Customer Reviews

Too Many Tomatoes, Squash, Beans, and Other Good Things: A Cookbook for When Your Garden Explodes (Large Print Cookbook)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I love the *idea* of this cookbook. It presents chapters organized alphabetically by garden vegetable. Each chapter includes notes on growing and harvesting the vegetable, yield information, a few nutritional notes, information on storage, freezing, cooking, basic preparation, and complementary herbs. The freezing information is perhaps the most useful, in my mind. The one truly great piece of information I got out of this cookbook is that you *can* freeze and then reheat potato dishes, as long as you don't thaw them first; most cookbooks will just tell you that you can't do this. (However, it doesn't give any instructions as to which sorts of dishes work well for this and which don't--and believe me, some work *much* better than others. Let's just say that if you want to freeze potato dishes, freeze ones in which the potato is in as mashed and creamy a state as possible, with few chunks.)

The recipes themselves are all over the map in terms of quality, and lean very heavily on fatty dairy products to make them flavorful--which means that they won't be very useful to vegans or folks on a diet (two major groups of people who are going to want to make heavy use of vegetables in their diet). Most of them also don't use a huge amount of the vegetable in question, and don't state whether they freeze well or not (and if they do, how to alter the cooking instructions for the frozen dish), which means that these recipes aren't any more useful for the cookbook's stated purpose than those in other cookbooks. The only advantage is that in here they're organized by vegetable, and, well, that's what an index is for in other cookbooks. You'd be better off with a copy of the Joy of Cooking--it covers all the vegetables as well, and the recipes are of much more consistent quality.

Speaking of the recipes... Some of the recipes have blatant mistakes in them (like the recipe that called for WAY too much salt--our best guess is that it should have called for one *teaspoon* instead of one *tablespoon*). Others just don't taste very good; rarely have I found a cookbook with such incredibly mediocre recipes. Because of the way the recipes are written up, sometimes it's tough to tell which groups of ingredients go with which instructions. Although the recipes look incredibly simple, sometimes that's because they under-explain things or leave out steps, which means that the kind of cook who'll appreciate having simple recipes will probably have problems with them.

This book is a great concept, and it saddens me to have to give it such a poor review. But it just doesn't stand up to real use.

This book is a treasure-trove of ideas about what to do with your garden bounty. It goes far beyond tomatoes, with recipes for everything from asparagus to zucchini. The book has a chapter for each common garden vegetable, and the chapters are in alphabetical order for easy reference. At the beginning of each chapter is a brief description of the vegetable, notes for growing and harvesting, descriptions of yield, storage, freezing, and cooking instructions, and suggestions for complementary herbs. Then come about 15 recipes for each vegetable, including soups, appetizers, salads, main dishes, side dishes, and desserts.

The authors are obviously great and creative cooks. The recipes use basic ingredients, and do not call for processed or convenience foods. There aren't many recipes in this book for fancy occasions-most are for simple good home cooking type of meals that don't take a lot of elaborate preparations or require exotic ingredients. The gardening advice isn't quite up to the level of the cooking notes, however. For example, the authors instruct readers to discard the entire cabbage plant after harvest, but you can actually get some baby cabbages by leaving the plant in the ground and cutting an X across the stalk. Alternatively, one way to store cabbages is to pull the entire plant up by the roots and hang it in a cool, dry place. In the corn chapter, the authors recommend extending the corn season by planting corn with different maturation dates. However, corn is wind pollinated, and it is one plant where this year's harvest will be affected by mixing varieties, so if you're going to try to grow several kinds of corn, you need to keep them at least 100 feet apart. That's kind of hard to do in a backyard garden. In short, this is a great cookbook, but for gardening advice, you'd do better to look elsewhere.

I bought this book at least 20 years ago, when I first started cooking. I originally bought it to find ways to use produce received from a neighborhood co-op. As a result I learned ways to cook items that I thought I did not like. Now, many of my favorite recipes are from the book.
Over the years, I used this cookbook so much it literally fell apart. So, I was thrilled to see it available on Amazon.com. Now I have a nice new copy.
I consider it an essential cookbook for any cook. The recipes range from classic to unique - all are easy to make; none too fancy.
It's a winner.

My mother in law gave me this book when she found out that we had a membership in a community farm or CSA. That's where you pay a fee up front at the beginning of the season for a "share" of what the garden produces. This book is very handy for coming up with ideas for things you have a lot of, but it also has a lot of good info about preservation and how long certain produce last under different conditions. In that sense it's not just a cookbook, it's a reference book too. And the zucchini enchiladas are pretty popular at our house!

I had to take off a star because there are no pictures in this book, which I consider essential for any modern cookbook, and because the format of the pages is not appealing or ideally designed.

At the same time, I believe this book should be a must-have for every kitchen cookbook shelf! I wish I'd found it years ago. These recipes are simple, direct, and delicious. There are a lot of them, and they don't call for crazy ingredients, complicated cooking methods or a refined palate. Whether you have a bursting gardens, got a deal too good to be passed up at the farmer's market or are trying to make the best of what you've been given this book will be your best resource.

I purchased this book for my niece who had been looking for it. I was not surprised to find it on Amazon. She was very happy with the book. It was just what she wanted!

This book is fantastic for anyone who either has a garden or shops at farmers markets. Unlike many cookbooks, organized by course or by dish, this book, is categorized by vegetable in the same style as the Victory Garden Cookbook. Although Too Many Tomatoes is clearly geared toward the gardener - with helpful information on the planting and harvesting of a wide range of vegetables - this book is a must for anyone interested in exploring the world of local food and farmers' markets. The simple, delicious recipes in this book are timeless and adaptable to any level of culinary skill. I highly recommend this book.

I had a chance to review this cookbook before I decided to order it so I knew it was something I could use for our abundance of produce in our garden. Although the condition was rated good, I found the book to be in excellent condition for a used cookbook.

Too Many Tomatoes delivers on its promise: helping gardners turn their bounty at harvest-time into wonderful, fresh, healthy dishes. This cookbook was written before local and fresh were mere marketing slogans, and the authors love for food, for the earth, and for cooking make this cookbook both educational and inspiring.

In regards to reviewers who gave the cookbook low ratings for no pictures and recipes with dairy, those folks are missing the boat. There are plenty of us who appreciate the synergy between land and animal, who savor things like sauteed fresh carrots, local butter, and fragrant herbs.

If you're inspired by the likes of Kingsolver and Alice Waters, you'll treasure this cookbook as well!

I have owned this book for about nine years now, and every summer when the garden really starts to produce it comes back off of the cookbook shelf. Some of my particular favorites are the Fresh Cream of Tomato Soup and the Eggplant Minestrone, which both freeze well if made in large quantites. The Chocolate Zucchini Cake is also very good. In fact there are a lot of good recipes for zucchini and who isn't looking for zucchini recipes when they grow them - one or two plants produce so much. My mother got used to this book when I still lived at home and helped my father grow a garden. Now she has to keep borrowing it to make her favorites. I have also shared some of my favorites with other family members and cowokers who have all been impressed with the variety and quality of the recipes.