Gifts in a Jar: Soups

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic!
Review: By far the best book of this type I have seen. Great ideas for nice gifts that show a lot of thought. The ingredients are quite common and easy to locate and procedure is simple. There are good hints on many of the pages and the gift tags included are a clever timesaving touch. For a really nice gift, the soup mixes could be given with Mixes from the other books in the series (Muffins and Breads, Cookies, andBars and Brownies). Well worth the price.

Rating:
Summary: Some good recipes, few recipes in book
Review: I have most of the books in this series. My parents are aging and I have been looking for items that I can make for them which will have a long shelf life and would require them to do minimal food preparation, yet still have a 'home cooked meal'. The recipes fit the bill for the most part. In each book I found that there were a few recipes that are great and some I wouldn't try at all. This is what I usually find in any cookbook. I would comment that each book only has about 25 or so recipes in it. The rest of the pages consist of 6 copies each of pre-made instruction cards to enclose with each food package. I did feel disappointed in the number of recipes for the cost of the book

Rating:
Summary: check the ingredients!
Review: I really like this book. It contains a wide variety of soup mixes and directions to use them for soup-making. It also contains 6 recipe tags to give with each jar of soup mix showing how to add such-and-such to the mix to make the soup. (Although not necessary -- and quite useless if you modify the recipes to suit your tastes or those of the recipients -- it is nonetheless an nice touch.) The first page says that each mix should keep for up to 6 months (3 months if they contain nuts - but how many soup mixes do?), and gives suggestions for packaging them. My only quibbles are minor ... It could have mentioned vegetarian alternatives (e.g., vegetarian beef or chicken-flavored broth mixes) to make these for vegetarian friends -- and it should have
mentioned the weight of the ingredients so you'd know what size package to look for, rather than either buying extra or standing in the supermarket trying to figure out how much would yield X cups. It would also have been nice to include a few ways to dress up the gift (e.g., putting it in a basket with such-and-such, accompanying it with such-and-such, or whatever). But it is a really nice and diversified book -- far and away the best I've seen on this subject.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful! This will be perfect for gift-giving!
Review: I really like this book. It contains a wide variety of soup mixes and directions to use them for soup-making. It also contains 6 recipe tags to give with each jar of soup mix showing how to add such-and-such to the mix to make the soup. (Although not necessary -- and quite useless if you modify the recipes to suit your tastes or those of the recipients -- it is nonetheless an nice touch.) The first page says that each mix should keep for up to 6 months (3 months if they contain nuts - but how many soup mixes do?), and gives suggestions for packaging them. My only quibbles are minor ... It could have mentioned vegetarian alternatives (e.g., vegetarian beef or chicken-flavored broth mixes) to make these for vegetarian friends -- and it should have
mentioned the weight of the ingredients so you'd know what size package to look for, rather than either buying extra or standing in the supermarket trying to figure out how much would yield X cups. It would also have been nice to include a few ways to dress up the gift (e.g., putting it in a basket with such-and-such, accompanying it with such-and-such, or whatever). But it is a really nice and diversified book -- far and away the best I've seen on this subject.

Rating:
Summary: oklachef
Review: I was very disappointed in this book. I made several of the recipes to give as Christmas presents and they were terrible. I was very disappointed and embarrased to give them as gifts. I had already purchased all the ingredients and the supplies and it cost me a great deal for a gift that was not edible. I would be very nervous to order anything else from this company.

Rating:
Summary: Gifts in a jar Soups
Review: I've made most of the recipes in this book and they're all pretty good. The friendship soup is the best. I love the whole idea.

Rating:
Summary: check the ingredients!
Review: This is a great book idea, but look at the ingredients before shopping - lots of non-homemade seasonings/flavorings in the recipes that could easily be adapted to include more homemade ingredients. Use your own creativity to adapt the recipes and you'll have a real winner!