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Summary: I, too, was consumed
Review: I will admit: I thought this was going to be another outrageously funny southern novel by Michael Lee West. I had read two of her books previously and totally devoured them. So naturally I had to read everything she had in print. Well, imagine my surprise when I discovered a cookbook in my hands. I LOVED this book...and I HATE to cook! As a matter of fact, my menus consist of nothing more than boxed macaroni and cheese and different varieties of Hamburger Helper. And you know what else? I didn't know you were supposed to "season" a cast-iron skillet. I learned a lot of things reading this book, and it has even inspired me to cook something REAL. Not only that, but Michael Lee West has real-life eccentric characters--her relatives--that keep this book moving along. I would just love to have an Aunt Dell in my family! I highly recommend this book to everyone who enjoys a good southern novel. Even to those who don't cook....like me!
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Summary: Cook book with a story behind the recipes.
Review: If you're familiar with Michael Lee West's books then you'll definately recognize the ingredients that flavor this cook book! Try the B.B.Q sauce with grilled chicken - it's the best I've ever tasted. I especially loved the stories behind the food; it had me remembering my own family recipes.
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Summary: the best food-read in years
Review: If you, too, are obsessed with southern life and the role of food in Southern culture, this is the book for you. It segues from autobiographical novel to recipes without interrupting your concentration and enjoyment. The recipes are classics.You will remember all the recipes you wish you had asked your grandmother to write down, and you will never think about food the same way again. You won't be able to put it down until you've finished it. Then the fun begins as you start working the recipes into your life. And don't forget the detailed instructions on how to properly season an iron skillet!! I recommend this to all my cooking students, without reservation.
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Summary: A book to devour
Review: In the style of Laurie Colwin, this book is a foodies delight and if you're new to the genre this is a great place to start. Almost immediately you get the feeling that you're part of Michael Lee West's food crazed family and certainly if your weren't hungry after reading about Mama's Shrimp Alfredo, in the chapter on Shrimp 101 or about Ary Jean's Red Beans and Rice, in Sunday Dinners; A Memoire, you'll be absolutely unable to stop your stomach from rumbling on page 96 where you can almost taste the wonderful Coconut Layer Cake of Lee's childhood. Packed with recipes, but absolutely not a cookbook, Lee intertwines family lore with food traditions and recipes. Add in her wry sense of humour and you'll be laughing out loud as you head to the kitchen to make a pineapple upsaide downcake that's to die for.
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Summary: A fun mosey on down the Southern food path
Review: Michael Lee West isn't looking to be a great writer--she just wants you to have a seat on her Louisiana porch and let her tell you a few stories about food, love, and family. This she does with a casual and unstudied authority. Each of the chapters herein is about food or something relating to it. While not strictly a cookbook--there's too much non-culinary text for that--it's also not strictly a memoir, even though it's about her family. Whatever you want to call it, it works. Each chapter starts out with a pungent quotation from one of her wacky family members. The chapter on Key lime pie quotes West's Aunt Tempe as sternly warning a woman, "Feed a man lemon pie if you want him to confess his secrets. Feed him brownies if you're in the mood for kissing. But beware of the Key lime pie. It's the food of infidels." This is a fun, fun read and the recipes are good, too!
Rating:
Summary: A fun mosey on down the Southern food path
Review: Michael Lee West isn't looking to be a great writer--she just wants you to have a seat on her Louisiana porch and let her tell you a few stories about food, love, and family. This she does with a casual and unstudied authority. Each of the chapters herein is about food or something relating to it. While not strictly a cookbook--there's too much non-culinary text for that--it's also not strictly a memoir, even though it's about her family. Whatever you want to call it, it works. Each chapter starts out with a pungent quotation from one of her wacky family members. The chapter on Key lime pie quotes West's Aunt Tempe as sternly warning a woman, "Feed a man lemon pie if you want him to confess his secrets. Feed him brownies if you're in the mood for kissing. But beware of the Key lime pie. It's the food of infidels." This is a fun, fun read and the recipes are good, too!
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Summary: What a fun book!
Review: My only prior exposure to Ms. West was in reading Crazy Ladies, a very charming novel so when I picked up this gem I was under the impression that this too was a novel. What a nice surprise the pages held for me. As a southerner who loves to eat, cook and entertain (don't we all?) this will now be a treasured book. The ancedotes are true southern tales and the recipes look scrumptious. Your mind and your memories of growing up in the south will want to feed on this book.
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Summary: talented novelist delivers delectable, engaging memoir
Review: The author of three marvelous books about eccentric and defiant Southern women, Michael Lee West has concocted a winning recipe of down-home cooking and family history in a charming memoir/cookbook, "Consuming Passions." At peace with her love of food and proud of her women-centered family, West promotes food as the sustenance of all that is worthwhile in life. Her anecdotal style sparkles and her recipes are not only provocative, but understandable, even for amateur Yankee cooks and other such timid kitchen souls. The members of West's family take larger-than-life shape in this memoir, and the author is unabashedly proud, both of their iconoclastic character and their abilities in the kitchen. West does provide a modest warning: her "Southern tales are like intricate recipes -- part myth, part truth, and part lies." Her mother's insistence on an okra-free gumbo results in her swinging from a chandelier in protest. Her aunt Dell's oversized appetite takes form in her collection of hairless cats, antiques and skewed instructions on food preparation. Even her husband's attempt to raise bees falters when he mistakenly wears dark-colored socks. In the midst of the author's affectionate observations of family eccentricities is her unflagging commitment to a joyous life. Perhaps the most beautiful aspect of the numerous invitations to create in the kitchen is her acceptance of imperfection and failure. West never stops trying, never stops of her sense of adventure, never ceases loving food and family. When not enmeshed in rhapsodizing about food, West knows how to create food-based metaphor. Disdaining gossip as a "main course," she suggests that it "was more like an enticing appetizer, or a rich, sinful dessert." Partaking of gossip simply can't be helped, "even though you knew you'd be sorry later." Her family's obsession with food even has serious consequences. When a coroner concluded that several men had died in their sleep of heart attacks, her "aunts knew better -- it was death by butter." At its best, "Consuming Passions" reads quickly; its bite-sized chapters contain both humor and instruction. At its worst, Ms. West's prose tends to have a purple cast, much like the sugared violets she recommends to cause sleep and dissolve anger. Readers who admire Michael Lee West's fictional characters will enjoy her real-life versions; cooks who seek to broaden their repertoire will not be disappointed. She invites you to dig in to the liberating, sensual and powerful influence of food, best shared with people you love.
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Summary: This book was a hoot!
Review: This book is just down right fun. I can't remember the last book I read that had me laughing or smiling from start to finish. I'm a secretary at a funeral home so naturally I enjoyed the chapter on funeral foods! Read this book, enjoy the wonderful recipes and tell your friends about it.
Rating:
Summary: This book was a hoot!
Review: This book is just down right fun. I can't remember the last book I read that had me laughing or smiling from start to finish. I'm a secretary at a funeral home so naturally I enjoyed the chapter on funeral foods! Read this book, enjoy the wonderful recipes and tell your friends about it.
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