Food Magic: A Warm, Friendly Cookbook for People Who Are Passionate About What They Eat

Rating:
Summary: This has always been one of my favorite cookbooks.
Review: Taking a gentle, friendly tone, this book is exactly what a budding cook needs to see. Its recipes are, to be charitable, eclectic -- some you will instantly warm to, while others sound horrible (mostly because they're European/British and very outside middle-American experience, not because they're bizarre in and of themselves). But the book itself doesn't preach following a recipe slavishly. It teaches you to make your own recipes and variations on recipes. Though not long, it is prettily packaged and attractively presented. And it does live up to its title -- the writing is, indeed, warm, friendly, and passionate.

The recipes themselves are easy to deal with. The dozen or so I've tried have turned out well -- and its suggestions for spaghetti sauce have become my favorite way to prepare it. I thought this was a great book to add to my cooking bookshelf. I wholeheartedly recommend it.