Customer Reviews

Amy's Table: Food for Family & Friends

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In "Amy's Table: Food For Family & Friends", culinary expert Amy Tobin has compiled a wealth of simply wonderful and thoroughly 'kitchen cook friend' recipes that are ideal for any dining occasion. Profusely illustrated in full color throughout, each individual recipe identifies how many it would serve, the preparation time involved, a brief anecdote about the recipes, cooking tips, ingredients, and instructions. From Seared Peppered Tuna with Pickled Cucumber to Italian Wedding Soup; Rough-Cut Cole Slaw with Blue Cheese; Macadamia Chicken with Mango Butter Sauce; Lemon Panna Cotta with Berry Sauce; Spiced Pumpkin Pie with Bourbon Cream; and Chocolate Bowls with Raspberry Sauce, "Amy's Table" offers an amazing variety of gourmet quality dishes and is enthusiastically recommended for both personal and community library cookbook collections.

Amy Tobin hosts a weekly radio cooking show, and acts as a culinary consultant for several major food companies. In short, this is a lady who knows her her way around a kitchen. She has put together a very approachable and useful cookbook, packed full of great recipes. I knew I would like Amy when she began her Breakfast chapter with "My morning routine is so important to me. My husband brings me coffee and the paper in bed, and I spend nearly an hour there..." Then she kicks it off with recipes for Tequila-Spiked Fruit Salad with Lime and Cinnamon Sugar Churros. Amy has some pretty great morning ideas, doesn't she?

She also has some terrific ideas for later in the day, along with helpful party tips. The appetizers provided are specifically designed to be both simple to prepare and tasty, ideal for impromptu entertaining. While she makes a point of ease of preparation, these are by no means ordinary. I think her ideas are innovative and the finished dishes appear quite elegant. A wheel of brie gets a makeover with an edible flower petal and herb design, and her Asian Chicken Salad is anything but ordinary when peppered with water chestnuts and chopped peanuts, served on endive spears. If the soups and salads don't win you over, the Seasoned Onion Straws will. Thinly cut Vidalia onions emerge spicy and crunchy - I could make a meal of these.

If you are a visual cook, you will be thrilled to hear there is a large, full-color, full-page photo of every recipe. These are telling me that I think I have finally found my recipe for Chicken Piccatta, chicken breasts pounded flat, lightly breaded and swimming in a sauce of lemon juice and capers. I also marked the Caramel Crepes with Brandied Caramel Sauce and Toasted Pecans, simply because you would have to be crazy not to. I was maybe most impressed by the last recipe - directions on making your own Limoncello. Wouldn't that make a great hostess gift?

AWESOME book!!! PLUS ALL the proceeds go to the fight against breast cancer! Amy Tobin is a lovely woman, inside and out!!

This is really an excellent cookbook, filled with very usable recipes that would please all types of home cooks. This is food that you would cook at home for your family and friends, and they're the type of recipes that you would go to again and again. The recipes are well-thought out and organized. I know that I can duplicate these at home and I'll get a great result. I like the layout and the photography and I can't wait to share it with some friends as gifts for Christmas. You won't be disappointed with this book.