Customer Reviews

Not Your Mother's Casseroles (NYM Series)

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

 

 

I just received this book from Amazon, and I'll try to come back and add more comments as I try a few more recipes, but I just had to speak up to counter Mr. Protein who was so very disappointed with his purchase.

If you're looking for Salty Meat Goop With Crunch On Top (usually including a can of Cream O' Campbell's), this is likely not your book. However, if you're looking for comfort food to stretch your culinary repertoire while still pleasing your family's palate; or if you'd like to do more cooking with healthful ingredients, would like to know what exactly to do with some of the less mainstream veggies at your grocery store, or love the simplicity of one-dish meals on busy nights-- check it out.

So far, all I've made is the Asian Cabbage Rolls with Spicy Pork-- but this healthy riff on the Chinese friend dumplings that we (guiltily) adore was immediately filed in the "make this again SOON" category, and it's definitely whetted my appetite to try more.

I'm also particularly excited to have this on my shelf because of my familiarity with Ms. Durand's reputation and engaging work as the managing editor at thekitchn.com. I don't buy cookbooks often, but this one looks to be well worth the money and shelf space.

Faith Durand defines casseroles as a baked dish, and in this book has has more than 200 recipes. She uses no canned soup, which is one of the main premises that these are not your mother's casseroles.
She also changes the idea of casserole cooking, in that many of these recipes are meatless, which helps cut costs and for those with vegetarian leanings is good.
For each recipe she has a short description, including if it will "reheat beautifully', or if it can be prepared in advance or frozen. She also shows how rice or beans could be cooked in the oven. Some recipes have an international flavor- French, British, Italian.

A description is given of cooking equipment and pantry supplies needed.
Two problems with the book are, that it is printed in dark red print, which for some can be hard to see, and I have had books that have this type of print fade as time goes by. Many recipes extend past one page, and if they are on the right side, you then have to turn the page back and forth while you are cooking which makes it inconvenient

Included are recipes for breakfast, hot starters, vegetable dishes, oven-baked rice, potatoes and beans, oven baked pastas and grains, poultry, meat and seafood, desserts, then to go with it all, salads, breads and soups. Especially good is the version of the British bubble and squeak, and white bean casserole with herbs and pork sausage and the simple pot bread for something different.
You can cook some different recipes with this book, many do not include meat, but then these are not your mother`s casseroles.

I checked this book out from the library and liked it so much I bought it. I generally check books out, copy the recipes that I like, and return it. With this book, I liked so many recipes that I actually bought it. We really like casseroles in our family because it is a good way for us to incorporate veggies into our diets. None of us in our family are huge fans of separate meat, starch, veggies kind of meals. This book offers some really interesting new twists on casseroles. The casseroles aren't run of the mill, but they also aren't so weird that they seem unappetizing. I highly recommend!!

Wow -- what a great cooking book. Instead of "casseroles" the author prefers to call these "baked dishes". It's no longer canned string beans and fried onions with mushroom soup! Mouth-watering dishes such as: "Roasted Carrots with Lemon, Feta & Mint". Sweet potatoes are combined with cononut milk and herbs, chickpeas are baked into steaming casseroles with shallots and herbs. Even a baked spagetti combined with pine nuts -- you just slice it out of the oven and serve. Perfect for this recession economy --a modern herbal version of Mom's cooking -- just as good and maybe a little better!

I really wanted to like this book, but I've found it contains multiple errors. Cook times are off on so many recipes, I actually bought an oven thermometer because I thought my oven might be off. It wasn't. Tonight was the last straw. One recipe called for 3/4 cup of cream, then you are to add 2 tablespoons of it to 12 ramekins. 24 tablespoons is 1 1/2 cups, so now I'm wondering which instruction was right.

Boo! Grocery shopping, cooking and washing up takes too much effort for recipes that are carelessly wrong.

This cookbook is a fantastic resource for updated, modern casseroles recipes. I grew up eating dense, cheesy casseroles made with cream-of-something soup. While I love the convenience of casseroles, I stopped eating them when I started cooking for myself. I prefer fresh, simple food and I feel like this cookbook was written for me. There aren't a lot of shortcuts (like canned soups), but many of the recipes can be put together quickly. This book has been a great resource for weeknight cooking. I've been using it at least once a week.

The chapter on breakfast casseroles is particularly good. The recipes for baked oatmeal are fantastic. As with the other sections, the chapter contains a mix of updated favorites and new and interesting casseroles. I also appreciate that the book includes a lot of vegetable and grain-based casseroles. There are lots of great recipes for vegetarians, and many of the casseroles are healthy and light. I can find healthy weeknight meals as well as heartier special occasion dishes.

Finally, the recipes are well-written, clear, and easy to follow. The author's warm and personal tone comes through in the brief introductions to each recipe. This cookbook is a pleasure to read and to cook from. I highly recommend it!

I won this cookbook in a contect sponsored by the publisher, so I did not know exactly what I was getting until it arrived. That said, I am thrilled with the contents!

There is a large selection of creative and delicous looking breakfast casseroles, which I know will come in handy whenever my parents or friends visit. There is a large selection of baked starters and dips, which is such a bonus I cant even explain - it gives you perfect (and healthy) options to bring to potlucks, or for your superbowl parties. The vegetable recipes are great - they provide really nice options for sides that don't require a lot of fuss attention if you're cooking for guests or just have a lot going on and don't want to monitor your veggies closely on the stove top. The protein recipes seem like really great recipes you could make to bring to a new mom or someone else who you're trying to prep a meal for, without it being terribly unhealthy, or loaded with nasty ingredients. Having this cookbook is much more convenient than having to adjust other recipes on the fly for these 'flaws'.

I really must be a different type of cook than the fellow who gave this one star, because when I got the book I kept turning the page and seeing another recipe I wanted to try. I would read the titles aloud to my fiance and agreed... Yum!

The approach to the recipes perfectly satisfies my approach to cooking: real ingredients, not too fancy, but absolutely delicious.

As i just received it, I've cooked just one recipe thus far: the baked chicken and rice recipe, and it was delicious! I will definitely cook it again.

And as far as the "Not your mothers" aspect of it: I plan on giving this to my mom for christmas. She would love these recipes.

The recipes were good and can be adapted to be healthier. However I was very disappointed that the nutritional information was not listed on the recipes. I am going to have to go through each recipe and figure it out. I would think all recipe books would have this information.

I got this book from the library and I'm so very glad I did because it was not the book for me. I am BIG on photos in my books and this one has only the cover photos and that's IT! I love the idea of this book but that was a big deal-breaker for me. The other deal-breaker was the omission of nutritional info. I don't count every calorie I eat, but I like to know a general range of a recipe if I'm going to go to the trouble of cooking it.

The write-up for this cookbook sounded great which is why I purchased it. I was excited to get it mainly because I work long hours and casseroles are right up my alley. And I had high expectations from the book description that they would not be the old casseroles that my Mother did make. Alas, I could not find one recipe that I wanted to even consider making let alone run out and get all the ingredients to make "Right Now". Most of the recipes are vegetable, grain, pasta or legume based. There is only one chapter on protein based casseroles. And that chapter is all inclusive. I would have liked to see more of this type of casserole. I am sorry to say that this is the first cookbook I have ever ever returned. I just don't want to waste valuable shelf space on something I will never use or open again.