Mrs. Restino's Country Kitchen Review

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(More customer reviews)I have had this book for about 26 years--wow. I can't believe in all that time I only finally got around to writing a review.
Folks, this book is indispensable for anyone who wants to feel at home in their own kitchen--country or otherwise. It is and has been the go to book for just about every problem I've needed to solve in the kitchen, and still continues to amaze me with its exhaustive coverage. Susan Restino has a practical approach, combined with a sense of freedom to explore, that highlights what is important to know about the foods and tools you're working with, and lets you figure out how you want the thing to taste, or what ingredients you might like to sub out. Her recipes are big, broad strokes that are hard to mess up. Her coffee cake recipe alone could get just about anybody out of a scrape. Most importantly, she tells you why you ought to do what she suggests, and what will happen if you fudge it a little, or improvise. She dispels snooty kitchen "magic" myths, and cues you in on many of the shortcuts she's figured out along the way. She helps you think about a meal and what is important about it for which reasons. Are you cooking for someone who's sick? Are you trying to use up a huge pile of zucchini? Mrs. Restino is there for you. She's like the kitchen's own country doctor.

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In the early 1970s, Susan Restino and her husband moved to a remote farm in Nova Scotia with their two small children. Already familiar with European cooking techniques from her time spent as a au pair in France, she spent the next few decades learning to cook for her family with what the farm provided. Mrs. Restino's Country Kitchen combines those two chapters in her life, with recipes from around the world and right next door. Both traditional and experimental, the meals here include chicken with chanterelles, rice dry-roasted instead of fried, salads and stir-fries with seasonal ingredients, and desserts that are good endings to meals, not meals in themselves. There are also sections on making wine and brewing beer, bread- and cheese-making, drying herbs, and operating a wood burning stove.

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