Happy President’s Day and Book Club Monday!

Every Monday I offer a book review and recommendation for my readers. I found that I was interrogating new acquaintances about books they recommended and decided that perhaps I should start a more socially acceptable forum for my cookbook and food book obsession. Thus Badger Girl Book Club was formed.

To read past books, check out the Badger Girl Book Shelf. I would also love to hear what you are reading (so I can stop accosting innocent bystanders for book recommendations). I am getting some great ideas for future book reviews and good-reads.

This week I am reviewing Better Homes and Gardens: The Ultimate Appetizers Book. 

I picked up this book from the library months ago. We throw a lot of parties and I like do all of the cooking in-house. I feel like it’s kind of an expectation given the whole cookbook writing and food blog aspect of my life. That and when I show up for any social event without a dish to pass, people ask me if I still have a blog. I guess I have gotten a little sensitive…

 The point is, I am always looking for good, easy appetizer recipes that are sure to impress the masses.

What caught my eye about this book was the large number of dairy-free recipes. Most of the time I pick up a book and realize that I won’t be able to eat any of the recipes because of the heavy reliance on dairy products. It is so annoying! So, when I opened up the book to the recipe for roasted vegetable dip, I knew this would be a keeper.

I kept renewing it again and again. When Manatee told me that we would be hosting the office holiday party, I decided I could finally justify buying the book (not like it really takes much to get me to justify buying ANY cookbook, but this seemed like a logical chain of events in my mind).

Book Layout and Summary

The book begins with a chapter on party basics including party tips, a guide on how to stock your bar, fun ways to set up a relish trays, decorating and planning advice, sample menus, and some throw-together recipes. If you are like me, this is super exciting reading! I kept thinking wow, I never thought of that or what a good idea! If you are already the hostess with the mostess (or host with the most) then this section may be old news for you. 

After the first chapter, the focus remains on recipes for the rest of the book. The appetizers are grouped by type in the following chapters:

dipping delights
meatballs ‘n’ sliders
wings ‘n’ things
seafood sampler
fanciful pastries
say cheese (obviously not a dairy-free section!)
embellished breads
stuffed morsels
worldly bites
small bowls
veggie twists
crunchy munchies
fresh sips
dessert dazzlers

Recipes

As I mentioned, I was first attracted to the book because it seemed to contain a lot of dairy-free recipes. I actually broke down the numbers and it came down to 38% dairy-free recipes compared to 62% dairy-filled recipes. This is actually a really impressive dairy-free showing. It’s sad, isn’t it? This is why I need to publish my own dairy-free cookbook!

And for those of you who can (and want to) eat dairy and like entertaining, this is a must-buy for you. There are so many recipes that are easy to throw together with or without dairy.

So, back to the recipes: the focus is on easy preparation. Expect to see a lot of pre-made and processed ingredients. This book is designed to make your parties easier, not healthier.

That being said, I do LOVE a lot of the recipes. I have made:

Roasted Vegetable Dip

Caponata
Sweet and Spicy Peanuts
Hoisin and Garlic Mushrooms (my new favorite go-to appetizer)

Red Wine Crackers

Since there are over 400 recipes, I have barely scratched the surface but I will say that I have used the book for a lot of inspiration in my own recipes.
So yes, Manatee, I really did NEED to buy this book.

Points of Contention

On the front of the book, it says that it has over 450 recipes. I counted the recipes (to figure out how many were dairy-free) and I only counted 407 total. I am of the school of thought that if a recipe is part of a recipe that it’s one recipe. I think the authors really stretched it to get over 450 recipes. Clearly, this is not a deal breaker, but I was dismayed after counting over 400 recipes that I was short. And no, I was NOT going to recount.

As I mentioned, the focus is on ease and not health. Though there are a lot of dairy-free recipes, many of them do contain processed ingredients or just ingredients I wouldn’t normally eat. Does this make it a no-go? Absolutely not. The sheer number of recipes and ideas in this book make it a must-have in any cookbook collection. 

In Conclusion

If you do a lot of entertaining or just really like eating appetizers, then you should buy this book.

End of story.

It’s really that simple.

It has a ton of easy recipes, great ideas, and new ways to put a spin on everything from mixed nuts to puff pastry to meatballs.

And there are enough dairy-free recipes to keep this Badger Girl happy.

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So readers, what makes you justify buying a certain cookbook? Or if you don’t need to justify it, what makes you decide to buy a cookbook? Do you have any favorite entertaining cookbooks? Can you assure Manatee that I did need this book?

 


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