Saturday, August 18, 2012

‘Food Family Style: Simple & Tasty Recipes for Everyday Life’ by Leigh Oliver Vickery – Book Review

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A good cookbook is a valuable addition to any home’s kitchen! When I learned about a blog tour for a book called ‘Food Family Style: Simple & Tasty Recipes forEveryday Life,’ I was intrigued! Any cookbook that has the word ‘Simple’ in the title works for me!

Here is the synopsis of this zesty book:

365 Simple & Tasty Recipes to Satisfy The Entire Family.
Your family is busy. But you still have to eat! Reclaim the family dinner in our household with these mouthwatering recipes, sure to draw your family into the kitchen and around the table day after day. From tasty breakfasts, soups, and salads to easy main dishes and desserts, Food Family Style delivers delicious recipes such as:

·         Easiest Chinese Chicken Lettuce Wraps
·         No-Rise Cinnamon Rolls
·         Breakfast Pizza
·         Grilled Apple Cheddar Sandwich
·         Bistro Tomato Basil Soup
·         Pesto Pasta Salad
·         Slow Cooker Jambalaya
·         Mexican Lasagna
·         Molasses Barbecue Beans
·         Southern Pecan Pie
·         Toffee Ice Cream Squares
·         Easy S’More Bars

Throughout Food Family Style, you will find symbols indicating recipes that double easily, freeze well, are gluten free or vegetarian, can be made in a slow cooker, or are favorites contributed by moms around the country. And since there’s more to mealtime than just the food, this innovative book also includes tips about how to involve your kids in meal preparation, meaningful conversation starters, and simple ideas to bring warmth to your home.

Here is the biography of the author:

Leigh Oliver Vickery is creator and founder of Leigh Oliver’s, a specialty “fun food” company with numerous products on the market in at least twenty-five states and grocery chains, including Whole Foods Market and Costco. She is the former food editor of the Tyler Morning Telegraph in Tyler, Texas.

In the Introduction, Leigh tells her readers what they do in her family’s home:

In our home, we try to sit down together to eat at least four nights a week. Yes, it takes work to get everyone’s schedule to somehow align and to get food on the table. And yes, many nights it doesn’t work out as well as I imagined.
But we try, and I have seen that the more often we make time to eat together, the better our family relationships become. We have learned how to work together (when the boys are hungry enough, they don’t mind helping!), we have learned better table manners, and we have learned so much about our boys’ thoughts and ideas we may never have known. (p. 11)

I prepared the ‘MOPS Mom: Slow Cooker Pulled Pork’ recipe the other day. It was delicious! Here is the introduction to the recipe:

Heidi Johnson grew up in Texas helping her mom in the kitchen. But it wasn’t until she left home that she learned how to really cook on her own. “I learned to cook from my mom, a cookbook called The Joy of Cooking, and the internet,” Heidi said. “My husband, Clay, loves that I like to cook.”
Heidi and Clay have a young son, and their second baby is on the way. This favorite recipe is something she created by combining several other recipes into one. “The sauce is my dad’s, the spice and mustard rub is from Cook’s Illustrated, and the rest came from some slow cooker barbecue recipes on the internet.” (p. 166)

Here are the ingredients from this recipe:

·         1 (5-7 lb) pork butt
·         ¼ cup      prepared yellow mustard
·         2 tsp.      liquid smoke
·         2 Tbs.     ground black pepper
·         2 Tbs.     smoked (or regular) paprika
·         2 Tbs.     sugar
·         2 tsp.      salt
·         1 tsp.     cayenne pepper
·         1 cup     beef broth
·         2 cups   Barbecue Sauce
(p. 166)    

I plan on trying many more of the recipes in this book! It is always exciting to have more meal options. It is really easy to get into a repetitious meal rut! I look forward to sitting down with my husband, Fred, to decide what to try next!

This book is available August 2012 at your favorite bookseller from Revell a division of Baker Publishing Group.


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