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12 of 12 found the following review helpful:
 Mary Jo's Magic May 09, 2007
By Jaime Reyes
I have been streaming Mary Jo's cooking shows on public radio for a long time, listening to her smart, diamond-clear advice about everything from how to poach an egg to how to deal with what is perhaps America's least esteemed vegetable, cabbage. Like many of her fans, I have been waiting for her cookbook to arrive in bookstores.
Now that her cookbook, Mary Jo's Cuisine, is finally off and running, I feel evangelistic. I want to tell the world how reader-friendly the book is, how fascinating her anecdotes and character sketches are, and, mostly, how well tested and accurate her recipes have been for me.
Celebrity cookbooks may have the added spice of having supposedly been written by super-stars. Actually, many such cookbooks are ghostwritten. Even with competent ghostwriters, many best-selling cookbooks are about as well written as instruction manuals. In contrast, Mary Jo's Cuisine pulled me, as a reader, into its pages with lively sentences. Its restaurant stories about such characters as Earl the chicken man and "the Izod man," a belligerent customer who refused to pay his bill - these, and other stories interspersed throughout the book, are at least as riveting as anything I have read in Gourmet and Bon Appetit.
Most important, my experience with Mary Jo's recipes, from soups to desserts, has turned out well. I won't mention how many times I have tried to follow other cookbook recipes that have not worked out for me.
The other day I had a yen for quiche. I followed Mary Jo's recipe for broccoli and sweet pepper quiche (on p. 64), without expecting much. What I got were scrumptious, slices of vegetable-packed, full-flavored, not overly rich quiche livened by bright red diced peppers. Who ever heard such nonsense as "Real Men Don't Eat Quiche"? I can tell you that my wife and I tucked into Mary Jo's quiche with great gusto. I wanted to lapse into Spanish and say, "Órale! Buena onda!"
Thankfully, I am not the only evangelist foodie on the planet. Here in arid Arizona I for one care a lot about seasonal, fresh food. Like the famed Alice Waters of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Mary Jo has her taste buds set on seasonal produce. An Ohioan, she cares about fresh asparagus and strawberries this time of year (the months of May and June); tomatoes and corn in August; and apples and squashes in autumn.
During winter, she appears to favor such hearty "dinner mains," as she calls them, as beef bourguignon, coq au vin, and brine cured pork loin with cider cream sauce. As with produce, Mary Jo prefers to purchase her beef, chicken, and pork from local sources. Needless to say, local fish are not an option for her pan grilled salmon with assorted garnishes, but she has good advice about what to look for in supermarket fish.
One distinct bonus this cookbook offers, in its overall country French approach, are recipes from India, such as South Indian shrimp curry. She explains the exquisite Ceylon cinnamon or canela, as opposed to American apple-pie cassia cinnamon, better than anyone has explained it to me.
It is hard not to rave about Mary Jo's Cuisine: A Cookbook. I can't be sure that you will devour its contents the way my wife and I have. But I can guarantee that you will find Mary Jo's recipes easy to prepare and magically delicious.
7 of 7 found the following review helpful:
This Cookbook That Rocks May 23, 2007
By Walter S.
Mario Batali, Charlie Trotter, Gordon Ramsey. Terrific chefs. Lousy cookbook writers.
Mary Jo, on behalf of this downtrodden cookbook reader, I'd like to thank you. Goodbye esoteric ingredients, inscrutable techniques and expensive equipment. Out with my chinois and in with your soulful, easy-to-follow recipes.
While I'm tossing things out, no more store bought yogurt for me when Mary Jo's "couldn't be simpler" recipe (p. 21) is a revelation. Hellmann's? Never again, with "a small quantity of mayonnaise (p. 33) only seconds away by hand.
Then there are those sublime soups and salads. And I've just started on the breads and dinner mains. I can hardly wait!
I've only had Mary Jo's Cuisine for a month and it's already dog-eared and sauce-stained...the highest compliment I can pay any cookbook.
6 of 6 found the following review helpful:
One mother's opinion...thanks Mary Jo May 19, 2007
By Cecelia Stevens
What a wonderful addition to my kitchen!! Not only does this book elegantly guide you through making homemade rustic meals, but it also encourages the chef. As a mother, I find I can rely on Mary Jo's true to form recipes. As someone who wants to try to grow the expanse of food offerings for her family, this book is a true treasure. I want to encourage those who might shy away from the lost art of do-it-yourself meals, to give this book a try. To be able to offer my ever growing family a homemade meal that wasn't constructed from a box, can or takeout delivery is a true blessing!
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
cookbook Aug 23, 2007
By P. C. Library
"book lover"
Who reads a cookbook? This one makes you feel like a good friend of the author. Receipes are very well explained and not as complicated as you first think.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
Mary Jo gave me confidence in the kitchen May 11, 2007
By Claire M. Skinner
"Claire"
whenever i try to follow cookbook recipes, i find that i spend most of my time trying to understand the instructions and it's a very frustrating experience for me.
the recipes i've tried in Mary Jo's cookbook were simple, easy to follow, and straightforward. i feel like i could read them and really understand how to put the words / instructions into action in my simple little kitchen.
for example, i've never made soup, but i tried the asparagus soup and i was a bit intimidated because it sounds like "restaurant food" but i did it! and it was creamy (without a lot of fat grams) and delicious. Mary Jo says that many of her customers would ask if her soups were "cream based" becuase they are so rich and creamy -- but they are not! when you puree the ingredients you get this nice velvet-like, rich texture and it's very healthy!
so i encourage you to try it!
See all 7 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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