Current Cookbook - Giada's Family Dinners

GIADA'S FAMILY DINNERS - by Giada De Laurentiis

This cookbook has a copyright of 2006. I think I bought this book at Costco (I can usually tell as their price stickers are normally in the same place and hard to get off, thus the smudge in the corner). I have never cooked from this before.

I am a fan of Giada's Food Network shows so I'm assuming when this book was in front of me, I didn't even bother to think about it, I just bought it (though I might have chosen this over her pasta book because of trying to be low-carb).

In the introduction to the book, Giada states that the recipes are "unpretentious, authentic, down-home Italian cooking that my family loves". The recipes seem pretty straight forward, not a lot of weird ingredients and the recipes seem pretty easy to follow. Some nice photos of some of the dishes and quite a few photos of Giada herself (yes There Will Be Cleavage but it's not that distracting...well, unless your husband is next to you when you are flipping through the book looking for a recipe). A lot of the recipes are for 8 servings so if you are a smaller family you might have to think about cutting the recipes in half or having leftovers. The recipes are printed on nice glossy paper with different color print which makes for a nice looking book, but some find it hard to read. There is a nice conversion chart at the back of the book for metric measures and there is a two page spread listing menus you might put together.

In looking through this book there were a ton of recipes I wanted to try (Pepperoncini Shrimp, Grilled Tuna Steak with Roasted Cipollini Onions, Apricot Crostata). The recipes sound easy and delicious. I'm not sure how "authentic down home Italian" they are, but I can't wait to try many of these dishes.

Comments

[Mom]

Don't forget your Mama when you start cooking from this. I sure would like to try the food except for the tuna! I am so tired of soft mush!

[a. grace]

ah, giada-cleavage. it's unavoidable.

[Louise]

Personally, I'm still back in the "don't trust skinny chefs" frame of mind.