Yellow Farmhouse Cookbook, The

Rating:
Summary: only buy this book for the recipes, not the stories...
Review: This cookbook really... bugged me. First of all, a lot of the recipes are repeats from "The Best Recipe." For example, the intro to the apple pie recipe is copied practically verbatim from the one in Best Recipe, except that Kimball substitutes "I" for "we", as if it was only himself, on his Vermont farm, who tested all those apples and techniques (maybe it was, but, please, get your story straight from one cookbook or the other!). Secondly, I was expecting more of a warm, fuzzy feeling when reading this book about an old "yellow farmhouse". Instead, I got passages about hunting, the local store which has an eating area in the back with magazines about nude girls on motorcycles and bumper stickers that read "my kid beat up your honors student", field hands, a dark and dingy sounding farmhouse, and narrative about how gym-going "city people" are really so much weaker than real dyed-in-the-wool Vermont country hicks. The recipes may be good, but the commentary is not what I expected at all. Kimball seems completely pre-occupied (maybe he has a complex?) about real Vermonters -- he cooks up meals for all the local farmhands on his weekends in Vermont and can't say enough good things about everything and anything they do. Well, the way Kimball describes them, they all sound like rednecks to me...

Rating:
Summary: only buy this book for the recipes, not the stories...
Review: This cookbook really... bugged me. First of all, a lot of the recipes are repeats from "The Best Recipe." For example, the intro to the apple pie recipe is copied practically verbatim from the one in Best Recipe, except that Kimball substitutes "I" for "we", as if it was only himself, on his Vermont farm, who tested all those apples and techniques (maybe it was, but, please, get your story straight from one cookbook or the other!). Secondly, I was expecting more of a warm, fuzzy feeling when reading this book about an old "yellow farmhouse". Instead, I got passages about hunting, the local store which has an eating area in the back with magazines about nude girls on motorcycles and bumper stickers that read "my kid beat up your honors student", field hands, a dark and dingy sounding farmhouse, and narrative about how gym-going "city people" are really so much weaker than real dyed-in-the-wool Vermont country hicks. The recipes may be good, but the commentary is not what I expected at all. Kimball seems completely pre-occupied (maybe he has a complex?) about real Vermonters -- he cooks up meals for all the local farmhands on his weekends in Vermont and can't say enough good things about everything and anything they do. Well, the way Kimball describes them, they all sound like rednecks to me...

Rating:
Summary: Best recipes, great stories: it's all in one book.
Review: This is a fantastic cookbook if you want the best of American cooking. It's also two cookbooks in one. For me, it is first an invitation to smart cooking that gets results every time. After reading the cookbook and with the holiday season, I decided to make pie for company for the first time. Three terrific pies later (one friend said it was the best pie he had ever had), I know this is a reliable recipe. And now my friends think I am an expert on pie! These recipes work because Kimball finds the right balance between health and taste.The second aspect of the cookbook is the collection of stories that you want to curl up with in front of a fire. After reading the stories, I want to keep cooking. Kimball brings with the recipes the smell and taste of American cooking. Most of my cookbooks are gathering dust - they are just hollow renditions of recipes, some of which work, some of which don't. This one is at the center of my kitchen: I can trust what Kimball says and I can read a good food story before I start chopping vegetables.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent cookbook!
Review: This is a great cookbook, especially for beginners! It describes everything in detail including the best appliances and foods provided the best results over others. It's very good for the basics and worth having in your cookbook collection.

Rating:
Summary: I found this book at the library and loved it so much I had
Review: to order it (especially since I drive by that little yellow farmhouse every day). This is not dinner at Chantarelle. This is comfort-food for the long winter and picnics on the Fourth. If you like country cooking and doing things the old-fashioned way, this is the book for you. The index is a little funky, but this book belongs in every country kitchen.

Rating:
Summary: Tells the best method, and the best tools to cook foods.
Review: What a great book! This book not only tells you the best way to prepare foods, it tells you the best pans/equipment to use and why. I also like the fact that the recipies are not huge in quantity - usually serving four to six. This is the perfect cookbook for a bridal shower, or your little sister who has just moved out on her own!