Guilty Comfort Foods: Eliza's Secrets [Paperback]

Lisa Bick (Author), Tom Casalini (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2002

Guilty Comfort Foods extols the power and pleasure of desserts, dreams, sensuality and feminism. The evocative photographs and recipes of comfort mixed with the mysteries of a past generation lure you to revel in the bliss of sweets. These indulgences will both comfort you and assuage your guilt.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Bick's Guilty Comfort Foods stirs up nostalgic memories with ethereal photographs, simplistic dessert recipes, and an idyllic story of a mysterious woman from another time. The woman, it turns out, is Bick's grandmother, and the recipes were hers, found after her death in a faded pink box at the back of a forgotten stairwell closet. Bick has put the pieces she found together and woven a story about her grandmother's life told not from a granddaughter's point of view, but from a romantic's perspective. She knows little about her grandmother's state of mind as a woman, but through re-creating her handwritten recipes she imagines what life was like for this farm woman who gave birth nine times and was widowed at age thirty-eight.

Bick has rewritten all the recipes, removing what she calls "grandmother code"--such as "two lumps of butter the size of eggs" or "butter the size of a walnut"--replacing the nebulous text with standard baking measurements of teaspoons and tablespoons. Tantalizing descriptions introduce each recipe with hints of garnishing, like adding fresh berries to the One Egg Cake that otherwise might be plain and uninspiring. Bick includes old-fashioned desserts like Depression Cake, developed in a time when butter and eggs were in short supply. Rounding out the cake and pie selections are easy recipes for Cake Doughnuts, Drop Sugar Cookies, Buttermilk Buscuits, and sinful Cinnamon Rolls.

There are 28 recipes included in all, each with its own picture. The evocative photographs by Tom Casalini included in the book pair deliciously with the country dessert recipes, though none of the photographs are of food. The pictures capture people in ordinary situations: an aproned woman sweeping a sidewalk next to a late 1950's Chevy pick-up truck; an elderly couple sitting on a wooden bench, on the covered porch of an old white farmhouse, flanked by two American flags that are blowing in the breeze. The recipes and photographs play off each other, creating moments of sensual solace. The pairs establish a sentimental connection with the reader, an invitation to travel back in time to visualize a country kitchen perfumed with sugar and spice.

The "Guilty" part of the title is well earned. The recipes are packed full of butter, sugar, whole milk, and other fattening and high caloric ingredients. Bick makes no excuses. Her reasoning is that self-indulgence is one of life's sweet rewards. This book is another.

About the Author

Lisa Bick has a degree in Art Education-Fine Arts from Indiana University and has taught secondary art in Indianapolis, Indiana. While raising three children and living in a farmhouse that was built in 1880, she has always been very interested in vintage cooking. Extensive vegatable and herb gardens contribute to her culinary skills. She has taken cooking courses in Tuscany, Italy, as well as Houston, Washington, D.C. and Indianapolis. Her second book, TANGERINES AND KARMA, DESSERTS FROM AN ASIAN JOURNEY, is due for release next spring.

Product Details

• Paperback: 60 pages
• Publisher: Sweet Pea Press (October 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0970441010
• ISBN-13: 978-0970441010
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 6.8 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,016,720 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Guaranteed to lift anyone's spirits, March 8, 2003

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Guilty Comfort Foods: Eliza's Secrets (Paperback)

Nothing can be so mood calming, so anxiety relieving, so depression elevating as a favorite culinary treat. What Lisa Bick has done in Guilty Comfort Foods is to assemble twenty-eight outstanding recipes, each illustrated with its own picture, of dishes that are legendary comfort foods suitable for all occasions of self-pampering and commiseration. From Wacky Cake, Sugar Cram Pie, and Blackberry Pudding, to Brittle, Rhubarb Charlotte, and Homemade Doughnuts, Guilty Comfort Foods lays out each and every scrumptious project with clear step-by-step directions culminating in delicious somethings that are guaranteed to lift anyone's spirits on those occasions when we need to curl up with something as mind soothing as it is taste-bud satisfying!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Guilty Foods Second Helpings, March 14, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Guilty Comfort Foods: Eliza's Secrets (Paperback)

I own a small catering company in Canada that handles a lot of small exclusive business office parties. During the summer months we specialize in wholesome foods served in picnic baskets complete with fine wines and even checkered tablecloths. We try to offer our clients menu selections that are not only healthy but supply a bit of flair and tempting eye appealing foods. Discovering Ms. Bicks wonderful Guilty Comfort Foods has made our dessert selections not only easier but the compliments keep coming in. The cookbook has top billing on our kitchen shelf and her whitty tongue in cheek way of writing brings smiles to the faces of my catering staff. Thank you Lisa and when is the next book coming!!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars beautiful, September 7, 2003

By 

michelle Smuckler (St. Louis, MO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Guilty Comfort Foods: Eliza's Secrets (Paperback)

I am soooo happy I found this book. I am going to give it as a gift to all of my friends. It is the most unique cookbook I have ever seen.... a combination of sensual and soulful .....unbelievably beautiful pictures and stories to go with easy to follow wonderful recipes. Cooking can be fun again!