turkey and making bread. I like that I can create my own recipes, or shopping lists, or nutrition profiles. I just don’t use it much. I prefer the book!

Having this book is like having your own personal instructor right in the kitchen with you. For the culinary-challenged like me, that’s a great feature. And the more advanced chefs will simply enjoy How to Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food.

Reviewed by Susan
© June 2006

Piedmont Progressive Preschool hosts its Annual Silent Auction

Piedmont Progressive Preschool will host its annual Silent Auction on April 28, 2006 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the school. Admission is $10 at the door or $5 in advance. Items up for auction include tickets to the Coca Cola 600, the Charlotte Knights, and the Wachovia Golf Championship plus jewelry, dinners, and fabulous items from Longaberger® and other retailers.. Come and enjoy an evening without the kids. To get advance tickets, mail payment to Piedmont Progressive Preschool, Attn: Silent Auction, 9704 Mallard Creek Road, Charlotte, NC 28262. For more information, contact the school at 704-510-1022 or visit their website at www.progressivepreschool.org.   

Piedmont Progressive Preschool is a unique program in the University area that offers children the opportunity to learn and explore the world around them in a safe, supportive, and open environment. The school’s philosophy is child-centered and play-based with an emphasis on nature and the arts. They believe that children this age learn best through discovery learning experiences.

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SILENT AUCTION ITEMS NEEDED

Piedmont Progressive Preschool seeks items for its Annual Silent Auction

Piedmont Progressive Preschool is in search of auction items for its annual Silent Auction on April 28, 2006. Money raised will help fund playground renovations, maintenance of their nature walk, and the never-ending need for classroom supplies.

Area businesses are encouraged to donate goods or services. If you have an item to donate or would like further information, please contact [deleted] at [deleted]. Donors will receive two free tickets to the event.

Piedmont Progressive Preschool is a unique program in the University area that offers children the opportunity to learn and explore the world around them in a safe, supportive, and open environment. The school’s philosophy is child-centered and play-based with an emphasis on nature and the arts. They believe that children this age learn best through discovery learning experiences.

The preschool is located at 9704 Mallard Creek Road (across from Mallard Creek Elementary) in the Piedmont Unitarian Universalist Church building and is non-sectarian. Contact the school at 704-510-1022 or visit their website at www.progressivepreschool.org for more information.

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Bumped Off in Baltimore Book Review

I'm a mystery fan and a former resident of Baltimore, so I jumped at the opportunity to read a mystery set there. I love visiting the city, even if it is just in my mind, and checking out my old stomping grounds. What can I say; I'm a Balti-moron.

Bumped Off in Baltimore opens with main character Toni Credella, a dyslexic apprentice PI, accepting a job as a bodyguard to a beautiful opera singer having problems with an abusive ex-boyfriend. This parallels Toni's life as she is also a spousal-abuse survivor who just happened to kill her own husband in self-defense. When not working as a PI, she's trying to make ends meet with her own decorating business. Things get hairy when her latest client, a local socialite and activist, is murdered and Toni may have been the last person to see her alive.

Ms. Titchener does a good job of weaving the stories of the opera singer who has underworld connections, the murder investigation of the socialite, a contract killer, and the sudden reappearance and subsequent disappearance of her Uncle Vanni. We follow Toni as she pedals her way around Baltimore's neighborhoods unraveling the Gordian knot that threatens to entangle her.

The style is reminiscent of Robert B. Parker in his Spenser for Hire series with lots of short choppy dialogue and short scenes. While the story starts slowly, it picks up steam and toward the end, I couldn't put it down. I was pleasantly surprised how the pieces fit together and happy that I hadn't figured out the ending.

Ms. Titchener, a Baltimore resident herself, does an accurate job of placing the locations in Baltimore, but doesn't quite bring the city to life. I wanted to get lost in the book; to feel like I was there with Toni, but it just didn't happen.

I have a hard time relating to the main character because I'm not really sure who she is and how she fits into the world. As a reader, I want to form a mental picture of Toni early in the book–height, hair color, age, etc. These descriptive items are scattered throughout the book. Sadly, it was not until the end of the book that I really cared about her.

Would I recommend that you read it? Yes, especially if you're looking for a quick read. Though if money is tight, you would be better off getting this one from the library.

Reviewed By: Susan
© March 2006

Bumped Off in Baltimore, A Toni Credella Mystery
Louise Titchener
Mystery
Hard Shell Word Factory
electronic  ISBN: 0-7599-3741-9
print ISBN: 0-7599-3744-3
(c)  August 2005

Bed And Breakfast Murders Book Review

I love spending time at bed and breakfasts (B&B's). Staying in someone's home adds the personal touch the big chain hotels are lacking, and a home cooked breakfast is just the icing on the cake, so to speak. The most interesting B&B I stayed in was actually only a B–bed, no breakfast, located over the local pub in a small town in Wales. The beds were comfy, and we enjoyed the music coming up through the floorboards as we fell asleep.

I'm not sure that my sense of adventure would lead me to stay at the Pink Lady Slipper at Zero Cemetery Lane. Not once I knew its history. It seems innocent enough as a former brothel, stagecoach stop, and stop on the Underground Railroad, until dead bodies start stacking up like firewood in a very Agatha Christie-like manner. Snowbound by a blizzard, who among the staff or guests could be the killer? Once the snowplows come through, the action heats up with Trudy, the main character, on a snow mobile racing for her life.

I found Billie A. Williams' Bed And Breakfast Murders to be quite chilling, and not only because it takes place in the dead of winter in Upper Michigan. The plot twists and turns kept me guessing until the very end. I had a hard time keeping the characters and plot straight in the beginning. Bed And Breakfast Murders is a sequel to The Pink Lady Slipper, which was also full of dead bodies and plot twists. Once I figured out who everyone was and learned what happened in the previous book, I enjoyed myself. You will, too.

Reviewed by Susan
© May 2006

Bed And Breakfast Murders
Billie A. Williams
Wings ePress Books
(c) January 2006
Mystery/detective/general fiction
Electronic ISBN 1-59088-488-4, Paperback ISBN 1-59088-705-0

 

Methuselah’s Legacy Book Review

I confess. I didn't know who Methuselah was. Or why his legacy was important. A Google search quickly informed me that he was the longest living man in Biblical history. Without the assistance of modern medicine, he lived to be seven hundred plus years old. Who wouldn't want to avoid the shackles of death and live "forever"? Certainly, Detective Sergeant Ian Waddle, the main character in Methuselah's Legacy does. The man is scared to death of death. He's facing his own mid-life crisis while solving the puzzles behind the Moorhen murder, among other cases.

We know that Rodney Moorhen is going to die from the first sentence in the book: "The last hour of Rodney Moorhen's short and brilliant life began during a sudden and torrential downpour." We don't actually find out how or why until later. Moorhen, though dead, becomes central to the story as the Seattle PD and his sister, Alice, unravel the mysteries surrounding his work, and his death.

We're introduced to Ian Waddle in his doctor's office. He's been in to see the doctor twenty-three previous times in two years. The doctor is not coming right out and saying he's a hypochondriac, but it's discussed. Every little ache and pain causes Waddle to wonder if it's a symptom of something bigger, something that might end his life. Can you name your biggest fear? For Ian Waddle, it's dying.

He just can't shake the feeling that something is wrong with the Moorhen case, that it's a murder, and not kinky sex gone wrong. The Brass are getting pressure to put the case to bed, but Waddle just can't do it. We follow Waddle through the ins and outs of the police investigations he's assigned to, as well as the stories of those behind, and involved in, the Moorhen murder.

In the end, Waddle faces his greatest fear and learns how to live again.

This is an excellent book, very well crafted. As a writer and an editor, I really liked it. The author does an excellent job of weaving plots and subplots; it's a veritable spider's web. I couldn't put it down, which was hard since I was reading an e-book on my computer. I had to get a more comfortable chair just to keep reading so I could finish! The characters are very real, and have their own foibles. The setting seems to be accurately depicted (being as I've never been to Seattle, I couldn't tell you for sure, but I recognized the pictures of the different locales the author has posted on his website), and I felt like I was in the different locales, not just reading about them. Mr. Musgrove did an excellent job suspending reality and I was able to get lost in Methuselah's Legacy. High praise indeed, as I've been slogging through too many books lately. This was no slog, but an absolute joy. I want to read his other books now.

Reviewed by Susan
© June 2006

Methuselah's Legacy
Paul Musgrove
Wings ePress, Inc.
General Fiction, mystery, detective
Electronic ISBN 1-59088-191-5 Paperback ISBN 1-59705-951-X 
© January 2005