Written by Hannah of Rise and Shine.

I have been given the awesome opportunity to review a cookbook...from an actual TV show...this week! As someone with no TV, I'd never seen the show Recipe Rehab, so I really went into this with no preconceived notions. I quickly gathered that the premise of the show is to take not-so-healthy family style recipes and "rehab" them to be a healthier meal option. The show started on YouTube, and is now showing on most ABC stations on Saturday mornings. On each episode, they take one family recipe submitted by an audience member and two accomplished chefs compete in an effort to recreate the best healthier version of the dish. Recipe Rehab (the book) is the first book that has been written in conjunction with the show. The 175-page cookbook includes 80 recipes and lots of color photos. There are recipes for every meal of the day and at first glance the book includes no recipes that sound unappetizing (I don't always feel this way when scanning a cookbook) though I wasn't drooling over it either. Until I got to the Creamy Kale and Artichoke Dip with Garlic Toasts, but I'll get to that. Most of the book's recipes are about a page long and while they're family-style dishes that you may serve at home, some are also kind of fancied up for foodies. The book also includes text boxes of "chef tips," which are always nice in a cookbook.

This cookbook was reviewed by Shelley C of C Mom Cook.

If you want to learn about a culture, if you want to really get to know about and bond with the people, learn about the food. This is the lesson that was learned by Faith Gorsky when she married into a traditional Middle Eastern family. Living in Syria for the first six months of her marriage, Ms. Gorsky learned directly from a true expert on Middle Eastern food - her new mother-in-law. Speaking the language of food, they grew to understand one another, and from this understanding, a passion was sparked and An Edible Mosaic was born.

In this beautifully presented and thoughtfully arranged cookbook, Ms. Gorsky shares the results of her new-found passion. Between the stunning photography, the clear explanations of the different tools and ingredients, and the delicious recipes, An Edible Mosaic is a wonderful resource for anyone looking to learn about the culture, traditions and food of the Middle East.

When I received the cookbook, I had no idea where to start. With only the barest of experience with true Middle Eastern cuisine, everything looked absolutely delicious, but just exotic enough to make me nervous. But I trusted the author and decided to jump right in, and I am so pleased that I did.

This cookbook was reviewed by Ruth of Makey-Cakey.

This is the part four of six part review of the Hamlyn Quick Cook series which I have been lucky enough to be sent to review for the Daring Kitchen. I started off by reviewing the Desserts book then moved on to the Low Fat book, followed by the Family Meals. This time I'm reviewing "Budget Meals" leaving me "Vegetarian", and "Pasta" still to go.

Before I get to the recipes, I should quickly explain the concept behind the series. The tag line on the front of each book is “Every dish, three ways - you choose! 30 minutes | 20 minutes | 10 minutes” and for each recipe there are three options depending how quickly you need to get dinner on the table. They all explore the same flavours or concept, and vary ingredients, techniques and time saving short-cuts depending on which you choose. Although small format, the book squeezes in a lot of content and diversity - with 360 recipes covering Soups and Snacks, Veggie Delights, Meat and Poultry, Fish and Seafood and Something Sweet. There is a full page colour photograph for each trio of recipes, making it colourful and appetising to browse through too.

This cookbook was reviewed by Ruth of Makey-Cakey.

This is the part three of a whopping six part review series - yep you read that correctly! I have been lucky enough to be sent all six titles in the Hamlyn Quick Cook series to review for the Daring Kitchen. I started off by reviewing the Desserts book then moved on to the Low Fat book. This time I've tackled "Family Meals" leaving me "Vegetarian", "Budget Meals" and "Pasta" still to go.

Before I get to the recipes, I should quickly explain the concept behind the series. The tag line on the front of each book is “Every dish, three ways - you choose! 30 minutes | 20 minutes | 10 minutes” and for each recipe there are three options depending how quickly you need to get dinner on the table. They all explore the same flavours or concept, and vary ingredients, techniques and time saving short-cuts depending on which you choose. Although small format, the book squeezes in a lot of content and diversity - with 360 recipes covering Snacks Starters and Light Bites, Meaty Suppers, Fab Fish, Fast and Veggie and Fuss-Free Family Desserts. There is a full page colour photograph for each trio of recipes, making it colourful and appetising to browse through too.

This book was reviewed by Todd of A Cooking Dad.

I love cookbooks so I might have been a little disappointed when I was asked to review a non-cookbook. I mean this was like actual homework and I didn't get to cook anything. When I saw the title "How to Cook like a Man" I think I know why I was asked to review this book, a little gender-profiling maybe?

Daniel Duane was a journalist, surfer, and rock climber. Everything he did he went all in. When he faced fatherhood he decided to learn to cook. His wife's great-grandfather built four top hotels and restaurants across the country when he immigrated to the United States and her family was full of gourmands and foodies. His family was the opposite. He knew how to cook pasta, stir-fry, and burritos and that was about it.

Daniel did have one food relation. He grew up in Berkeley and his pre-school teacher was Alice Waters, now Executive Chef and owner of Chez Panisse. The first thing Daniel decides to do to get into cooking is to go head first into the Chez Panisse Vegetables cookbook. And he doesn't just wade in, he dives right in. At one point he has a dinner party where he serves potato pasta, potato gratin, sautéed potato slices, and roasted fingerling potatoes.

This cookbook was reviewed by Ruth of Makey-Cakey.

This is the second installment of a six part review series - yep you read that correctly! I have been lucky enough to be sent all six titles in the Hamlyn Quick Cook series to review for the Daring Kitchen. I started off by reviewing the Desserts book and despite promises of Family Meals next, I ended up having a last minute switch to 'Low Fat' thanks to a proliferation of courgette and peppers in the fridge which lent themselves well to a particular dish.

I'm getting ahead of myself with talk of courgettes and peppers - before I get to the recipes, I’d better explain the concept behind the series. The tag line on the front of each book is “Every dish, three ways - you choose! 30 minutes | 20 minutes | 10 minutes” For each recipe there are three options, depending on how much time you have available. They all capture the same concept or flavours, and make use of different ingredients, cooking techniques and short-cuts depending on which you choose. The book certainly packs a punch in terms of volume and diversity of recipes - there are 360 recipes covering starters, mains, desserts, snacks, meat, fish, vegetarian and whole host of world cuisines, and there's also a full page colour photograph for one of each trio of recipes, making it easy on the eye for armchair cooking too!

This cookbook was reviewed by Carol – a non-blogging member from Canada.

I love reading cookbooks! Reading recipes can transport me on an armchair food journey ending in salivating taste buds and is often punctuated with a resounding “YUM.” My tastes have evolved and changed in many facets of my life including cookbook styles. Thankfully, this has been aptly matched by a growing trend in cookbook publishing. No longer are cookbooks simply volumes of recipes interspersed with close-ups of food and a few glossy pictures.

Today’s modern cookbook is evolving into more prose-like missive, complete with explanations as to why the recipe is important to the author or what technique can be honed from a particular preparation. This is one reason why I enjoyed Michael Ruhlman’s Twenty so much as he takes this one step further. In Twenty, Ruhlman puts forth a manifesto of the most essential twenty techniques needed in the kitchen to make you a better cook. This is an educational experience indeed! Even the look and feel of Twenty mimics the size and page weight of scores of textbooks familiar to students all around the world.

This cookbook was reviewed by David and Karen of Twenty-Fingered Cooking.

I have to admit, I was a little skeptical when I opened up the package from the Daring Kitchen crew to find the stars-and-stripes-and-beer-studded cover of Entertain Like a Texas Gentleman by David Harap staring back at me. Full disclosure: I am not from Texas. I do not want to be from Texas. And, while I do try to generally be nice and respectful of people, being called a “gentleman” just makes me feel old. So, in short, I’m definitely not this book’s target audience.

That being said, however, I can’t argue with good food, and to use a bit of Texas slang I just found on the internet, the food in this cookbook is larrupin’! Harap’s recipes look and taste out of this world. He has a knack for taking ingredients that you can’t possibly picture being on the same plate together, and making the most scrumptiously delicious meal out of them that you can imagine.

First, a bit on the overall organization and design of the cookbook. Each chapter is designed as a full-course meal or spread of food for all occasions, from the “Scotch Tasting Affair” with the guys, to a long, detailed “Romantic Dinner” with the woman of your dreams. Each chapter includes a bit of advice for the meal at the beginning, and gives you lots of space at the end of the chapter to scribble down your own notes on the meal. The back of the book gives complete shopping lists for every chapter, so you can just cut them out and run to the store.

If you haven't caught on to the phenomenon that is Twitter, what are you waiting for? Everyone is "tweeting". In the case of Maureen Evans, not only is she tweeting, she's tweeting recipes.

In her book Eat Tweet: 1,020 Recipe Gems from the Twitter Community's @cookbook, Evans condenses recipes down to the very essence to present them in tweet format.

This review was prepared by Recipe Sleuth of Eye for a Recipe.
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Believe it or not, Chef Thomas Keller, master of high-end French cuisine and founder of The French Laundry, Per Se and Bouchon restaurants, dreams of opening a restaurant featuring burgers.

So when a former diner not far from his restaurants in Yountville, California became available, he snapped it up, thinking it would be the perfect location. However, Keller soon discovered that he was too busy to design and build the burger restaurant of his dreams.

Instead, he decided to create a temporary restaurant dedicated to the kind of home-style cooking done daily for his staff, known in the restaurant business as the “family meal”. In an April 2006 email to his colleagues, Keller described the concept: Simple, affordable, one service a night, no menu, served family-style.