Holiday Gift Guide – Mouthwatering Cookbooks

I love cookbooks. I enjoy reading cookbooks as well as making the delicious recipes inside. I can never have enough cookbooks. This holiday here are two new titles good for everyday cooking and Holiday Gift Giving! 

Soups, Stews and Breads from Gooseberry Patch features more than 400 quick, cozy and delicious recipes. One of my favorite ways to cook year-round is in a slow cooker. There is a full chapter dedicated to Slow Cooker Soups. The variety is amazing. I have bookmarks on Jalapeno Chicken Chili, Creamy Chicken & Macaroni Soup, Stuffed Cabbage Soup just to name a few. 

The categories in this book are:

Everyday Comfort Soups

Hearty Chowders, Chilis & Stews

Slow Cooker Soups

Quick Fix Soups

Breads, Muffins, Rolls & Biscuits

Sandwiches

There are flavors for every taste. The book features full color photos of mostly all the recipes! Gorgeous mouthwatering photos!  I like the color-coded index on the page sides to get to the section I would like. This is a lovely book for any kitchen. Many soups are simple to make and can be made quickly. To accompany the soups, the bread and muffin recipes are just as enticing. Hot Chocolate Muffins, Williamsburg Bread, Cheddar Chive Bites and more! Gooseberry Patch is a family favorite publisher. Their simple and comforting recipes never disappoint.

304 Pages with full color photos. ASIN: B074BGHY7B 

Taste of Home 365 Days of Cookies – want to make a new cookie every day? There are enough recipes in this adorable cookbook to be a cookie maker all year long! This spiral bound type cookbook features full color photos on high quality paper. The book sits flat for ease of recipe reading. That is always a handy plus. 

The sections include:

Introduction

Cozy Bites

Celebrate Spring

Summer Fun

Fall Flavors

Bonus: The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I like the introduction section filled with many troubleshooting and cooking making tips. Cozy Bites features delectable well-loved flavors. Spring flavors are plentiful in Celebrate Spring. Summer Fun is ideal for making cookies with kids home from school. Fall Flavors starts the holiday season. The book finishes with The Most Wonderful Time of the Year Christmas Cookies.

You can really make a cookie each day for the entire year and not make a duplicate. I think that is a challenge I will happily undertake! Cookie Lovers and home bakers will love this chock full of cookie recipes book. The photos are enticing, and the recipes are fabulous!

448 Pages Publisher Reader’s Digest

Look for these two mouthwatering cookbooks at your favorite book seller or online.

A gift giving idea – Make a basket with one of these cookbooks with baking tools, cooking utensils or ingredients. You can always add a gift card to a favorite grocer! If you give a cookbook, you just might get a taste of what recipe is made? Cookies anyone? 

 

Doggy Desserts - Cookbook Review

I love my two dogs. They have sensitive stomachs so I treat them to the best foods I can. Now I can make them special treats with the recipes inside Doggy Desserts.

Doggy Desserts contains 125 Homemade treat recipes. Inside there are many doggy cookies recipes including bars, rolled, and drop cookies made with wholesome ingredients. Even cakes can be made doggylicious! I love the section of the muffins. For hot summer weather there is a section of frozen treats. Dogs will be licking their chops!

Browsing the cookie recipes first, these are amazing! They sound good enough for humans to eat. I have many of them bookmarked to make. The first would be the Chicken Biscuits - made with chicken leg meat, water, oil, egg and whole wheat flour. That sounds simple enough. For Thanksgiving, how about making Sweet Potato Biscuits? Great ideas for all types of holidays and everyday treats. The Peanut Butter Apple Cookies had me drooling. I can't wait to make these to see the faces of my happy dogs! I bought the ingredients and will be baking soon!

My favorite is the bars section. Super simple way to make them. Just use a pan then cut them into sliced bars.

Most of the recipes use whole grain flours. If you have a dog needing a grain free treat, maybe switching to a different type of flour would help. I have a grain free diet dog and plan to try coconut or almond flour . I might have to play with the flour ratio a bit, but the recipes seem adaptable.
There are many delicious sounding recipes included in Doggy Desserts. The full color photographs of the treats and the happy dogs makes this a very enjoyable book!

Treat your furry friends to some homemade goodies! Pick up a copy of Doggy Desserts at your favorite bookseller.

Save the Day with Slow Cooker Family Favorites by Maggie Shi!

The new year is officially here! That means back to busy school schedules, chilly evenings, and nights in. If you have had a chance to look at Maggie Shi’s new, Slow Cooker Family Favorites (October 2016; Paperback; $19.95), I think you’ll agree that it’s the perfect cookbook for this time of year.

Hearty, hands-off dinners like Spicy Mexican Chicken Stew and Pesto Stuffed Shells are the easiest way to get the whole family sitting down to a home-cooked dinner, no matter how busy your night is. But your slow cooker is good for so much more than stews and soups—recipes for dips, appetizers, desserts and warm drinks will carry you all the way through the year!

8 out of 10 American families have a slow cooker—put it to use whipping up treats like Cheesy Bacon Dip, Banana Caramel Cake, and Honey Bourbon Cider!

My Thoughts: 

One thing I love to do is cook! It is something that has always been so relaxing to me to kick back, throw some nutritious ingredients together, and make a meal my whole family will enjoy. However, sometimes time does not always allow me to spend some extra time in the kitchen. That is where a slow cooker comes in handy. It is much quicker for families and college students like me to throw my favorite things in and allow the slow cooker to do the work for me! 

Maggie Shi shares some of her yummy gourmet ideas that are family friendly and not overly difficult to do! Everything from dinners, dips, drinks, and my favorite- desserts! Who knew you could do so much with a slow cooker? I had no idea I could make sure an array of unique things. This book is a must have for people who are pressed for time, but still wanting to spend time with family enjoying a good meal. It will help save you time and still have the joy of cooking a fresh dish. 

If you are a parent or person on the go, this book is a must have for you! Bring your family together with these delicious recipes from Maggie Shi!

Connect with Maggie Shi:

Website  Twitter Instagram Pinterest

Book Review: The Complete Wild Game Cookbook

 A comprehensive and fascinating cookbook on preparing sublime game dishes.

This enticing and informative cookbook explains, from forest to table, how to make the most of wild game. Absorbing and engaging, it is not only full of information about game birds and animals but also introduces you to several wild plants that pair especially well with the suggested dishes, and includes recipes for broths, gravies, marinades and glazes.

In addition to the 150+ mouth-watering recipes, it features tips on preparing and cooking game, and details on the different species available throughout North America. You’ll also learn how to use the flesh and giblets of game, as well as wine-pairing suggestions, information on the various cuts of meat and general terms used in butchery.

This valuable primer is perfect for anyone who already includes game in their diet and for home cooks who are just discovering wild game for the first time.

With the advice in this wide-ranging book, you’ll rediscover the taste of nature on your dinner plate.

The Complete Wild Game Cookbook can be purchased from major online retailers like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Target.

JEAN-PAUL GRAPPE  had a long and prolific career. He has been the chef and owner of four major restaurants and has also taught for 22 years at the Institute of Tourism and Hotel and Quebec. Jean-Paul has published numerous cookbooks, many of which have won awards.

Jean-Paul says The Complete Wild Game Cookbook is much more than just a book of delicious and unusual recipes. He says it is a comprehensive text that explains, from forest to table, how to make the most of what you hunt.

Robert Rose, Inc. based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and founded in 1995, is one of North America’s leading publishers of bestselling and award-winning cookbooks and health books designed to guide, inform, advise, and do everything possible to make your life easier. Our books contain an abundance of full-color photographs, important diet and nutritional guides, accessible charts and tables, handy and delicious meal plans, practical make-ahead meal ideas, and easy-to-understand step-by-step instructions.

Our Thoughts

Seriously, I just want to hug this guy, Jean-Paul.  We eat venison as our main meat and have been exploring other wild game during the appropriate hunting seasons.  Generally, when I do a search for wild game recipes, all I can find are the same basic recipes over and over that call for commercial sauces or spice blends - or a whole lot of nightshade food ingredients.  The whole reason we've turned to eating wild game is because of our son's special dietary needs, so all those commercial spice blends and sauces (and especially nightshades!!) are out because of the ingredients they contain. What this means is, basically I've been on my own for creating new wild game recipes for my own cookbook(s). And I've come up with some that are actually pretty close to ones in The Complete Wild Game Cookbook!

The first one I tried was the Venison Tartlets with Wild Herb Emulsion.  I had to substitute a few ingredients like the pastry, potato starch, and cow-dairy items, but the resulting venison tartlets turned out great (and delicious!) - big thumbs up from the hubby!  I used up the very last of our venison stash with this one so I'm happy it turned out so well!

Venison tartlets fresh out of the oven!

Plated, with the Wild Herb Emulsion.

The next one I tried was the Wild Boar Chops with Currants and Sauerkraut Marinated in Cumin and Maple Syrup. This one is fairly close to a much simpler recipe I already have and love - but this really jazzed it up and was fabulous!!  I used pork steaks instead of wild boar chops since that's what I had on hand.  I had to skip the juniper berries - I actually meant to harvest some this year from up at our cabin . . . but sadly, they stayed behind.  I'll harvest some next year - there are plenty of recipes in this book that call for them and I've been looking forward to experimenting cooking with them.

The pork steaks still in the roasting pan.

This has been, out of all of my cookbooks, my most favorite one to read! When Jean-Paul says "the complete wild game cookbook" he's not kidding.  It is incredibly informative about a HUGE variety of wild game - from different species of birds all the way up to large animals - even seal! And not only that, but information on the animals themselves as well as gastronomy, structure and tenderness of meat, the effect of cooking on meat tenderness, and selecting the right cooking method - charts included!  Granted, the average person probably isn't going to have some of the ingredients readily on hand but with enough research good substitutes can be used, or the exact ingredients purchased from specialty shops. 

At the time of this writing, we are patiently waiting for this hunting season's deer to be processed at our local butcher shop and I cannot wait to try more of the recipes in this cookbook!

Overall, I cannot say enough good things about The Complete Wild Game Cookbook and am so glad it's a part of my kitchen!