Customer Reviews

Rosemary Brown'S Big Kitchen Instruction Book

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have well over 200 cookbooks - of every size and topic imaginable, and I think Rosemary Brown's "Big Kitchen Instruction Book" is a "MUST HAVE" for every kitchen. Even if you only boil water or heat something in the Microwave, you can use this book. I have the paper back, but I will buy the hard back version when it comes out.

Even though Rosemary's "Acknowledgments" and "Introduction" pages are a little lengthy, she has much to say that the reader will find informative and entertaining. These sections should be read - to find out what an extraordinary person she is.

From these pages, I perceive Rosemary Brown to be professional, organized, caring, humorous, helpful. Not only has she written a great kitchen proposal and cookbook, but I believe she truly wants to inspire each reader to have a great workable kitchen in which to prepare delicious meals.

She doesn't just thank all the people who have inspired and helped her; I sense she also cherishes their roles in her business and personal endeavors and in her every day life.

Now, why do you need this book? - to make your or someone else's life in the kitchen more enjoyable and tolerable. This book is for any-age, any-sex single person, for a newly married couple, for a "use-a-pinch-of-this, butter-the-size-of-an-egg" cook, for a "been-cooking-since-I-was-6" (and now I'm 65) person, and also for someone who just wants their kitchen to look and smell wonderful with no plans to ever cook a single thing in it.

Rosemary gives you valuable information and suggestions on how to organize your cabinets, pantry and drawers; how to buy groceries and store them and for how long - from Arrowroot and Arugula to Wheat Germ and Yogurt. Her suggestions for buying kitchen equipment and implements are very practical. She tells you how to use these items. She gives you detailed definitions of kitchen and cooking terms. The "Food Substitutions" section is the best I've seen. She even has substitutions for containers in the "Container Capacities" section. Included also are conversions of all kinds, and Fahrenheit and Celsius comparisons, for example. There is a section for buying quantity per number to be served. It has what every cook needs!

All of the above goodies are in addition to the varied, easily-prepared and delicious recipes. Do you know what Fava and Cranberry beans are? Lingonberries? Jicama? 11 varieties of pears? Salsify? Rosemary will tell you. Each recipe page also has a side bar column for notes pertaining to the recipes on that page.

I am just amazed at the research, experimentation and dedication Rosemary Brown has put into her "Big Kitchen Instruction Book". As you may know, her husband, H. Jackson Brown, is the author of "Life's Little Instruction Book" and "Live and Learn and Pass It On."

Rosemary Brown's Big Kitchen Instruction Book is a comprehensive resource for the kitchen with much more than great recipes. The organization of the information makes for easy access. The first several chapters are full of "secrets" which only a very experienced hostess and cook could reveal. A great gift book.

I love this book! This book is perfect if you are just starting out in the kitchen, as I am. Rosemary Brown teaches as only as experienced cook and hostess can. She writes about organizing the kitchen, stocking the pantry, menu planning, and meal preparation, to name just a few topics. This book hasn't left my kitchen counter since I bought it because I am constantly refering to it. I highly recommend this book!

I consider myself a fairly accomplished cook, so my expectations of this book weren't too high. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this is not only a very good choice for the beginning cook; the recipes are versatile enough that it would be a useful addition to anyone's cookbook shelf. Nothing here is terribly challenging or exotic, so if that's your taste you'd be better served by other cookbooks. However, if your primary emphasis is on day-to-day meal preparation, this is a pretty good bet. I'm not sure if I'd consider it an essential, but it's definitely useful.

This cookbook kept us fed our first year of marriage. I still pull it out whenever I need a substitution or need to know how long certain things will keep. We love all the helpful hints (like how to make all the different types of eggs) and basic information. Our favorite recipes are potato soup and my hubby loves the grilled cheese. This book is a must have!

It's more than just recipes, it's an instruction manual on how to get your kitchen organized. It teaches you things such as how to set up a kitchen and how to pick cuts of meat. Plus it has awesome recipes. I can see why it took Mrs. Brown 20 years to complete. I would recommend this book to all women, especially those who get lost in the kitchen.

This is a great basic cookbook to have. The recipes are good and relatively easy without calling for too many exotic ingrediaents. It has several pages of helpful substitutions, and tells you how to choose produce as well as the proper way to cook any vegatable. Try the banana bread and the monkey bread.

This is a good book to refer to for organizing your kitchen or to learn about an unfamiliar ingredient, but I have found that many of the recipes are on the bland side and I always have to make notes on how to improve every single recipe for the next time, which isn't the case for other cookbooks I own. More importantly, some recipes don't give nearly enough detail. For example, in one recipe that includes a pasta sauce, there aren't guidelines for heat or cooking time, and unless you're an experienced cook,you'll end up with a watery gruel. I enjoy looking things up in this book, but the flavor of the recipes is hit and miss.

This is a good basic book, but my main "beef" with this book is that it uses too many Processed,packaged foods, For instance, in the section on cakes, the author calls for using yellow box mix as one of the ingredients. I prefer to make a ckae from scratch.