Hope's Table: Everyday Recipes from a Mennonite Kitchen

by Hope Helmuth

If tradition has a taste, this is it. Like your grandmother's beloved recipe file, Hope's Table helps you prepare enticing home-cooked meals for your family. From the kitchen of Mennonite cook Hope Helmuth comes this mix of 150 delectable recipes, stunning food photography, and stories of strawberry picking, corn day, and Christmas cookie bakes. Traditions of hearth, home, and hospitality run deep, and those values flavor every recipe and story. Hope's Table offers simple step-by-step instructions that help you create wholesome dishes with artistic flair. Practical kitchen hints and stories from a Mennonite life garnish the pages. In Hope's Table , you'll find recipes sure to become family • Mom's Rolls • Bacon and Corn Chowder • Creamy Macaroni and Cheese • Maple-Glazed Pork Chops • Apple Dumplings Step into the serene, natural beauty of a Mennonite home. Take a seat at Hope's table. You'll find plenty of reasons to linger.

Genres: Cookbooks, Nonfiction, Cooking, Food

320 pages, Hardcover

Published September 10, 2019

Reviews

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hope Helmuth is a Mennonite living in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. She grew up on a farm and this cookbook is a blend of Mennonite recipes and traditions with new recipes she's created as well. It's organized like many cookbooks by meal/type of recipe - breakfast, soups, vegetables and side dishes, dessert, etc. But, she adds a chapter called "canning and miscellany" that talks about canning and also making your own basics like pizza or tomato sauce, pickles, etc. There are SO MANY recipes I want to try from this book that I might end up just buying it. Very wholesome, seemingly simple recipes that make the most of in-season ingredients.

[Norlene Knepp · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is probably my favorite cookbook. Highly recommend.

[Elizabeth R · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simple hearty fare using whole foods! Just a great, useful cookbook.

[Angela (Kentuckybooklover) Brocato-Skaggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

The copy I received was a small sample of the work. What I read was intriguing enough to make me want the book.

I learned that homemade cinnamon rolls are best frozen the same day even if you wish to eat the next day.

I plan on fixing the broccoli salad recipe for my husband on his birthday.

I received a complimentary copy from the publisher, Herald Press, through NetGalley. Any and all opinions expressed in the above review are entirely my own.

[Tessa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was disappointing. First, I had inaccurate expectations. My family is Mennonite in heritage, so I was expecting recipes for zwieback and verenika. Helmuth is a 21st-century Mennonite and the food here is not the Mennonite food that I'm familiar with. But that's okay, I was still excited to try some new recipes.

Except that most of these recipes are just not great. Either they are extremely basic (e.g. this is how you cook a steak) or so poorly seasoned and put together that I gave up trying to follow them and did my own thing. This cookbook left me bored and uninspired. It's poorly organized and just uninteresting.

I will say that the photography is lovely and one recipe (Spring Rice Bowls) was absolutely delicious (I did not follow the recipe exactly, but I was pretty close). The rhubarb bars were pretty good too.

Bottom line:
Anything this cookbook does is done better by someone else. I'm not impressed with this at all.


Recipes made:
French bread A decent bread, but not the best I've made. I made it twice and both times it rose unevenly. It tasted good though.
Creamy Coleslaw Good but not amazing. This is actually the first time I've ever made coleslaw at home. I want to look for a more interesting recipe for it.
Spring Roll Rice Bowls with Sweet Garlic and Lime Dressing This was absolutely DELICIOUS. I used the recipe as a guideline more than instructions (I switched out the vegetables for what I had on hand) and it was completely delicious. David and I both loved it and I think that we will use some version of this recipe frequently. It can be endlessly customized and we felt a bit like we were eating Mongolian Grill at home.
Mango Chicken Curry I hesitate to say that I made this recipe because I gave up following it about halfway through. This curry recipe contains no curry powder. The seasoning used is lemon juice, turmeric, and salt and pepper. That's all. I did like the combination of curry (my curry recipe anyway) and mangos though.
Grilled Spicy Peach-Glazed Chicken Again, I don't know if I can say I really made this. I took her idea (peach + chicken) and did my own thing. I had a jar of peach+onion pickled relish which I used for the chicken. It was delicious, but not her seasoning at all.
Rhubarb Bars Delicious!

[Jamie Bee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simple, But Sometimes Unusual, Recipes from a Mennonite Kitchen

What a lovely cookbook of simple, everyday recipes from a Mennonite woman who lives in the Shenandoah Valley. The cookbook is simply divided into recipe types, like breakfast or bread. The book’s recipes are super straightforward and easy, requiring just a few common ingredients. Every recipe has a photo, which is helpful because some recipes are unusual, like a sausage and egg breakfast casserole with eggs sunny-side up on the top. Interspersed throughout the book are small essays about how to live better, like the one about teaching children about food and another about having a tidy refrigerator. I love cookbooks like this that show a culture that is unfamiliar to me. If you have an interest in simple home cooking or the Mennonites, this cookbook could be right up your alley.

I received a free copy of this cookbook, but that did not affect my review.

My book blog: https://www.readingfanaticreviews.com

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you Harald Press and Netgalley for a copy of Hope's Table by Hope Helmuth for review.

This cookbook was beautifully laid out and I loved the simplicity of the recipes. Everything was easy to follow and great for a family meal!

[Sarah Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVE LOVE LOVE this one. I need Hope’s Holiday Table next. Just the best.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Hope's Table is an advance preview of a cookbook featuring home cooking recipes by lifestyle blogger Hope Helmuth. Expected release date is 10th Sept 2019 from Herald Press. It will be 320 pages and available in ebook and paperback formats.

The preview eARC I received includes three recipes from the cookbook: cinnamon rolls with caramel icing, crunchy broccoli salad with a mayonnaise dressing, and a chocolate cake. The recipes in the preview all make good family sized portions, for example the cinnamon roll recipe yields 3-4 dozen rolls. All of the recipes are hearty home cooking. We tried the broccoli recipe and it was a hit (but I adjusted the dressing recipe a little bit and decreased the portion ingredients because we are a small family).

The included photography is very clear and well done and illustrates the food and lifestyle very well.

I will be very interested to see more of the book closer to release date. It's appealing and hearty farmhouse cooking.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

FANTASTIC! I wanted to try pretty much every recipe in the book. I was hooked from the introduction, where Hope introduces not just herself but also her family, and also gives all glory to God. Following are so many recipes with full color pictures and endearing introductions. Interspersed are a handful of photos of Hope and her family. The only thing is that she's working in a Mennonite kitchen. The recipes don't cut corners. It all looked SO FREAKING DELICIOUS but several recipes called for more time or steps than I am currently able to commit to. For example, several mouthwatering bread recipes that call for yeast. Or meat recipes with a gravy. Even still, I chose the following recipes to try. I have very high expectations. They look so good in the cookbook!

•Dad's Favorite Potato Salad - I thought delicious!
•Maple-Glazed Sweet Potatoes - super good!
•Citrus-Glazed Sweet Potatoes - yum! And not too hard to make.
•Oven-Roasted Green Beans - super good!
•Honey Green Beans - delicious and super simple!
•Stuffed Peppers- eh, didn’t work for us.
•Cheesy Beef Enchiladas - Delicious! I'll admit to not expecting too much from a Mexican recipe in a Mennonite cookbook... but they are delicious!

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being a lover of cookbooks, I found this book charming. I was disappointed that the book only contained a few recipes. However, all the recipes look very easy to recreate, with items you may have on hand. We have a sour cherry tree, it's just beginning to produce fruit. I was pleased to see a cherry pie recipe for sour cherries. I will definitely make this recipe next spring as our cherrys bloom out again.

Overall, I think this is a beautiful little recipe book. Lots of stories and family recipes from Hope Helmuth. Pretty artwork and helpful tips. This would be a lovely cookbook for your home , as well, as giving as a gift. I am excited to purchase the complete book.

I received an advanced excerpt of the book from NetGalley and HeraldPress for my review.

[Denice Langley · Rating 5 out of 5]

If tradition has a taste, this is it. This one line describes this cookbook so well. Let it take you into the kitchen of Hope Helmuth where she gives us so many of her family's favorites that it was hard to pick which recipes to start with. So my fellow adventurous cooks all took 10 recipes and tried them. Each recipe was easy to follow using ingredients most of us already have in our pantries. The directions were clear, we all produced excellent results on the first attempt. The results were VERY tasty. Many of these new recipes have now joined our own list of family favorites. A great cookbook for new or seasoned cooks.

[Michaela Whitney]

I received copy through NetGalley for review.

I've reviewed dozens of cookbooks and was frustrated to find that this was a sampler with only 3 recipes, rather than the actual book.
Based off that I don't feel I can adequately give a starred review. The presentation was lovely, but three recipes aren't enough for me to really be able to give an opinion or even talk about it properly.
I'm very frustrated with the fact that this wasn't labeled properly as a sampler.

I wish this lovely book all the best from what I saw of it. But I cannot adequately speak about it.

[Kyla Castleton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won't lie. I have had one or two recipes from this book that I thought were just okay. But most are fantastic! And Hope is just so charming. I love reading the small excerpts included in this cookbook that describe the cooking traditions she grew up with and things she is trying to teach her children. I love this book!

(sidenote, Hope lives in the same area as I do and once came to the restaurant I work at for her birthday. I was absolutely starstruck. I couldn't stop talking about it for the rest of the day. Best day of my life)

[Michelle Noble · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hope is a Mennonite, and the cookbook is based on her home cooked meals. It's divided up into sections. The first section is breakfast. My favorite recipe is the sweet rolls. Each recipe has beautiful color photographs. It has sections for beef and pork dinners, a chicken and seafood dinners, and more. The recipes have simple ingredients that are commonly found in kitchens. I love the pictures. It shows what your results should look like.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this cookbook. The recipes use simple, basic ingredients but are beautifully presented. These are real food recipes that are meant to nourish and fill the belly. This is the way we grew up eating and the way I try to feed my family now - delicious food, simply prepared with produce from my garden and meat from a local farm. If you enjoy homemade comfort food with real ingredients then you may enjoy this book.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was unaware this was only a sample/preview when I chose it from Netgalley, so imagine my disappointment when I opened the book file and saw only 16 pages! What little there was, was lovely - beautiful photos and recipes made from wholesome, everyday ingredients. Look forward to seeing the whole thing.

[Jacquie Oermann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent cookbook! Especially for newer cooks. Simple yet delicious recipes made with easy to find ingredients. I often already have everything on hand in my pantry. In buying another for my daughter who has recently moved out and is starting to really cook. Beautiful photographs and I love the peeks to their lifestyle.
Great for a gift!

[Kristen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m basing this review off of two recipes, but both turned out so well and I can’t wait to cook more from this book. I also love her “voice” throughout...her writing conveys how meaningful mealtime can be and I’m feeling inspired to involve my children more in the kitchen.

[Judy Renner · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVE love love this recipe book filled with homestyle recipes and steeped in wonderful Mennonite traditions and memories. It's such a "pretty" book, filled with beautiful photos. Will be sitting out on my counter for months to come!

[Briana Grider · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had mixed feelings about this cookbook. On one hand it had all the recipes I would want in a cookbook, on the other hand a lot of the recipes had things such as canned soup as an ingredient, and I wish the recipes were more organic/from scratch.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautifully done cookbook, with fabulous photographs for each recipe. Unfortunately, some come across discoloured and they don't do justice to the food representations. They actually look unappetizing.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

The small taste we got to see looked delicious. The photography looked stunning. Can't wait to see the entire book. I love reading cookbooks and trying out recipes.

[Jacqueline · Rating 5 out of 5]

This looks like a really good book. I wasn't able to tell much about it by the ARC I was sent. Enough though for me to look it up at a bookstore and see what it is like.

[Evonne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous photos - looking forward to trying many of the recipes. I appreciate the time honored method of home cooking. I also enjoyed the explanations and family stories shared in the book.

[Heydi Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty book, not a ton of pictures. The recipes were varied but didn't seem unique or especially special. It was a great book to look at but I wouldn't buy it.

[Amy Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply delightful. Accessible timely recipes that are both delicious and rewarding to create.

[Connie Fink · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the old time recipes

[Ileana Renfroe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed Hope's Table so much I'm ordering it in print. Easy to follow, great instructions and yummy recipes make this a must have book.

[Katelyn Emberton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Favorite cookbook I’ve ever owned! I’ve used it so much in the few months I’ve had it.