Capitol Hill Cooks by Linda Bauer

Per Alison's request I am posting this review here. It originated on my other blog.

384 pages
Published August 16, 2010
by Taylor Trade Publishing
Lanham, MD

When I cook I tend to stick to family recipes or those found within the cookbooks I've been given, or even those posted online. It is definitely a rare occurrence for me to buy a cookbook, let alone borrow one from the library and an even more rare occurrence for me to post a review. But when I first learned of Capitol Hill Cooks: Recipes from the White House, Congress, And All of the Past Presidents I was immediately intrigued. A new release I requested a copy from my library and began flipping through. It is indeed an intriguing cookbook and as such I felt it deserved a little attention by way of a review.

At first glance I assumed Capitol Hill Cooks: Recipes from the White House, Congress and All of the Past Presidents to be a collection of recipes by cooks of the White House and Congress, but I was partly wrong. It is a collection of recipes, but they are from actual elected officials -- Senators, Representatives, and the President and his First Lady. In some ways this is even more exciting for those enthralled by American history and the Who's Who of Washington, DC politics both past and present. My only dispute with this title is that it claims to include recipes from "all of the former presidents" and that's not exactly true. I checked and at least one (Millard Filmore) does not have a recipe attributed to him. Still, the majority do and it's truly fascinating to see what were the favorite dishes of nearly all of our Commander in Chiefs.

Capitol Hill Cooks contains over 200 recipes from 49 states and 2 United States territories. The cookbook is divided by courses. First come the appetizers, then salads, next soups and stews, then side dishes, main dishes, meats, poultry and seafood, breads and finally cakes and cookies, pies and desserts and snacks and sauces. Last a special collection of "favorite dishes of the presidents."

As far as cooking goes, the recipes appear to be fairly simple and straight forward and, for the most part, do not require any special ingredients, though there are the few exceptions.

Personally, while I thought Capitol Hill Cooks was a really clever idea, it unfortunately did not contain enough recipes that I would use to justify my owning a copy. However, before the book is due back at the library I do plan to try a few recipes and I might end up changing my mind, we'll see. The top recipes to catch my eye include: Senator Wicker's (MS) Poppy Seed Chicken, Rep. Honda's (CA) Japanese Chicken Salad, Senator Boxer's (CA) Lemon Blueberry Muffins, and President Reagan's The Reagan Family Cranberry Sauce. And if I feel brave enough I might even try my hand at a favorite of President George Washington's -- Nelly Custis' recipe for Hoecakes or Thomas Jefferson's Chicken Fricassee.

Along with the tasty there are one or two recipes that made me grimace. Most notable was Rep. Coble's (NC) entry of Breakfast "Brains and Eggs," which do include the real thing: pork brains in gravy. (Ewww!!!) No thank you.

My only grievance with this cookbook is that it contains no pictures. I personally find myself more likely to try a recipe if I can see how the dish is appears. This cookbook could read more like a work of non-fiction if the reader doesn't mind reading all the measurements. Several of the recipes contain brief notes about the history of the dish or a the reason for its inclusion by the elected official. My favorite little tidbit was that the Eggnog recipe credited to George Washington was recently discovered written in Washington's own hand. How cool is that?

All in all, Capitol Hill Cooks is a fun cookbook for those looking for something historic this holiday season. Even though I don't plan to buy a copy I was glad that my library offers the option to preview this cookbook.

Teach A Man To Fish...

It's still hot here. And this Labor Day, we ran errands and finished off with a trip to the local splash park. So by the time we got home, we were hot and hungry. And I decided to make ravioli.

Crazy, right? Not really. It took about 20 minutes, tops.

I can't publish the recipe here because it's copyrighted and I'm a lawyer so I'm kind of picky about that. Instead, I'll recommend the cookbook, because I use lots of recipes from it anyway.

You know how you can make Mac & Cheese without reading the box? And spaghetti, and a few other things without recipes? Pam (not Pamela) Anderson wants to expand your repertoire with How To Cook Without A Book. She is apparently an incredible cook who would always go out to eat with her family, because cooking was too much work and she didn't want to find and follow a recipe every night. Her mission in publishing this cookbook was to teach some basic cooking rules (i.e. how to sear a meat and make a pan sauce) and then expand on the recipes with different ingredients for different meals. In that way, you learn to make a recipe once or twice with the help of the book, and then can do it from memory.

Let me tell you, I'm reading Ad Hoc At Home by Thomas Keller right now, and that is not his philosophy. But Anderson's recipes really work for those non-special occasion, weeknight dinners. You probably won't need to make an extra trip to the grocery store for exotic ingredients. And her super-easy salad dressings have been a real hit!

How To Cook Without A Book is going on my Christmas list this year (I checked it out from the library), both to give and to get. And I am not a cookbook collector. Do you have it? What do you think of it?