California Pizza Kitchen Pasta, Salads, Soups, And Sides

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Summary: Great recipe book that helps expand culinary horizons
Review: I did not anticipate using this book very much, and purchased it intending to use one recipe I was familiar with and wanted. I ended up using nearly every recipe in the book. I have come to understand the artistry of cooking by studying the different uses of flavor and textures in this book. Whats even more appealing is that CPK donates all their proceeds from the book to charities. I would say the only downfall is that most recipes require planning (making the sauce the day before, stocking the oriental vegetable in the refrigerator, or cooking the chicken beforehand) I would definately say the final dishes are worth the preparation. This is especially a great book if you are interested in expanding the type of cuisine you eat (ie getting away from casseroles, chicken, mashed potatoes, the old standards) and eating more intersting and exotic foods, especially vegetables.

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Summary: I love this one! Buy it just for the apple crisp recipe!
Review: I like this one much better than the original California Pizza Kitchen Pizza recipe book. The pizzas really are too complicated for me to want to make at home. But the recipes in this book for soups, salads, sides & desserts are wonderful and easy to replicate at home.

We love the Spaghetti Carbonara and the Apple Crisp is the best I have ever had!

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Summary: Great recepes but watch out for salt!
Review: I loved California Pizza Kitchen restaurant when I lived in LA, and the book finally answered my question about barbeque chicken salad: "How they do it?" The salads and soups are great, despite million ingredients. What is bad in this book is salt. I don't know who wrote it but salt in each recepe more than twice as much as it should be. Put as recommended-and you want be able to touch it. This is very inconvenient, since I want to trust the recepes in a book that I buy. Another minus to the cook book-all dishes take a lot of time to prepare, so unless you are crazy about the taste (like I am about that Barbeque chicken salad), you might not appreciate the time spent.

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Summary: The salads in this book are very good!
Review: I loved preparing the salads in this book, although the list of ingredients is very long, the results are excellent and well worth the effort.

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Summary: Whole Wheat Pizza Crust = Wow!
Review: If you love California, and pasta and pizza, this is a fun-loving and colorful collection of recipes. The whole wheat pizza crust recipe with honey is to die for! It works swell in a bread machine; or by following the "manual" directions. I don't use a preheated pizza pan, I just shape on a cold cookiesheet and place it in a heated oven, and it works swell. You feel like you're not having all the calories or the junk food when you have a whole wheat crust, so there's less guilt.

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Summary: Yummy Salad Recipes!
Review: If you're a fan of CPK salads then you will be pleasantly surprised to find your favorite ones here, as the BBQ Chopped Chicken Salad and the Oriental Chicken Salad. As for the first book, the recipes have a long list of ingredients, and are somewhat time consuming, but I personally think that it's worth all the trouble.

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Summary: Just like eating at CPK
Review: Most of the recipes have many ingredients, but the cooking part is fairly easy. It's important to get fresh ingredients if you want to achieve an authentic taste. Great tasting recipes. Just like eating at CPK.

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Summary: Fun to read, but recipes are long and complicated
Review: Recipes are long and involved and needing lots of ingredients. I did enjoy reading it tho, and I have made a few salads an d sandwiches. The cookbook is very colorful, great photos of dishes. I love CPK by the way!

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Summary: Great Spring Rolls!
Review: The reason why I bought this book was because of the Thai Chicken Springrolls. I always like buying them at CPK. Although they don't have the "Mediteranean" version in this cookbook I do enjoy the Thai ones very much due to their spicy sauce and fresh ingredients. One thing to know about the CPK cookbooks is that many of their recipes take a long time to prepare and several of them probably have ingredients that you won't normally have in your kitchen. The Thai rolls typically take me about three hours in total to make but like many of the dishes in this book, can be not fully assembled and stored in the refrigerator until it is time to do a final heating and serve. Once you serve them any problems that you had will be over though and you'll receive tons of compliments on your food.

The reason for a non-perfect score: I had difficulty finding portion sizes, nutritional information, and estimated number of servings per recipe. Additionally, the way that the text wraps around the pages can make it difficult to not skip steps by accident. My best recommendation for you if you buy this book is to read all recipes at least two times before you start to make sure that you understand the time required, steps, and have all of the ingredients.

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Summary: Disappointed with Dakota Smashed Pea Recipe
Review: There is something definitely wrong with the Dakota Smashed Pea & Barley Soup recipe. It never calls for a hand-held blender to puree the peas (which is VERY necessary to make it like the restaurant), and the result after following the recipe to a T was terrible. Could be me, but we're unhappy with our first go at this...