MEMORIES OF A MIDWESTERN FARM : GOOD FOOD AND INSPIRATION FROM AROUND THE KITCHEN TABLE

Rating:
Summary: It's All Good
Review: My grandmother was the best cook in the world. Thanks to this cookbook, I now know how she made those great lumpy mashed potatoes and homemade-tasting green beans and... It's too bad terms like "homemade" and "country" have been overworked by Madison Avenue types because those adjectives apply perfectly here. It's all good, but it's not all healthy fare. In fact, I eat pretty "clean" throughout the week but on my "free" day, this is the cookbook I reach for. The only drawback is the ingredients are not listed separately with the recipes. That can become a bit problematic for a person like me, when the stove is blazing and you've got three things going at the same time and you forgot how many cups of milk the recipe called for. Still, the food always comes out tasting great. Invariably, Hutchens' recipes are the ones asked for by guests. I share the name of the cookbook and its author's identity -- but I don't share the cookbook itself. It's one of the few I would truly miss if it didn't come back.

Rating:
Summary: It's All Good
Review: My grandmother was the best cook in the world. Thanks to this cookbook, I now know how she made those great lumpy mashed potatoes and homemade-tasting green beans and... It's too bad terms like "homemade" and "country" have been overworked by Madison Avenue types because those adjectives apply perfectly here. It's all good, but it's not all healthy fare. In fact, I eat pretty "clean" throughout the week but on my "free" day, this is the cookbook I reach for. The only drawback is the ingredients are not listed separately with the recipes. That can become a bit problematic for a person like me, when the stove is blazing and you've got three things going at the same time and you forgot how many cups of milk the recipe called for. Still, the food always comes out tasting great. Invariably, Hutchens' recipes are the ones asked for by guests. I share the name of the cookbook and its author's identity -- but I don't share the cookbook itself. It's one of the few I would truly miss if it didn't come back.

Rating:
Summary: A yummy trip back to my childhood...
Review: This book is the real thing. Nancy Hutchens' stories and recipes brought back yummy memories of one of the thrills of my childhood - the day-long trips to my grandfather's Illinois farm. Growing up outside of St. Louis, life and mealtimes were pretty suburban. But meals at the farm were just as Nancy describes - two or three different meat dishes, numerous dishes of vegetables which we helped pick out of the garden that morning (no gardens back in the suburbs), several choices of pies and cakes for dessert all made that morning and LOTS of people sitting at one long table in the kitchen itself. My sister and I always requested our favorite meal from our grandmother for our birthdays - Chicky Noodles and Green Beans. This meal always was accompanied by the Angel Food cake because what else do you do with a dozen egg whites when you've used the yokes for the noodles? We've been looking for these recipes for years and thanks to Nancy, we've finally found them, just as we remembered them. Now our children can share some of the delicious and fulfilling dishes we grew up on - and we'll tell the stories. A wonderful way to pass on family history. Thanks to Nancy Hutchens for putting it all together.

Rating:
Summary: A yummy trip back to my childhood...
Review: This book is the real thing. Nancy Hutchens' stories and recipes brought back yummy memories of one of the thrills of my childhood - the day-long trips to my grandfather's Illinois farm. Growing up outside of St. Louis, life and mealtimes were pretty suburban. But meals at the farm were just as Nancy describes - two or three different meat dishes, numerous dishes of vegetables which we helped pick out of the garden that morning (no gardens back in the suburbs), several choices of pies and cakes for dessert all made that morning and LOTS of people sitting at one long table in the kitchen itself. My sister and I always requested our favorite meal from our grandmother for our birthdays - Chicky Noodles and Green Beans. This meal always was accompanied by the Angel Food cake because what else do you do with a dozen egg whites when you've used the yokes for the noodles? We've been looking for these recipes for years and thanks to Nancy, we've finally found them, just as we remembered them. Now our children can share some of the delicious and fulfilling dishes we grew up on - and we'll tell the stories. A wonderful way to pass on family history. Thanks to Nancy Hutchens for putting it all together.