In every traveler's mind exists the perfect little out-of-the-way inn where the bread is always fresh-baked and the beds are downright heavenly. And where the soup is gratifying, gutsy, and downright gratifying. Since 1981, Crescent Dragonwagon-noted children's book author, cookbook writer, and innkeeper-has owned that perfect little inn: Dairy Hollow House in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Distilling all her soup-making, bread-baking and salad-mixing wisdom into one book, Crescent Dragonwagon presents 200 of the recipes that have made her inn a many-time winner of the Uncle Ben's Best Inn of the Year Award. Here are the pedigreed soups: Winter Borscht . la Vielle Russe, Cuban Black Bean Soup. Soups with a twist: Fishysoisse, Gazpacho Rosa, New World Corn Chowder. Soups to warm you up: Deep December Cream of Root Soup. And soups to cool you down: Chilled Avocado Soup, Mexique Bay, Orange Blossom Special. Plus dozens of fabulous breads, from Slightly Fanatic Whole-Grain Dream Bread to Rosemary Foccacia Dairy Hollow, and salads, including Beet and Apple Salad on Mixed Greens. Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club's HomeStyle Books and Better Homes & Gardens Family Book Service. Over 267,000 copies in print.
Crescent Dragonwagon's Soup and Bread has kept my family fed in style (with never a complaint from the most finicky of eaters). My local supermarket is decent (but not a gourmet mecca) and I groan when I open a cookbook to find the recipes made entirely of exotic and expensive ingredients. (After all that money and effort, you might as well have gone to the author's restaurant and plonked down your plastic.) Crescent, however, can turn simple ingredients into a feast. I turn to this book when I have "nothing" in the house for dinner and don't have time for a supermarket run. It always amazes me that I can get results like this with a relatively small effort. Her stories of Dairy Hollow House give each dish an "atmosphere." Her Gumbo Zeb recipe is the best gumbo I have ever had, and this is from a girl who spent years in Louisiana drowning in many incredible bowls of it. My husband inadvertedly renamed the recipe when he was raving about the dish and I told him it was by Crescent Dragonwagon. At our house, it's called "Green Dragon" Gumbo. It's brilliant. (Make it and you'll know what I mean.)
My copy's spattered, stained, and used time & again
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 23 years ago
Soup. Bread. Muffins. Salad. Yum. This is a book full of great recipes and wonderful lore. I enjoy the quotes and anecdotes almost as much as the food, and this is great food. We enjoy the Hillbilly Many-Bean Soup, the Skillet-Sizzled Buttermilk Cornbread, the Glazed Orange Muffins, the Dairy Hollow House Pasta Salad, the Chicken & Cheese Soup with Green Chiles again and again. Some of these recipes even go with us on vacation. There are great directions for making your own soup stocks, and no, you do not have to live in your kitchen all day to do it. We keep finding interesting recipes we want to try, as well as returning to our favorites time & time again. More than a recipe book, this is a visit with a friend who loves to cook. Enjoy!
One of the best
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 28 years ago
This cookbook is probably the most-used and best of all in my kitchen, and I have about 50. You don't need to doubt one word of what Ms. D writes, all of these recipes (I've tried almost all of them) are unbelievably delicious. All are dinner-party worthy. I have had the best compliments from guests and hubby for the soups, above any other part of the meal. My only complaint: she's such a purist about fresh ingredients, particularly broth, that I felt really guilty using canned broth. Sorry but I just don't have the time to make fresh chicken broth!! She's right of course, but not everyone can spend all day in the kitchen. This cookbook is EXCELLENT.
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