By I am a little bit torn about this cookbook…
Here is the positive:
Most of the recipes are very, very tasty! You are almost certain to pick a really delicious recipe no matter which one you choose. And it doesn’t seem to be specific to baked goods, soups, meats, etc. Nearly every recipe is very good!
I like that they reference the Chapters from the books where we can find the actual recipe mentioned/referenced.
As with most cookbooks, the majority of the recipes were average in both cost and difficulty. This book did seem to have a few more “easy” recipes, though, than some of the others.
Here is the negative:
Several of the recipes contained vague or confusing directions. For instance, there was no information about how to peel the Roasted Chestnuts, or what thickness and shape the dough had to be rolled out to for the Fig Cookies. The writer of the cookbook also had a tendency to hide ingredients within the recipe instruction, instead of listing it with the rest of the ingredients. I almost completely missed that I was supposed to make rice to go with the Orange Chicken!
Though they do reference a chapter of the book for each of the recipes, the recipes are often not very similar to what is described in the book. The Orange Muffins with Sweet Preserves, for example, references a quote about orange juice. I don’t know about you, but I don’t consider juice and muffins to be even in the same category. And the fact that the recipe involves some orange juice is not enough for me to make this connection.
And finally, there are just too many recipes. Partly because they include recipes that only vaguely relate to the stories. But looking at the list of recipes in the cookbook is exhausting and overwhelming. In my opinion, there is such a thing as too many options.
This is not one of the better fiction-based cookbooks I’ve tried, and I probably won’t go back to it very often.
Favorite Recipes
Even though I didn’t really like the cookbook itself, I did enjoy the majority of the recipes. I’m saving a whopping 8/20 recipes, which is 40% of the ones I tried:
This Geek Loves Food 