River Run Cookbook: Southern Comfort from Vermont

I purchased this cookbook after borrowing from the local library about 5 years ago. EVERY recipe i have ever made from this is excellent and always receives many compliments. Especially love Nicole's bowl cake, peanut butter choc. chunk cookies, Maya's Cole Slaw and Blueberry Coffee cake. The stories are really great and i would love to go to river run someday. I will agree with another reviewer these are not the most healthly recipes and you probably shouldn't eat them everyday, but for special occasions you can't beat it, One of my favorite cookbooks.

This is the first cokbook I have read cover-to-cover...recipes, philosophy, little stories of the town and the people who live in Plainfield, Vermont. I loved it all. But the best thing about the book is the recipes. We have made the barbeque sauce and dry rub, barbeque chicken and soup, the Really Big biscuits (twice!), shaken potatoes, granola, the blueberry pancakes, summer salad and Russian tea. (Nashvillians call this elixir "Tea Punch.") Catfish Jambalaya is simmering on the stove at this very moment. Every thing we have made has been wonderful. A couple of things separate this cookbook from others: 1. The portions are enormous, allowing for ample leftovers, even with our family of two adults and two teenagers. 2. Many of the recipes use the leftovers. (BBQ chicken becomes the basis for BBQ chicken and rice soup, for instance.) 3. The story of Plainfield and its townspeople--from the artists to the aging hippies to the gas company guys to the cops--is woven in to the book. The authors treat the readers as if they are stopping in for a meal and might like to be a little up to date on the other folks who are eating with them. 4. The food is plain, easy-to-make and serve. It is flavorful, not pretentious, quite a bit like receiving a beloved family recipe as a gift. So, if you are hankering for some hush puppies, Coca-Cola cake or some pulled pork (and who isn't?), this will become a special cookbook in your collection.

Interesting concept. Surround down home Southern recipes with photos and snippets from far northern daily life. Studs Turkel in a deep south kitchen. It works. While you're shelling crawfish or cleaning catfish you're oddly receiving a debriefing on the Plainfield, Vermont road foreman's 4AM struggle with last night's snowstorm. It kind of adds a northern spice to the catfish souffle. My cooking fool sister in New Jersey, to whom I sent this cookbook as partial thanks for helping our parents get through their deep end game, tells me that the five or so recipes she's whipped up have all worked spectacularly. She and her family of five REALLY like the catfish massaged into their breakfast. So do I. But I just have to drive ten miles to get it served up for me. Location! Location!

.... Why would you want to buy this book? Because it is southern hospitality at its best; never mind that the restaurant is in Vermont. As a Yankee who migrated to the south over 30 years ago, I enjoyed reading this cookbook, trying many of the recipes (everything seems accurate so far), and vicariously participating in the social pleasantries that are an everyday part of southern life. You do feel as though you know both the proprietors and the customers of this wonderful eating establishment...they are real people. I see that as a plus. And despite it's social orientation, it is first and foremost a cookbook. One word of warning: the recipes are full of buttermilk, sugar, crawfish, soup beans, and red meat. If you're wanting to lower your cholesterol, this probably will not meet your needs. However, if you like great comfort food and don't like to eat alone, this cookbook might be just what you're looking for.

The only thing that is wrong with this cookbook is that I didn't take a copy with me to school. Now I can't make the best food in the world. The best idea ever was catfish for breakfast. I can't count the number of times I go to River Run and order catfish with eggs, homes, and toast. Its so good I am never sick of it. The cookbook is a great sample of the inginuity and genius of the recipie authors. I ate at River Run two days ago and I'm already missing it. The only reason I go home is to eat at River Run. Its really that good.