Mother's Best: Comfort Food That Takes You Home Again [Hardcover]

Lisa Schroeder (Author), Danielle Centoni (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 17, 2009

There's nothing like a home-cooked meal made with love, which is just what Lisa Schroeder serves in her wildly popular Portland, Oregon, restaurant, Mother's Bistro & Bar. The menu is filled with comfort food that fills the stomach and the soul. And Lisa has invited mothers from all over America and the world - Hungary, Peru, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, India, and Italy - to add their hearty and heartfelt dishes to her customers tables. Bursting with both kitchen and life wisdom, Mother's Best gathers 175 inviting recipes that range from appetizers, soups, and salads to main courses, sides, breakfast foods, sandwiches, and desserts and baked goods. Mother's Best is the cookbook for those who yearn for uncomplicated and uncommonly good food straight from mother's oven.

Editorial Reviews

Review

 “Beautifully and warmly photographed, this cookbook is about real, delicious, home-cooked food.” --Alice Waters, Chez Panisse

"Anyone who's waited in line for a table at Mother's Bistro & Bar on Southwest Stark for Sunday brunch should pounce on this book. It reveals many of the restaurant's most popular dishes, plus some from Mama Mia Trattoria, Schroeder's other eatery right next door, as well as recipes from moms whose cooking has been featured at Mother's through the years. Don't assume that all this maternal instinct spells stodgy food: Inside this book a smart, trained chef is at work." --The Oregonian

About the Author

Lisa Schroeder is the chef/owner of Mother’s Bistro & Bar and Mama Mia Trattoria in Portland, Oregon. Schroeder’s award-winning restaurants have been featured in The Oregonian, Food & Wine, Cooking Light, Town & Country, USA Today, and Bon Appetit. She makes her home in Portland, Oregon.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Taunton Press (November 17, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1600850170
• ISBN-13: 978-1600850172
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 8.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #193,954 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #77 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Regional & International > International

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eating out at home... yes please :), January 5, 2010

By 

Kari Adams (Beaverton, OR USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mother's Best: Comfort Food That Takes You Home Again (Hardcover)

When I ran into this book at Costco I was excited by the pictures and the recipes... then I realized, this book contained recipes to one of my favorite brunch places in downtown Portland. Really? She is sharing her recipes?
I was immediately compelled to add it to my cart - and bought another copy for the friend who introduced me to Mother's downtown in the first place - and let me say I am quite pleased.
I love how she gives tips throughout her cookbook - and the food is all tasting super yummy! Just had the chicken dumplings last night. My husband is not a big fan of chicken dumplings because they can be all goopy and slimey - but this recipe sold him immediately - the texture was perfect!
I also love how most of the ingredients can be found in a normal shopping store. So many cookbooks these days call for fancy items or hard to find items that even the store clerks can't tell you what they are. These are simple affordable yummy recipes that definitely are great for home cooking.
We just recently became parents of twins - adding our child count to 4. This number makes it a lot more tricky to head downtown for a nice meal... so I am very grateful that she is sharing her genious recipes with us.
If you are up for homecooking - this is the cookbook for you.
And you definitely will have to have the crunchy french toast. My favorite item in the world at Mother's. ENJOY!

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comfort Food Just Like Mom's, November 4, 2009

By 

B. Davis "crazy about books" (Beautiful Northwest USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mother's Best: Comfort Food That Takes You Home Again (Hardcover)

When I first opened this cookbook, it made me think of all the comfort foods my mother and grandmother made when I was young. Yum! It is filled with down-home recipes and useful hints that a mother would teach her daughter. It even tells how to cut up a whole chicken! Mother's Best has recipes like Nana's Chicken Fried Chicken; Meatloaf Gravy; Manhattan Clam Chowder; Mama's Minestrone; Grandma Mary's Meatball and Sunday Gravy; $15,000 Crab Cakes with Creole Mustard Sauce; Mother's Biscuits and Gravy; Basic Scones; Mother's Pulled Pork Sandwich; Mother's Apple Crisp; and many more recipes that remind me of my own mother's cooking, with a few subtle changes.

Mother's Best: Comfort Food That Takes You Home Again has 150 recipes, and most important, teaches how to cook with love. It is an inspiration and I hope it will keep my family coming home for more. I especially like the recipe for Chicken Cacciatore. I wish I could give this cookbook more than 5 stars!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Mothers" really is the best, December 10, 2009

By 

JoAnna (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mother's Best: Comfort Food That Takes You Home Again (Hardcover)

There are many things I love about this cookbook. For starters, it makes me feel like I can cook just about anything. Dishes I normally wouldn't tackle, like cioppino, are easy to make thanks to great directions and I can hardly believe I've made what's on the plate in front of me. I've also learned a lot from the tips and "love notes" that follow each recipe and love that "Mother's Best" offers an education in cooking. But mostly this cookbook is my new favorite because every recipe turns out! I have so many cookbooks that sit on my shelf looking pretty, but this one is on my counter every night. Some of the recipes make a lot, but the leftovers are great. Highly recommend this to any cook.