Your Shirt Is Not an Oven Mitt!: A Kitchen Survival Manual with 150+ Foolproof Recipes

I recieved this book as a gift when I moved into my first apartment. So far it has been a great help with tons of usful information and recipes that are easy to use and understand. My favorite part is the Food Storage Index in the back. I am constantly looking at the best way to store foods. I highly recommend this book for anyone getting their first kitchen and just starting to learn how to cook.

I ordered this book as a birthday gift for my son for two reasons: one, he's a disaster in the kitchen, and two, if not for Ramen noodles, the child would starve. The book includes more than 150 recipes, only 14 of which are for Ramen. Chapters include recipes for drinks, sandwiches, and surprisingly sophisticated--but still simple to prepare--entrees, salads and desserts. These recipes will work as well for cooks-in-a-hurry as for culinary novices. Microwave and crock pot dishes will not only be life-savers, but may very well become the favorite dishes novice chefs feed their own kids someday. Author Deb Puente (Elegantly Easy Creme Brulee) includes such vital basics as how long different foods can be stored, cooking terms, and lists of basic kitchen equipment and suggested items for stocking pantry and fridge. She even offers safety tips such as how to avoid food poisoning and how to check pots of boiling things without scalding the skin off your face. This is a great book for fledglings fresh from the nest, newlyweds, and people whose children think the smoke alarm is a dinner bell. But my darling son will have to get his own copy. I'm keeping this one!

I wish this book had been around many years ago when I learned to cook. I would have been spared the pain of burning myself, the expense of the doctor bills and the embarrassment of my family laughing at me. Puente, known for her to-die-for desserts, attends to the needs of novices, addressing such subjects as using oven mitts, having appropriate utensils, and easy, tasty recipes for every occasion. I'll give this book to my college-aged nieces and nephews--and heck, maybe even to my own grown children. Couldn't hurt. Thanks a million, Debbie, for writing this book.