I love cookbooks. I love to browse through them and of course cook & bake from them. I remember being a little girl and sitting down on many occasions with my mother’s old Betty Crocker cookbook, which she still has in pieces, and paging through to make sure that I knew all of the recipes in the book. I didn’t ever come close to making them all, but I wanted to be sure that I knew about them. I remember cooking my first meal with my mom – fried chicken, mashed potatoes & some sort of vegetable. It was quite the adventurous recipe for a beginning cook, but it was also one of my favorites. After that experience I stuck to baking for several years, as I could make many of those recipes on my own.
My favorite part of browsing through cookbooks is looking at the amazing pictures. The Complete Allergy-Free Comfort Foods Cookbook has no shortage of pictures. I like to mark the pages of the recipes that I want to make with Post-It notes and my copy of this new cookbook may just have an entire pad yellow notes sticking out of the top of the book. While Jon and I only need to eat gluten-free, every recipe in this cookbook is free of:
- gluten
- dairy
- soy
- nuts
- eggs
Elizabeth Gordon, diagnosed with multiple food allergies, experimented with different ingredients until she found the perfect substitutions for her favorite foods. More about Gordon:
Elizabeth Gordon is the author of Allergy-Free Desserts and the owner of the online gluten, dairy, soy, nut and egg-free bakery, Betsy & Claude Baking Co. A full-time mother and formerly an eating disorder therapist, Elizabeth has appeared on The Doctors and her work has been featured in many national media outlets, such as SELF magazine. Visit her at www.myallergyfreelifestyle.com.
The book begins with an allergy-free dictionary of ingredients. I love how Gordon explains the ingredient & the purpose for each one in certain recipes. Next up is a section full of substitutions. This section is great if you are missing an ingredient that one of the recipes in the book may call for.
Sections with recipes:
Breakfast Goodies – Do you miss Jelly Donuts, Biscuits or Funnel Cakes? Recipes for those plus many more goodies are included.
Starters – Pigs in a Blanket, Pot Stickers & Italian Wedding Soup are included in this section.
Salads – Avocado Salad, Tabbouleh (made with quinoa!) and Charoset (looks & sounds amazing!) all caught my eye!
Condiments, Dressings, and Basics – Love the Dijon Vinaigrette! I am also looking forward to the Tomatillo Salsa & homemade Ranch Dressing!
Main Courses – Shepard’s Pie, Tamale Pie, Stuffed Peppers, Black Bean Burgers & Individual Chicken Pot Pies are all on my list of foods to make from this section.
Sides – Hush Puppies. Enough said. Okay, seriously, there are many great looking dishes in this section – Potato Latkes, Irish Soda Bread, Rosemary Smashed Potatoes.
Desserts – Mint Thin Wafers, Golden Sponge Cakes w/ Cream Filling (aka Twinkies*), Smores Cookies, Whoopie Pies and Pumpkin Pie Bars w/ Oatmeal Raisin Crust.
The end of the book has a section on where to shop for specific ingredients that are used throughout the book, which is very useful. Nothing like finding a recipe that you want to make and not being able to find a key ingredient. Kudos to Gordon for including this!
*My personal opinion.
Now, how would you like to win a copy of this new cookbook? Just follow the simple instructions below to enter to win!
The book reviewed in this post & offered for a giveaway was provided to Gluten-Free is Life free of charge for review purposes.
