California Books - Page 4

California Sizzles

Junior League of Pasadena, Inc.

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Reach for this book first 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Collecting and using new cookbooks has been a thiry-five year hobby. "Sizzles" is truly the book that I consult first whether I'm planning an event or a family meal. At least one half of the recipes have been tried and have become favorites at our house. I am ordering another copy of this today as a gift for a friend....this makes four that I've purchased.

Easy does it. 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

California Sizzles provides excellent recipes that are devoid of the blood-sweat-and tears with which many of us are too familiar.
I learned of this book at a lunch where one of the cookbook's praiseworthy recipes was served. There was almost a stunned silence when the group learned I didn't have it on my bookshelf. Well, I do now and don't regret it for a minute. American cuisine has long been extremely underrated.

Favorite- my husband's as well as mine! 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

My husband and I both like to cook. We have quite a varied collection of cookbooks, and this is still the best all around source for reliable, tasty meals. We make notes on the pages, recording dates we tried things, and ways we may have tweaked something. Now when I give a copy to anyone (I think I am on #10), I add my own notes of favorites. Recipes are not complicated, but sure to impress. From appetizers to desserts, you will not be disappointed.

California Heritage Cookbook, The

Junior League Pasadena

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Delicious recipes and reliable information 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

The copy of the book I purchased was a present for one of my children. I have used the California Heritage Cookbook for 20 years. Every recipe I have made was good--to the extent that I do not hesitate to serve what appears to be a truly strange combination of ingredients to company. My favorite cookbook (and I collect cookbooks).

Best cookbook ever! 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I received this cookbook in the hardback edition from a friend back in 1980. I have used and used it over and over again. There are many favorites that I have used again and again; the Tahoe Brunch and Lasagne, to name only two. Buy it an see for yourself!!

California Heritage Cookbook 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Thank you so much for the cookbook. I received it in a timely manner and it was in perfect condition. What a wonderful way to receive a book that was impossible to find before.

Yum yum! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Thank you so much for the wonderful cookbook. It is filled with great recipes that are tried and true.

Greatest Cookbook ever 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This cookbook was given to me when it was first published. I have used it ever since and today the cover has finally fallen off but it is still very much in use.

I haven't prepared a recipe in here that isn't fantastic. The presentation always amazes guests as they think whatever is made took hours and hours.

Like others have said, the recipes are not that difficult and stand the test of time.

The Los Angeles Times California Cookbook

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

My Favorite Recipes 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

A friend gave me this cookbook and it quickly became the source of some family favorites. I lost all of my cookbooks in a house fire in 2002 and this was the one cookbook I missed the most. My family LOVED the Lasagna pg.167 and the Chicken Enchiladas pg.215 and no one was happy with any other recipe I tried. I've already received the replacement I found on Amazon.com and I'm thrilled. For only 85 cents plus shipping my family and I are celebrating!

Old-school favorites 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I use the California Cookbook at least once a month, mostly for recipes that are a little too West Coast-centric for Joy and the other oldies, but too old-fashioned or boring for Epicurious. Browsing through this collection of 650+ recipes from the paper's archives, it doesn't take long to stumble across dishes from one-time celebrities -- Mahalia Jackson, Lawrence Welk, Polly Bergen -- and popular restaurants of yore. (Remember The Velvet Turtle? The Hungry Tiger?) Each recipe has a little piece of marginalia that introduces its source, adding a bit of backstory and flair

California: The Beautiful Cookbook

John P. Carroll

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A thoroughly beautiful cookbook. Wonderfully illustrated! 5 out of 5 stars.
17 of 21 people found this review helpful.

John Carroll and Virginia Rainy have done a marvelous job on the California the Beautiful Cookbook. The book is an excellent addition to anyone's coffee-table collection, as well as an inspiring work for the moderately experienced cook. John has spent years as a personal chef in California - his experience, excellent taste, and personal warmth are infused in this wonderful cookbook. His recipes are practical and incredibly delicious. My personal favorite is the crab-salad sandwich on sourdough, I've served it to many guests and always with rave reviews. This cookbook is divided into regions of California. In becoming acquainted with the book you are becoming acquainted with the culinary traditions of a myriad of cultures and flavors. This is a must-have cookbook for the serious collector - I can't believe it's out of print - do yourself a favor and find a used copy of California the Beautiful, a cookbook you will use and enjoy over and over again!

Editorial Review:

Each title in this award-winning series offers an exquisite region-by-region taste tour filled with culinary specialties and surprises. Included in each large-format volume are gorgeous food and landscape photographs.

The New California Cook: Casually Elegant Recipes with Exhilarating Flavor

Diane Rossen Worthington

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Best for Entertaining 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

I checked this out at the library and then liked it so much, I had to buy it. The recipes that allow you to do much of the prep ahead are fabulous. I found the time estimatess to be fairly accurate and that user error was the problem when they weren't. ;-)

Unexpected but accessible flavors 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I was originally convinced to buy this cookbook because of the promise of the wonton butternut squash ravioli recipe (p. 126) and it did not disappoint. She pairs the ravioli with a spinach basil pesto, which was unusual and interesting as a flavor combination. The pesto was good, but I now use it with other things and top the ravioli with sage and brown butter instead.

I have also made the spiced pumpkin hazelnut bread and love it. I didn't think I needed another pumpkin bread recipe, but this has proven me wrong. The recipe made two loaves with only 1/4 c. butter (less than half of what most similar recipes call for), golden raisins, hazelnuts (or almonds), and a hint of orange juice and zest. The result is brighter and fruitier than traditional, autumnal pumpkin bread and is perfect for a crisp, sunny day in early spring when there is still a can of pumpkin in the pantry and the oranges are in season.

In proper California fashion, recipes tend to utilize a lot of produce with Mediterranean influences. I am planning to try the mango and macadamia nut brown butter tart, grilled chicken nicoise, grilled pizza with leeks, mozzarella, tomatoes, and pancetta, and the homemade chicken and apple sausage (made with a food processor).

It's a fun cookbook in that even when I don't think I'm going to try a recipe, I find I'm usually still interested in reading about it. I am unlikely to make a pear, pistachio, and chicken liver mousse, for example, but what an interesting set of ideas.

If the book had pictures, I'd probably give it another star. As it is though it's a well-formatted, useful, inspiring cookbook with a lot of really interesting recipes that use realistic ingredients in unexpected ways. Even when a recipe looks like it might be a bit pedantic, there's a twist--walnut cake with roasted blueberry compote, for example (roasted blueberries??)

If you like this kind of food, this is a fun, realistic cookbook to invest in--but there aren't any pictures so you'll have to use your imagination.

Chez Panisse Cooking

Paul Bertolli, Alice Waters

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

"Extraordinary," "poetic," and "inspired" are only a few words that have been used to describe the food at Chez Panisse. Since the first meal served there in 1971, Alice Waters's Berkeley, California, restaurant has revolutionized American cooking, earning its place among the truly great restaurants of the world. Renowned for the brilliant innovations of its ever-changing menu, Chez Panisse has also come to represent a culinary philosophy inspired by nature -- dedicated to the common interest of environment and consumer in the use of gloriously fresh organic ingredients.

In Chez Panisse Cooking, chef Paul Bertolli -- one of the most talented chefs ever to work with Alice Waters -- presents the Chez Panisse kitchen's explorations and reexaminations of earlier triumphs. Expanding upon -- and sometimes simplifying -- the concepts that have made Chez Panisse legendary, Bertolli provides reflections, recipes, and menus that lead the cook to a critical and intuitive understanding of food itself, of its purest organic sources and most sublime uses. Perhaps best described by Richard Olney, "Paul Bertolli's cuisine is what 'health food' should be and never is: a celebration of purity. The food is imaginative but never complicated; it is art."

Enhanced by Gail Skoff's breathtaking hand-colored photographs, Paul Bertolli's recipes remind us of the simple and passionate joys in cooking and of the inspiration to be drawn from each season's freshest foods: glistening local salmon creates a wildly colorful springtime carpaccio or is grilled later in the season with tomatoes and basil vinaigrette; autumn's fresh white truffles are sliced into an extraordinarily textured salad of pastel hues with fennel, mushrooms, and Parmesan cheese; figs left on the tree until they grow heavy and sweet appear in a fall fruit salad with warm goat cheese and herb toast. Season by season, Chez Panisse Cooking will captivate the senses and imagination of the cook with such entrancing recipes as Sugar Snap Peas with Brown Butter and Sage; Buckwheat Cakes with Smoked Salmon, Creme Fraiche, and Capers; Grilled Fish Wrapped in Fig Leaves with Red Wine Sauce; Lamb Salad with Garden Lettuces, Straw Potatoes, and Garlic Sauce; Marinated Veal Chops Grilled over an Oak Fire; or Seckel Pears Poached in Red Wine with Burnt Caramel. Here, some of the restaurant's most remarkable recent menus for special occasions are recreated, from a White Truffle Dinner to the Chez Panisse Tenth Annual Garlic Festival, to a supper for poet Vikram Seth that began. with "The Season's song, a summer ballad/Tomatoes, basil, flowers, beans/In unison dance, Lobster Salad..."

Many of these recipes reflect Paul Bertolli's love of northern Italian food; for other dishes, the inspiration is French; in all, there is a keen awareness of the abundance of uncompromisingly pure, seasonal ingredients to be found in America.

Above all, the Chez Panisse recipes are meant to inspire the cook to create his or her own version; to awaken the senses to the nuances of taste, texture, and color in cooking; to "discover the ecstatic moments when the intuition, skill, and accumulated experience of the cook merge with the taste and composition of the food." Since its original publication in 1988, this classic cookbook has proved to be indispensable to the shelf of every serious cook and every serious cookbook reader.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

The Asparagus Festival Cookbook

Jan Moore, Barbara Hafly, Glenda Hushaw, Jacqueline Zupo

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

An excellent book full of unusual and useful recipes. 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

This book is really a value for its small size and small price. It was originally sold at the Stockton Asparagus Festival. The book contains many recipies from the Festival's Asparagus Food Alley as well as past winners in the ongoing recipe contast. Recipes range from soups, through main dishes, and on to breads and desserts. I highly recommend it for personal use or a small gift to the cook who has everything. If only it were 100 pages longer...I do love asparagus!!

Editorial Review:

If ever a vegetable deserved a cult following, the asparagus is it. Packed with vitamins and minerals, high in fibre, and low in sodium, the asparagus is as healthful as it is flavourful. To celebrate this versatile ingredient, Stockton, California, launched its first three-day Asparagus Festival in 1986 and has attracted thousands of ardent asparagus aficionados during the fourth weekend in April ever since. This cookbook highlights the prize-winning recipes, with dishes to please even the pickiest vegetable eaters.

The PlumpJack Cookbook: Great Meals for Good Living

Jeff Morgan

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A beautiful cookbook sure to appeal to anyone who relishes the good things in life—full of the elegantly earthy fare that has made PlumpJack’s restaurants some of the most popular and highly acclaimed in Northern California

The PlumpJack name is synonymous with great wine, delicious food, and fine living. Its Napa Valley winery produces top-rated Cabernet. Its eight restaurants—including Balboa Cafe, PlumpJack Cafe, and Jack Falstaff—have won renown in the great dining capital of San Francisco, as well as in the Napa Valley wine country and the world class ski destination of Squaw Valley. Its resorts in Napa and Squaw Valley are ranked among the most luxurious in the country.

Now The PlumpJack Cookbook brings together the most coveted recipes from all eight restaurants in a book that captures the allure and down-to-earth sophistication of everything PlumpJack and features:

• 75 favorite recipes, including the famous Balboa Burger, as well as Roasted Squash Soup with Sage, Crab Cakes with Avocado Salsa, Goose Breast with Red Wine Gravy and Wild Rice, and Bananas Foster Brioche Pudding

• stunning color photographs that spotlight the alluring dishes and the restaurants’ beautiful Northern California locations

• wine recommendations as well as wine-buying tips and a guide to wine-and-food pairing

• a foreword by PlumpJack founder Gavin Newsom, now mayor of San Francisco and, according to Newsweek, one of the five rising stars of the Democratic Party

The Vineyard Kitchen: Menus Inspired by the Seasons (Cookbooks)

Maria Helm Sinskey

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In this age of celebrity chefs and rarefied ingredients, it is a great pleasure to publish this creative and wholesome collection of recipes, The Vineyard Kitchen, by Maria Helm Sinskey. In her debut book, Maria shares the homey yet sophisticated recipes that have made her one of America's most celebrated chefs and a culinary star. Though Maria lives in the Napa Valley, she was born and raised in the Northeast, and her recipes capture seasonal availability and flavors, no matter where you are cooking.

Maria offers 40 menus, 10 per season, with more than 180 recipes to enjoy all year round. From her kitchen in Napa, where she runs a vineyard with her husband and raises her two young daughters, Maria looks out onto a landscape whose seasonal bounty is reflected in each recipe. Emphasizing quality ingredients, her dishes are simple and pure, focusing on the freshness and flavor of each element, rather than on fussy or complicated preparations. These are dishes that celebrate the unique offerings of each season and that perfectly suit our shifting appetites as the days go from short to long and as our dining table moves from fireside to patio.

Delight in summer with the annual ritual of shucking fresh corn, and transform the harvest into a velvety Sweet Corn Soup with Rosemary; savor the summer-only treat of White Peaches Poached in Vin Gris with Raspberries. When the weather turns wintry, you won't feel deprived with Maria's soothing Nutmeg Custard or with a stunning meal of Parsnip Soup followed by Duck Confit with French Green Lentils. Complete with wine pairings and seasonal shopping tips, The Vineyard Kitchen is a friendly, comprehensive guide that will help you create distinctive, tempting dishes throughout the year.

San Francisco Encore

Junior League San Francisco

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Indispensable 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 10 people found this review helpful.

This is my favorite and most cherished cookbook even though I am a Virginian and this is a decidedly Californian cookbook. I picked up by chance in a used bookstore and began making recipes from it and was soon quite impressed. After 5 years, I have yet to find a bad recipe in the book. Furthermore, the recipes are elegant and somewhat fancy while not being too out of the mainstream or too exotic -- or too difficult for that matter. Interestingly, many of the recipes in here have become "standards" (Khalhua pie, baked brie, Indonesian rice salad) with variations on them popping up in other cookbooks and on the web. These are the original, simple versions that first began to define California cooking. You'll enjoy this.

What a Great Cookbook! 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

I have always looked for recipes that are fairly easy but that produce delicious results. This cookbook meets my criteria! Every recipe I have tried has been a success.

Editorial Review:

Based on fresh ingredients and designed for easy  preparation, these 500 recipes feature the unique  regional cuisine that has made San Francisco  famous with connoisseurs.

Full-color illustrations