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Customer Reviews (11)

WARNING
You won't know where to turn with this cookbook there are so many amazing recipies.

In just about every cookbook I bought there were a limited number of recipies I wanted to use.In this cookbook and the other Fine Cooking cookbooks all I see are nothing but post-its marking the recipies I want to try.Here I flag down the recipe I want to try and write the name of the recipe on the post-it.

Just about every recipe calls for the most fresh ingredients and that makes a huge difference in the taste and quality of the food you'll be making.

Outstanding high-flavor recipes
I purchased this book at Ross only a few months ago for only a few dollars, so I'm puzzled why there's no information here and why the price is so high. I was so impressed with it that I immediately returned and got another copy for my daughter. For me, Fine Cooking is the best food magazine around, and this book is a reflection of that. Both my daughter and I practically ran out of sticky notes to mark recipes we want to try, and we exchange experiences with them. Every one so far has been something we'd have been pleased with in a high-end restaurant. All are reasonably easy to make with easily accessible ingredients. Since we are quasi-vegetarians, we especially enjoy the fact that many recipes center on fresh vegetables, with fresh, new ways to prepare them. I own many shelves of cookbooks, but this is one of the very best.

Packed with appealing, unusual dishes
FINE COOKING is consistently ranked as one of the top five most popular cooking magazines - and this Volume 3 annual offers a powerful year-end collection packed with dishes organized by course and ingredients. From unusual salads to Curried lentil soup and Mustard-Crusted Roast Chicken, FINE COOKING is packed with appealing, unusual dishes.

One of best cookbooks available
I buy Fine Cooking's Annual cookbooks because the recipes are gourmet, have wonderful pictures, and the book gives great cooking tips. It is one of the best cookbooks available. I highly recommend this cookbook.

Amazing Book
This is a great book, it is a really good sized beautiful solid hardcover, with a wide range of wonderful and delicious recipes featuring tons of scrumptious photos of non-intimidating foods for everyone's tastes.I have all 3 volumes and each one is a diamond in the rough of my cookbook library.I have used each one a great deal and each recipe is a tried and true family favorite amongst myself, my husband and our 5 children. ... Read more

Product Description
Selected as the Best Italian Cuisine Book in the USA by Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. This book is filled with Holiday recipes, menus, Charming Holiday stories of the author's life in a small mountain town in Italy and more. Contains a special added chapter on the Feast of the Seven Fishes. Recipes are easy to follow anddelicious enough for any level cook. Holidays included are Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Feast of the Seven Fishes, New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, Epiphany, Valentine's Day, Carnevale. ... Read more

Product Description
There are more than 100 easy recipes, including all our winter favourites plus everything you need for a traditional British Halloween, Bonfire Night, Christmas and New Year. Easy-to-follow time plans for Christmas Day and New Years Day will take the stress out of preparing meals for your family and friends, and James guides you carefully through the seasons trickiest techniques, such as icing the Christmas cake. James includes recipes for traditional favourites and for dishes we have adopted as our own in recent years, such as trifle, stollen, and biscotti. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great Party Book!
This book has tons of great party planning ideas, that will leave no one with a boring, dull New Years Eve party. This book provides ideas about party themes, games, decorations, and music, as well as a little history about New Years Eve.I reccomend this book to anyone who wishes to host a New Year's Eve party! ... Read more

Product Description
Are you intimidated by the prospect of decorating for the holidays? Does the thought of decorating your home for a New Year's Eve party so soon after Christmas have you down...

Written by experts in the field, Quick Easy Guides share little-known trade secrets and helpful hints to get you moving in the right direction.

Quick Easy Guides gives you books you can judge by the cover. Our books are short, sweet and cheap. You can see for yourself.

We specialize in publishing books in the following categories: Business, Marketing, Careers & Work, Consumer Tips, Finance & Real Estate, Computers & Internet, Electronics, Cars & Auto, Hobbies, Food & Drink, Education, Health & Safety, Sports & Fitness, Fashion & Personal Care, Religion & Spirituality, Family & Relationships, Home & Garden, Pets & Animals, Holidays & Festivals, Travel.

Quick Easy Guides -- helping people achieve success and happiness.

http://www.quickeasyguides.com ... Read more

Product Description
A stunningly illustrated book that celebrates the power of food throughout American history and in women's lives.

Filled with classic recipes and inspirational stories, A Thousand Years Over a Hot Stove will make you think twice about the food on your plate. Here is the first book to recount how American women have gathered, cooked, and prepared food for lovers, strangers, and family throughout the ages. We find native women who pried nourishment from the wilderness, mothers who sold biscuits to buy their children's freedom, immigrant wives who cooked old foods in new homes to provide comfort. From church bake sales to microwaving moms, this book is a celebration of women's lives, homes, and communities. Over fifty recipes, from Federal Pancakes to Sweet Potato Pie, are beautifully presented along with over one hundred images from artists, photographers, and rare sources. A Thousand Years Over a Hot Stove is the shared history of all American women and the perfect gift for anyone who ever put food on the table. 140 illustrations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (20)

great book on history of cooking
Great book for my daughter-in-law who collects cookbooks.Bought it for her for Christmas and her quote was "love, love love it!"My son said "great choice"!I had flipped thru it before I wrapped it up and it DID look very interesting.. If you like history, food, and cooking, I think this book would be of interest to you.

Best Book Read This Year
Forgot why I bought this book, but I will never forget that I read it!
What a mix of natural writing passion, compassion, and historical justice to the humble subject of cooking as it has evolved in time.

A Fascinating Premise, But....
Worth a read but be prepared to be annoyed by the writer's frequent unscholarly historical assumptions, woolly thinking and sloppy writing.It would have benefited greatly from the assistance of a competent copy editor who might have (among the many, many, other errors) pointed out the difference between "scion" and "icon."

A Disappointment to Virginians
I enjoyed the book for its generality. However, in all her research, you'd think that the author would've learned that Jamestown's year of note was 1607 - not 1606. And the first Thanksgiving was not held at Plymouth but at Berkeley Plantation. With those two facts askew, I'm having a hard time believing the rest of the research.

Hot stove delight
My wife thoroughly enjoyed this book, so did i. I would think almost any cook would. ... Read more

Product Description
Darina Allen is the co-founder of the prestigious and award-winning Ballymaloe Cookery School and was named Cooking Teacher of the Year by the International Association of Culinary Professionals in 2005.A Year at Ballymaloe Cookery School is an insightful and gastronomic journey through the seasons at Ballymaloe. Enjoy Baked Trout with Spinach Butter Sauce in Spring or try Pasta with Zucchini and Sugar Snaps over the summer.In autumn relish a Wild Mushroom Soup and warm up with a comforting Steak and Oyster pie in winter.With more than 125 recipes, this is a celebration of fresh produce and good food, and an invaluable guide to making the best of seasonal produce. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Glorious!
I love this woman- Darina Allen! She writes as tho she is an old friend, taking you on a wondrous journey thru her life, and what an extraordinary life it is! I have two of her books so far, this one and her newest,Forgotten Skills of Cooking: The Time-Honored Ways are the Best - Over 700 Recipes Show You WhyShe gives tips and techniques and teaches you instead of just informing you if you get what I mean. Stop reading and buy her books now if you like more than a cookbook, but also wisdom and long forgotten techniques and knowledge. ... Read more

Product Description
Delicious, healthy holiday dishes that everyone can enjoy

The Diabetes Holiday Cookbook takes the worry out of holiday menu planning and food preparation for people with diabetes and those who love them.Bursting with flavorful recipes for every occasion, this month-by-month guide to healthy holiday cuisine features new and improved fat and sugar substitutes that were not available even a few years ago.

Now you can celebrate New Year’s Day with chocolate "bread" pudding, make Mother’s Day even more special with a delectable seafood frittata, and conjure up a frightening Halloween concoction of tomato soup with black olive eyeballs for your child. Each complete holiday menu includes fully tested recipes and listings of calorie, fat, and sugar content as well as other important nutritional information.In this comprehensive holiday resource, you’ll find:

• More than 100 appetizing recipes for festive holiday dishes
• Complete, easy-to-put-together menus for 21 holiday celebrations
• Creative suggestions for enhancing flavor without adding calories
• Alternative ingredient suggestions for low-sodium and alcohol-free diets
• Helpful notes on holiday traditions and activities

Product Description
Simple, fast, and extraordinarily versatile, grilling is the cooking method for today.Almost everything can be prepared on the grill, from shrimp to swordfish, portobellos to polenta.And no wonder: the clear, fresh flavors we love are preserved, fewer added oils are required, and food actually loses fat
as it cooks.

In Italian Grilling, Jean Galton has created more than 70 delicious traditional and new recipes for soups and salads, main dishes, marinades and dressings, and even desserts that combine ease and versatility with the high-flavor, low-fat emphasis we all want.Imagine a vibrant grilled sweet red pepper soup with shrimp; grilled shrimp with a basil mayonnaise; spicy chicken breasts with lemon; succulent baby lamb chops; grilled peaches with sweet ricotta.

In these recipes, the aromatic ingredients that are the essence of Italian cooking--olive oil, basil, garlic, lemons, rosemary, oregano, and thyme--enhance everything from artichokes to crispy pizzas and bruschettas.These are mouthwatering dishes you'll want to make throughout the year. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Nice book on grilled Italian foodfrom Appetizers through Dessert
A passionate home cook that has been honing her cooking skills for the last 25 years, concentrating on Italian cooking for the last 10 years, writes this review.My favorite cookbooks are "The Professional Chef" by the Culinary Institute and "Culinary Artistry".

This book is a nice addition to a cookbook collection for those are new to grilled Italian dishes.A cooking teacher and food writer that have been published in Food and Wine, Fine Cooking and Martha Stewart Living wrote this book.The book contains 70 recipes for grilled Italian, or Italian inspired recipes.

The book is subdivided as follows:
1. Appetizers and Soups
2. The Main Course
3. Vegetables and Salads
4. Pizza, Bruschetta & Panini
5. Desserts

The directions for the recipes are well written and easy to follow, even for those that aren't familiar with grilled Italian dishes.The directions are very specific, and very well written and easy to follow.

The grilled pizza recipes are very good, and a reasonable approximation of Italian pizza.The Sweet Grilled Polenta topped with Nectarines is a healthy low fat winning recipe.Because these recipes are prepared on the grill many of them are healthy and/or low in fat.

I think there is something for everyone in this book.If you are new to cooking grilled Italian dishes, this is nice book to get you started to find out if you enjoy them.I would recommend this book to those like Italian food and like to cook on the grill. ... Read more

Product Description
Create A Year’s Worth of Healthy and Fast Family Favorites using Popular Brand-Name Foods. If you crave good cooking and good health but find yourself short on time, delicious and healthful meals are now as close as your cupboard. With brand-name foods you may already have around the kitchen, you can create mouthwatering and nutritiously sound meals in minutes. In fact, most of these recipes take less than 30 minutes to prepare. You’ll save precious time and money at the same time as reducing unwanted calories, fat, salt, and cholesterol. With Brands You Trust, This Creative Cookbook Offers Such Temptations As:

• Green chili spoon bread
• Bartles & Jaymes® tropical fruit salad
• Pepper chicken tortellini salad
• Speedy baked ziti
• Saturday night seafood scramble
• Dannon® brownies
• Frosted pistachio marble cake

Customer Reviews (5)

Don't Overlook This Book!!!
This is by far the best book of low fat recipes I have ever used (and I have used many!!!)I have made at least 90 recipes and they were very quick and easy.Nutritional information makes it easy to fit into any eating routine, so you always know where you stand. I have even tried some of these out on family and friends without telling them they were eating low fat and they still don't know- they loved it.Try this book - you will not be sorry.!!

Misleading title - these recipes are far from low-fat
Although the recipes in this book look like they are tasty, if you analize each recipe you'll see that they are far from low-fat.The serving sizes are very often miniscule in size and the fat calories are usually up around 50+ per serving.

Examples:Pecan and Red Onion Bread (page 70) serving size 1/2 slice, calories 130, calories from fat 45

Almond Fish Fillets (page 221) Serving size 4 oz. (equal to a deck of playing cards), calories 185, calories from fat 81

Grilled Italian Pork Chops (page 231) Serving size 1 chop, calories 166, calories from fat 90!

One-Dish Oriental Chicken and Rice (page 239), Serving size 4 oz meat + 1 cup rice and vegetables, Calories 339, calories from fat 63

Picadillo Rolls (page 242) serving size ONE ROLL, Calories 299, calories from fat 117!

Salmon Florentine (page 245) serving size 8 oz, calories 301, calories from fat 117

Hidden Valley (R) Club Salad (page 137) Serving size 2 cups, Calories 267, calories from fat 126

Remember that a 4 oz. piece of meat is the size of a deck of playing cards.Yes, there are a few recipes in the book that I would consider low-fat, but the majority are not.As any calorie counter, like myself, knows, the amount of fat per serving on the above examples are often a whole days allowance!

I highly recommend you not purchase this book, but search for a truly low-fat cookbook.This one is great for an everyday meal, but certainly not for those who wish to lose weight.

Volume 2 of my Healthy Cooking Bibles
I bought this book after buying All-American Low-Fat and No-Fat Recipes by the same author. I am happy to say the results are just as delicious!!There are so many great recipes in this book. Some of my favoirtes are Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Veggies and Cheese, Pizza Cups, Cheeseburger Pie, and the Veg-All Seven Vegetable Mushroom Rice. The book is light on desserts, but on the up side there is an extensive salad and bread section. This book is invaluable to anyone with a busy lifestyle where a quck meal is essential and a healthy meal is desired. Well worth the cost!

366 Low-Fat Brand-Name Recipes in Minutes
I have accumulated several low fat, "healthy" cookbooks over the years, probably like half the rest of the world.Having owned this one for over five years, it's showing its wear, because it is my favorite! My 14year old picky eater son begged me to fix the "Shrimp and Rice Saladwith Soy Sauce Dressing" tonight--and I obliged! My family of fourwill fight over the leftovers tomorrow! Don't worry about the use of"Brand Names"--often you can easily substitute other brands withequally good results. The recipes are easy, fast, healthy, and definitelytaste good. I highly recommend this cookbook.

Great everyday recipe ideas
I took this book out of the library just days after joining Weight Watchers, while feeling as if I would never be able to cook anything but broiled chicken and vegetables ever again!This book has a lot of greatideas for lowfat cooking, including chapters on appetizers, salads,casseroles, vegetarian entrees, bread machine recipes, side dishes, anddesserts.Best of all, the recipes are for basic, everyday family foodthat is easy and quick to prepare and lowfat. All of the ingredients arethings you probably have at home--nothing too unusual or complicated.Complete nutritional information is provided, so I've been able to use theWeight Watchers Points Finder to figure out how each meal fits into mydaily points allowance.I liked the book so much that I bought a copy formyself.My family really liked the Seafood Enchiladas in the Microwave. Enjoy! ... Read more

Product Description
When Amy Madden's son, Mark, went off to college, he would frequently call her for recipes of the home-cooked meals he was missing while learning to live on his own. Amy's daughter Megan who was already a junior and knew her way around the kitchen also called often for cooking advice. Finally, Amy decided to write down her recipes for Mark and Megan, which gave her the idea to create a resource for helping every college student make fun and nutritious meals to get them through their first years away from home. Look, Dude, I Can Cook! is divided into four sections: Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior. In progressive fashion, students can start with simple recipes and work their way toward fuss-free gourmet pleasers for everyday cooking and fun occasions alike. Look, Dude, I Can Cook! will provide students with the know-how and confidence to cook healthy and delicious meals, along with shortcuts and money-saving tips. Also included are lists of essential cooking utensils and pantry items, as well as a glossary of cooking terms.

Perfect high school graduation gift! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The recipes look awesome, however...
I surveyed the recipes in this book, and most of them look awesome and within reach of a beginning cook (even the "senior" recipes, meant for those with a little more experience, are not that complicated).

I'm giving it a 4 instead of a 5 because the cover is cheesy, and so is the college slang that I've never heard of (although the glossary helps).

Guaranteed to enhance the culinary quality of college life.
Next to their classroom textbooks, what college kids on their own for the first time need most is a good cookbook. So Amy Madden (a Atlanta travel writer with two college kids of her own) has composed "Look Dude, I Can Cook!: Four years Of College Cooking Made Easy". This compendium of easy to prepare and palate pleasing dishes offers simple but elegant recipes for demanding students, invaluable shortcuts for the time-stressed student, money-saving tips for cash-strapped students. "Look Dude, I Can Cook!" also features lists of essential cooking utensils and pantry items, as well as a glossary of cooking terms. From Strawberry Shortcakes; Dilled Potato Salad; Decadent Chocolate Brownies; and Tofu Stir-Fry; to Easy Quiche Lorraine; Grilled Mahi-Mahi with Lemon Cream and Chives; Grilled Pork Kabobs with Chimichurri Sauce; and Goat Cheese Scalloped Potatoes, the recipes comprising this outstanding, thoroughly 'user friendly', and thoroughly nutritious cookbook, is guaranteed to enhance the culinary quality of college life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Flavor of Maine
I love this book. The recipes are easy and I remember some of them from years ago.A definite stocking stuffer for my family.

Growing Up With Moody's Diner
I grew up in Waldoboro, ME, the home of Moody's Diner. Now, 30 years later, when I go back to Waldoboro, I always stop in for a meal at Moody's. The food is wonderful diner fare, the prices are very reasonable.The atmosphere never changes. It is a step back to another era.

One of my favorite cookbooks
I purchased this book at L.L. Bean in the early 1990s and it is one of myfavorites.The 'Gingerbread II' recipe is one of my staples; it makes the house smell great while it's cooking andit is a very hearty dessert -- areal crowd-pleaser!I also love the 'Lemon-Ginger Chicken Salad' recipewhich includes green seedless grapes and is served in half a cantaloupe. I've taken the recipe to many pot-luck dinners and it always receivesfavorable comments.The zucchini-orange bread and banana bread recipes arealso part of my list of "old stand-bys".

The pictures of Moody'sthrough the decades are great, too.You won't go wrong with this cookbook! ... Read more

Product Description
The original one-dish meals best-seller is now revised and updated. When You don’t Have the Time or energy to prepare elaborate dishes but want healthy, home-cooked meals, this book has exactly what you need—every day of the year. Already a best-seller, this convenient collection is now revised and updated with more than a month of new and improved recipes, complete with food exchanges and expanded nutrition information. One Year of Healthy, Hearty & Simple One-Dish Meals shows you how to create 365 irresistible meals, many of which are low-fat and fat-free, and low in calories, cholesterol, and salt. Delicious dishes include:

• Tomato Asparagus Salad
• Pleasing Vegetable and Bean Soup
• Grilled Lemon and Lime Chicken
• Vermicelli with Peppers
• Delicious Easy Oven Stew
• Baked Fillet of Sole
• Grilled Lamb Steaks
• Turkey Vegetable Skillet

Customer Reviews (4)

Really Great Book
I found this book at the library, really liked the receipes and decided to
find it on line.I'am so glad I did.Every receipe is easy with things you
already have at home. This is a winner. And, all healthy receipes!!

Dependable, tasty recipes
I've only tried a few of the recipes, but the ones tried, have turned out excellent. A real plus is the ease of preparation and clean-up.

Ho-Hum....
I ordered this mistakenly thinking it was a cookbook for one- but it is not bad, but not great. A very rudamentary cook book. Be advised the "low fat" recipes are scattered throught (and highlighted), sonot all are 'heart healthy'....(one has mayo as the main ingredient). Withall the other cookbooks out there, I would recommend 365 Easy One-DishMeals by Marie Haughton and Natalie H. Haughton...much better layout.... Idon't think the paperback spine layout of this book made it easy in thekitchen....nor did it list ingredients well (don't tell me "1 cup ofmilk" and then in another part of the recipe tell me about ANOTHER"1/2 cup of milk".

I will keep this cookbook as a reference,but not as a day to day....many of the recipes I have seen elsewhere, andeasier to use/read/reference.... Save your time and hassle- go buy 365 EasyOne-Dish Meals(not trying to plug it, just like it so much better...)

An awesome cookbook, true to its title.
This has become one of our most used cookbooks because the recipes AREHealthy, Hearty & VERY Simple.We have not tried a recipe yet that wehaven't enjoyed.I would highly recommend this book to anyone with littletime to prepare meals, but who wants to make smart mealtime choices. ... Read more

Product Description
Rao's, the hundred-year-old restaurant with a mere ten tables tucked in a corner of East Harlem in what was once alegendary Italian
neighborhood, is one of the most sought-after restaurants in all of Manhattan. Its tables are booked months
in advance by regulars who go to enjoy what The New York Times calls its "exquisitely simple Italian cooking" from traditional recipes,
many as old as Rao's itself. You may not get a table at Rao's, but now with this book you can prepare the best Italian home-style food in the
world in your own kitchen. Here for the first time are recipes for all of Rao's fabulous classics--its famous marinara sauce, seafood salad,
roasted peppers with pine nuts and raisins, baked clams, lemon chicken, chicken scarpariello, and on and on.
The recipes are accompanied by photographs that re-create Rao's magic and testimonials from loyal Rao's fans--
from Woody Allen to Beverly Sills. Here too is a brief history of the restaurant by Nicholas Pileggi and a Preface by Dick Schaap.
Both will convince you that what you have in your hands is a national treasure, a piece of history, and a collection of the best Italian
American recipes you will ever find.Amazon.com Review
Rao's is an old, 10-table restaurant in an old, NewYork-Italian neighborhood in which old Italians still may or may notlive (this was never made quite clear in Nicholas Pileggi'scomplete-history-of-Italian-immigrants-in-America introduction to thecookbook), but you can't go there to eat. Not unless you know someonewho has a lock on one of the tables. These are shared occupancytables, condominium tables. Every night (Monday through Friday) isalready spoken for--has been spoken for, in fact, for quite sometime. Mixed in with the names of the obvious rich and famous andpowerful who get to eat at Rao's (and who have enthusiastic things tosay about Rao's throughout the cookbook) are names of thenot-so-obvious to anyone who hails from outside the Italianneighborhood that spawned them. Rao's sounds like a dream of what NewYork once may have been like--joints on every corner full of characterand soul--or what everyone would like to think New York may have beenlike. It sounds a little like a Disneyland nostalgia experience thatjust about everyone will never have.

So bless Frank Pellegrino for putting Rao's kitchen between the coversof this book. If you want the excitement and charm and comfort food ofRao's, you can now cook it yourself and pretend that's Dick Schaapsitting over there, and Rob Reiner coming though the door with WoodyAllen, Brenda Vaccaro, and John-John. Plan on eating lots of tomatosauce, for Rao's springs from the same roots that gave America Italianred sauce restaurants of the checkered tablecloth and Chianti bottlecandle holder stripe. Rao's does it far, far better, and withsoul. The late Vincent Pellegrino, who made Rao's what it seeminglycontinues to be, was particularly fond of grilled meats, and thosesections of the book are exemplary: simple, straightforward, to thepoint. Even the tripe sounds like it might be worth trying.

If you want to cook Italian and not sweat the regional details, this bookis the one to pull off the shelf. --SchuylerIngle ... Read more

Customer Reviews (64)

Excellent !
I love the recipes in the 2 Rao cookbooks. They are usually a short list of fresh ingredients that magically create an authentic, farm fresh Italian dish.

Rao.s Cookbook
This book was purchased because of a review in our Spfld. paper about the history of this N.Y. restaurant. You could just smell the aroma of good cooking from the cover of the book and the pictures throughout. I will enjoy reading ,again and again, the story about how Rao's was started, where it's located in N.Y., and the customers who make reservations months in advance to dine there.I so wish I could have such an experience. Some of these recipes will improve my culinary efforts.I just love this cookbook!

Rao's cookbook: 100 years in Italian Home Cooking
Ordered this book for myself and quickly ordered more as gifts. Book arrived a few days after ordering in "like-new" condition.A must have for anyone who likes Italian food.Excellant Southern Italian recipes, easy to follow and delicious. The celebrity comments are a delight to read.bravo!

Rao's Cookbook - Over 100 Years of Italiain Home Cooking
Incredibly simple recipes that you can tell were developed over a couple of lifetimes by grandparents and parents cooking for their families with their children and grandchildren at their sides with the main ingredients being love and patience. The recipes in this cookbook demonstrate the old saying, "Do what you love and the money will come". Simple recipes...Delicious food - Period! The only complaint that I have is that I cannot get a reservation at Rao's in New York City.

more than a cookbook
Wonderful, easy recipes as used in the great restaurant.A history of same is included which makes for enjoyable reading. Book arrived in perfect condition. ... Read more

Product Description
The follow-on to the "Baby Healthy Eating Planner", this book aims to make feeding your toddler a healthy balanced diet each day - and then persuading him or her to eat it - easy. Amanda Grant uses the same simple points system featured in the "Baby Healthy Eating Planner", converting the recommended daily nutrient requirements into points. Each recipe in the book is accompanied by a symbol showing how many points of each key nutrient it contains. All you have to do is add up the points found in each dish you plan to feed your toddler that day to ensure they provide him with all the nutritional requirements a child in his or her age group needs. ... Read more

Product Description
A unique new concept in cookbooks for people with diabetes

A unique cookbook concept featuring month-by-month, week-by-week, and day-by-day meal plans and recipes with dietitian and chef's tips that make it much easier for people to eat healthfully. The menus come with weekly grocery lists so you can purchase only what you need, saving time and money. As a bonus, each month features reminders of special ADA events and other health-related activities of interest.

Recipes include:

Customer Reviews (41)

excellent time-saver
I chose this book specifically because the recipes are arranged in a weekly format, and provide a weekly shopping list.Most of the recipes are flavorful and easy to make.I also like the monthly dessert recipe.

Healthy Calendar Diabetic Cooking
The book I ordered was delivered on time and I am pleased with my purchase.

Not a Complete Menu Cookbook
I don't have diabetes.I just like menu cookbooks but it's hard to find one that's tasty and healthy.This book gives you a main dish and sometimes a side dish for every day of the year, but I was disappointed.Some of the main dishes are under 200 calories per seving with no side dish recommendations, much less a recipe for one.I even saw a few that were less than 150 calories.Is 150 calories a meal or a snack?I'm sure this is a valuable resource for people with diabetes, however be aware that you will often have to plan your own side dishes.You need to look at the calories per serving.For example, the first "meal" in September has 145 calories per serving.There is no side dish.The main dish for the next day has 327 calories per serving.Now this one does have a side dish, bring it up to 401 calories per serving.Go figure.

Good beginner's book
As someone who did not know how to dice an onion a month and a half ago, this book gave me some basic and tasty recipes that are simple to make and loved in our home such as the spicy sweet potato fries, crab tostadas, and tortilla soup. I've since learned how to handle a knife, and thanks to youtube videos, I can now dice an onion and julienne a bell pepper and a lot more. So I'll be moving on in my quest for new recipes, but some of the dishes in this book will remain a permanent fixture in our home. Recommended.

Where has this been all my life!!!!
As a working mom, I don't think I'm alone in feeling like "if only someone would tell me what to make for dinner, I wouldn't mind cooking". This book not only does that, it gives me a grocery list for each week's menus. I simply make a copy of the list, cross off what I already have at home and head off to the store! Knowing that we have a plan and all the ingredients are at home means no last minute stops at the grocery store or fast food for dinner.

Our family consists of my husband who is diabetic, a teenager who is trying to be a vegitarian and myself. Between work, school and family obligations we found ourselves grabbing fast food or going out to eat several times a week. Now with minimal planning we can have healthy meals at home. There are so many quick recipes in this book that we can often find a meal to fit into those nights where we are on the go or coming home late.

I have recommended this book to so many family and friends. These healthy recipes would be valuable to any family, not only those with a diabetic member. ... Read more

Product Description
In a green and secret valley in Tuscany, life is firmly moulded by the past.In this beautiful account of traditional life and cooking, Elizabeth Romer introduces the Cerotti family who farm one section of the valley and vividly describes, month by month, the Tuscan year – January's prosciutto and salame, cheese-making in March, threshing the corn in high summer, the game and chanterelles of autumn, the chestnut woods and zabajone of November and December.In the heart of the Cerotti house, wonderful meals are prepared using fresh and simple ingredients, governed by the rhythms of the changing seasons.

This magical book reveals the secrets of an ancient way of life and cuisine, with dozens of delicious recipes to bring the flavour of Tuscany to any kitchen.Amazon.com Review
Month by month, Elizabeth Romer details a year in a Tuscankitchen. Noting farm recipes calling for olive oil measured in wineglasses, Romer recounts the way of life folks in Tuscany have enjoyedfor centuries. In winter they spin wool and cure quantities ofprosciutto. In springtime the pecorino cheese is made, while in summerthe farm is ripe with corn, pears, and sweet peas. Then, of course,comes autumn, the time for wine, the time of the harvest. The rhythmof life naturally follows the foods of the seasons. You shouldn't readit without some good food nearby. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

mouthwatering
I picked this book up in the Rome airport on my way home from ten days in Italy, thinking this would be a good diversion for the plane ride home. It was not diverting... it made me ravenously hungry.

This reminded me very much of the way people like my grandparents lived: with what is at hand, taking care to prepare for the next season, never thinking that their life is "rustic" or "authentic" or "charming" - it is what it is.

I was especially interested in reading about the neighbors who come and assist in the harvest: while nowadays large farms hire laborers to do this, small vineyards where I live still do it this way: put out the call and then feed those who turn out.

The author has given a romantic tinge to what is by modern standards a very hard way to make a living, but also shows the intangible benefits of this way of life: the warm family relationships, the pride in one's own work, and the comaraderie with neighbors and tradesmen.

And the food: do not read while on a diet! The descriptions of making home-cured sausages, cheese, bread, soups, wine will simply drive you wild with hunger.

This is a sweet and lovely read that depicts a vanishing way of life.

Bland Year in Tuscany
Elizabeth Romer chronicles a year in Tuscany.As someone who lived in Italy and even honeymooned in Tuscany, I looked forward to this book.I wasn't really sure what it was.Part cook book and part story of a year in Tuscany, I felt it lacked focus.More importantly, it lacked romance.Her characters seemed distant, almost cardboard figures.I wasn't drawn into their lives.Say what you will about Frances Mayes, but her book brought alive the magic of Tuscany.

Roaming Tuscany with Romer
Life and Food in an Italian Valley (subtitle) is a memoir, cookbook and record of a Tuscan farm family.I found the book to be a better read than Mayes' "Under the Tuscan Sun" for it gives a more comprehensive look at daily family life rather than one person's experiences. The tweleve chapters--January through December--provide the reader a glimspe of the monthly activities of the Cerotti estate offering a look at their lives including their food, work, family and celebrations.Romer gave me a sense of being a part of the Cerotti household for I became engaged with them as if I were a family member. Sitting at Silvana's kitchen table allowed me to learn much about traditional Tuscan food which has been handed down from one generation to the next.

Excellent tableau of Tuscan Life. Better than Most
A few months ago I reviewed two books on Tuscan life and cuisine, `Ciao Italia in Tuscany' by PBS series host Mary Ann Esposito and `Simply Tuscan' by New York City restaurant chef / owner and curio shop impresario Pino Luongo. Neither book impressed me as giving a genuine picture of life in Tuscany, especially as it was before EuroAmerican homogenization took over. This book, `The Tuscan Year', Life and Food in an Italian Valley' by textile artist and Tuscan resident Elizabeth Romer is the real deal. The venue is an isolated valley in the southeastern corner of Tuscany, genuinely rural in that it is several dozen miles from the large cities of Florence and Sienna. The feeling the author gives about this lovely environment reminds me of the admittedly artificial feeling of lyric isolation from the cares of the world in the very obscure movie `The Hidden Valley' based in an isolated Swiss valley community surrounded by the ravages of the 30 years war.

The major text of the book is in twelve chapters, one for each month of the year, beginning with January and ending with December. There are very few illustrations, limited to a few simple line drawings opening each chapter. The text is divided roughly equally between culinary information and recipes and non-culinary tales of the domestic, agricultural, and animal husbandry. The highest praise I can give this book is that it has a strong kinship in the style and quality of its content to Patience Gray's great culinary journal `Honey from a Weed' which I have been attempting to accurately review for over six months now.

The main characters of the story are not the author and her family, but a native Tuscan family of Orlando and Silvana Cerotti"of the remote mountain area between Cortona and Castiglion Fiorentino. They have a single son and they run their estate and live their lives in a traditional manner. They do this from choice not necessity. Their lives are bounded by the land, which they use to its fullest extent, and in this way they are virtually self-sufficient. Their property is extensive, stretching over 400 hectares, and includes acres of forest and arable land, streams, vineyards, many small houses and their own imposing fattoria with its surrounding walled kitchen garden, olive groves, chapel and outbuildings."

The most enheartening part of this story is the fact that the Cerotti's and their family and farm hands have been successful in maintaining a lifestyle that has the feel of dating back to the Renaissance, if not earlier. This is not a story of an agricultural estate in irreversable decline, although the family has cut back on some farm resources such as the herd of pigs. Rather than maintaining 100 swine, the family buys a pig each year and has it slaughtered and butchered by a professional travelling butcher. All the `charcuterie' is done on the premises by the butcher or the family. The hams are cured by Silvana and hung to dry in the attic. Orlando takes care of sausage making with the butcher.

All the recipes are given `in context' in the month when their ingredients are in season and, where appropriate, in the liturgical season most appropriate for the dish. There are precious few culinary tips in the recipes and all are written in a narrative fashion, with no neat lists of ingredients and careful quantities, well-defined prep instructions, and numbered steps in the preparation. This is as much a book on anthropology as it is on things culinary. That is not to say the recipes cannot be made by an American suburbanite. If you have basic cooking skills and good instincts, you should have no problems with these recipes. Just be sure to read the author's notes on measuring at the end of the book. She is very much the student of Elizabeth David when it comes to weights and measures, using the proper Englishman's teaspoon, tablespoon, soup spoon, and teacup as measuring devices. The author gives some correlations of these devices to our shiny stainless steel measuring devices, but as Ms. Romer points out, Silvana used no measuring devices at all, so if I were you, I would get the lay of the land and proceed to measure things out by the seat of your pants. You will probably get a much more desirable result than if you try to exactly translate the measurements into the metric or something equally precise and irrelevant.

My only reservations about the culinary contents of the book are in the recipes for brodo (stock) and in the absence of a recipe for the salt-free Tuscan bread. The brodo recipe calls for boiling the stock for three hours, which violates absolutely every single stock recipe I have ever read, in that stock ingredients are to be just brought to the edge of a boil, then simmered. Also, the rationale for the saltless Tuscan bread is given in great detail, but there is no recipe for same, and, I suspect you may have a very hard time finding true saltless bread in an American suburb. My local megamart carries a Tuscan loaf, but I will bet more than a few lire (or euros) on the fact that salt was used in the recipe.

This book is first and foremost a delight to read. At the same time it is a valuable scholarly source document for a lifestyle which seems to be disappearing from around the world. Grab onto it and savor it while you can.

Highly recommended to readers and cooks alike.

More like a HISTORY of Tuscan food
Don't expect this book to be another "Year in Provence" or travel in the Italian wilderness book. Elizabeth Romer documents the reasons the Tuscans -- and their predecessors -- eat like they do, plant like they do and live like they do. It carries us back to Roman times and tries to explain why Tuscans consider somone from the next valley to be a foreigner. A fascinating read for more than just cooks. ... Read more