Customer Reviews

Tatiana's Table: Tatiana and Alexander's Recipes for Food and Love

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Fans of The Bronze Horseman Trilogy will "eat up" this book. Full of delicious and somewhat easily prepared recipes of the foods cooked by Tatiana throughout her life and marriage, the very best, and most anticipated, parts are the stories that precede each recipe. Each recipe follows a Tatiana or Alexander vignette, like their time in Leningrad with her family, or Tatiana's life in NY. There are new stories of Tatiana & Alexander when they lived in Coconut Grove and Phoenix; stories involving their children, especially Anthony and his relationship with Vikki. It has a wonderful and heart-melting ending that precedes the recipe for strawberry ice cream. This is a must have for fans of these books...and for cooks everywhere!

This is the first cookbook I have ever read cover to cover. Paullina Simons writes an unconventional cookbook based on her Tatiana and Alexander trilogy full of deliciously easy recipes. Simons presents her recipes according to her books in the order in which they would have been prepared. As the Bronze Horseman takes place in war torn Leningrad, all the Russian recipes are included first, followed by Italian, Mexican and American dishes as Tatiana reaches the United States. Desserts are included in the back of the book and range from simple cookie recipes to the fancier rum cake which *hic!* goes up in flames with oversampling of the rum.

The most beautiful part of this book is how much more real her stories become when you are able to sample the dishes which she so lovingly describes in her books. Since she described blinchiki I have wondered how it would taste. Now I have the recipe! I have made the beef stroganoff (delicious!) and will be baking some Challah rolls tomorrow! This cookbook has earned its place among my most prized cookbooks and I can't wait to sample more of its delicious recipes.

Simons introduces each recipe with a small narrative of the circumstances surrounding that particular dish. I read the passage to my family as we sat down to dinner before sampling the beef stroganoff. It was so much fun to do, and to allow something that Tania or Shura might have eaten pass my lips was like getting the opportunity to know them on an even deeper level; if that could be any more possible.

Excellent addition to your kitchen library!

After watching Tatiana mark the level of the flour on the hard floor of the communal apartment, I found myself wondering what the foods she ate tasted like - or at least the foods she was imagining eating instead of the cardboard she was given. Food is such an important part of this trilogy, having a book of Tatiana's recipes just makes sense. And reading the extra tidbits of their life together is a magical experience after thinking you'd read them all. It is a beautiful and fitting way to end our experience with Tatiana & Alexander, and the food is just so good. You appreciate what is on your table so much more.

Can't have enough tatiana and alexander! Have tried some of the recipes too, great success.