Customer Reviews

Mom's Best One-Dish Suppers: 101 Easy Homemade Favorites, as Comforting Now as They Were then

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I bought this book because a) I loved Andrea Chesman's "The Garden-Fresh Vegetable Cookbook," and b) I was writing an article on cooking good meals for busy people. The concept of one-dish suppers and comfort food seemed like a good match.

I have to admit that the book lives up to its title; many of these dishes are similar to ones that my mother might have made: beef stew, chicken and dumplings, mac 'n' cheese with ham and green peas, pot roast with vegetables. There are a few nods to international cuisine, but all in all, I didn't find much in it that was either new or exciting enough to make me want to add the ingredients to my next shopping list. Experienced cooks, and those with adventuresome palates, may not find much of interest in its pages.

On the other hand, it would be a great book for someone new to cooking. Buy it for a niece or nephew going off to college or moving away from home. My copy will go to my daughter, who is just getting interested in learning to cook.

I was looking around for a really good cookbook that would give me some quick comfort foods to incorporate into our family meals. This book was a great buy--it is at a great price, and in it you'll find some good recipes and some really good reading, too! Andrea Chesman puts in all sorts of interesting tid-bits about how the meals came to be in the larger context of their original culture.

I also like this book because the meals inside are a lot more exotic than you'll find in most one-dish recipe books, including all kinds of moms--East Indian moms, Cajun moms, Midwest moms, Italian moms--it's a varied selection which is quite refreshing. It also doesn't have the gobs and gobs of butter and condensed soup goop that you find in most one-dish books, a' la Taste of Home, which to me is a relief. If that's what I was looking for, I'd get a magazine subscription or look up recipes at Cambells.com. Of course sometimes I *do* go to Cambells.com--but sometimes I want to cook and assemble a comfort food with the loads of taste that come from not having taken so many shortcuts. That's why I like this book--it gives you a relatively easy meal without compromising on actual cooking, all the while giving you that wonderful one-dish comfort food result. I'd also like to note that although some of the ingredients are not all that common to the average mom's pantry, you don't have to do mail-order to find them.

So four stars and a good buy for the money.

p.s. One dish refers to the fact that only one dish is served at dinner, not one dish to make it. (duh)

p.s.s. As I grew up in Southern Louisiana... um, well... My mom DID make it.

Of all places where I spotted this book was in a new age shop, while vacationing on the Big Island of Hawaii. I was pretty surprised about the recipes in the book, which are pretty modern recipes because of the cover I was expecting old school recipes. It is a pretty easy, clean, and very simple read on the recipes. The book covers from American to Asian to Italian and other ethic recipes. As a beginner cook, this book has been great. I own the 2nd book, Mom's Best Desserts, and looking forward to ordering the 3rd book that is coming out soon. I have to agree with the previous review that My mother never made any of these recipes but I wish she did.

I find myself turning more and more to this book as I get tired of cooking my same old standbys. Looking for a recipe in "Mom's Best One-Dish Suppers" is like looking at a menu at the diners I remember. Everything looks good and it's just a matter of what I feel like eating.

Most of the ingredients from the recipes are already in my pantry and just about every recipe offers suggestions for substitutions or additions. I never have to do any supermarket searches for obscure ingredients.

I am particularly pleased with the number of recipes that incorporate vegetables. I don't have to worry about timing a bunch of side dishes to be done at the same time as the entree, plus I am sneaking in alot of vegetables in my "one dish" that would otherwise be overly obvious (and probably ignored) sitting on the plate by themselves.

All this, my family loves the food, and Ms. Chesman writes very interesting commentary. I am very pleased with this book. I own a couple other of her books and use them all extensively.

A different reviewer asked "How many "Moms" do you know who make Cajun Macque Choux?". Well, meet one. I made this easy dish when my in-laws were in town - corn, bacon, bell peppers, tomatoes, shrimp, cream. All prepared with a knife, cutting board, and one very large skillet. Delicious, easy, and quickly devoured by my dad-in-law. Recipe title: not typical. Food: delicious.

I echo the fact that this is not elaborate food - but it is good, tasty, and easy to prepare. I own FAR too many cookbooks, but this is one I use on a very regular basis. The Chili Mac - made with ground turkey, pureed tomatoes, onions, bell pepper, beans, and maccaroni - is easy to make, filling, low-fat, and loved by my 3 yr old, first grader, and picky husband.(I leave out the jalepeno and hand my husband a bottle of hot sauce at the table instead) A little chopping, open some cans, follow the directions - better than a box dinner any day...

Other family favorites include: Black Bean Soup; Pasta e Fagiole; Chinese Chicken Noodle Bowl; Italian Wedding Soup; Barbecued Bean Cornbread Supper; Curried Chicken and Broccoli Pilaf; Skillet Shepard's Pie; Mexican Lasagne; Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad; Thai Beef Noodle Salad.

So - who's this book for: new cooks who want good food without fuss; experienced cooks who want good food without fuss; family cooks who want food kids will eat or recipes kids can help with. Singles and small households - prepare for a LOT of leftovers!

This would make a great gift for someone starting out - presented with a baking dish or a skillet.

This was a very disappointing purchase for me. After making 8 dinners and 1 soup from this book, I can finally throw it out. I did give it a shot but the recipes are from tasteless to downright disgusting!
I star recipes as I make them - 4 being the highest. Each recipe got from 1-2 stars, and one just got the word "horrible."
Enough said.
Look elsewhere if you want one-dish meals that TASTE GOOD!

I bought this book for myself, but found it was not as adventurous as I would like for my apparently wider palate. I really liked how easy everything looked and how well explained it was, so I gave it away as a gift.

Little did I know it was a gift to myself because every time I go visit, I get a delicious one-dish meal and my friend gets a chance to follow her first recipes to success. Yum!

This book has such great promise, but is, in fact, one of the most useless cook books that I've purchased. I normally give books to friends, the library, or recycle them to other places if I can't use them, but this one is so bad I will probably use it to light the wood stove. The recipes are clearly written, and there are some good tips (the only saving grace) but this is not your Mom's best one dish suppers; most don't even sound tasty.

VCJones

a) How many "Moms" do you know who make Cajun Macque Choux?
b) I didn't find even one recipe that took only one dish to prepare.
c) How many "Moms" use ingredients like saffron threads or capers on a regular basis?

The title implies comfort food...don't be fooled. Just reading the book stressed me out because of the often hard to find ingredients and the numerous "pots and pans" needed to create even one recipe. Not even Martha Stewart would consider these "comforting" (as claimed on the cover) or "one dish" (as claimed in the title).