Festive Baking: Holiday Classics in the Swiss, German, and Austrian Traditions Review

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Festive Baking: Holiday Classics in the Swiss, German, and Austrian Traditions ReviewRecipes in this book are not for novice bakers, neither are they for habitual offenders of baking mixes aisles or those who are afraid to touch dough with their bare hands. Following recipes of Sarah Kelly Iaia requires well-stocked pantry, precision, discipline, and ability to plan ahead. Many recipes specify that the dough is made a day in advance, and many baked goods are better 2 weeks - a month after baking. On a positive note, many ingredients are quite accessible and not expensive.
The taste and look of all those goodies is distinctly European and suit best those who like artisan baking. If you prefer chewey cookies, heavy cakes like German chocolate cake (which is not German at all), supermarket-sold white bread, and chemically tasting birthday cakes sold at price clubs, chances are you will not like most of cakes, breads, and cookies made from recipes in this book. However, this book is very usefull if you wish to enrich your baking repertoir, impress your guests or coworkers, or need to send a lot of presents across the country around Christmas. The author, using very specific easy-to-follow directions helps muster different types of gingerbreads, Sunday breads, stollen, crumbly sweet pretzels, and nut layer cakes. Both children and adults like chocolate-glazed heart-shaped honey cookies, the recipe for which alone is worth the price of this book.
I would prefer more photographs of finished products, but overall I have been quite satisfied with the results even without them.Festive Baking: Holiday Classics in the Swiss, German, and Austrian Traditions Overview

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Killer Pies: Delicious Recipes from North America's Favorite Restaurants (Killer (Chronicle Books)) Review

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Killer Pies: Delicious Recipes from North America's Favorite Restaurants (Killer (Chronicle Books)) ReviewThis cookbook is part of a series and this one is awesome! I bought it because we love the McEwen's on Monroe (Memphis) amazing banana cream pie. The owner told me about the new cookbook and loaned me his copy (this is an amazing delicious restaurant that treats you like family) until I ordered my own. It's one of those beautifully put together books with great recipes that I just keep buying and giving away everytime I need a birthday present, etc. So now I need to buy a stack! Gorgeous pictures and wide geographical range of delicious regional pies of North America.Killer Pies: Delicious Recipes from North America's Favorite Restaurants (Killer (Chronicle Books)) Overview

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The Good Housekeeping Baking: More Than 600 Recipes for Homemade Treats Review

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The Good Housekeeping Baking: More Than 600 Recipes for Homemade Treats ReviewI recieved this book last Christmas and have been using it ever since. I am a senior in high school and am planning a career in the baking and pastry arts field. I have taken my book to school to use as a reference tool. Only to find out that my teacher loves it so much he doesn't want me to take it with me when I graduate. I have actually used this book to come up with many products for our many functions and compitions. I can not wait to take this book with me to college.The Good Housekeeping Baking: More Than 600 Recipes for Homemade Treats Overview

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Rustic European Breads from Your Bread Machine Review

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Rustic European Breads from Your Bread Machine ReviewIf you are looking for a great bread machine book, this may be the one for you!
I made the basic french bread that bakes in the machine and it was wonderful - far and away the best bread to come out of my bread machine EVER!
They gave a lot of great suggestions and ideas to try to improve the quality of the bread you make in your bread machine. Some of the suggestions (such as using spring water) may not be for everyone, but there are a lot of good ideas.
Many of the recipes do require baking in your oven rather than in the machine. Also, a good number of the recipes require you to make a starter (not all of them), so this wouldn't be my one and only bread machine book.
If you love the good crusty breads, but don't always have the time to make the dough, try this book and let your bread machine do the work. You won't be disappointed.Rustic European Breads from Your Bread Machine Overview

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Cake Wrecks: When Professional Cakes Go Hilariously Wrong Review

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Cake Wrecks: When Professional Cakes Go Hilariously Wrong ReviewFirst off, as an avid fan of the CakeWrecks blog I had extremely high hopes for the book. I expected nothing less than hilarious pictures and side splitting commentary to match. Jen Yates went above and beyond!! This book is a MUST HAVE for anyone and everyone. It will make an excellent conversation starter and I'm sure all your friends will thank you for introducing them to the wonderful world of cake wreckage. I recommend this book completely and 100%.Cake Wrecks: When Professional Cakes Go Hilariously Wrong Overview

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Cakes to Dream On: A Master Class in Decorating Review

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Cakes to Dream On: A Master Class in Decorating Review`Cakes to Dream On', subtitled `A Master Class in Decorating' by major American pastry artist and teacher, Colette Peters has the ambition to be an advanced class in multi-tiered cake decorating. This ambition is not to be taken lightly, as there is very little in this book for the amateur home / bake sale cook. This is not to say that the book is not chocked full of great ideas, if you already know a lot about how to work with royal icing, fondant, marzipan, and multi-layered cakes. I have made a two and three layered birthday cake in my day, but these creations are entirely out of my league.
The book consists of four general parts. The first part is the first chapter on `How to Make a Decorated Cake', which covers materials to use as the base of a multi-layered cake, who to reinforce the layers, and how to make crooked cakes on purpose. For those few of you out there who actually make tiered cakes, this is one of the more useful topics, although I confess much of it is pretty common sensical.
The second part of the book is the next eight (8) chapters, which are almost all alike in being simply collections of decorated cakes done by the author and her company with instructions on how to make these cakes and their decorations. The instructions assume the person making the cake has access to a lot of specialized tools, materials, and specialized training. One decorated cake chosen at random requires:
Fondant
Tracing Wheel
Gumpaste Ribbon Roses and Leaves
Royal Icing dots on wires (oh my)
Luster dust
Royal Icing
Gumpaste Pearls
Three foamboard circles
Foamboard base
Gumpaste curly hearts
Lemon Extract
Piping bag and #2 tip
Oval shaped dragees
Paintbrush
Descriptions of how to construct several of the cakes include printed templates for preparing some of the designs on the cake. I find these particularly unhelpful, as they require one to have an enlarging photocopier handy to enlarge the diagrams on heavy paper from which they can be cut and used as a template. Now I am certain that a commercial pastry shop would have such a copier, so this reinforces my impression that this book is really meant primarily as an idea source for other pastry professionals.
The third section is recipes for cakes and icings. One is likely to find as good or better recipes for these things in books by Maida Heatter, Nick Malgieri, or Rose Levy Beranbaum. If your primary interest is in baking birthday cakes or bakesale cakes, I strongly suggest you get Beranbaum's `The Cake Bible' (which happened to win best cookbook of the year from the IACP a few years back) instead of investing in this book which works much better as coffee table decoration than as a manual for cake baking. Beranbaum includes such things as candy and nut embellishments, food processor fondant, rolled fondant, chocolate fondant, pastillage, rose modeling paste, crystal flowers, as well as her extensive recipes for cake, fillings, and icings.
The fourth section has a title suggesting that now the `master class' in techniques really begins. This chapter includes short sections on which one could easily write a whole book, such as:
Mixing paste colors into Fondant
Painting with Powdered Colors
Airbrushing a cake
Fondant Decorations
Gumpaste Decorations
Piping Techniques
Run-in Sugar
Brush Embroidery
Making Edible Crystal Beads
Sugar Beads
Basic Techniques
- Dividing a Round Cake evenly for Decorating
- Sculpting a Cake
- Getting Cakes from Here to There
Quick Reference Guide to Tools and Ingredients
Without a doubt, Ms. Peters' cakes are knockouts and her photographs and techniques are chocked full of ideas for professionals. Jacques Torres and Ewald Notter are not going to endorse just anyone's book. It is just that her book is simply not very well organized to teach people with modest skills and objectives.
So, if your objective is to daydream or to open a professional decorated cake store, this book is for you. If you simply want to improve your cake baking and decorating skills a bit, get Beranbaum's book and an inexpensive pamphlet on cake decorating from Wilton at your nearest hobby mart.Cakes to Dream On: A Master Class in Decorating Overview

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Cookie Craft: From Baking to Luster Dust, Designs and Techniques for Creative Cookie Occasions Review

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Cookie Craft: From Baking to Luster Dust, Designs and Techniques for Creative Cookie Occasions ReviewWhat a gem of a cookie decorating book! Many books have been written on this subject; some OK and others are great---add this to the "great" list! Bakers and writers Valerie Peterson and Janice Fryer have turned out quite the encyclopedia of cookie design and here's why.....
Visually, the photography is sharp, clear, and very detailed; this is necessary in any instructional book that needs to show you how it's product is to turn out. And instead of one page and one cookie, the cookies are grouped into a category and photographed all together on that page. Each cookie stands out alone, but as a finished photo, each category of cookies is lovely.
On the opposite page of each grouping of cookies, they have made a outlined, numbered chart that describes how each cookie was decorated, step-by-step, so that you can't make a mistake. How much more could a cookie baker ask for other than having Valerie and Janice make them for you?
Peppered throughout the book are sidebars and hints on all the little things that you can do to make your cookies just that much more perfect, along with all the trials and errors they've had over their years of baking, to help you avoid the same problems.
Then, to make your cookie experience even easier, they made cookie templates that you can zerox and enlarge in order to make the shapes and designs you see in the book. This is a wonderful part of their book, but for myself, I don't have the time and patience to do that, so in addition, they have listed some sources for cookie cutters. My personal suggestion for a great cookie cutter company would be "Fancy Flours" at "www.fancyflours.com". This company literally has hundreds of the most unusual and adorable cookie cutters, and they have every single one used in this book as well.
As a little sidenote, in Chapter 7, they teach you how to make cookies for construction pieces like houses, sleighs, gift boxes, etc. It is an excellent chapter and is worth the price of the book all by itself. It details what type of dough to use to withstand the weight of the project, how to construct each piece, etc.
The book is sectioned as such:
CHAPTER ONE: COOKIE CRAFT INSPIRATIONS
COOKIE CRAFTS for HOLIDAYS and SEASONS
New Year's
Winter
Valentine's Day
Winter Into Spring
Easter and Spring
Mother's Day
Father's Day
Halloween
Thanksgiving and Autumn
Christmas
Hanukkah
COOKIE CRAFT for CELEBRATIONS
Showers and Weddings
Milestones
New Baby or Baby Shower
Kid's Celebration and Sports
Girlfriends
Pets
CHAPTER 2: INGREDIENTS, SUPPLIES, and EQUIPMENT
Flours, icings (thickness, thinness, etc), cookie sheets, cookie cutters, color charts, how to use your supplies
CHAPTER 3: COOKIE CRAFT PLANNING
Designing cookes (it even has a suggested sheet to use and mark your notes), color palettes, organizing your work area, cleaning up
CHAPTER 4: COOKIE RECIPES for CREATING BLANK CANVASES
Rolled Sugar Cookies
Coloring Dough
Rolled Chocolate Cookies
Rolled Nutty Cookies
Rolled Gingerbread Cookies
How to cut the dough, how to roll it out, etc
CHAPTER 5: PRE-BAKING DECORATING TECHNIQUES
Imprinting an Unbaked Cookie
Creating Windowpanes
Making Holes or Cut-Outs
Adding Dimensions to Cookies
Painting with Egg Tempera and Using Eggwash
Sugaring A Cookie or Attaching Add-Ons
CHAPTER 6: AFTER BAKING DECORATING TECHNIQUES
Royal Icing Recipes (how to's, the consistency needed, etc)
Piping and Flooding (the quintessential skill for cookie decorating)
Decorating Techniques
Using Fondant
CHAPTER 7: SIMPLE TO SHOWSTOPPING COOKIE CRAFT CONSTRUCTION
Multi-Cookie Creations
Stand-Up Cookies and Cookie Pace Cards
Cookie Messages
Party or Shower Favors, Cookie Boxes
Double-Sided Cookie Pops
Halloween Haunted House Luminaria (awesome!)
Santa's Sleigh Centerpeice
Baking Cookies for Construction
CHAPTER 8: FREEZING, STORING, WRAPPING, and SHIPPING
CHAPTER 9: COOKIE CRAFT EVENTS
Bakesales, parties, cookie swaps, etc
RESOURCES
Suggested sources for cutter, baking supplies, etc
This is a very sweet book of knowledge, hard work, and creativity; you will be very happy with this as part of your baking library, thanks to Valerie and Janice!
If after this endeavor, you would like to go to the next level of cookie creations, I would highly recommend "Creative Cookies" by Toba Garrett; the dimensions of this art are boundless, and Ms. Garrett will instruct you as she is a Master Cake Designer and Sugarcraft Artist.Cookie Craft: From Baking to Luster Dust, Designs and Techniques for Creative Cookie Occasions Overview

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The Bread Bible Review

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The Bread Bible ReviewRe the rye bread, on page 326, step 2, delete the words 'rye flour.' (the rye flour is used only in the sponge on page 325.) Also, on the chart for the flour mixture, the 2 1/4 cups of bread flour weigh 12.3 ounces.
Hope you are enjoying the recipes. If you haven't used the instant yeast before, you're going to love the ease and reliability of adding it directly to the flour!
Best bread baking,
Rose Levy BeranbaumThe Bread Bible Overview

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The Modern Baker: Time-Saving Techniques for Breads, Tarts, Pies, Cakes and Cookies Review

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The Modern Baker: Time-Saving Techniques for Breads, Tarts, Pies, Cakes and Cookies ReviewThe recipes in this book are good and have produced great results, but they are wrought with errors. I have found misspellings, errant directions, omitted directions and an incomplete index. I can't imagine a first-time baker having any success with this book.
For example, I made the instant Puff Pastry (which was great) but found the directions lacking in many areas: there was no mention of the necessary capacity of the food processor (which I found out the hard way when mine overflowed), there was no descriptive of "pulse" which may mean 5 seconds to me and 10 seconds to the author, there were no descriptive qualities of what the dough should look like once it was pulsed and/or rolled out (large butter chunks, small butter chunks, etc.), and when I finally got to making the strudel there was a folding direction for the bottom layer that was misleading and I eventually discovered was completely wrong.
After a couple of weeks I decided to go back and try again with croissants. Too bad they were omitted in the index.The Modern Baker: Time-Saving Techniques for Breads, Tarts, Pies, Cakes and Cookies Overview

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Professional Cake Decorating Review

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Professional Cake Decorating ReviewThis really is a comprehensive, excellent instruction book and it is appropriate for people at all levels of cake decorating experience. Toba Garrett covers everything from start to finish and at the end of each lesson she provides a self-quiz that will help you see how much you have learned, practice each technique and make sure you understand the terminology that goes with this exciting career/hobby.
I teach cake decorating at a local craft store and I own my own cake decorating business and Toba is an inspiration and my absolute favorite cake decorator. If you want to learn anything about the art of cake decorating, this book is worth the price! It could replace all the other cake books in my library all at once. Oh - and the recipes are fabulous too! Try the chocolate fudge cake recipe if you like chocolate cake, it's OUT OF THIS WORLD.
I want to mention that the recipes have the ingredient measurements for both a 5-6 quart mixer and a 20 quart mixer for those who are starting a kitchen with bigger equipment.Professional Cake Decorating Overview

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Bake: Essential Techniques for Perfect Baking Review

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Bake: Essential Techniques for Perfect Baking ReviewI have been waiting for this book to be published; it could not have come fast enough for me. Why? Because Malgieri's books are fun to read, his recipes always reliable. He must test his recipes really thoroughly because, as I've learned from his other books, they ALWAYS work for me. This time around, it's almost like he's holding my hand, showing me exactly what to do...and then, when I'm done, adding, "Once you do that, you can also make this slight alteration and make this dessert, too. And this one. And this one." I love it. It's like having a professional baking teacher at my side in my kitchen. All for under $20! Those of you unfamiliar with Malgieri's earlier books already know how wonderfully instructive he can be, how comfortably he walks you through each step. Those of you who don't know his books, what are you waiting for? He is the genuine article. Anyway, I've had the book for only two days now and have already tried the chocolate hazelnut tart (it's so easy just to stir the chopped nuts into the filling), his really simple focaccia, and a lemon pound cake. Each turned out just great. Of course. (One short closing note: Could an earlier, first-time reviewer--who posted a review well in advance of the book's publication date--have some sort of professional jealousy issue? Maybe a little axe to grind? Just a hunch.)Bake: Essential Techniques for Perfect Baking Overview

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Making Whoopies: The Official Whoopie Pie Book Review

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Making Whoopies: The Official Whoopie Pie Book ReviewThis book is fun! It includes 16 recipes -- "Classic Chocolate Whoopie I & II" (both feature lots of chocolate, butter & sugar) to Red Velvet Whoopie to Banana Whoopie. Unquestionably my favorite is the "Two Fat Cats Bakery Whoopie Pie with homemade fluff." Variations on the core 16 recipes yield a dozen more. The text/recipes are easy to read, the binding allows the the cookbook to lay flat and the paper is heavy so it's great in the kitchen. It's hard to find anything wrong, it's an outstanding book.Making Whoopies: The Official Whoopie Pie Book Overview

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Who You Callin' Cupcake: 75 In-Your-Face Recipes that Reinvent the Cupcake Review

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Who You Callin' Cupcake: 75 In-Your-Face Recipes that Reinvent the Cupcake ReviewI was excited to get this cookbook until i noticed several errors throughout.
For example: 12 Lemon cupcakes are supposed to come from 8 cups of flour and
8 eggs. Clearly, this is way off. Another recipe for Chocolate Sponge is supposed
to yield 12 cupcakes, calling for 20 eggs. These recipes call for 2 teaspoons
of salt for 12 cupcakes which can't be correct either.
If you read the recipes, clearly the author put her soul into this book. There are nice distressed style
pictures for most of the cupcakes which is awesome. She is clearly passionate
about her work, and wanted to share that with the readers, however, that just didn't translate
into making sure the recipes were in correct proportions before printing. And since most
of the recipes rely upon the master recipes in the beginning of the book which have incorrect
proportions, it makes the rest of the recipes not work and it also makes you worried to trust
the rest of the recipes as well.
The author's facebook page
shows that they are claiming that altitude, over mixing and lack of use of organic ingredients
is the culprit for people's failed recipes when clearly that has nothing to do with , the fact
that the proportions are way off. 2 teaspoons of salt for 12 cupcakes with 1 2/3 cups of
flour tastes horrible whether your are 200 feet above or below sea level, whether you over
or under mixed it or it's organic.
The author submitted her recipes to the publisher in grams and the
publisher failed to convert them correctly. Be that as it may, what happened
to the proof copy author's get before the book goes to print, or at least an attempt
to make an errata page.The author posted 1 fix, for the basic vanilla cupcakes in grams, using Evaporated Can juice about a month ago. Most people can't get that ingredient. The author has known for several weeks that the proportions are way off and has made no attempt to make an errata page for any of the examples I named above which are clearly wrong. The author also suggests that
people wait for the NEXT printing of the book. Given the sloppy way this book has been handled who would trust the author or publisher at this point to try "revised" recipes.
It appears that most of those who are giving this book 5 stars have made no attempt
to actually bake any of the recipes apparent from them saying things like "i can't wait to try them". I did try to bake the Vanilla Cupcakes, which were good
but I had enough basic understanding and experience not to put 2 teaspoons of salt and the enormous amount of baking powder she suggests. My own changes made an excellent cupcake.
Most who rated this book 5 stars are die hard fans of her baked goods from her bakery and from seeing her on TV.If you are going to use this cookbook, you'll need your own basic recipes for the Vanilla and Chocolate Cupcakes, and only rely on this book for ideas. It is not uncommon
to find cookbooks with some errors, but sheer number of these egregious errors show a lack
care taken in publishing this book, on top of the author not fixing more than 1 recipe.
UPDATE: 9-25-10 I noticed that FINALLY after three months of knowing the recipes were wrong, the publisher and author placed a number of "fixed" recipes up on this page and F.B. This was a super slow response to the bombard of personal e-mails, phone calls to the bakery, and requests on her f.book page the author rejected responding to, despite constant complaints by purchasers that the recipes were not correct. I tried the updated Vanilla Bean Cupcakes TWICE and both times they came out super dry and rough although they did not sink in the middle like her original recipes . I have catered desserts for over 10 years, and do extremely well, and I certainly know my way around making excellent baked goods. Her updated recipe just didn't cut the mustard. They may have changed the recipes , but failed to test them. Surprise, surprise.
I really really wanted these updates to work, but given the way this whole thing was handled i'm not stunned to find these barely mediocre stand-ins doled out as fixes. This book is best used for ideas only. Forget the recipes, and save your ingredients because updated or not the authors recipes just don't measure up. Sometimes people can be so offended that their hard work is being critzied so negatively that they refuse to accept responsiblity. This was apparent by her not "fixing" things for 3 months and offering blaims instead as well as the F.B chatter that erupted so badly that she deleted some of it. The result is that they put a lack luster effort into fixing things they didn't think were a problem in the 1st place. Bottom line, the fixes just don't taste good. It's a shame because she worked really really hard in visual presentation, but there was just too much carelessness in the execution of translating of the actual recipes themselves from bakery to home versions. Some things are a little more than converting numbers.Who You Callin' Cupcake: 75 In-Your-Face Recipes that Reinvent the Cupcake Overview

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Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking Review

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Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking ReviewI'm a foodie; the kind of person who will drive miles to a bakery, who will visit Italy when the ricotta is sweetest. I'm also a skeptic. So, when I bought this book, I didn't expect much. But, was I ever wrong. What I love is that the authors turn everything you know about bread baking upside down, and the result is the best bread you'll ever make at home. Easily. Simply. Whenever you want. You must, however, read the introduction to the method to succeed as well as you might -- this is not a book to begin baking from the minute you buy it. But the few minutes you invest in all the suggestions pay off mightily -- how to tell when this particular kind of bread is really ready (I used to swear by an instant read thermometer -- forget that); how to dock it; how to store it, etc. The instructions are utterly clear. I've already baked ten loaves, each magnificent, and I've only had the book for a week. All kinds of breads are represented -- French loaves, ciabbata, pita, peasant -- I could go on and on. Enough for a lifetime of pleasure. Hertzberg and Francois are geniuses.Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking Overview

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Simply Great Breads: Sweet and Savory Yeasted Treats from America's Premier Artisan Baker Review

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Simply Great Breads: Sweet and Savory Yeasted Treats from America's Premier Artisan Baker ReviewI like books about baking. For years I'd pick them up, stare greedily at the tasty pics and then sigh, put them back onto the shelf and slump away, my shoulders down and my mouth frowny. My failure to create bread was a source of anxiety and shame. I've made biryani, cherries flambe and eggs benedict with real hollandaise, but my yeast breads always turned out awful. About once a year I'd pick up a book and give it another try, but it always ended the same, with a dirty kitchen and a lump of floury dough that did not rise and smelled like paste and desperation.
I've since learned the basics. I can make pretzels (thanks Alton), anadama bread and pizza crust (thanks Wolfgang) but I'd gotten into a rut and still had the occasional bread fails. This book, with it's detailed explanations has added several crucial pieces of bread making information. For example, bigas.
If you are like me, a dedicated food lurker, you've heard the word biga. But I wasn't sure what it was or why anyone would want to use it in bread. Since I didn't know what biga was, everytime I ran across a recipe that used it, I'd leave it alone. Turns out Biga is like a sourdough starter, except that it takes a fraction of time to make and isn't sour, sounds intriguing, right?
I'm planning on using it now, not only in the recipe for Ciabatta from the book, but also in other recipes I've found on Food Gawker and the like.
Another interesting and new thing is the recommendation for using wine in place of water for making a pizza dough. I really, really have to give that a try! Update: I made it and it was tasty, it didn't taste like wine (good, because I don't care for wine)but it did have an indefinable sweetness that made it richer and definitely worth trying. I posted pics on my blog of this dough (it was the base of my fairy pizza).
One of the other great things about this book are the variations in ingredients that follow most every recipe. Caramel Monkey Bread becomes Garlic Scallion Monkey Bread and Grape Schiacciata becomes Rosemary Walnut or Cherry Tomato Anise, which is a very good thing because I'm certain to never find fresh champagne grapes here in Washington.
Most of the recipes are ones I've seen before, but it's the easy to follow directions and descriptions that make them noteworthy.
A recipe for Mana'eesh - a Middle Eastern flatbread, sounds like an easy recipe to start out with for the novice bakers and a more complex recipe for bagels is included for the adventurous home cook.
The book loses it's way a little with recipes for jams and too many pages of fried doughs, but it won me over again with a handy list of equivalencies.
I have just two complaints about the book and they are, one, the book is too short and I think it should have at least one basic bread recipe and two, the Navajo fry bread recipe is a fast and loose representation of a culturally important staple of Native American cuisine. But, I guess it's the thought that counts, many people have never tried this delectable treat (totally worth your time and effort, there are a ton of recipes online).Simply Great Breads: Sweet and Savory Yeasted Treats from America's Premier Artisan Baker Overview

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A New Dream Review

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A New Dream ReviewA New Dream by Elaine Cantrell is a good read. It is a clean read but does make references to sex.
What do you do when your dreams are suddenly gone? Local football hero and NFL kicker Matt McCallum finds himself in this quandary. Matt wakes up in the hospital with a mangled left leg and a amputated right. His fiancée has left him and his career as a kicker is over. As they say, when one door closes another opens. This story is about Matt's journey to redefine himself with a little help from a local good girl named Violet Emerson. If only it were that easy - as Matt begins to excel in his new life his ex fiancée returns claiming they have a child together. Matt and Violet now have to see if they can make it through these obstacles placed before them. Can they forgive each other and heal their relationship?
My main complaint with this story is that Stacey (the ex) doesn't end up having any negative consequences from all bad choices. She is just evil. For me personally she should have had to face some major consequences for her deceit and shallowness. For this reason I could not give this story 5 stars.A New Dream OverviewAfter an auto accident destroys his pro-football career, Matt McCallum struggles to find a new dream for his life, but nothing engages him the way football did. After a stint in rehab, he takes a job managing a grocery store where he meets Violet Emerson.Violet works in the bakery department, but her dreams carry her far beyond the doors of Chef's Pantry. As soon as she can save the money, she plans to open a catering business. And she thinks the new manager's broad shoulders and blue eyes are simply divine.Thrown together at work, Matt and Violet find a common dream for their lives, but a loose end from Matt's past returns to jeopardize their future. Will love be enough to save their new dream before it turns into a nightmare?

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Clinton St. Baking Company Cookbook: Breakfast, Brunch & Beyond from New York's Favorite Neighborhood Restaurant Review

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Clinton St. Baking Company Cookbook: Breakfast, Brunch & Beyond from New York's Favorite Neighborhood Restaurant ReviewSee those pancakes on the cover? I made those! They turned out just as beautifully. A word of warning though, I would cut this recipe in half unless you have a football team lurking around. I used all of the batter and froze the remaining pancakes. One minute in the microwave and they tasted almost better than the fresh made ones. I have read about other cooks doing this with pancakes, but never tried it myself. I put them in zip lock bags with wax paper in between. Now whenever I want pancakes, I just put a couple in the microwave for about 45 seconds. My son is still talking about how good the maple butter was and it was quite simple to make. I also put aside some of that in the refrigerator for use later.
The recipes are all really good and I am working my way through the book. I found that they were quite easy to follow. All of the direction are clear and concise. The ingredients are easy to find, so no worries there like some other cookbooks. This is definitely a keeper for me.Clinton St. Baking Company Cookbook: Breakfast, Brunch & Beyond from New York's Favorite Neighborhood Restaurant Overview

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The Book of Awesome: Snow Days, Bakery Air, Finding Money in Your Pocket, and Other Simple, Brilliant Things Review

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The Book of Awesome: Snow Days, Bakery Air, Finding Money in Your Pocket, and Other Simple, Brilliant Things ReviewDaily life in the twenty-first century can be overwhelming. Issues of global warming, health care reform, a strangled economy, and the latest celebrity shenanigans fill our media outlets and our heads until they just about burst. It is all too much to bear. No wonder we seek solace in the tiny triumphs of life: in our own small successes and in the personal interactions, the soothing sights, the tempting tastes, and the sensational smells we find in the world around us.
Neil Pasricha is the author of the award-winning blog, "1000 Awesome Things." His online success translates well into the format of this book, which outlines 200 of those Awesome Things. Things like "That one really good pen that never gets lost;" "The sound of ice cubes cracking in a drink;" "Licking the batter off the beaters of a cake mixer;" "The smell and sound of a campfire;" and "That friendly nod between strangers out doing the same thing." In these pages you'll also learn the most successful strategies for trick-or-treating and for making the most of an all-you-can-eat buffet. You'll even learn exactly what functions are attached to your colon. But this is not a book of mere lists. Mr. Pasricha provides an explanation for each one, and some of those pieces are several pages in length. His observations are spot-on, and his writing style is friendly and funny. This is an entertaining and feel-good read.
I had to wait until page 342 to find my most favorite Awesome Thing: Snow days. The author breaks this phenomenon into three types: The Pre-Planned Snow Day, The High-Probability Snow Day, and The Surprise Snow Day. But Neil, there's a fourth one to consider, and that's the "We're already here. Will we get enough snow for them to send us home early?" kind. That one may be the most frustrating of all. When the crucial announcement comes, that joyful event becomes yet another (albeit, shortened) Awesome Thing. Assuming you can make it home safely in the storm.
"The Book of Awesome" is the kind of paperback that you can scan through quickly. You can catch the headlines and say "Yes!" to particular ones. Or you can take a single lovely, rainy weekend to devour this volume from cover to cover. Keep it on your bedside table or coffee table for a pick-me-up. Read passages aloud to a living room full of friends, and your group will come up with even more possibilities. You don't have to agree with all of the entries. ("Using all the different shampoos and soaps in someone else's shower" didn't resonate with me, and neither did "Neighbors with pools.") Just keep turning pages, and it won't be too long before you find several more Awesome Things that you can relate to. And you will probably find yourself smiling, nodding, and laughing out loud.
Once you get into this mode, you may pay closer attention to those magic moments in your own life. Like sliding a key perfectly into a lock in the dark, without fumbling and without turning on the light. Watching a squirrel figure out how to invade a rodent-proof bird feeder. The smell of tea that wafts up when you unwrap a brand-new box of it. It's all good ... and Awesome. Thanks, Neil. [This review was based on seeing the pre-pub galley proof.]The Book of Awesome: Snow Days, Bakery Air, Finding Money in Your Pocket, and Other Simple, Brilliant Things Overview

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Have a Crumby Book: A Collection of Wit and Whimsy from Cincinnati's Favorite Bakery Review

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Have a Crumby Book: A Collection of Wit and Whimsy from Cincinnati's Favorite Bakery ReviewWhat a deliciously delightful novelty of a book! WARNING: DO NOT read this book when you are hungry. I often found myself drooling on the pages of photographs of popular billboards depicting some of Busken Bakery's finest baked goods. Their appearance is absolutely mouthwatering! I do wish that I lived much closer to Cincinnati, now. I also wish that I could have had the pleasure of seeing some of these billboards in my travels; but alas, I have not.
There is just enough history of the Busken Bakery and its founders to familiarize yourself with the chain and give you a little background on the baking industry. It was interesting and educational. For instance, I know with 100% certainty that I could never be a baker, since I learned that they get up to go to work at 2:00 a.m.
But, again, the real treat here are the photos depicting the clever advertising slogans full of puns; and most importantly, the delectable baked goods themselves! I'm definitely ready for a trip to Cincinnati now. Oh, that won't be necessary--they have a website that offers shipping of their products.
I'm glad I received this colorful book with the funny name as part of the Goodreads Early Reads program; since I don't think I would otherwise have discovered it. It was a pleasant, quick read and should be especially delightful to those lucky people who have grown up with the Busken Bakery as part of their life. I would like to thank the author, publisher and Goodreads for this treat.Have a Crumby Book: A Collection of Wit and Whimsy from Cincinnati's Favorite Bakery Overview

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Lion House Bakery Review

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Lion House Bakery ReviewOutstanding book. The rolls and raspberry butter are excellent. The pie crust is very easy to work with, and the DVD is also helpful. Still only partly way through the book as far as trying the recipes, but they have all been great so far.Lion House Bakery Overview

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