G69 Darn Good Eats The Cookbook for Creative Chefs and Reluctant Cooks

Title of the book: Darn Good Eats: The Cookbook for Creative Chefs and Reluctant Cooks

Author: Jodi Ambrose

Publisher: In your face publishing

Publishing Date: 2012

ISBN: 9780615700991

Summary:

Whether you love to cook or would rather starve than spend time in a kitchen, Darn Good Eats: The Cookbook for Creative Chefs and Reluctant Cooks is for you!

Reluctant Cook and author Jodi Ambrose teamed up with her Creative Chef husband, Grant, to bring you a cookbook with an unusual twist. Darn Good Eats provides scrumptious recipes for both the kitchen aficionado and the bumbling cook. Pooling together all of their combined kitchen savvy, they've created a cookbook that applies to anyone and everyone.

Along with a list of must-have items for your kitchen, helpful measurement conversions, delightful personal anecdotes and a witty sense of humor, this cookbook delivers over 70 delectable and inspired recipes for both the kitchen novice and cooking expert. You no longer have to be a good cook to make great food.

So that it's easy to navigate, the cookbook is split into two parts. The first part is for Creative Chefs who love, or at least like, to cook. It contains tantalizing recipes which range from simple to challenging and are bound to be crowd-pleasers. The second part is for people who prefer eating over cooking and find the kitchen to be more of a chore than a delight. The Reluctant Cook will now have a wonderful array of options for making "homemade" meals that (shhh...don't tell) in some cases are far from homemade, but are still mouthwateringly delicious.

Whether you love or hate the kitchen, Darn Good Eats: The Cookbook for Creative Chefs and Reluctant Cooks has plenty of tasty recipes to please even the most discerning palate. We know that you'll enjoy both the food and fun contained within this cookbook and we wish for you many happy and delicious meals.

Other Works:

She also wrote Sex: How to Get More of It A guy's roadmap to paradise, in and out of the bedroom and Intimacy: How to get More of it a peek into understanding the male mind , short books that concisely describe what the opposite sex should do to get more of what they desire.

Background:
(from goodreads.com)

url
http://www.goodreads.com/jodiambrose

gender
female

website
http://jodiambrose.com

twitter username
JodiAmbrose

genre
Humor, Health, Mind & Body, Cookbooks

influences
Thoughtful people who have something to say!

member since
August 2011

Theme:

"Since we have a love/hate cooking relationship going on here, I'm going to tackle this cookbook in an usual way. First, I'm going to share all of my hubby's delicious recipes with you...

The second part of this book is for people like me: peopel who would ratehr swin in a pool of broken glass than cook." (1)

Problems addressed:

She personalizes this book instead of making it very typical, it stands out. There's plenty of recipes who love cooking, and there are recipes for people who can't stand cooking (thank you!) most cookbooks assume everyone loves to cook, but she creates a section for someone who hates it, which means its a good time to share the cooking chore.

Summary of content:

This cookbook covers multiple things, and does so successfully. There's a section for people who love cooking, section for people who hate cooking but want to fool people into thinking that they love cooking, and in case if you want to make some recipes for a date or whatnot, she gives 1-4 cute dragons on how bad your breath might be after the meal. She also personalizes the cookbook with stories and few pictures of recipe cards that her mom has and then types out recipes and directions. I showed a few things to my mom who praised the book for its layout. (Didn't have a chance to try out the recipes yet.)

Thesis:

"So sit back, relax, and enjoy our favorite recipes. I'm pretty dang sure there are quite a few things in here for both the discerning chef and the "I'll eat anything as long as I don't have to cook it " kind of person. (1)

Main points:

I will include two recipes per section

*Introduction
*THe Dragon-Breath-Meter
*List of THings You'll Need
*For Those Who love to Cook
*Bruschetta
* Crepes
*For Those Who Hate to Cook
*Sneaky Pizza
*Fast and Fabulous Fettuccini Alfredo
(Don't worry there's dessert as well, but I won't mention what kind...)

Why its interesting and informative:

So far I haven't found personalized cookbooks, where every recipe comes with a story and I have yet to find a cookbook that target the demographic of those who don't like cooking. Although I haven't tried the recipes, this book does look like something I might try just for fun and see the results. My idea of cookbooks was something depersonalized and that's based on tastes rather than on something personal. What's also cool is finding cute little dragons as well as weights and measures in both metric and US conversions.

Supports thesis:

The book does successfully support thesis and there's lots of interesting recipes for both specialty cooks and non-cooks (don't worry, the recipes for non-cooks don't include popping something into a microwave for 30 minutes and serving it as your own, as I originally thought when I saw the section.)

Issues raised:

There aren't simple cookbooks for people who aren't good with cooking, and she tackles that subject head on. Also, while I have a chance, I have to applaud the front cover of the book as gender breaking because her husband is the cook and he's in kitchen wearing an apron, while she's sipping wine. Hopefully this type of picture will cause men to be less ashamed of secretly desiring to be cooks and whatnot.

Ideas in book vs larger ideas:

Its possible to be cooking-challenged yet create decadent foods as well, which is what the author addresses. Although for her its a torturous experience, perhaps the more people try it and see that it won't be so bad, perhaps more will go after cooking rather than spending money in restaurants or whatnot. The ingredients are simple as well as directions on how to create those foods.

Agree/disagree: 

Like the author, I fall into I hate/am afraid of cooking territory, but I'm lucky, I suppose, that for my mom, whom I'm very grateful for, approaches cooking the way I would approach books and story ideas. The recipes appear both challenging and simple, and in some cases she covers how they were discovered by family members as well as their reception and she also includes her husband's opinions. She always encourages adjustment for recipes and not to just stick to what she recommends. She is very open in the book about what she likes and dislikes.

Sources:

Her sources include her husband, friends and family members, which she uses for help with getting the recipes or pictures or whatnot. It was a very fun read for me, I admit.

Conclusion: 

The book covers what she mentions will cover and goes a little above and beyond with the dragons, metric system and personal stories of the recipes. My favorite part was looking at the cute little dragons for a recipe one doesn't expect to have the dragons. I would highly recommend the book of course.

Personal opinion:

I highly recommend getting this book because in addition to recipes, you will be getting humor, and personal stories behind every recipe, as well as pictures (mine were black and white though.) Also both people can be in charge of cooking instead of just one person.

Quick notes: I would like to thank the author for the opportunity to read and review the book. This review will be posted on my blog, amazon and goodreads.

 5 out of 5
 (0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)