Not Your Mother's Cookbook: Unusual Recipes for the Adventurous Cook

by John Bear, Marina Bear

There are 200 recipes in this book, one to a page. Each recipe begins with a charming fun-to-read introduction, then the ingredients, and then the clear and accurate method of preparation. There are four categories of "unusual" covered in the

Unusual ingredients or uses of ingredients (such as eggplant bread, cheddar cheese fudge, or simple peach soup with roses. Remember when we all thought carrot cake was unusual!).

Unusual combinations (such as the salmon-chocolate casserole we invented, and green chili maple brittle, and tomato soup with bananas).

Unusual preparation (such as the cake you cook from the inside out by drizzling it onto a rotisserie spit, the brownies you make in a waffle iron, or the chicken you cook by wrapping in foil, wiring it to the exhaust manifold of your car, and driving 100 miles).

Unusual stories (such as the m'jeddrah which is believed to be the actual "mess of pottage" for which Esau sold his birthright, and the woman who specialized in "Funeral Jell-O" -- an interesting and unusual dark Jell-O she regularly delivered to funerals all over the South).

208 pages, Paperback

First published November 15, 2002

Reviews

[Patty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whimsical, and often hilarious? Yes. Would I ever cook any of these recipes? Probably not.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I guess I am "Not your mother" because this book makes my stomach growl and puts me on the hunt for something funky and delicious in the kitchen. I borrowed the book from a co-worker to look at for the weekend and ended up reading it from cover to cover. Not only are the recipes unusual, several of them sound very appetizing and worth trying. In fact, I have to buy my own copy now because I have found over 32 recipes that I want to make. If you are not up to unusual recipes this still a great read from a witty writing and cooking duo. Thank you Marina and John Bear!