Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook by Phyllis Pellman Good... a Tasty Review (Recipe Included!)

"Food sustains us, both physically and socially. I want to make it possible to prepare food at home, despite our hectic lives, and to be able to share it together."

...Phyllis Pellman Good

Here's another great tasting book review today! Millions of people have bought Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook's by Phyllis Pellman Good. And the reason is that Fix-It and Forget-It recipes are easy to put together (usually just a handful of ingredients), taste great, and are family friendly. Got a slow cooker? (aka Crock Pot) Then you're half way to a great meal. And in the Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook Revised & Updated by Phyllis Pellman Good you have 700 Great Slow Cooker Recipes to choose from and after cooking from this cookbook myself , I know you won't be disappointed! Cook for yourself or cook for a family, slow cooker recipes are adaptable and are forgiving!

Slow Cookers have been around since the 1970's. They've gone in and out of fashion since then too. But our lives are busy, and slow cookers help put a great meal on the table with very little effort. Slow cookers have become very popular again, with many choices out there from many manufacturers, and The Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook gives you tips on buying, using and adapting recipes for a slow cooker, in addition to recipes ranging from Salsa to Pizza Fondue, Stuffed Peppers to Lasagna!

What will you find in The Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook? Recipes for Appetizers, Snacks and Spreads, Breakfast Recipes such as Cheese Souffle Casserole, Soups , Stews and Chilis, Beef & Pork Recipes, Chicken & Turkey Recipes, Pasta and Bean Recipes, Vegetarian Dishes, Veggies, Desserts and Drink Recipes. You'll find recipes for Turkey Chili, Pot Roast, Hearty Stew, Enchilada Casserole, Barbecued Ribs, and Chicken Parmesian. How about a recipe for Bread Pudding or Baked Apples with Raisins! There's plenty of variety in this cookbook. Great recipes for family dinners, pot-lucks and BOOK CLUB dinners!

One of the recipes my family really enjoyed from this cookbook was Darla's Chicken Cacciatore. Chicken Cacciatore is a hearty chicken stew, usually referred to as hunter's stew because it was an easy way to cook a rabbit or chicken outside while hunting. What's different and nice about this recipe is that it uses boneless chicken breasts that are cubed, so that there are little bites of chicken mixed in the sauce, and is perfect over spaghetti or even rice. With permission from the publisher, I am able to share this recipe! Here we go...

Darla's Chicken Cacciatore

Reprinted from Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook. © by Good Books (www.GoodBooks.com). Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Makes 6 Servings

Prep Time: 5 - 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 8 Hours

Ideal Slow-Cooker Size: 4 Qt.

Ingredients

2 Onions

4 boneless chicken breast cubed

3 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 tsp. pepper

2 tsp. dried basil

1 bay leaf

2 15-oz. cans diced tomatoes

8 oz. can tomato sauce

4 oz. can sliced mushrooms

1. Place onions in bottom of slow cooker. Add remaining ingredients.

2. Cover. Cook on Low 8 hours.

How easy does that sound? I served it over spaghetti, but rice would also be a good choice. *Now a few personal notes on the recipe... I have a 6 quart slow cooker, so I added 1/2 more of the ingredients. (6 chicken breasts instead of 4 etc.) Slow cookers are adaptable and so when a recipe calls for 4 quart, it's easily adaptable to a larger pot and vice versa. ALSO, my slow cooker tends to cook fast for some reason, so I didn't go the full 8 hours on Low, I checked it at 6 hours and it was pretty much done. Always check your chicken or other meat to make sure that it's cooked through, and the more you use your slow cooker the more you'll know how fast or slow it compares to most recipes.

This cookbook will appeal to any person who would love to come home, after a day at work or play, to a home cooked meal! I want to thank Anna of FSB Associates for sending along this book for review! Not only a feast for the eyes, but for the tastebuds as well!

*Hey, I'm sharing this review on Cym Lowell's Book Review Party!

The Sunday Salon... "Feeding your Soul" with a Great Cookbook!

Happy Father's Day! To all you men out there today, I hope your day is relaxing and the food is good! Grab a cup of joe and relax a bit with me, as we sit around and gab a bit about books!

It's been a while since we've chatted about FOOD, and I just love tooling around in the kitchen & I LOVE cooking, so I thought this week's Sunday Salon would be about feeding our souls with a good cookbook!

I've spotted some great cookbooks this week at my local bookstore, and I even received a cookbook in the mail to review this week, so here are a few books to "feed" the soul...

The Frankies Spuntino: Kitchen Companion & Cooking Manual by Frank Falcinelli, Frank Castronovo and Peter Meehan... What I first noticed when I saw this book was a bright green wrap around what appeared to be a leather bound book with a distinctive message- "100 Recipes", and "Grandma never broke a sweat. Neither should you." It didn't look like a cookbook, and it wasn't in with the cookbooks. I just had to pick it up though and open it up. What I discovered was that "The Frankies" are friends and cooks, owning two restaurants (Frankies in Brooklyn & Manhattan) and that this cookbook is the "manual" for the food served in their very popular, authentic Italian eateries. This book is beautifully illustrated, is really informative ( from equipment,what to have on hand in your pantry to how to's), and the recipes are simple, easy to understand and they look delish! The Frankies share recipes such as Roasted Eggplant to Pork Braciola Marinara. There's a recipe for Sunday sauce, meatballs and even desserts. I've got this sitting on the counter waiting for me decide what to make first. I'll have a full review for this cookbook that doesn't look like a cookbook soon!

Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook (Revised & Updated) by Phyllis Pellman Good... I love my Slow Cooker! I go through these phases of using it like a demon to not using it for a while. But it's a cookbook like the Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook that reminds me what a great cooking tool my slow cooker (crock pot) is! This cookbook has 700 (yes I typed 7-0-0) Slow Cooker recipes! Recipes range from Dips, Chilli and Salsa to Barbecued Chicken wings and Casseroles! No need to heat up the whole house for a great meal! And Slow Cooker recipes are usually very easy to throw together without a fuss. I'll be cooking up something from this cookbook this week and have a full review of the cookbook too! Thanks to the publisher for sending this one along!

Recipes from an Italian Summer a collection put together by the Editors of Phaidon Press... A Beautiful FAT cookbook with warm weather recipes. The emphasis here is fresh, wonderful ingredients that are abundant in the summer. Fresh produce, fruits and berries, and herbs. 380 recipes for lighter, easy-to-follow summer dishes with big beautiful photographs. The cover caught my eye, and I love big cookbooks that almost seem like a meal in themselves, so this is one my wish list! *Update! Thanks to the publisher, we'll be cooking from this cookbook this next weekend!

What are YOU cooking up this sunday?! What are your favorite cookbooks?! Share them here, I'd love to hear about them! If you missed it, I have a review of Lidia Matticchio Bastianich's cookbook Lydia Cooks From The Heart of Italy, AND with permission of the publisher I have included her recipe for Baked Penne & Mushrooms, which my family devoured and yours should too! Plus here's the Review of I Know How to Cook by Ginette Mathiot and her recipe for Navarrais Chicken, which is an easy chicken recipe in a tomato sauce. Stop by tomorrow for Memoir Monday, because I have a review of a memoir filled with great recipes!

The week in review...

Review of Knight of Passion by Margaret Mallory, a great historical romance I just loved. If you haven't all ready, enter the GIVEAWAY for 1 of 5 copies! Giveaway ends June 28th.

Review of the Kid-friendly, Adult enjoyable Alison Dare graphic novels by J. Torres & J. Bone, as part of the Alison Dare Blog Tour hosted by Tundra Books. You can enter to win an Alison Dare prize package by taking Alison on her own adventure! Get all the details on my post, plus take a peek at what adventure I found Alison Dare climbing to!

The Kobo eReader has landed in homes around the US this week! One landed in mine too! This week I'll let you know what I think of this new eReader- the good, the bad & the ugly! So far, I'm liking it! I don't think it's going to "kill the Kindle", (why are industry people always looking for that eReader that will "kill the Kindle"?) But it's seems to be a great "bare bones" eReader at a great price. More on that this week...

And I know it's Father's Day, but don't forget the women today... there's still time to enter the GIVEAWAY for the unabridged audiobook of Put Your Crown On by Queen Latifah. That giveaway ends June 26th.

Hope you've found something to whet your appetite this week! In the meantime... Happy reading!

What's Cooking? Lidia Cooks From The Heart of Italy by Lidia Matticchio Basthianich... A Review & Recipe!

Lidia Cooks From The Heart of Italy by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich

and Tanya Bastianich Manuali

A Feast of 175 Regional Recipes

A cookbook can be just a list of ingredients and ways to prepare them, or it can be a much richer experience, an exploration of tastes and textures that can make our mouths water. Lidia Matticchio Bastianich, who is well known for her wonderful Italian cooking and sharing that knowledge on her public television show, has a new cookbook! And Lidia's newest cookbook, Lidia Cooks From The Heart of Italy, is the kind of cookbook that is not only a feast for the taste buds, but a feast for the heart as well. Lidia invites us along to explore little-known parts of Italy and the wonderful foods and recipes that come from them. The recipes are divided by the region of Italy they are from, such as Lombardy, Liguria, & Umbria, and Lidia introduces us to each region with the people and flavors that are rooted there. She writes snippets of history, such as how Apples have been a major product of Va id Non since the Middle Ages and how an 1856 nursery list listed 193 apple varieties and now there are over 8000! And at the end of each chapter Lidia gives us further places to explore in the region we are cooking in, such as the wonderfully romantic city of Sirmione in the region of Lombardy, or the antique shops in the Navigli quarter of Milan. Her passion for cooking is infectious, even in the the way she describes the food , " Just a small amount of saffron can imbue extra-virgin olive oil with the spice's captivating perfume and distinctive flavor", the recipes are easy to understand with thorough directions, even down to the recommended equipment to prepare it with, and with 175 recipes there is plenty of great cooking for everyone! Definitely a nice variety of recipes. Everything I have made from Lidia Cooks From The Heart of Italy has been delicious! And with permission from the publisher, Alfred A Knopf, I am able to share one of the recipes from Lidia's new cookbook that was a BIG hit in my house! Baked Penne & Mushrooms! I've also included Lidia's intro to the recipe. Here it is... (along with a couple photos of my cooking)

Baked Penne & Mushrooms (Pasticcio di Penne alla Valdostana) ©Lidia cooks from the Heart of Italy (Alfred A. Knopf, 2009)

The marvelous melting qualities of authentic fontina are particularly evident in baked pasta dishes such as this delicious pasticcio. When it is in the oven with penne (or other tubular or concave pastas, like ziti, rigatoni, or shells), the molten cheese oozes around each peice of pasta and is caught in all of its nooks and crannies. The cheese on top of the pasticcio melts and then becomes crusty and carmelized.

Recommended Equipment: A large pot for cooking the penne; a heavy-bottomed skillet or saute pan, 12 inch diameter or larger; a 3 quart baking dish, 9 x 13 inches, of shallow casserole of similar size.

***********************************

Ingredients...

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon kosher salt

8 ounces fontina from Valle d’Aosta (or Italian Fontal)

1 cup freshly grated Granda Padano or Parmigiano-Reggiano - plus more for passing

4 tablespoons soft butter

1 pound mixed fresh mushrooms - (such as porcini, shiitake, cremini, and common white mushrooms) cleaned and sliced.

1 cup half and half

1 pound penne

1 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley

Arrange a rack in the middle of the oven and heat to 400 degrees. Fill the pasta pot with 6 quarts of water, add Tablespoon salt, and heat to a boil. Shred the fontina through the larger holes of a hand grater, and toss the shreds with 1/2 cup of the grana (grated parmigiano-reggiano).



Put 3 Tablespoons of the butter in the big skillet, and set it over med.-high heat.

When the butter begins to bubble, drop in the mushroom slices, stir with the butter, season with 1 teaspoon salt, and spread the mushrooms out to cover the pan bottom. Let the mushrooms heat, without stirring, until they release their liquid and it comes to a boil. Cook the mushrooms, stirring occaionally,as they shrivel and the liquid rapidly evaporates. When the skillet bottom is completely dry, sitr the half and half into the mushrooms, and continue stirring as the sauce comes to a boil. Cook it rapidly for a minute or two to thicken slightly, then keep it warm over very low heat.



Meanwhile, stir the penne into the boiling pasta water and cook until barely al dente. Ladle a cup of the pasta cooking water into the mushroom sauce and stir. Drain the pasta briefly, and drop into the cream and mushroom sauce. Toss the penne until all are nicely coated, then sprinkle over them the remaining 1/2 cup of grana (not mixed with fontina) and the chopped parsley. Toss to blend.



Coat the bottom and sides of the baking dish (13 x 9 or 3 quart) with the last tablespoon of butter. Empty the skillet into the dish, spreading the penne and sauce to fill the dish completely in a uniform layer. Smooth the top, sprinkle the mixed fontina-grana evenly all over.



Set the dish in the oven, and bake 20 - 25 minutes, until the cheese topping is crusty and deep golden brown and the sauce is bubbling up at the edges. Set the hot baking dish on a trivet at the table, and serve family-style. ©Lidia cooks from the Heart of Italy (Alfred A. Knopf, 2009)

This is a great cookbook! If you make this recipe, let me know what you think! Learn more about Lidia Matticchio Bastianich, her tv show, recipes and books at Lidia's website Lidia's Italy. In the meantime enjoy her recipe! Thank you to Caitlin of FSB Associates and Alfred A. Knopf for a copy of Lydia Cooks From The Heart of Italy to review!

Memoir Monday... The Power of Half by Kevin Salwen and Hannah Salwen AND a Blogoversary Giveaway!

What Happens When a Teenager Notices Something isn't quite right in the world...

And the Winner is... rubynreba! Congrats! And Thank you to EVERYONE who joined in on the fun! And Thanks for all the Blogging and Tweeting!

The Power of Half by Kevin Salwen and Hannah Salwen... It all started when 14-year old Hannah Salwen, idealistic but troubled by a growing sense of injustice in the world, had a eureka moment when a homeless man in her neighborhood was juxtaposed against a glistening Mercedes coupe. "You know, Dad,” she said, pointing, “If that man had a less nice car, that man there could have a meal.” This glaring disparity led the Salwen family of four, caught up like so many other Americans in this age of consumption and waste, to follow Hannah's urge to do something, to finally just do something. And so they embarked on an incredible journey together from which there would be no turning back. They decided to sell their Atlanta mansion, downsize to a house half its size, and give half of their profits to a worthy charity. At first it was an outlandish scheme. “What, are you crazy? No way!" Then it was a challenge. “We are TOTALLY doing this.” Each week they met over dinner to discuss their plan. It would transport them across the globe and well out of their comfort zone. Along the way they would inspire so many others wrestling with the same questions: Do I give enough? How much is enough? How can I make an impact in the world? In the end the Salwens' journey would bring them closer as a family, as they discovered, together, that half could be so much more. Warm, funny, deeply moving and wholly uplifting, THE POWER OF HALF is the story of how one family slammed the door on the status quo and threw away the key.

This book has gotten a lot of buzz since it's release a little over a week ago! In essence, the Salwen family shows us that we don't have to sell our home to make a difference, "half" can be measured by whatever you can afford to do to help. Read about how this family was inspired and what they did to make a difference. Look for my complete review a little later... For now, FSB Associates joins in on the One Year Blogoversary Celebration by sponsoring a giveaway for The Power of Half by Kevin Salwen and Hannah Salwen! FSB Associates is an Internet marketing firm specializing in creating online awareness for books and authors. From the company's inception in 1995, FSB Associates has been a trendsetter in developing integrated online marketing campaigns for authors and publishers alike. Thanks Caitlin of FSB Associates for joining in on the festivities! Here's How to Enter...

*For One Entry, leave me a comment with your email address!

*For One more entry, Blog or tweet about this giveaway and leave me the link.

This giveaway is open to U.S. & Canada residents only.(No PO boxes). The book will be shipped to the winner directly from the publishers. Contest ends 11:59pm EST on March 1st, 2010. I will randomly pick the winners the next day and email them! Good Luck!

It's that 'Back to School' Time of Year... Here's a Way for us 'Older' Kids to Experience the Thrill...

Books to Help you Remember what you may have Forgotten

It's that time of year again... Here in Connecticut it's crisp fall mornings, the leaves will begin to change and you'll be driving to work in the morning... behind a school bus! But don't you just love this time of year! For me it brings to mind fond memories of the beginning of the school year!

While the students are cracking open those text books, there are 3 fun books for us to crack open in celebration of the season! Books that will have you say, "Hey, I remember that!"

I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School by Caroline Taggart

"Witty, engaging, and fun, this little book will appeal to the student in each of us. A one-of-a-kind collection of hundreds of facts learned long ago, such as:

*Our Changing World: Test your knowledge of the latest geography.

*Prose and Poetry: From Shakespeare to diphthongs, English class will come alive again here.

*Math and Science: Quotients, phalanges, and protons . . . do these long-forgotten words take you back to high school days?

*History: As Santayana once said so well: "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

With small snippets of information, this book is entertaining & fun. You can turn a page to any part of the book and find something interesting. Of course there is a great section on Literature, and a interesting entry... Zora Neale Hurston, a much forgotten but important African-American woman writer, who wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God. Alice Walker helped bring attention back to Zora Neale Hurston by promoting her writing.

Another book of snippets of helpful & fun information, My Grammar and I... Or Should That Be Me? : How to Speak and Write it Right by Caroline Taggart and J.A.Wines. "Sharpen your language skills and navigate your way around grammatical minefields with this entertaining and practical guide. For anyone who has ever been stumped by dangling modifiers and split infinitives, or for those who have no idea what these things even are, My Grammar and I...Or Should That Be Me? offers practical and humorous guidance on how to avoid falling into language pitfalls."

*Sentence Structure: Let's ponder the subject or object: Is it "I" or is it "me"?

*Parts of Speech: Is it "whose" or "who's"? "Which" or "that"?

*Punctuation: So where does that comma go, anyway?

*Spelling and Confusables: There are times when the spelling "rules" confuse.

*Elements of Style: You'll find there's lots more to know about grammar.

(. . . and for the grammar know-it-all, there are entertaining "Smart Aleck" tidbits throughout.)

And finally the book filled with all those memory tricks, I, Before E (Except after C): Old-School ways to Remember Stuff by Judy Parkinson.

*"Thirty days hath September . . . " To figure out a calendar?

*"Every Good Boy Does Fine" to remember the notes on the treble clef?

These ingenious, practical memory techniques abound in I Before E (Except After C) with its hundreds of curious sayings arranged in easy-to-find categories that include:

Geographically Speaking, Time and the Calendar, Think of a Number, & The Sky at Night and by Day.

All three books are hardcover, about the size of a trade paperback and are designed for gift giving with a nice bookplate ready for personalization. They are available individually from your local bookstore now! They all cover a variety of subjects that you can revisit just by picking up one of them and glancing thru. They are bite size pieces of up-to-date info, not written like an encyclopedia but more like a book of trivia! A fun journey for those of us that have been out of school for a little while! These books will amuse you and maybe even shake the memory tree a bit! Take this mini quiz and see how you do...

In Einstein's Theories of Relativity, E = MC2 what does C stand for again?

C is the velocity of light

What are the seven wonders of the world?

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, The Lighthouse of Alexandria, The Colossus of Rhodes, The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, The Status of Zeus at Olympia, The Great Pyramid of Giza (of the seven, only the Great Pyramid is still in existence)

What is onomatopoeia?

A word or phrase that sounds (a bit) like the sounds it is meant to convey: buzz, purr, or Tennyson's the murmuring of innumerable bees.

What was the war of 1812? War between the U.S. and Britain, actually lasted nearly three years, from 1812 to 1815. Britain was already at war with France (under Napoleon) and the U.S. sided with the French. American ships, trying to break a blockade that would prevent supplies from reaching France, were being seized by the British, who then coerced American seamen into the Royal Navy. On top of that, the U.S. was disputing British control of territories in Canada; New England's support for Britain complicated the issue further. This war -- the last time the U.S. and Britain fought on opposing sides -- ended in stalemate when the British defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo and subsequently lifted their blockade.

I want to thank Caitlin of FSB Associates for sharing these books with me! I thoroughly enjoyed them! Thank you!

I'm glad I could share these with you all! Now share something with me! What memory shortcuts do you remember from school? Or any fun trivia!?

Happy Reading... Suzanne