Rating: 
Summary: Heartwarming Culinary Essays. Great Read for Foodies
Review: 'Home Cooking' by Laurie Colwin is the kind of book that really makes you wish you could become friends with the author. Unfortunately, the author is no longer with us, so there is a lot more than the usual barrier between celebrity and mere mortal between reader and writer.
The chapters in the book are essays composed of both culinary and autobiographical material, although the book is not a memoir a la Ruth Reichl's two books. It is also not culinary criticism or exposition in the style of John Thorne. It is most similar to the kind of essays written by Elizabeth David, one of the author's heroes, and M.F.K. Fisher.
The author has the advantage of most good writers in that she has lived in interesting circumstances providing fuel for her writing. One premise for much of her culinary advice is based on the fact that for several years, she lived in a very small Greenwich Village apartment with no oven, two hot plates, no sink and a tiny refrigerator, with literally enough room to hold no more than three people at a time. Amazingly, the author was able to actually entertain in this tiny space, using the bathtub and commode as a means of washing up the dishes.
Much of the culinary advice is quirky and some is actually a bit dated, as it predates the microplane and the cheap plastic mandoline. I suspect the author may have changed some of her opinions if these tools had been available. Colwin's advice about knives is also a little dated, as she swears by carbon steel blades rather than modern stainless steel. Since there is no evidence that she sharpened her own knives, I suspect a modern Santoku knife may have changed her opinion. Even so, the essays are a testament to cooking with only the bare minimum of equipment and space.
It is not surprising that Ms. Colwin's recipes never made the 'Best of' series, as they are quirky rather than true gourmet fare. While another of Ms. Colwin's heroes is Edna Lewis, the very influential writer on Southern cooking, Ms. Colwin's recipe for Southern Fried Chicken does not follow Ms. Lewis' lead on a number of things such as an overnight buttermilk marinade. He does, however, keep to the gospel of pan frying rather than deep-frying.
Ms. Colwin's writing provides much more food for the soul than it does food for the gut. Reading this book makes one wish that Karen Duffey would have channeled her not inconsiderable talent for the simple in her book 'A Slob in the Kitchen' into a style more like Ms. Colwin's very entertaining twists on culinary matters.
Highly recommended reading for foodies.
Rating:
Summary: A friend in the kitchen and elsewhere
Review: A talented and extraordinarily accessible writer, Laurie Colwin died unexpectedly at the age of forty-eight in October 1992. In "Home Cooking," as in her other books, Colwin's writing charmingly combines an easy, conversational style, an innate curiosity and a good-natured disrespect for things fancy. She was a decidedly unstuffy columnist for GOURMET magazine for some years, giving the magazine a needed breath of fresh air.If you have not already partaken of the pleasures of reading Colwin's work, I urge you to buy a copy of "Home Cooking." Colwin is insouciant, opinionated and very funny. My favorite chapter in "Home Cooking" is entitled "Repulsive Dinners: A Memoir". It begins: "There is something triumphant about a really disgusting meal. It lingers in the memory with a lurid glow, just as something exalted is remembered with a kind of mellow brilliance...I am thinking about meals that are positively loathsome from soup to nuts, although one is not usually fortunate enough to get either soup or nuts." With great relish, Colwin describes several perfectly horrid meals, the most striking of which is a variation of the medieval starry gazey pie, "in which the crust is slit so that the whole baked eels within can poke their nasty little heads out and look at the piecrust stars with which the top is supposed to be festooned." The recipes in "Home Cooking" seem almost like afterthoughts to her meanderings on entertaining, home and hearth, and disguising vegetables, but they are mostly very good and always very simple. Colwin's gingerbread recipe is particularly delicious, and will make your house smell like a Christmas party. Highly recommended both as a cozy read and as a source of reliable recipes. We lost her too young, but Laurie Colwin lives on in "Home Cooking" and her other fine books.
Rating:
Summary: A friend in the kitchen and elsewhere
Review: A talented and extraordinarily accessible writer, Laurie Colwin died unexpectedly at the age of forty-eight in October 1992. In "Home Cooking," as in her other books, Colwin's writing charmingly combines an easy, conversational style, an innate curiosity and a good-natured disrespect for things fancy. She was a decidedly unstuffy columnist for GOURMET magazine for some years, giving the magazine a needed breath of fresh air. If you have not already partaken of the pleasures of reading Colwin's work, I urge you to buy a copy of "Home Cooking." Colwin is insouciant, opinionated and very funny. My favorite chapter in "Home Cooking" is entitled "Repulsive Dinners: A Memoir". It begins: "There is something triumphant about a really disgusting meal. It lingers in the memory with a lurid glow, just as something exalted is remembered with a kind of mellow brilliance...I am thinking about meals that are positively loathsome from soup to nuts, although one is not usually fortunate enough to get either soup or nuts." With great relish, Colwin describes several perfectly horrid meals, the most striking of which is a variation of the medieval starry gazey pie, "in which the crust is slit so that the whole baked eels within can poke their nasty little heads out and look at the piecrust stars with which the top is supposed to be festooned." The recipes in "Home Cooking" seem almost like afterthoughts to her meanderings on entertaining, home and hearth, and disguising vegetables, but they are mostly very good and always very simple. Colwin's gingerbread recipe is particularly delicious, and will make your house smell like a Christmas party. Highly recommended both as a cozy read and as a source of reliable recipes. We lost her too young, but Laurie Colwin lives on in "Home Cooking" and her other fine books.
Rating:
Summary: Great book about cooking. Writes well and now I'm hungry.
Review: Here is a book by a writer about something she did in her non-writing time. (Unfortunately, the author has since died.) She writes well and describes horrific meals as well as delicious comfort food. A few recipes are included, but it is primarily a book about cooking. It's a great book to keep near the bed to read while you are eating a late night sandwich. The book can be picked up and opened to any chapter. The author writes about food in a fun way and makes something we all have to do from time to time (some of us more than others) interesting and motivating. I have to end now, so I can go make a sandwich.
Rating:
Summary: LOVED this book!
Review: I discovered Laurie Colwin by accident (luck!), and have fallen in love with her writing. I read "Home Cooking" in two days, and then went on to devour "More Home Cooking." Reading this book makes you feel like you are in Laurie's kitchen with her, just chatting and creating some delicious food. Her musings are interesting, inspiring, and down to earth. In many ways, she is the anti-Martha Stewart, as she openly admits short cuts she takes (cutting up canned tomatoes while they're still in the can!), and discourages purchasing lots of kitchen paraphenalia. Throughout all of her writing and her cooking, the biggest ingredient is love. I felt warm all over reading this book, and whether you're into cooking or just having a great read, I'm sure that you will too!
Rating:
Summary: LOVED this book!
Review: I discovered Laurie Colwin by accident (luck!), and have fallen in love with her writing. I read "Home Cooking" in two days, and then went on to devour "More Home Cooking." Reading this book makes you feel like you are in Laurie's kitchen with her, just chatting and creating some delicious food. Her musings are interesting, inspiring, and down to earth. In many ways, she is the anti-Martha Stewart, as she openly admits short cuts she takes (cutting up canned tomatoes while they're still in the can!), and discourages purchasing lots of kitchen paraphenalia. Throughout all of her writing and her cooking, the biggest ingredient is love. I felt warm all over reading this book, and whether you're into cooking or just having a great read, I'm sure that you will too!
Rating:
Summary: A Feast of a Book
Review: I first read this terrific book about eight years ago and my copy is dog-eared and stained with "pure cane syrup," etc., as apparently are the copies of other reviewers. I read it when I need to feel comforted, consoled, uplifted, as well as when I need a recipe. On a disturbing note, I read on the back flap of a more recent book of Colwin's that she had passed away. I wrote to the publisher, saddened that we would never hear her wonderful literary voice again, but received no reply.
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Summary: This book is one of my best friends...
Review: I had read Laurie Colwins columns in Gourmet for years, and each time felt as though I had just had a great conversation with a friend. This book was, for me, pure luxury. I lived vicariously through her and her descriptions of her life in New York, her daughters first tastes of things, the search and sometimes accidental discovery of a truly delicious meal. I,too, always seem to find my way into someones kitchen, prefering to watch and peek and learn from someone than the usual cocktail or dinner party chat. I havegiven this book as a gift many times over. My own copy is dog eared and stained and worn from being read over and over....and over..
Rating: 
Summary: a fun read but...
Review: I see all the superlative raving reviews posted here and elsewhere, and I just don't get it. I mean, yes, Laurie Colwin writes well and some of the passages in the book were truly hilarious. She came across as a nice person, and I'm sorry that she died relatively young. BUT... the book didn't change my life or my cooking, for that matter. She seemed to have learned all of three dishes: fried chicken, potato salad, and beef casserole. I'm sure they were delicious dishes, but they do become rather tedious when repeatedly mentioned in nearly every essay. The best part of the book for me are her culinary disasters. She described them in an entertaining and engaging manner, but I can get the same warm and fuzzy feeling from talking with my culinarily-adventurous friends. The bottom line is, while I did enjoy most parts of the book, I doubt I'd re-read it again and again. In fact, I'd venture to say that reading the book once through already made me feel like I've read it again and again.
Rating: 
Summary: Fun to read even if you don't cook!
Review: I'd rather dine out than in, and I hate to cook, but I like Laurie Colwin's style of writing, so I bought this book. Even Ms. Colwin admitted that she bought cookbooks just to read them, but I'm sure she tried some of the recipes as well. She described, by name, several cookbooks she had on hand, most or all out of print, and it made me wish I could read them as well. To show how cleverly she turned a phrase, I was inspired to cook something and did! I tried a recipe for bread that, when she wrote it, had me almost tasting it. Alas, said bread did not turn out as hoped. I had someone else (an experienced cook) try it as well, and it was somewhat disappointing. No big deal. I'd rather read than cook, anyway.
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