Washington Cookbook

Rating:
Summary: Surprise Find
Review: The Washington Cookbook may have been origionally published 18 years ago, but it blends well into any present day kitchen. I found my copy at a book fair and bought it out of curiosity after the cover caught my eye. Recipes in the book were gathered from Washington residents, Statesmen and Foreign Dignitaries. I found it to contain a great variety of recipes from down home American classics like Cheese biscuits and Chicken with Dumplings to exotic foreign recipes such as Baba Ghannouj and Shrimp Madagascar. This cookbook contains a wide variety of catagories from appetizers and salads, meats, seafood, poultry, soups, vegatables, eggs and cheese, breads, beverages and desserts. In addition to the variety of recipes, this cookbook contains delightful sketches of scenes from Washington thourghout the book. Not only is this book full of great recipes but is fun to read as well.

Rating:
Summary: Surprise Find
Review: The Washington Cookbook may have been origionally published 18 years ago, but it blends well into any present day kitchen. I found my copy at a book fair and bought it out of curiosity after the cover caught my eye. Recipes in the book were gathered from Washington residents, Statesmen and Foreign Dignitaries. I found it to contain a great variety of recipes from down home American classics like Cheese biscuits and Chicken with Dumplings to exotic foreign recipes such as Baba Ghannouj and Shrimp Madagascar. This cookbook contains a wide variety of catagories from appetizers and salads, meats, seafood, poultry, soups, vegatables, eggs and cheese, breads, beverages and desserts. In addition to the variety of recipes, this cookbook contains delightful sketches of scenes from Washington thourghout the book. Not only is this book full of great recipes but is fun to read as well.

Rating:
Summary: a must-have, especially if you entertain
Review: This is a cookbook that was originally compiled and published as a charity/fundraiser for the Washington opera. Many local and international dignitaries/celebreties have contributed recipes, but also just many Washington locals. There are many international recipes, stemming from the different embassies present in DC, but also many all-American standards. I love cookbooks that have been compiled like this, because people have sent in their best, tried and true favorite recipes. And they work. I have owned this book for many years now and have not been disappointed by a single recipe. I have more recently purchased volume II, and it is equally great. Maybe because several of the contributers are used to entertaining at a grander scale, there are many great "crowd-pleaser" recipes in there that will happily feed even the hungriest party. The cookbook is not made up in a glossy way at all, and it has no recipe-related photos, so picture-oriented beginner cooks beware! However, I have found all the recipes so far very well written, edited, and easy to reproduce. In my opinion: no pictures necessary.