The Complete Idiot's Guide to American Cooking

Rating:
Summary: great recipes and a pleasure to read!
Review: I love the recipes in this book, and I also appreciate and enjoy learning the food history of each region. Ronnie Fein makes cooking fun and unintimidating. The roast pork loin with fennel was a huge hit with my guests at a recent dinner party, and I cannot say enough great things about the roasted red pepper soup. I have recommended this book to all of my friends!

Rating:
Summary: friendly, approachable cookbook
Review: I love this because because it is so approachable. The recipes are straightforward and aren't intimidating. There is a lot of good information that precedes the recipes and that makes cooking the recipes more enjoyable, also I liked reading things about our country that I didn't know. I've read a lot about California cuisine and Tex-Mex but this book covers much more. The chapter on how inventions and restaurants changed how we cook was very interesting. The Roasted Chicken with Apples, Cider and Wild Mushrooms was delicious.

Rating:
Summary: Great cookbook to give as a gift
Review: Ronnie Fein's cookbook The Complete Idiot's Guide to American Cooking is a wonderful gift to give to any young adult living on their own, newly weds and especially to those of us who love to "read" cookbooks.

I really liked the way she divided the recipes into regions, found the glossary to be very helpful (I did not know what a Boudin was before but do now), enjoyed the historical comments that accompanied each section and thought the directions for the recipes were very well written and easy to follow.

The best part of her book is that fact that the recipes are wonderful. So far, our family favorites have been the Chicken and Sausage Gumbo, the Shrimp in Lobster Sauce and the New England Clam Chowder. I highly recommend this cookbook.

Rating:
Summary: Great cookbook to give as a gift
Review: Ronnie Fein's cookbook The Complete Idiot's Guide to American Cooking is a wonderful gift to give to any young adult living on their own, newly weds and especially to those of us who love to "read" cookbooks.

I really liked the way she divided the recipes into regions, found the glossary to be very helpful (I did not know what a Boudin was before but do now), enjoyed the historical comments that accompanied each section and thought the directions for the recipes were very well written and easy to follow.

The best part of her book is that fact that the recipes are wonderful. So far, our family favorites have been the Chicken and Sausage Gumbo, the Shrimp in Lobster Sauce and the New England Clam Chowder. I highly recommend this cookbook.