There are no more excuses for cooking phobia.
Former Sacramento Bee food editor Corn (Gooey Desserts) wrote a series for noncooks that led to this snazzy book.
The layout is perfect: Recipes are in fairly large print in the center of each page, with additional information in the margins. Illustrations show techniques, such as separating an egg. The beginning of each recipe lists not only the ingredients necessary, but also the best equipment to use (note "best,'' not "only''- -Corn suggests but never admonishes). Instructions are broken into sections and then into numbered steps, which include when to clean up (e.g., while the potatoes are baking) and which tools to use. Corn even covers basics like making coffee and which gadgets are must-haves, and she cannily inserts some simple recipes like egg salad right up front so that those eager for hands-on encouragement can learn as they go along. Corn provides straight talk about straightforward American food (updated somewhat—Corn admits that she's "cut back on fat to some degree, but not enough to get it into the title of this book''), and if several of the recipes are nothing exciting, well, that's the point: Even the novice can thrill at creating puffy biscuits and crispy French frystyle potatoes. One little flaw stands out because Corn is so fastidious: A recipe for Red Chard in Olive Oil and Garlic refers to the "white ends'' of the leaves, while red chard has red stems.
There are no more excuses for cooking phobia.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1994
ISBN: 1-883791-00-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harlow & Ratner
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1994
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
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