Confidence in the Kitchen: Sharing Cooking Experiences with Your Preschool Child

I saw this cookbook in a flyer for a cookbook book club, and the cover looked so enticing, I decided to check it out further. I don’t fix many casseroles, but do partake at potlucks. Something about casseroles is just plain appealing, perhaps for me it’s the cheese. Making them ahead and freezing them for those days when you don’t want to cook also sounds like a smart plan. 

From the introduction on the organization of the book, “The recipe chapters are straightforward. You start with breakfast and brunch casseroles and then move into the main-dish casserole chapters of meat, poultry, dairy, and game, seafood, pasta and noodles, rice and grains, and vegetables. . . Finally, the last chapter is desserts.”

Unfortunately, the best thing about this cookbook was the cover. Judging a book by its cover in this case was a definite mistake. I spent quite a bit of time trying to get into this book and just couldn’t do it. It has a fairly hip color scheme: burnt umber and chocolate inks on an ivory page. There are no photos, drawings or other adornments of any kind. Frankly, while looking at it I was just plain bored.

The recipes themselves are well written. If you truly need a recipe for something like Zucchini and Corn Tostada Casserole, you could use this book like a dictionary and hit your mark.

Wright, Clifford. Bake Until Bubbly: The Ultimate Casserole Cookbook. Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons, 2008.

ISBN: 978-0-471-75447-3

Scale 1-10 (1 too boring for words – 10 could see and taste as I read it) 

Overall Ratings: Culinary Escapism: 2   Recipe Quality: 5