Taste of Home Cooking School Cookbook Review (Giveaway Closed)

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Have you ever found yourself flipping through a cookbook and thinking, "Ooh, that looks good!"  "I think I have the ingredients to make that one tonight."  "I have to try this!"

That's just how I was when I first received Taste of Home: Cooking School Cookbook.  The 400+ recipes include everything from comfort foods to sophisticated (but easy to prepare) dishes.  It's divided into chapters as most cookbooks are--appetizers, soups, poultry, dessert, etc.--with the addition of a few extras such as Better Than Takeout and Baking.

My family likes to go out to eat, but we also watch our spending and our salt intake.  So I especially enjoyed looking through the Better Than Takeout chapter, which has recipes for restaurant-style dishes that most of us don't cook at home:  Chicago-style stuffed pizza, Pork fried rice, Coconut shrimp with dipping sauce, Gingered pepper steak, Baked egg rolls (I am definitely trying that!), Cashew chicken, and Bean 'n' rice burritos.

Why is this a "Cooking School" cookbook?  The Taste of Home: Cooking School Cookbook also has How To sidebars (how to trim cilantro, how to make chicken stock) and sidebars with Taste of Home Cooking School Secrets (Dumpling Success, Mmm...Meatloaf) or other helpful information (Dress Up Canned Soup).  This book would be a great fit for a novice cook who doesn't need recipes for the most basic dishes, but it's also a great fit for cooks like me.  I enjoy cooking, and especially finding new recipes, but I don't want to make ultra-sophisticated dinners or spend all day in the kitchen.

I really, really like this book.   The only thing I would change is its reliance on convenience foods as ingredients.  In some cases substitution is easy.  For example, I plan to try Zesty Tortilla Soup, for which the ingredients include condensed tomato soup, canned beef broth, and canned chicken broth.  I'll try using no-salt-added tomato sauce and homemade chicken stock to bring down the sodium content of the soup.  Some recipes (mostly the "Cheat It" ones) use refrigerated dough or biscuit/baking mix, but others, even yeast breads, are made from scratch.

(Speaking of Taste of Home, they are looking for one lucky woman to be Mrs. Holiday!  It's simple to enter and the winner will receive a $50,000 payment plus a spokesperson role for the company!  For more information visit their Facebook page at Facebook.com/Taste of Home )

I was going to serve up a chicken recipe, until I decided that Watermelon Granita sounds much better on a hot summer day!

image credit: Taste of Home

Watermelon Granita
Yield:  8 servings

1-1/4 cups sugar
1-1/4 cups water
6 cups cubed watermelon
Small watermelon wedges, optional

In a small saucepan, bring sugar and water to a boil.  Cook and stir until sugar is dissolved; set aside.  In a blender process the watermelon in batches until smooth.  Strain; discard pulp and seeds.  Transfer to an 8-inch square dish; stir in sugar mixture.  Cool to room temperature.

Freeze for 1 hour; stir with a fork.  Freeze 2-3 hours longer, or until completely frozen, stirring every 30 minutes.  Stir granita with a fork just before spooning into dessert dishes.  Garnish with melon wedges [or fresh mint, suggested in the recipe notes] if desired.

Would you like to have your own copy of the Taste of Home:  Cooking School Cookbook?  Thanks to the publisher, Reader's Digest, I have the opportunity to give away one copy to a lucky reader.


This giveaway is closed.

Here's how to enter:  Leave a comment and tell me your comfort level in the kitchen.  Are you a novice cook, or can you whip up a souffle with no problem?  Be sure to leave a way for me to contact you.  Limit 1 entry per person.

More details: Open to residents of USA and Canada, age 18 or older. Giveaway ends 7/16/12 at noon (Eastern time). Winner will be chosen by the random number generator at Random.org and will be notified by email.  Winner must claim prize within 48 hours, or another winner will be chosen.  Reader's Digest and FSB Associates are responsible for prize fulfillment.  Void where prohibited.

Disclosure:  I received a copy of this book, at no cost to me, for review purposes.  I was not required to write a positive review, and all opinions in this post are my own.  This post contains affiliate links.  If you click through my Amazon.com links and complete a purchase, I will receive a small commission.  Thanks for supporting my cooking habit. :)