Yearly Archives: 2011

Cookbook Review: frankie magazine sweet treats

My rating: 4 1/2 stars

As a youngster in a migrant family, primary school fetes were completely foreign to me. Other kid’s parents made honey joys, toffees, rumballs, and fairy cakes. My parents sent me in with a packet of Marie biscuits. : (

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Cookbook Review: Manu’s French Kitchen by Manu Feildel

My rating: 4 stars

Manu Feildel is hot. And after seeing him at the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival I can confirm that he knows it.

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Cookbook Review: The Balthazar Cookbook by Keith McNally, Riad Nasr & Lee Hanson

My rating: 4 stars

Balthazar is my favourite restaurant in NYC and I had to buy the cookbook on my last visit (also available online).

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Cookbook Review: Making Whoopies: The Official Whoopie Pie Book

My rating: 2 1/2 stars for the book 4 stars for the actual pie!

I’ve heard lots of noise about Whoopie pies. Hey they were even on The View and have been billed as the next big thing since cupcakes by the NY Times. So what are these “pies”? Well, they aren’t the tarts that Americans traditionally label as “pies”. Rather they are muffin tops sandwiched together by some kind of nuclear white cream.

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Cookbook Review: Paula Deen’s Kitchen Classics by Paula Deen

My rating 3 1/2 stars

I have just fallen in love with beef short ribs.

I had some at the La Brasserie in Melbourne and inhaled the melt in the mouth fatty beef like oxygen. So now, along with my chocolate cake search, I’m trying to find the perfect short ribs recipe. First stop is the American South. Lets check out the Queen of Savannah – Paula Deen.

I love Paula Deen, she has silver fluffy hair and says y’all, y’all. She is also hilarious and down to earth – she whipped out chicken fillet bra fillers on The View! How can you not love this woman!

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Cookbook Review: Nigella Kitchen by Nigella Lawson

My rating 4 stars

 by Cookie McBookie

Nigella is the perfect foodie – crumbs fall off her lips and ricochet off her massive bossoms back into her plummy mouth.

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Cookbook Review: The Barefoot Contessa – Best Chocolate Cake Ever?

Review: The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook by Ina Garten

My rating: 4 stars

Fark I lurve Ina Garten. (Yes I speak English).

She is the human version of Martha Stewart. I “HEART” INA. Ahhh Ina.

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Cookbook Review Vintage: The Margaret Fulton Cookbook 1968 (reprint 1977)

Dear Margaret Fulton – I’M NOT WORTHY!!! I’M NOT WORTHY!!

I have failed you oh great sage, Yoda lookalike with a splash of ET. Stab me with a carving knife oh great one!

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Cookbook Review Vintage: What Was Your First Cookbook?

What was your first cookbook?

Mine was: The Good Housekeeping Step-by-Step CookBook (1977, special imprint 1984) edited by Gill Edden.

My rating: 4 1/2 stars

Any child (to  later develop a weight problem) would have to stop and caress the cover of The Good Housekeeping Step-by-Step Cookbook…..My mum bought this for me from a discount bookstore – the kind Greg Evans did commercials for in the 80s.  Its one of the best cookbooks I’ve ever owned and produced the best baked cheesecake I’ve ever tasted (see below).

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Cookbook Review: Fast, Fresh, Simple by Donna Hay

by Cookie McBookie

My rating: 3 1/2 stars.

Donna Hay is one of The Chosen. Yes, she was hand picked to cater for Oprah Winfrey‘s party in Sydney.

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