Charming is a modest word to use for this tastefully produced Grandmother's Cookbook of, yes, grandmother's recipes. There are lovely watercolors here of flowers, and the entire text is handwritten in handsome calligraphy.
From brandied peaches to "potatoe balls" to feather beds, we glide through the life and times and tastes of Elizabeth Rose von Hohen. Memories of school, her family crest - "My father-in-law, Freidrich von Hohen, brought it with him from the old country." Hungarian goulash prepared simply and deliciously. Aunt Mary's salad dressing. Creamed spinach. Recipes clearly spelled out. Ingredients easy to get. Instructions a treat to follow.
Grandmother may be what this book's about, but it was granddaughter Carrie Gamble who did the calligraphy, and the watercolors. She also edited and published this volume, she chose the attractive weave of the paper and she is quite simply the very soul of this book.
Together, grandmother and granddaughter have created the sort of book you handle with just that special sort of love.
What Carrie couldn't say, Elizabeth filled out. And what Elizabeth coulldn't do, Carrie brought to creation. --The Book Reader
Like so many people, I have fond memories of family cooking. My grandmother did try to write down her recipes, even though she never worked with measurements of any kind, but nothing ever came out quite the way she made it, and I do so miss her cinnamon rolls. Every time I visited she'd have a tray of them warm and waiting for me.
Elizabeth Rose von Hohen and granddaughter Carrie J. Gamble have attempted to put together a collection of something so many of us wish for--a recreation of grandmother's recipes, in all their original splendor and with the full flavor that usually only seems to exist in our nostalgia-laden memories. Amazingly, they've succeeded well beyond my imaginings.
Style
The book includes beautiful wildflower paintings and similar old-style decorations instead of modern food photography. It's spiral-bound, with a good-quality binding and cover; it lays conveniently flat without sacrificing sturdiness. This is a truly unusual beast: it successfully combines the style of a treasured heirloom project with the usability and quality of a highly marketable product. This is a difficult task to accomplish! The little stories intertwined throughout the recipes are delightful to read and truly transport you back in time.
The Food
I've deliberately saved the best for last, maybe because I'm hoping to keep myself from going back to the fridge for leftovers for just a little longer. In the lovely introduction by Carrie Gamble she mentions testing the recipes with her grandmother before including each one in the book, and I have to say that this is the crucial step most labor-of-love cookbook authors fail to comprehend and execute properly. It's also key to an outstanding cookbook.
This cookbook produced some of the best food I've had in a while, and I say that fully remembering the cookbooks I was reviewing over Thanksgiving. I'll just share the details of a few recipes with you here.
The Rouladen were wonderful--thin steak surrounding a blend of ground beef, seasonings, crushed saltines, egg, and so on, topped with pan gravy. Absolutely delicious and quite filling. This was the first thing we made from this cookbook, and we were quite happy with it. Still, even it paled next to some of the other things we made. The cookbook includes a nice range of meat & vegetable recipes, including such items as a Hungarian Goulash, Fried Chicken, Crab Cakes, Hungarian Peasant Meal, Creamed Spinach, and Candied Sweet Potatoes.
The Cream Cheese Braid bread sounded so good we just had to make it--a sour cream dough filled with a thin cheesecake-like batter. It was quite easy to make and came out rather like a cheese Danish, except in bread form, with the filling almost melted into the dough. The bread is the softest, most tender bread I've ever had, and eating this is a blissful experience. It's hardly a healthy breakfast I'm sure, but how could we resist this morning? The dough itself reminds me of the dough for my own grandmother's cinnamon rolls--that same soft, tender texture--which I've never been able to reproduce before now. My husband, who has wistfully spoken of his own grandmother's cooking, also said the food from this cookbook brings back those memories delightfully.
Other recipes include an entire section of dumplings and noodles (Bread Dumplings, Chicken Liver Dumplings, Hungarian Plum Dumplings, Macaroni and Cheese with Crispies), appetizers and salads (Cheese Squares, Tea Sandwiches of various types, Cucumber Salad, Frosted Grapes), desserts (Brandied Peaches, Spanish Cream, Butterscotch Pie, Oatmeal Cookies, Doughnuts), Christmas specialties (Cinnamon Stars, Christmas Kiffle), and many more delights of every kind. --The Burning Void
A few months ago, a lovely lady named Carrie Gamble emailed me and asked me if she could send me a cookbook to review. I was more than happy to do so, as anyone who has read my blog for any amount of time knows I have a (huge) slight addiction to cookbooks.
I sent her my information, and when I opened her package, I set the book aside to read. I love to read a cookbook just like a novel, reading every word, picturing the recipes in my head, and taking notes on all of the recipes I plan on making.
First of all, I have to apologize to Carrie for the amount of time it has taken me to write this review. So many things were happening around that time, and it set on my night stand for a good month.
Around two weeks ago, I finally opened it up. I read this cookbook from cover to cover that night. I took so many notes, and had the hardest time putting the book down.
Now, I am sure that some of my fellow "foodies" out there will not see this book the same way as I. There are no recipes containing fois gras in this book. There are no over the top dessert recipes. Please, don't get me wrong--I love those cookbooks, but this cookbook is different. And thank goodness for that!
This cookbook reads more like a family history with a ton of love thrown in. Elizabeth Rose von Hohen's granddaughter Carrie Gamble grew up on the recipes in this book. Carrie finally talked Elizabeth into compiling all of her much loved recipes into this book, and it is a success. There are so many little stories in the book, some great pictures, and a wonderful foreword by Elizabeth. Reading through the recipes, so many of them brought a smile to my face, and took me back to the days of watching my own beloved grandmother cook her family favorites.
Some of my favorite recipes in the book, and the few that I have actually had the pleasure of cooking in my own kitchen over the last few weeks are Southern Potato Salad, Pork Chops Creole, Pull Apart Cake, Jetta's Coffee Cake and Jelly Buns. They were all so delicious, and brought back so many wonderful memories.
In the foreword of the book, Elizabeth writes :
I hope these recipes turn out well for anyone who uses them. Although I've tried to be very explicit in my writing, you will have to keep in mind that some of these recipes take practice[.........] In writing this book my hope is that all of these special old fashioned recipes will not become a lost art.
Elizabeth, I hope the same thing, and I know that for the readers of your book, that will never happen. So many of these recipes were a staple of my childhood, and will become so for my children, as well. --Enter The Circus
