The Dairy Hollow House Cookbook

Got this as a wedding present more than 15 years ago and I still use it all the time. Probably the cookbook I've given as a present the most. Herbed Mezzaluna bread is a great thing; the bean recipes are wonderful, and "The Salad" is astonishingly good.

She gives such reverence to the pleasures of the kitchen. Honestly, if you have an adult child leaving home and want to send them off with one cookbook, this should be the one. Move over Fannie Farmer, you've been out-done.

I have -- and love -- all of Crescent Dragonwagon's cookbooks, including her first (The Commune Cookbook). However, this is probably my personal favorite, since I have made a great many of the recipes, and they have all been absolutely wonderful. The authors writing is also a great pleasure. Don't miss this one!

This book is filled with simple, proven and easy to prepare recipes which are out of this world. Each recipe is preceded by an anecdote of how the dish was invented and each dish comes with many suggestions for modification. Modifications are based on what is fresh and available during different times of the year. Incredibly easy to follow, these recipes are rich and varied. "The Salad" recipe is one of the best salads you will ever eat and takes 5 minutes to prepare and will turn out the same everytime if you just follow the simple directions. One of my favorite things about this book are the stories which precede each recipe and the fact that the recipes always, always turn out just as delicious as she describes!

This book is outstanding. The recipes are all tried-and-true, comparatively easy to make, and absolutely wonderful. And each is preceded by a warm, interesting little anecdote -- which a friend once described as "proof that somebody actually ate this". I really love this book, and cannot sufficiently recommend it. (I have all the cookbooks written by this author, and strongly recommend them, as well.)