What Can I Bring? Cookbook
July 17, 2010 · Posted in Bestselling Cooking Books
Product Description
Potlucks and picnics, dinner parties and church socials, fundraisers, toasts to the teacher, reunions, cookouts—it’s the busy age of shared meals, which means with every invitation comes the question: ” What can I bring?” Anne Byrn, an inspired cook, problem solver, and bestselling author of The Cake Mix Doctor cookbook and other books with over 2.6 million copies in print, knows exactly how to answer the question. Cutting through menu block—a condition familiar… More >>
Comments
5 Responses to “What Can I Bring? Cookbook”
Leave a Reply
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.
Rating: 5 / 5
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.
Rating: 5 / 5
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.
Rating: 4 / 5
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.
Rating: 3 / 5
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!
Rating: 5 / 5