Deidre Hall's Kitchen Closeup [Paperback]

Deidre Hall (Author), Lynne Parmiter Bowman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2010

How do those women you see on the tube year after year, decade after decade, keep it glued together? How in the world do they still look eerily like they did when you used to watch the show in the eighties with your Grandma? Deidre Hall, best known to many as the ever-patient, impossibly good Dr. Marlena Evans for more than thirty years on NBC's Days of Our Lives, is obviously having fun with this. Along with her longtime pal Lynne Bowman, Hall includes you in the conversation about food, friends, shopping, and cooking. In the hour or less it might take you to pour yourself a cuppa, sit down and read it through, you will have had more than a few laughs-out-loud, and you may also think differently about some things. There are great recipes in the book, but this is not any kind of challenge to the tall-hat chefs of the world. Hall and Bowman are sharing information about what you might actually do in your kitchen. It's all really, really simple, healthful, and designed to help you put a new twist on what you do every day. They have distilled everything they've learned the hard way about slapping it on the table when it has to be not only fast and cheap but look good, taste great, and make your hair shiny. The duo claim they are finally over the soggy, the greasy, the boring and the indigestible in every area of life, and they're intent on sharing their hard-won wisdom. Expect to find more than a little solid nutritional information you didn't already know, along with kitchen management tips, all wrapped in a surprisingly charming package. Also expect some very straight talk about how to eat, of the kind you only get from that one pal you have whom you can count on to really tell you how it is. Hall and Bowman are dishy and fun, but not so down-and-dirty you wouldn't want your Aunt Ruth or your 11-year-old to read it, too. In fact, especially if your Aunt Ruth has ever secretly curled up in front of the soaps, this is an ideal gift.

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Deidre Hall and Lynne Parmiter Bowman (2010)
• ISBN-10: 0615382460
• ISBN-13: 978-0615382463
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #533,588 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Even Better Up Close, July 18, 2010

By 

Ellie - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Deidre Hall's Kitchen Closeup (Paperback)

You know them: the friends whose tables always look perfect, whose food is always nutritious, and whose kids can't get enough of whatever they're serving. Have you ever wanted to sit down with one of these people and have a warm chat, just asking them: How do you do it? What are your secrets? This book is your chance. Soap star Deidre Hall, who looks just as good now as she did when she debuted on Days of Our Lives 34 years ago, has written (with co-author Lynne Parmiter Bowman) a warm, witty, wise, well-informed, all-around-wonderful book, sharing the highlights of her knowledge of nutrition, cooking, and health. "Deidre Hall's Kitchen Closeup" begins with a discussion of what foods and appliances a kitchen should contain, continuing with specific recipes and cooking techniques. Hall's irreverent tone disarms even the most culinary-phobic reader; the title of the chapter on vegetables, for example, is "Make some new friends in the produce department", while the twelve vegetables with the largest pesticide count per serving are "The Dirty Dozen". Hall boils down (so to speak) her wealth of knowledge into a slim, conveniently-sized volume, yet she manages to include discussions on daily calorie count, ideal meal size, nutrition books, fruits, vegetables, grains, and even salts. Her tone is far from preachy: in an endearing twist, the dessert recipes are featured before soups and main courses, and Hall encourages her readers to "loosen up and eat some sweets" with their children to "make sure they know the difference between empty, sugary calories and really good treats." The recipes themselves are alluringly simple; most feature quantities such as "a couple" or "a handful", and a recipe for Pasta Verdi even encourages the reader to "whack [the greens] all up into small pieces and throw it in the big bowl you will serve it in." After the recipe section, Hall closes by thanking her readers for spending time with her. However, it is the readers who will undoubtedly have gratitude to Hall for sharing her secrets with them. If you want to see a closeup of anyone's kitchen, make it Deidre Hall's.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Love Deidre but dont love the book, November 13, 2010

By 

suz - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Deidre Hall's Kitchen Closeup (Paperback)

I am a huge Deidre Hall fan and I am so sorry to write a negative review on her book. I could write nothing, yet I have spent a lifetime also learning how to change my eating, cooking organically and learning all things holistic. I too follow Dr. Mercola and the other experts she mentions in her book. I think that $12.95 is an awful lot of money to charge for such a slim 78 page book that has so little information with most of the pages only half filled. This book has no depth. The authors often elude to having more information but send you to other resources to "do it" yourself. The soup recipes are repetitive and could have almost been condensed to one page. For example the carrot soup page could say. "Try this with red peppers" for the red pepper soup. I felt like I was reading an organic baby book for someone who has NEVER made a healthy dish in their lives. Yes Deidre some of your soap wathcing fans are intelligent and can easily afford your book. I do think you are knowledgeable but I dont think you pulled it off in this book by rushing it to press. Ms. Bowman is barely visible as a co-writer and with approx 17 recipes to offer your readers over a lifetime the two of you spent around the kitchen table is surprising. My girlfriend and I could pull our recipes together and have easily 1000's. 3 offerings include Borscht, coleslaw, and spinach soup to give you an idea. I have invested in two of your recommendations purchasing the smoked salt and the truffle salt (the later at Williams Sonoma for $28.00) and I look forward to trying these flavors in my cooking. I will be a fan of yours always and truly your expertise lies in front of the cameras. You were born to be a star and shame on DOOL for taking you away from us after all these years. I would love to see you back on DOOL. I'd also love to see you on anything primetime or in a major motion picture.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book!, July 28, 2010

By 

Anne - See all my reviews

This review is from: Deidre Hall's Kitchen Closeup (Paperback)

This book is awesome. It's funny and full of usefull information. It's like reading a long email from a gorgeous friend who is telling you how to become as gorgeous as she is. I hardly cook but after reading this, I'm ready to try some of the recipes. One thing that I like a lot in this book, is that the ingredients in these recipes are the kind we can get here in Europe too. Great book, I can warmly recommend it. :)