Reviewed by Jeanne
“Hey, good lookin’—what ya got cookin’?” comes from a Hank Williams song, but
it’s the very apt phrase Dolly and her sister say or sing when they enter a
kitchen. Food is a love language, and
both sisters and many of their relatives speak it well. Each sister writes a separate introduction
about what food means to them, and then one together which gives their philosophy
of cooking, as it were. They believe in planning ahead but being able to
improvise; in timing the preparation so that the cook is with the family and
not hidden away in the kitchen; and in the treasured memories that come from
cooking and eating with those you love.
The cookbook is divided up by months, with one meal for each
month: an “Opening Act” appetizer, the main courses, including meat and
vegetables, and then the “Encore” dessert.
Some of the meals are tied to celebrations, so of course November
features dishes for Thanksgiving, while July has food more suited for a
cookout. However, the sisters take pains
to explain that these dishes can be made for any occasion (though you might
want to leave the licorice legs off the spider cake for a non-October
treat). The idea is to have certain
recipes that you can use any time in any combination to come up with a winning
meal. As a bonus, there are festive pictures of the Parton sisters and various family
members scattered throughout.
Each recipe lists prep time, cooking time, and additional time
if needed (such as chilling dough), offers tips on ingredients, and has a glorious
color photo of the finished product. They do give some of their favorite brands
for ingredients for that particular recipe, such as Hellmann’s mayonnaise or
King Arthur flour, and give a good amount of detail on some of the prep (greens
need to be washed four times to get rid of all the grit).
And just in case you didn’t remember which holiday featured
corn bread in a cast iron skillet, there’s a handy index.
For someone who doesn’t cook, I seem to pick up a lot of
cookbooks. I certainly don’t do anything
but look, but I do enjoy that. This one
has several recipes that I might even be able to do, should I ever be properly
motivated. As promised there are a lot
of staples like Dressed Eggs (deviled eggs, but the “dressed” refers to the
many types of garnish that can be added, including olives, sweet pickles, or
bacon), Country Potato Salad, Oven Roasted Broccoli, Mac and Cheese, and so
on.
If you’re looking for a new recipe for Thanksgiving or just
want to see what spin the Partons put on an old favorite, this might just be
the book for you.
My late wife had a couple of hundred cookbooks when she passed. Then there were the library cookbooks. I'd bring them home, she would copy recipes, and sometimes I reviewed the cookbooks.
ReplyDeleteEvery now and then, somebody would come along and complain that I or we had not actually cooked the dishes, and therefore the review was meaningless. Took the fun right out of it. Nobody ever came review back on the murder mystery and asks if I have killed somebody the way it was described in the book to prove it worked.
After she passed, I just did not have the heart to do any more cookbook reviews. Sandi would have loved this one.