The Big Book of Casseroles: 250 Recipes for Serious Comfort Food - Softcover

Vollstedt, Maryana

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0811822605 ISBN 13: 9780811822602

Publisher: Chronicle Books, 1999

Synopsis

Bubbling cheese, golden bread crumbs, tender vegetables, and succulent meats - what's not to like about casseroles? Comfort food just doesn't get any cozier, or more convenient. Now, thanks to Maryana Vollstedt, busy cooks don't have to call up Mom in order to make delicious one-dish meals for family and friends. The Big Book of Casseroles boasts over 250 recipes (including low-fat and vegetarian dishes), plus handy planning, freezing, and storage tips. For hot-from-the-oven dinners equally at home in the dining room or on the kitchen table, cooks need look no further than The Big Book of Casseroles, because serious comfort food never goes out of style.

About this title

Review:

You will find no canned soups in Maryana Vollstedt's The Big Book of Casseroles. You will find 250 ways to simplify your weekly meal planning. The properly deployed casserole is economical of both time and money. Anyone living on a family budget--with a family--but eating according to a take-out lifestyle is going to love this book.

Jambalaya is a casserole. So is Coq au Vin. So is classic Hungarian Goulash. But let us not forget Turkey Tetrazzine. Or maybe we should forget. Maybe it's the Turkey Tetrazzines of the world made with leftover dried-out Thanksgiving turkey coming at us after the days of turkey soups and turkey sandwiches and turkey salads that have given the word casserole the kind of odor we look for behind the refrigerator. While Vollstedt's version of Turkey Tetrazzine doesn't ask for a can of cream of mushroom soup, and while it is made from fresh ingredients, the result is still going to be the same.

And that's one of the problems with The Big Book of Casseroles. It's so big, the demands of coming in with 250 recipes are so great, that classics of the genre that would be better off left to foggy memory are rejuvenated for another generation of unfortunate diners. The other problem is how the definition of casserole gets stretched by the author. Any substance covered with another and baked in an oven appears to be a casserole. When is baked fish a casserole and when is it simply baked fish? Such are the questions raised by Vollstedt's choices.

The book covers a lot of ground. Chapters include those on "Basics" (as in white sauce), "Seafood Casseroles," "Poultry Casseroles," "Meat Casseroles," "Vegetable Casseroles," "Baked Pastas," "Grain and Legume Casseroles," "Gratins," and "Low-Fat Casseroles." There are no dessert casseroles.

Vollstedt shows you where the casserole has been, and where it is. Use The Big Book of Casseroles as a launching pad for your own creative endeavors. --Schuyler Ingle

About the Author:

Maryana Vollstedt is the author of several cookbooks, including the popular self-published What's for Dinner? series and Pacific Fresh. She lives in Eugene, Oregon.

About this edition

• Publisher: Chronicle Books
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0811822605
• ISBN 13: 9780811822602
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352