The Casserole Queens Cookbook - Rating: *****

   I was very impressed right off the bat with this cookbook as the first few recipes did NOT include cream of something soup. I am beyond tired of casserole and crock pot recipes that have cream of something soup as its base. There was a nice variety of recipes and all of them seemed like something you'd enjoy eating or even making.
   The first recipe I tried was the Deep Dish Pizza, Chicago Style Casserole. It was superb. It took about 20 minutes to prepare, as you have to cook the sausage, peppers, and mushrooms first. It uses a store bought pizza dough and simple homemade sauce. I've had original deep dish pizza in Chicago and while this wasn't that, it was delicious.
   The second recipe I tried was for the Corn Dog Casserole. I like a good corn dog and this seemed like a slightly healthy way to eat one. The recipe took about twenty minutes to prepare and it came out well. The only problem was that the corn part was a little sweet and that overpowered the hot dogs a little. My family loved the casserole so I don't think the sweetness was a drawback. I think if you used bratwurst or sausage it would solve the problem entirely.
   A few other interesting recipes in the book are Savory Salmon Turnovers, Gooey Apple Butter Cake, and Spam Casserole. I'm not a big fan of Spam but I'm a big fan of cookbooks that aren't too snobby to use spam.
   The writing style in the book is easy, the font is clear, and there are pictures. The Casserole Queens Cookbook: Put Some Lovin' in Your Oven with 100 Easy One-Dish Recipes is available from Amazon.com for $11.00 and it's well worth it.

My Cookbook Rating System

Here's how I will rate all the cookbooks I review:

***** - Excellent. Over ten recipes that a normal person would make and enjoy.

**** - Very good. There are many usable recipes but enough weird or complicated ones that it's not excellent.

*** - Good. There are a few usable recipes but most of them are bad or overly complicated.

** - Eh. There might be a recipe or two that you'll make out of this but it's generally boring and/or weird.

* - Don't even bother picking it up to browse recipes.

Purpose of the Blog

In this blog I'm going to review new and relatively new cookbooks. I've been a foodie for most of my life and have always loved to cook and discover new cookbooks. I even spent some time of my life as a cook at some nice restaurants so I have experience cooking and, more importantly, eating. I thought it would be nice to have a spot where you can get unbiased reviews of new cookbooks. It's tough to find a cookbook that has recipes that you will actually make and so that's the focus of this blog. Cookbooks that real, normal people will use on a regular basis. I'm not going to review special diet cookbooks, except for maybe a few vegetarian ones. In addition, when I make a recipe from the cookbook, I will follow the instructions precisely. There's nothing more frustrating than to go on some of these recipe websites and find someone that changes five ingredients and then slams the recipe. I will follow the exact ingredient list before slamming or praising a recipe.