How to Be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking

Rating:
Summary: Very enjoyable English Cookbook
Review: I found this to be a very enjoyable cookbook. This isn't the book that is best suited for the beginner cook though. The recipes tend to embellish a bit on those that you would serve on a daily basis, but the book has a wonderful range of recipes. It covers breads, desserts, main dishes, cooking for children, savory dishes, liquors, and much much more. This book centers around British cooking with a variety of meat pies, triffles, pastries, jellies, and jams. The book is well illustrated with many pictures, so if you like to see what you are going to make this book is good for you. All in all this book is a very good book, has a great variety of recipes, and is a good sampling of British cooking.

Rating:
Summary: Great Goddess
Review: This is the most sensual cookbook I have read, turning what is to some a mundane satisfaction of a body's need into a near erotic experience - - where else is creme patissiere called "...utter, smooth voluptuousness..."
The short comings I note are the insistance on using self rising flour and an absence of subjective descriptions of what the end point of a product should be. Again back to the creme patissiere, why not tell me it should be thickened to the consistency of_______, rather than "...utter, smooth voluptuousness...". Had I not seen this made by my dear old Mum I may not have had a lovely Boston Creme Pie, but rather a runny trifle on a cake stand.

Rating:
Summary: Mixed feelings about this one...
Review: I read this book from cover to cover in a single, lazy Saturday. The pictures are beautiful (like the delicate, classy cupcake on the cover)- that's part of what intrigued me to pick up the book in the first place. I appreciate Nigella's easy-going style and affinity for comfort foods. Like some other reviewers have noted - she's NOT Martha Stewart and that's just the way we like it!
Now, onto my "mixed feelings". I made two recipes out of this book before I had to return it to the friend I borrrowed it from. The snickerdoodles turned out like little rounds of dry sand that literally parched the mouth upon eating. I wasn't impressed, and I folled the recipe word for word. My second recipe, the lemon gems, turned out a bit better. Although the cooking time was much shorter than the suggested 20-25 minutes. The first batch was smouldering by the time my 20 min timer went off. Perhaps my oven isn't a true, even heat - but I use an oven thermometer just to make sure.
I wish I had more time to make other foods out of this book, because I was slightly disappointed by the results of the two cookies I did make.

Rating:
Summary: A flawed gem
Review: How To Be A Domestic Goddess is either a good bad book, or a bad good book.Others have said that they have found some errors in the American version. I've made one recipe, "Soot's Flapjacks" from the "Children's" section, and they came out well. However, they are unleavened.Yes, I really wish the American edition had not been rushed into print, and that the recipes had been more thoroughly tested.However, not all of the recipes are flawed. I have baked for many years, and can tell when a recipe is seriously off. So can most expierenced home bakers. Novices, beware.Not all of the dishes are depending on precise chemical mixtures, so this book still has merit.I found the endpapers to be a highly funny, very satiric depiction of media derived "domestic goddesses" from the 1950s-60s in England. These enpapers were misconstrued in England, as an anti-feminist statement. They are not, they are meant ironically.Nigella Lawson does not order anyone into the kitchen. She wants to invite you in to the kitchen, to play, to laugh, to socialise, and perhaps even to learn.

Rating:
Summary: WOW AND YUMMMMM!
Review: This has the best jam recipes without all the horrible canning stories you hear about. Nigella makes it simple and easy. There is also a GREAT recipe for brown sauce ( an English staple) great bread and cupcake recipes. Yumm!
A book to buy for the great "Soft-Set Peach and Red Currant Jam".

Rating:
Summary: a must for a any girl who is trying to learn to be a goddess
Review: This is one of my favorite cookbooks..this is a cookbook that any woman, tenage girl whos learning how to cook can understand...miss lawson has been heating up the air waves with her hit show neigella Bites....she is sssy and fresh and doesn't use lingo that regular people can't understand..she's real and wonderful...her food is simple yet delicious...this is a must for women, men, boys, girls...anyone who wants tot learn to cook.. FIVE stars***

Rating:
Summary: Inspirational
Review: Nigella kicks rear! Martha, eat yer heart out. Not only does Ms. Lawson have some fun-tastic cooking lined up, her style is one that inspires you to eat, savor, enjoy, and experiment. You don't merely get a few good recipes, you also learn what it means to cook, and become confident enough to try things new for yourself. What more could anyone hope for from a cookbook?!

Rating:
Summary: Very English
Review: The author's show, "Nigella Bites", always makes me think of the hamburger commercial that shows several young men betting on whether the beautiful young woman eating a hamburger will drop catsup on her shirt. Nigella licks her fingers, brushes her hair off her face, dribbles food on her chin, and flirts with the camera. Her show seems to be aimed at the same market as the hamburger commercial - randy young men. However, the title of this book is intriguing and I ordered it. I wasn't disappointed - Lovely recipes, very enjoyable to read. Beautiful photographs, altogether an enjoyable cook book although I don't know if I'll actually bake any of these cakes; they all seem to contain a cup of butter and 8 ounces of almond paste.

Rating:
Summary: Please, please think
Review: Nigella is so easy to use is that she doesn't use pompous vocabulary to describe each process in each recipe unlike Martha Stewart or Delia Smith. I wish that the American readers would realise that this book was written by a Brit and therefore they should think about the ounce/metric conversion thing. This so easy!..it just takes a bit of thought. All the baked good aren't horrifically sweet and have subtle flavours unlike much of the the cakes/bakery foods devised by North American food writers. Plus you don't need to go grocery shopping if you want to make something on the spur of the moment since the ingredients required are usually in one's larder. What a refreshing change from Delia Smith or Martha Stewart where one has to go shopping just to make something that takes an inordinate amount of time and doesn't always taste very good!

Rating:
Summary: ANOTHER BRITISH INVASION!
Review: Move over Martha - Nigella has arrived! I have never been one to cook, only baking occasionally. After picking up this book, I gave it to my sister as a Xmas gift. Turns out that everyone at her Xmas get together had perused the book and loved it. They all in turn bought one. I became hooked on her show on Style and love that she's fun, cute and personable. She's not afraid to acknowledge that food is comforting! She doesn't have the pretention of Martha Stewart and seems very real. She has inspired me to learn that being in the kitchen can be fun and rewarding. I will definitely be looking forward to her new books!