Robin DonovanCritiques

WHO KNEW??? I was familiar with the Ramen that I got in college, and in my lunches when I first started working. Remember the little styrofoam cups with the dried noodles in? You would add boiling water and the little flavor packets, and choke them down. Well, things have definitely changed! Wow!
I had no idea of what good ramen could be!
Thanks to our Chinese exchange student, I was awakened to a whole new experience. She took my wife and I to our first ramen restaurant, and I was amazed. The depth of flavors, the variety of ingredients, and the downright deliciousness of a quality ramen!
So, when I was offered an ARC of this book from Callisto, I jumped at the chance.
The book opens with the history of ramen in Japan and China. Which was very interesting in itself.
Part 2 dealt with the steps in making ramen. Spoiler: it's not just pouring boiling water into the little styrofoam cup! A person can easily get very involved in making ramen.
Finally, part 3 gets into the best part! The recipes. Over a hundred pages of delicious looking recipes! All written in an easy to understand, step by step method.
I loved this book! We have started making our own ramen now, and it's so good! And there are enough recipes in the book to keep us busy for years to come!

If you like Japanese ramen recipes this book would be for you. It has a lot of recipes. You can take a tour of Japanese flavors with these recipes. What I like is that there is a section on how to make different broths to use in the recipes. Unfortunately for me, a lot of the ingredients I would not be able to get at the local grocery store or even Walmart. That is all we have in our small town. I would probably have to order at Amazon, maybe.
That said, as I was perusing the book, I loved the pictures and even some of the recipes. I did bookmark one, Spicy Stir-Fried Garlic Ramen which I will make for sure.
The book is broken down into 3 sections on mastering Japanese Ramen. There is the introduction of course but Part I is the history of the Ramen, Part II is the six steps and Part III is the recipes.
I will also be trying the broth section that looks really easy, some broths can be made in the pressure cooker!
Now I think if you are into Japanese food and want to try on your own, this cookbook is definitely for you!

Since there are only two of us in the household and we both love treats, even though we really are not supposed to. Dessert Cooking for two is perfect though because then I don't end up making enough for 6-8 people. Then if we don't eat it all, although hubby takes care of most of it, it goes to waste. I am diabetic so I really need to watch the sugar. I do love sweets though so I like to have something once in awhile.
The first section of the book is how to cook for duos, how to portion, what equipment to use, how to shop, pantry staples. Then there is how to make use of leftovers and storing. The next section is skills and techniques. Techniques for eggs, working with pastry dough and decorating.
The recipes include anything from cookies, brownies and bars to frozen treats. There are 155 recipes, handy kitchen hacks, which is fun and good to know. So this cookbook is one way to get rid of packaged sweets and have fresh and flavorful desserts.
The recipes have concise and easy to read instructions, tips and some have equipment hacks. There are a lot of the recipes that I will be making. I love the ease of which I can find what I am looking for, via the table of contents.
Love sweets, don't want to make a lot? Then give this one a try! I love it!!

"Dessert Cooking for Two"--from food writer, blogger, and recipe developer Robin Donovan features 115 dessert recipes for every occasion. While there are few photos to accompany the recipes, and there are no nutritional breakdowns, there are cooking tips and helpful hints scattered throughout the pages. Advice on portioning and shopping for two is also included.The variety and originality of the recipes is excellent, and after reading the book, I was so hungry for a sweet treat! Recipes are labeled into 4 categories: "Quick"; :No-Bake"; "Mini-Equipment"; and "Lightly Sweet". There is a very helpful section which explains three different techniques for melting chocolate. Readers are encouraged to use dessert-appropriate leftovers to make their own inspired creations. I couldn't wait, and I tried "Dark Chocolate Pudding" and "Coffee and Cream Brownies" as soon as I could make them--they were scrumptious! Here are some more of the many delicious recipes you'll find: "Toffee Pecan Sandies"; "White Chocolate Butter Cookies"; "Blueberry Cheesecake Bars"; "Coffee Crumb Cake"; "Mini Carrot Cakes"; "Banana Cream Mini Pies"; "Pear and Coconut Crisp"; and "Butterscotch Bread Pudding". Treat yourself well and indulge without over-indulging.

Book Copy Gratis Callisto Publishers

In my opinion, this book is worth having just for the convection oven information at the beginning. It explains, not only how different convection ovens work, but also how to adapt recipes designed to be cooked in conventional ones.

It has several recipes, organized into sections like, "Breakfast and Brunch", "Appetizers and Snacks", "Poultry", "Breads" and so on. Each recipe gives a brief description of the food, at times even explaining how the convection oven cooks it to perfection, and also lists which types of Convection Ovens the recipe works best with, Full-Size, Countertop, Halogen…etc. And which setting to use, BAKE or ROAST.

The one thing I think that this cookbook could be improved by is having pictures of each recipe. But many of the titles and descriptions of the foods sound tasty just to read about, so it's not too important. There are many (in my opinion) easy to follow recipes, like Juicy-Oven-Grilled Bacon Cheeseburgers, Crispy Chicken Wings with Sweet-Hot Honey Mustard Sauce ("crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside, and bathed in a zippy sauce"), Pecan-Sour Cream Coffee Cake ( I tried this recipe, my dad really liked it with his coffee!), Streusel-Topped Caramel Apple Muffins…and so on.

I only tried one recipe so far from this cookbook, but am definitely planning on trying more in the future. Mainly for the past couple of months I've been referring to it in cooking some of our normal meals. For instance, I referred to it when I made some chicken that we normally fry in oil, and wanted to see what they did to make oven fried chicken and what setting they used, Bake or Roast.

The section I must appreciated about this book is it's section about convection ovens and how to cook with them at the beginning. I learned something brand new about my family's convection oven. I was reading the section "convection settings and how to Use Them" when "Convection Roast" caught my eye. "I don't remember our oven having a roast setting", I thought, but then I seemed to have this faint memory of seeing some sort of button that said "roast". I went to our kitchen and looked at the buttons on the oven. It has a "Roast" setting! The button is right NEXT to the "BAKE" setting, and yet I had never really noticed it. We've had the oven for over ten years and yet I never realized we have that button? I was very eager to try the setting, especially since the book points out that "Convection Roast can also be used to 'oven-fry' breaded or battered foods such as chicken nuggets or tempura shrimp, or to turn veggies into crispy chips or fries." French Fries, I've always had trouble cooking them in the oven. They never seem to come out nice and crispy. Just hot and squishy. "Perhaps", I thought, "it's because I've been using the wrong setting on the oven". We always used BAKE, 'cause, of course, we thought we didn't have another setting on the oven. I really feel crazy for not noticing that Roast button all of these years. Not only is it next to the BAKE button but It's even the same size!

Anyway, so one day I tried a small batch of frozen french fries, using the newly discovered ROAST setting. And it worked! They were beautifully crispy. And as I scarfed some down one of my sisters kept asking if she have one, and another one, and another one… they were good! And then I tried it with a normal batch of fries. I come from a large family, I have 13 brothers and sisters with twelve of us still living at home. So a regular batch of fries for us is two cookie sheets full of fries. The pan on the top rack came out nice and crispy, but the ones on the middle rack weren't done yet (I think the pans are probably a little too large to allow an even circulation of air in the oven). Next time I'll need to put them back in the oven on the top rack to allow them to finish. But the crispy ones were still really good! I've made many small batches of fries for snacking in the past few weeks with that setting. It's so much easier to roast the fries in the oven instead of having to make a mess frying the fries in oil.

Anyway, I'd highly recommend this book, for the convection oven tips alone!

Many thanks to the folks at the Callisto Media for sending me a free review copy of this cookbook! My review did not have to be favorable, I truly do like this cookbook!

This is LibraryThing Member Giveaway review.

This book will tell you how to make any ice cream flavor that you can think of, and with all the topping to go with it. She provides directions in a clear and concise manner and helpful hints for flavor and substitutions.

I scream, you scream we all scream for ice cream! Remember that as a kid? Well now you can scream for your Ice Cream and make it to with THE HOMEMADE ICE CREAM RECIPE BOOK BY ROBIN DONOVAN. Not only do you get homemade ice cream recipes but milkshakes , toppings and many more delicious items to put on your ice cream. My mom always said that homemade is the better than bought and she's right. I just bought my first ice cream maker and am ready to go wild with it and the book.

I recieved this book free in exchange for an honest review.

This book is absolutely GORGEOUS! The design is beautiful, it is well written, and the recipes are fantastic. My 6 year old daughter was extremely excited to see this book arrive in the mail, and we're already digging in to our first batch of homemade ice cream. Highly recommended to anyone who loves ice cream! A++ book.

For those out there, do consider this book as a cheat guide for gourmet cooking. Its not wrong. Its possible. A quarter of the book is filled with a lot of cooking tips that are easy to follow for western cooking while the rest was recipes with wonderful fine names in it but simple enough instruction to follow and with serving yields.

For me, its a good book but it doesn't really add anything if you're seeking more on the art of cooking. The language is casual, simple and compacted for beginners and home cookers intend on impressing guests.

I like this book on hand whenever I'm cooking for my family and friends but since its a cheat guide, its a good accompaniment for a quick recipe but if you have better books, you can skip this.

This is an extensive collection of recipes in an easily portable book. I've only tried one of the recipes so far; it turned out great. Some of the salads would be great potluck items or hot-weather meals, and the marinades look fabulous for grilling at home. We'll definitely be making good use of this book this summer. I can't wait to try to savory s'mores made with toasted mozzarella balls.