Customer Reviews

What Can I Bring? Cookbook (Cake Mix Doctor)

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I'm a good cook and baker, but every time I have to bring something to a get-together, I end up obsessing over what to bring. I fall back on the same old things so much that I get bored, even though people seem to enjoy what I bring. Recently, I have been asked to bring food for various organizations/activities--probably at least once a month. This book, which is under $20.00, is well worth the price. It has more than 200 recipes, and there is a very good variety of recipes, including vegetarian ones or ones that could be easily made vegetarian/vegan. That's important to me because I have a vegetarian daughter. It is great that the author provides information on how to increase the amount of servings if practical, and provides a time-line of how long to expect to take to make the dish. Her notes on "how to tote" the dishes are helpful, since getting the dish there intact is important. There are some recipes at the end of the book for gift-giving and they will be wonderful for Christmas gifts. I like that the author did all my trial-and-error work for me--testing what goes over well at a pot-luck, is fairly simply to make, and travels well. I want to buy more of her books after purchasing this one, because her recipes are "real life, without too many exotic ingredients, and food that people would actually eat.

I'm a big fan of Anne Byrn's The Cake Mix Doctor cookbook, a dog-earred favorite that stays in my kitchen, not on the coffee table. Her recipes continually bail me out when I'm frantically running around in need of a birthday cake, a treat for school, or a fancy dessert. In fact, I've recommended it to plenty of food snobs who are all now cake mix converts.

It's no surprise that I love her What Can I Bring? Cookbook. And who hasn't had a panic attack when uttering those very words? This book is like looking through your best friend's recipe box--a nice combination of nostalgic favorites and new cool easy recipes. There is plenty of advice for toting food around and I especially like the space to jot notes and make the book truly my own. Anne Byrn's books have a nice tone to them. She sounds like she gets it, like she's living a busy life and having some fun along the way. Her books are good friends in my kitchen.

I certainly like the idea of this cookbook, and it has some excellent recipes in it. However, the author has tried to squeeze so many things on each page (including the recipe, a column of notes, suggestions for transporting the prepared dish, etc.), that it's hard to decide where to look first. Her directions for making the recipes can also be confusing when trying to prepare a dish that has several parts. It is essential to read through the recipe several times before starting - in fact, maybe that's why the "notes" column is on each page. All in all, it's well worth the money. Personally, I would have liked to see more soups and salads, as that is what I prefer to bring for a covered dish. The book includes some great ideas for transporting each type of dish and a section of recipes to make for gifts.

I have to admit, I've only tried one recipe from this so far ("Barb's Taco Ring"), and I was disappointed. I am a big Anne Byrn fan and eagerly awaited this book, but I don't think it's as good as the D.D. (Maybe this is because I don't go to a lot of potlucks.) It's well-written and presented, and the "tote notes" are certainly helpful. But there are a lot of repeats from her other books, as well as recipes for things that I already have recipes for. And, of course, being a potluck-type cookbook, many of the recipes are for serving a big crowd, and can't be scaled down easily if you just want to serve 2-4, as I usually do. But the latter is obviously not the book's fault -- just something to be aware of if you're not a serving-big-crowds type.

Anne Byrne's cookbook is a great item to keep on hand if you need to bring something along to a gathering on short notice. It's guaranteed to eliminate needless worry about what can please a crowd! The recipes are simple, but can be made to appear quite elegant. The ingredients are all readily available in your supermarket. There's nothing here that is too "out there" for your next get-together.

Many of these recipes will certainly become family favorites. Also, in the combinations of your choice you can have awesomely delicious complete meals. (I'm looking forward to the next chilly day to serve Anne's Cheesy Garlic Bread, Weekend Black Bean Soup, and Peach & Blueberry Crisp (vanilla ice-cream added on top, of course!)

What makes What Can I Bring a real winner is the extra detail of "Tote Notes" to help you transport your masterpiece to the party safely. The dozen "Mini Indexes" are a wonderful problem-solving tool to help you decide which recipe is best for the occasion, such as The Easiest Recipes, When You Want Something Light, Something Kids Like, and my personal favorite, Something Chocolate!

You won't regret having this cookbook on hand!

Anne Byrn does it again! She makes entertaining less stressful and very enjoyable. I have already tried a bunch of the appetizers as well as main courses and friends and family requested the recipes. It's so easy to double up and/or do ahead with her tips and how-tos. And she even includes suggestions on what container to tote it in and to serve it in. Great cookbook!

This is a marvelous resource for young marrieds and oldtimers too. Everyone is called upon to "bring a dish" for one occasion or the other, and this cookbook is a real winner for variety and information. The ingredients are things most of us have on hand or are readily available at regular grocery stores, not speciality markets. This is one book that you need in YOUR kitchen and in your gift cubby for friends.

I am a huge fan of the Cake Mix Doctor and have bought copies for friends. I just bought "What Can I Bring" and I think I'm really going to enjoy it as well. The recipes are a little more gourmet than I thought they would be which is fine with me. They are sophisticated but easy and the ingredients are certainly not too obscure or hard to come by. So far I have made "Bebe's Green Beans" which are out of this world. I also made "Little Crisp Crab Cakes" for two of my girlfriends this past weekend. They were PERFECT - moist, tender and flavorful on the inside and crispy on the outside - not greasy at all. My friends will be begging me to make these again very soon. Enjoy!!

Here we have over 200 recipes for "take-out" -- for Pot Luck gatherings or for a meal-planned event. Of course you can make these recipes at home as well but the thrust of the book is to simplify one's life a bit by giving you some choices of a carry-in dish to take along to a group function.

There are also a great number of pages devoted to HOW to carry out the particular dish you choose, which also makes life a little simpler since we always seem in a hurry to get everything together at the last minute for such acivities and functions. There are additionally tips for party planning, quite helpful advice, especially if you've never planned a get-together involving food.

The book is broken down into six sections:

-- Appetizers and Soups
-- The Best Salads
-- Crowd-Pleasing Main Dishes
-- Sensational Sides
-- Dazzling Desserts
-- It's A Gift

I do wish that cookbook authors would resist the temptation to use words like "best" and "sensational" since we have all made recipes described by an author in similarly glowing terms and, in the end, no one would touch it. Still, these are mostly decent recipes, all without much fuss, and most boasting the ease of common ingredients. Here are the names of some of the recipes:

-- Little Crisp Crab Cakes
-- Asian Slaw with Peanut Dressing
-- Beth's Manicotti
-- Curried Corn and Bell Peppers
-- Ten-Minute Key Lime Pie

The work is 506 pages in length with a nice index, very readable and lies pretty flat on the counter as you cook. The book dimesions are 8 1/4" x 7 1/4" x 1 1/2".

I borrowed this cookbook from the library to make a few of the recipes which, as I mentioned, are pretty good; however, since I'm not often called upon to provide a covered dish I don't plan to ever own it. Still I can recommend it specifically to those folks who do find themselves frequently taking food dishes to get-togethers.

This is a book I wish I'd had when my kids were young. So many times I could have used this. But now my husband belongs to clubs which from time to time we have a potluck and this is very, very, helpful. Since we live in an age of color and pictures, I wish they had included pictures of the finished product and that way you'd know if yours was too soupy or too dry or whatever. Very helpful though and the receipes are very good.