Dairy Hollow House Soup and Bread Cookbook

by Crescent Dragonwagon

In every traveler's mind exists the perfect little out-of-the-way inn where the bread is always fresh-baked and the beds are downright heavenly. And where the soup is gratifying, gutsy, and downright gratifying. Since 1981, Crescent Dragonwagon-noted children's book author, cookbook writer, and innkeeper-has owned that perfect little inn: Dairy Hollow House in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Distilling all her soup-making, bread-baking and salad-mixing wisdom into one book, Crescent Dragonwagon presents 200 of the recipes that have made her inn a many-time winner of the Uncle Ben's Best Inn of the Year Award. Here are the pedigreed soups: Winter Borscht . la Vielle Russe, Cuban Black Bean Soup. Soups with a twist: Fishysoisse, Gazpacho Rosa, New World Corn Chowder. Soups to warm you up: Deep December Cream of Root Soup. And soups to cool you down: Chilled Avocado Soup, Mexique Bay, Orange Blossom Special. Plus dozens of fabulous breads, from Slightly Fanatic Whole-Grain Dream Bread to Rosemary Foccacia Dairy Hollow, and salads, including Beet and Apple Salad on Mixed Greens. Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club's HomeStyle Books and Better Homes & Gardens Family Book Service. Over 267,000 copies in print.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction, Reference

Hardcover

First published January 5, 1992

About the author

Crescent Dragonwagon is the daughter of the writers Charlotte Zolotow and the late Hollywood biographer Maurice Zolotow. She is the author of 40 published books, including cookbooks, children's books, and novels. With her late husband, Ned Shank, Crescent owned the award-winning Dairy Hollow House, a country inn and restaurant in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, for eighteen years. She teaches writing coast to coast and is the co-founder (with Ned) of the non-profit Writers' Colony at Dairy Hollow.

Reviews

[Dianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

2018: This book is packed with inspiration! First of all there are the recipes, which I can't wait to try. They give me endless inspiration. Even though I'm mostly vegan and this book is not, the author is very sympathetic to my plight and suggests alterations often. I like it when cookbook authors are aware that there are vegans in the world.

Second, there is the text. There's lots to read and I felt like I was having a cozy chat with the author. I know it's kind of ridiculous, but I just love reading this cookbook.

I had it from the library, but I've ordered a copy for my own.

2021: Revisiting my copy of this and enjoying some of the bread recipes. This is still probably my top favorite cookbook for reading, and I enjoy cooking from it too.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have had this book for many years. Everything I made from it was delicious and I love reading cookbooks that put some info/stories about the origins of the recipes in with the recipes. I like Crescent Dragonwagon, she is a great writer and cook. Her story is interesting too.

Now that we are Gluten and Dairy Free, I hadn't cracked this book in a while. Her recipe for Shchi (Russian Cabbage Soup) is so good, my entire family loves it and it is way better than the cabbage soup at the Jewish deli. I also use her method and recipe for Skillet Cornbread to make a Gluten Free version of cornbread I can change the ingredients to make it Gluten Free and it is really yummy.

I am going to have to keep pulling out old favorites from this book and revamping them for our current dietary needs. It is a great book!!

[Sharon Huether · Rating 5 out of 5]

As winter is nearly upon us. We think of hot soup and some warm baked bread to go with it.
In this wonderful cookbook the author does a lot of background into the orgin of different flavors and types of soups.
The section on breads are some or the "out of the ordinary breads" we are used to.
The smaller section on salads explaines the how -to from start to finish. The perfect salad all the time.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Crescent Dragonwagon's soups are as unforgettable as her name! Crescent's "Innecdotes" about running the Dairy Hollow House Inn are interspersed with really, really good recipes. Two family favorites are the Colcannon soup and the skillet-sizzled cornbread recipe. The secret to the cornbread is to spray your cast-iron skillet with Pam, melt a bunch of butter in it on the stovetop and then pour in your cornbread batter and bake in the oven. Love it (and so do my hips)! This is not simple recipe book but personal stories mingled with the recipes. Your soup-making will never be the same :)

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining to read. The author's formula for "The Soup" triggered an "Ahah!" moment for me and made my soup-making both more fun and more dependable. (X cups of brothy liquid, X cups of substantial liquid, X cups of aromatics like onions and ginger, etc., X cups of main vegetables, plus optionally X ounces of protein per serving)

[Mindy and Drew Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

At home, we refer to this as The Dragonwagon Text. As in, "What should we make for dinner?"

"I don't know, let's consult The Dragonwagon Text."

These soup recipes are fantastic! Every fall and winter, it feels like this book is perpetually open.

[pea. · Rating 4 out of 5]

have has this book for so many years... have used numerous recipes from it but never sat down and read all the bits of wisdom and lore sprinkled throughout

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author is a good storyteller, revealing innkeeping vignettes and explaining recipe evolutions. Most of her soups include alcohol, however, so I won't be cooking many of them.

[Karl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked a copy of this up at the Moss Mansion in Billings, MT. It's a very user friendly cookbook. I especially like the easy-to-use universal recipe for "The Soup." It presents a no-nonsense blueprint for an endless variety of soups that are easy to make, healthy, low-fat and darn good.

[Marian · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my very favorite cookbooks, I have made many recipes in here over and over. Anecdotal stories and a great resource for bed and breakfast, Why invent the wheel? Just make her recipes at you place!

[Abby Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have yet to try any of the recipes from this book, but there are many that I want to try! I learned a lot about what goes into soups and different ingredients you can use. I may consider purchasing this book to try out some of the recipes when I have more time.

[Rose]

641.5 Dra

[Stephanie Mallicote · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to Crescent, I understand why we want to leave little pearl sized bits of butter in the biscuit dough.

[Amy Weiner · Rating 3 out of 5]

a lifetime worth of soups and helpful hints. i have a few favorites and keep pulling this out (especially in the winter).

[aspasiacat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yum! What an assortment of recipes - from cornmeal dumplings to fruit soup. A keeper.

[Gina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Maybe 8 soups I'd make; hard to follow, no photos, too many ingredients, not sure sometimes where a recipe is because it looks like an introductory paragraph, laid out terribly

[Trish W. · Rating 2 out of 5]

See my review of her other collection "The Dairy Hollow House Cookbook". Although the focus of this second cookbook by Crescent Dragonwagon is limited to soups and breads, the style is the same as the previous larger collection. You might find it appealing if you have a generous grocery budget, are looking for a challenge, and don't mind time-consuming digressions (what some might characterize as "charming, folksy stories") . As before, it's not that the recipes are "bad", they're simply over-involved & equipment-heavy; typically "cheffy". Although I read both books from cover to cover, uncharacteristically I wasn't inspired to save or try a single recipe out of either book.