Dairy Hollow House Soup & Bread: A Country Inn Cookbook

Rating:
Summary: A Constant Companion in my kitchen
Review: Although the focus is Soup here, I began using the baking section first. I found definitive buttermilk cornbread, biscuts and muffins, although I have been a good baker for a long time, these were truly the "best in class" and are the standard for my kitchen. I have some favorites now among the extensive soup section but still need to supplement with other cookbooks when I want a meat recipe since the focus here is chicken, fish, vegetable or legumes based. I found the book gives a blueprint that allows me to make some kind of soup out of what is on hand. I also found the "Sandy's Great Lentil Soup with Greens and Garlic" to be a completely fresh, nutritious take on lentils and simple to boot. The small section on Salads is invaluable. I use the Curried Vinaigrette (for the Curried Lentil Salad with Vegetables) on sandwiches as a spread since it keeps forever. The Mexican Corn and Avocado Salad with the Cilantro Vinaigrette gets raves every time and satisfies my Avocado cravings. I couldn't do without this one. It's a good read too with lots of stories and info imbeded in the text.

Rating:
Summary: Good to the last spoonful!
Review: Crescent Dragonwagon's Soup and Bread has kept my family fed in style (with never a complaint from the most finicky of eaters). My local supermarket is decent (but not a gourmet mecca) and I groan when I open a cookbook to find the recipes made entirely of exotic and expensive ingredients. (After all that money and effort, you might as well have gone to the author's restaurant and plonked down your plastic.) Crescent, however, can turn simple ingredients into a feast. I turn to this book when I have "nothing" in the house for dinner and don't have time for a supermarket run. It always amazes me that I can get results like this with a relatively small effort. Her stories of Dairy Hollow House give each dish an "atmosphere." Her Gumbo Zeb recipe is the best gumbo I have ever had, and this is from a girl who spent years in Louisiana drowning in many incredible bowls of it. My husband inadvertedly renamed the recipe when he was raving about the dish and I told him it was by Crescent Dragonwagon. At our house, it's called "Green Dragon" Gumbo. It's brilliant. (Make it and you'll know what I mean.)

Rating:
Summary: I loved this selection of soups.
Review: Even with a large collection of cookbooks, during the autumn, when we are ready for soups, this book is the one that I consult. The recipes are very complete. It does not contain beef recipes but with the large selection I haven't missed the beef selection. However, this is not just a recipe collection. It contains many stories about the Inn from which these recipes come from.

Rating:
Summary: A Bowl of Soup, a Loaf of Bread and this Cookbook
Review: I love soup! This cookbook covers those I know, some I thought I did, and many I have come to love. I am not a baker but I can make these breads too! Crescent Dragonwagon is a great cook and can tell a great story. This book is jun too read as well as cook from. Nothing is hard though some will take a bit of time and work. If you love soup, you'll love these recipes.

Rating:
Summary: A Bowl of Soup, a Loaf of Bread and this Cookbook
Review: I love soup! This cookbook covers those I know, some I thought I did, and many I have come to love. I am not a baker but I can make these breads too! Crescent Dragonwagon is a great cook and can tell a great story. This book is jun too read as well as cook from. Nothing is hard though some will take a bit of time and work. If you love soup, you'll love these recipes.

Rating:
Summary: A must if you cook, or want to cook Soup!
Review: If you cook soup regulary, or want to, this is the only soup book you need!! Fully 1/3-1/2 of the book has either explicitly vegetarian recipies or recipies that can be converted with only a single ingredent.

Rating:
Summary: My copy's spattered, stained, and used time & again
Review: Soup. Bread. Muffins. Salad. Yum. This is a book full of great recipes and wonderful lore. I enjoy the quotes and anecdotes almost as much as the food, and this is great food. We enjoy the Hillbilly Many-Bean Soup, the Skillet-Sizzled Buttermilk Cornbread, the Glazed Orange Muffins, the Dairy Hollow House Pasta Salad, the Chicken & Cheese Soup with Green Chiles again and again. Some of these recipes even go with us on vacation. There are great directions for making your own soup stocks, and no, you do not have to live in your kitchen all day to do it. We keep finding interesting recipes we want to try, as well as returning to our favorites time & time again. More than a recipe book, this is a visit with a friend who loves to cook. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: My copy's spattered, stained, and used time & again
Review: Soup. Bread. Muffins. Salad. Yum. This is a book full of great recipes and wonderful lore. I enjoy the quotes and anecdotes almost as much as the food, and this is great food. We enjoy the Hillbilly Many-Bean Soup, the Skillet-Sizzled Buttermilk Cornbread, the Glazed Orange Muffins, the Dairy Hollow House Pasta Salad, the Chicken & Cheese Soup with Green Chiles again and again. Some of these recipes even go with us on vacation. There are great directions for making your own soup stocks, and no, you do not have to live in your kitchen all day to do it. We keep finding interesting recipes we want to try, as well as returning to our favorites time & time again. More than a recipe book, this is a visit with a friend who loves to cook. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Man Can Live by Soup Alone
Review: There are very few things more divine on a cold winter night than Crescent Dragonwagon's "Blue Satin Broccoli Soup." I have yet to be disppointed by a single recipe. Seinfeld's Soup Nazi could have learned a thing or two from reading this book. Pair it with her Rosemary Foccacia bread and you have a dinner that will impress your guests and have you crossing your fingers that there will be leftovers for tomorrow's lunch (fat chance!) Bon appetit!

Rating:
Summary: Man Can Live by Soup Alone
Review: There are very few things more divine on a cold winter night than Crescent Dragonwagon's "Blue Satin Broccoli Soup." I have yet to be disppointed by a single recipe. Seinfeld's Soup Nazi could have learned a thing or two from reading this book. Pair it with her Rosemary Foccacia bread and you have a dinner that will impress your guests and have you crossing your fingers that there will be leftovers for tomorrow's lunch (fat chance!) Bon appetit!