Jan Karon's Mitford Cookbook and Kitchen Reader: Recipes from Mitford Cooks, Favorite Tales from Mitford Books

I got this as gift years ago & am buying now to give as gift. This "KitchenReader" is so wonderful! The recipes are best ever, and then there are the excerpts from her books which are perfect "kitchen reader" material. I have read them aloud many times & everyone is captive audience, they are heartwarming & beautifully inspiring. The pictures and recipes are like no other. The biscuits are fabulous! Her other books follow suit of being more than great reading also. This is a GREAT GIFT for anyone! Will be much loved & bring hours of enjoyment. Jan Karon's recipes are sensational!

If I had ten stars with which to rate this book, I would use them all! For readers who appreciate the Mitford series of books, this cookbook is a treasure! Quotes from the books where the recipe is initially mentioned makes for double delight for Mitford fans. The scene is set for the cook to enjoy some very special recipes -- including the Orange Marmalade Cake, thank you very much! -- while recalling the atmosphere and characters of the town we love so well. I possess many, many cookbooks and I have been unable to find some of the recipes included in this Mitford Cookbook. All in all, for the reader and the cook, this book will become a classic and a favourite.

This is a fun book with many many fantastic recipes. The recipes are not complicated and are good old-fashioned fare. The pork roast is fantastic and the roast chicken is "to die for." My family loves it when I make something from "Father Tim's book!"

What a great gift for yourself or any fan of the novels! All the favorite recipes that readers have drooled over are here, including Esther's famous marmalade cake! (Can't WAIT to try that one!). Some of the best recipes are of course the simplest, like the quiet but lovable characters they're named after. A must-have for any fan of Mitford - and a sly way to attract a new fan to the series who loves to cook but hasn't read the novels! Thanks, Jan Karon!

I was surprised and pleased at the size of this cookbook. It is over an inch thick and has heavy, glossy pages, which seem less likely to become stained with the occasional cooking splatter. I am more of an armchair chef than a real cook, and I bought this book because I love the Mitford characters and story. I wasn't disappointed. The day after getting this in the mail, I sat down for three hours and just read the stories that go along with each recipe, read Jan Karon's notes and sidebars about cooking, the characters, and life, and looked at the mouthwatering recipes, vowing to try some. I love that most of them are totally simple and anyone can do them (barring the marmalade cake, which you will need to have both a well-stocked kitchen and a whole day set aside to bake), like Father Tim's Meatloaf (Old Faithful) or the three very different (yet still simple) apple pie recipes (made with Sadie Baxters of course!). So as a cookbook, it gets five stars, and as a Mitford reader, it also surprisingly gets five stars. There is even more text than recipe, and that makes it a true pleasure to relive some of our favorite Mitford moments and imagine bringing the characters to life by preparing their recipes.

"Mitford" devotees, rejoice! If you've long salivated over author Jan Karon's many descriptions of food in her Mitford novels, you'll be delighted to find Viking has at long last assembled the recipes into one delectable volume, JAN KARON'S MITFORD COOKBOOK & KITCHEN READER. Despite a nod to Father Tim's diabetes, this is pure, unadulterated, break-out-the-butter, down-home southern cooking. Don't look for calorie counts or number of servings. Most likely, with this carb-fest of comforting, sweet-tooth ticklin' recipes, you don't want to know the nutritional information! Just think of it as pure enjoyment. Each recipe is presented in the order of its appearance in the Mitford series, and six recipes are included from the forthcoming and concluding novel, LIGHT FROM HEAVEN (2005). The recipes range from the simple Silver Queen Corn (butter, sugar, corn, salt and pepper) to the dust-off-your-apron-and-clear-your-schedule-for-the-day complex Esther's Orange Marmalade Cake (although this is photographed as a two-layer cake, the recipe calls for a more complicated three-layer). Recipes run the culinary gamut: main course meals (Rector's Meatloaf, Ray's Barbecue Ribs, Cynthia's Bouillabaisse); basic side dishes (Puny's Potato Salad); mouth-watering desserts (Louella's Buttermilk Chess Pie, Cynthia's Raspberry Tart, Mama's Ice Cream in a Tray); beverages (Marge's Sweet Tea with Peppermint), and breads (Magdolen's Spoon Bread, Louella's Cinnamon Rolls). Playful recipes like Dooley's Fried Baloney Sandwich Supreme are paired with Dooley's Second Favorite Sandwich --- The Doozie, consisting of white bread, smooth peanut butter and Cheerios ("Fold the sandwich in half and jump on your bike and go"). Look for the unexpected, such as Barnabas's Dog Biscuits or The Lord's Chapel Communion Bread, and the unusual --- a page devoted to Russell Jack's livermush --- what it is, where to get it, and how to cook it. Declining to try the livermush, I experimented with three recipes: Velma's Chili, Cynthia's Heavenly Tea, and Emma's Fudge. Velma's Chili is a thick, meaty concoction with the surprise addition of cloves and celery, and won rave reviews when I made it for a casual dinner party this fall. Like many cooks might do, I tinkered with the recipe a bit, adding more tomato sauce than called for. Cynthia's Heavenly Tea is a memorable, rich drink with an unusual blend of tea, apricot nectar, mint, frozen lemonade, and a squirt of almond extract. Emma's Fudge didn't set up firmly for me, but was scrumptious anyway --- cooled, spooned up and eaten, rather than cut into squares. Though the recipes whet the appetite, they are only a smidgeon of what makes this cookbook so appealing. Sprinkled throughout the beautifully designed pages are table blessings, poetry, and little vignettes about Karon's own culinary life and history. Recipes are interspersed with full-color, mouthwatering artwork and photographs of the featured foods, often pictured on Karon's own tabl