A practical, no-fuss guide that should help cooks streamline their kitchens and find solutions to culinary dilemmas.
A manual shows readers how to save money and space by using substitute tools to complete a variety of kitchen tasks.
Cooks with cluttered kitchens, rejoice. They may not need all those single-use gadgets that are taking up valuable space in their drawers and shelves. MacLeod’s (The Waste-Wise Kitchen Companion, 2017, etc.) efficient and detailed A-to-Z reference book outlines numerous substitutions for various kitchen tools, from the everyday (grill tongs stand in for a bottle opener) to the unusual (an electric doughnut cooker replaces an aebleskiver pan for preparing Danish pancakes). The alphabetical organization makes it easy for desperate cooks to discover information in a flash, and many of the suggested substitutes are genuinely clever, such as transforming an open waffle iron covered with heavy-duty aluminum foil into a food warming tray or crafting a DIY fat separator out of an empty yogurt container or freezer bag. MacLeod also provides answers to questions like whether readers can use a slow cooker as a rice cooker or a coffee grinder as a spice mill (yes to both, with some caveats). Bakers should be delighted with the extensive list of baking pan equivalents; also included is a table of volume and liquid measurement equivalents. There’s a “Hints from Heloise” quality to many of the tips, which are likely to spark memories in some readers of common-sense kitchen lessons taught by mothers or grandmothers. The manual also offers an entertaining look at more specialized culinary tools and techniques. Readers may not know what a tava is (it’s a “flat cast-iron pan used for cooking Indian flatbreads”), but it’s nice to know they can utilize a cast-iron griddle or a comal instead. (And if they don’t know what a comal is, there’s an entry for that, too.) On the other hand, a few recommendations are so obvious that it’s hard to imagine they need mentioning, but anyone befuddled by the lack of a plastic bag clip will likely be glad to learn that it’s OK to employ a clothespin or a binder clip to keep chips from getting stale.
A practical, no-fuss guide that should help cooks streamline their kitchens and find solutions to culinary dilemmas.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9974464-3-2
Page Count: 262
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 11, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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