Beat This Cookbook by Ann Hodgman (Terra's Review)

Do you think you have the absolute best recipe for apple pie? Maybe your neighbor claims to make the best meatloaf around. Did your Italian grandmother serve the best spaghetti sauce this side of the Atlantic? Well, unless you or that neighbor or your grandmother is Ann Hodgman, you’re wrong!

The book that the editor in chief of Vanity Fair called “the funniest, most engaging book about food I’ve ever come across” has now been revised and updated: more than half the recipes are completely new, and many of the originals have been “oomphed up” to make them even more shamelessly delicious.

Beat This! Cookbook contains more than a hundred all-time favorites, from Burnt Sugar Ice Cream and White Chocolate Raspberry Pie to Chili-Cheese Casserole and Onion Rings. Each one is guaranteed to make people take a bite, stagger with joy, and beg you for the recipe.

(Terra's Thoughts) First off let me say that I am a cookbook junkie. Love looking through these wonderful books for delicious treats that look good or may not look so good but taste like heaven. I have learned from the wisdom of years to not judge a recipe by it's looks but by its ingredients, aroma and taste.

I think this is one that will be a favorite for many people especially those that like good ole fashioned comfort food with a delightful story about it to make you chuckle when looking the recipe over.

The thing that I think got to me first off was when I was skimming through the recipes and seen that 98 percent of what is in them you already have in your cabinets and freezer or refrigerator. AAA+++ on this for I hate having to go hunting for exotic ingredients and then find out I don't like the recipe.

Each recipe has a little story to go with them that the author has experienced and some of them will make you chuckle if not down right laugh out loud. Hey they say, "Laughter makes the best medicine", and by golly it's true.

I would say that most of the recipes in here will be ones that I will try. It was extremely refreshing to find that the recipes weren't containing things to make them hot and spicy. I don't do hot and spicy so I'm sold here. The one recipe that seemed to come up and smack me upside the head was for a Concord Grape Pie. Darn why didn't I think of that. I grow my own concord grapes so why not use them for something besides jelly. :) I'm a real happy camper with this.

Overall, I found this book refreshing, humorous and down right lip smacking good. Kudo's to the author for making something that brings back wonderful memories, delicious comfort food to soothe the soul as well as the belly and for giving us an easy bunch of recipes where we can just pluck from our stock and cook and eat.

Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Revised edition (March 22, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0547437005
ISBN-13: 978-0547437002