Lancaster County Cookbook [With 8 Color Plates]

This is the kind of cookbook that friends and neighbors create, friendly, unintimidating and comfortable. The recipes are for everyday, hearty food. Nothing is fancy or modified for our health-conscious times nor does it contain recipes to challenge jaded tastes. They are the recipes our mothers grandmothers exchanged and that we loved as kids. Definitely worth having!

I haven't cooked from this book yet but looked at it carefully and will comment that it seems very good to excellent for its category or type of cooking offered: old fashioned, daily cooking, with lots of casseroles (vegetable and meat and spaghetti) with items likely to be on hand from any grocery store. This is not a health food cookbook although one could substitute healthier ingredients for some used. The chapter on potatoes looks excellent with several good recipes for scalloped potatoes. If you are reforming your diet you should eat more raw foods than cooked for better health, alhtough some cooked vegetables are better for you than fresh or should be eaten in conjunction with fresh. And a lot of baked dishes with tons of butter, white flour, pasta as in this book is not recommended but, as I say, you can modify recipes and many are easy, good, daily recipes to use. Beyond the daily ease, what's especially nice about this book is it easy-to-read format. Recipes are in black print, nicely spaced, and stand out so you can follow them well. Really a great cookbook overall.

Louis Stotzfus was also involved in putting together a A Quilter's Cookbook which is equally as good as this one. I bought the Quilter's cookbook first and was so impressed that when I found out about the Lancaster County Cookbook I had to have it in my library at once. This purchase is for a friend. The recipes in both books use what most people have in their kitchen on a weekly basis and the family loves them. Each have their own favorite. The Chocolate Bash is to die for!! This book is like having a 1000 grandma's bring their best recipe to your pot luck! Roxane Hepker, Milton, WA