Simply Fun Cocktail Book for Millennials (and Maybe Gen X!)

In this whimsical and fun cocktail book, cultural icons of the 1990s are invoked to inspire the children of that decade, now grown up, to explore the world of mixed drinks. The book is colorful, both in the many photographs and the playful design of the pages. The book starts with a little background on tools, glassware, basic mixing methods, and building a proper bar. The recipes are often twists on classic cocktails, while others are more original. The names of the drinks reflect the cultural milieu of the 1990s, often with a pun, like the Kimmy Gimlet (for Kimmy Gibbler of Full House) and Livin’ La Vida Coco. Even the title of the book refers to a 1990s TV show. The book ends with a few more helpful chapters about syrups and infusions as well as a 1990s playlist and a very short list of drinking games.

While I wasn’t a 1990s kid, graduating from high school in 1985, I recognized enough of the references to make me smile. As I said above, the book is beautifully photographed. The colors jump out at you, and you get a good look at what finished drinks look like. Reminding me of MTV’s Behind the Music, sometimes the pictures have little bubbles with trivia about the particular 1990s reference of the drink. The recipe headers also often talk about the 90s reference or about the cocktail itself.

The only thing I find strange is that measures like a half ounce and quarter cup are given in decimal rather than in fractions, and the decimals don’t have leading zeros. As one who has read a gazillion cookbooks, this just looks strange to me.

That being said, I think this is a fun collection of cocktails that any 1990s kid, or 1980s kid, might enjoy for both nostalgia and the fanciful drinks.

Tasty Collection of Healthful Instant Pot Recipes

In this delightful Instant Pot cookbook, the author shares a variety of recipes that are under 350 calories per serving. While many Instant Pot cookbooks exist, this author writes with an engaging personality that is both cheerleader and instructor. It feels as though she is not just helping you use your appliance for cooking healthier, but she also wants you to succeed in achieving your goals. The book has an excellent tip section with information about using the electronic pressure cooker as well as healthy cooking ideas in general, some of which go beyond the use of an Instant Pot.

The book’s organization is slightly unorthodox, not focusing on protein types, but usually on the kind of dish. Some recipes use the pressure cooker to precook ingredients for things like wraps, sandwiches, and salads. There are recipes as well for one-dish meals, soups & stews, and protein-side combinations. There are even healthy desserts. The recipes are simply written in an easy-to-read style, which I think is essential in Instant Pot cookbooks.

If you’re hoping to use your Instant Pot to help make not just fast recipes for your family but low-calorie ones, this book is full of tips and recipes that will help get you there.

Bountiful Cookbook Bursting with Grilling Recipes and Tips

In this big, colorful cookbook put out by Char-Broil, you will find over 300 recipes to add to your grilling repertoire as well as practical information about grilling and healthful eating.

The book has a surprising amount of extra information for a cookbook. There’s a large front section with a variety of tips, from choosing a grill to standard cooking times to healthful eating. Chapter 12 has more information about their infrared oil-less turkey fryer (which can be used for more than just turkey).

The recipes themselves include the typical big meats and spins on classic grilling fare (like hamburgers) as well as more unusual dishes like grilled pizza (even a breakfast one!) and quesadillas. There are also chapters about breakfast from the grill, appetizers and snacks, vegetables and sides, and desserts. Most recipes use a handful of readily available ingredients; the recipes appear straightforward in technique, though some might not have enough information for an inexperienced griller. I received a copy well in advance of the publication date, so I hope some recipes will be edited to include more technique information as well as standardize the extra information about each recipe (prep/grill/cook times, servings). Except for the marinades and sauces chapter, every recipe has a photo—even though some recipes don’t show the completed dish but rather the ingredients at some stage of the preparation. At the start of each chapter, a featured recipe is shown along with instructions on how to prepare it with young children or a teenage cook.

Most of the recipes in this book use the grill, with the most significant exception being in the chapter on marinades, sauces, and rubs. Scattered, though, throughout the book are recipes that don’t use the grill. I’m wondering if those would have been better placed in a separate chapter just for non-grilled sides and accompaniments. Some recipes, too, could be made on the grill or on the stovetop or in an oven. It would have been nice if these recipes had directions those options for those times of the year when grilling is impractical.

Some of these recipes look like very fun ideas, like the grilled angel food cake s’mores (the photo alone is drool-worthy!), grilled potato salad, and a variety of recipes that creatively use bread. Some recipes don’t require grilling for too long or have only one ingredient that is grilled, so they wouldn’t necessarily make sense to be the only recipe to fire up the grill for, yet if the grill is already going, they can make great additions to a meal.

If you enjoy grilling, you might enjoy this bountiful cookbook that will supply you with new ideas for grill-time dishes.

Not Quite the Ultimate Bread-at-Home Guide

The subtitle of this book is “the ultimate guide to make [sic] your own bread at home.” To me, that is a big promise, and unfortunately, this book falls far short of the goal. To make such a claim, a cookbook needs depth and breadth. It should have an extensive set of introductory pages about everything to do with bread making, from tools and equipment to different ingredients to different techniques as well as general tips and hints. The only thing in front of the recipes in this book was a brief section on wheat flours. A book with that subtitle should also have a variety of well-organized recipes, ideally from all over the world. While there was some variety—including a fair number of gluten-free options—much of the wealth of bread options were missing altogether or under-represented, and the book wasn’t well organized. It contained recipes that weren’t bread (cookies and cakes) as well.

There are a lot of gluten-free recipes in this book, so it would have been nice if there had been an introductory section that discussed these alternative flours. Even the section on wheat flours didn’t address all of that type used in the book, like spelt.

The recipe section itself had odd divisions. The first section is called Bread Baking Recipes; honestly, couldn’t any bread recipe be categorized as that? More helpful divisions might have been gluten-free, yeast bread, and batter or quick breads. That way if you are looking for a specific type of recipe, you can quickly go to it. I question whether the author is a native English speaker from some of the titles of the other sections, like Breadsticks Recipes and Buns Recipes, as those would sound better without the *s* ending of the word before *recipes.* Each recipe had a photo, but they were not necessarily a picture of the finished bread. A cakey gingerbread recipe actually had a picture showing gingerbread men.

Because I had noticed in the author’s other cookbooks that she had content taken from other sources, I did some research on a few of the recipes in this cookbook. While the recipes I looked at were not directly taken word-for-word from other recipes, several were very similar to ones found on various blogs with just a few ingredients changed and the directions rewritten. In general, this is an accepted way of creating recipes, especially if you acknowledge the source of the original recipe. That was not done here. Also, for two of the recipes that I researched, the changes made could alter the texture, and ultimately the success, of the finished product. In one of the recipes, the amount of liquid was slightly increased by adding extract and maple syrup; in another recipe, whole wheat flour was substituted one-for-one for a portion of the all-purpose flour in the original. Whole wheat flour does not necessarily translate successfully in this fashion. Baking is not just an art; it is a science.

Because of these issues, I cannot recommend this book.

Flexible for Both Omnivores and Vegetarians

Are you familiar with the concept of pescetarianism? It is most easily defined as vegetarianism plus fish, but the author of this book refers to see it the other way around: a pescatarian is one who would like to eat a more vegetarian diet, eschewing meats of the land, but still desires to have fish and shellfish.

I am just a straight-up vegetarian, but I was intrigued by the concept of this book. Nearly every recipe is either a vegetarian dish that can be made flexible with seafood additions, a seafood dish that can be made vegetarian with substitutions, or has a component that is vegetarian (like a homemade granola that’s a part of a fish dish). The book did not disappoint in its creativity. The author chose some surprising substitutions for fish, especially in recipes that are considered to be fish dishes like Ceviche or Herring and Potato Salad. For the ceviche, the author swapped out hearts of palm for the fish, while in the salad recipe, goat’s cheese was used (which even some seafood lovers may prefer!).

The author is British but does provide American weights and measures for ingredients. There is definitely is British phrasing, vocabulary, and punctuation, but that just adds to the unique character of the cookbook. The book is simply divided into just four chapters: Snack & Small Plates, Soups & Curries, Mains, and Salads & Sides.

Whether you are a vegetarian, a pescatarian, or omnivore who just wants to add creative seafood dishes to their repertoire, you will find this cookbook brimming with recipes that will most likely inspire your own creativity.