Happily Homemade


I was really excited to get a copy of Happily Homemade: Cooking With Love by Rachel Schultz. I love cooking, and I love cookbooks, and this one looked great - a beautiful cover and the promise of 100 homemade, delicious recipes. The description reads:

"Cook up some love in your kitchen.

Does the question “What’s for dinner?” fill you with dread? Is the thought of looking for something to cook every day overwhelming? Popular food blogger and Pinterest celebrity Rachel Schultz has you covered in Happily Homemade, with 100 tasty recipes even a beginner can serve with pride.

Reinvigorating familiar dishes with interesting and unexpected flavor combinations, Rachel shares her go-to creations that always get rave reviews. Even with so much variety, Rachel’s approachable recipes include only ingredients you can find at your local grocery store. This gorgeous cookbook includes a photo of every recipe, plus essays and tips from Rachel (and her friends) on hospitality and making life easier in the kitchen.

Happily Homemade is all about celebrating food and joyfully loving others through cooking. Let Rachel show you how easy it can be to bring warmth and delight to everyone at your table by serving something happily homemade."

I'd never heard of Rachel or her blog/Pinterest fame, so I was going into this not knowing anything about Rachel or her food "style". To start with the positives, this is a gorgeous cookbook. The photographs are well done and inviting, and the tips and writing inside are interesting. The contents include Kitchen Tips and Charts, Menu Ideas (a feature I always enjoy), Breakfasts, Snacks and Appetizers, Entrees, Sides, Sauces, and Seasonings, and Desserts. Some of the recipes look appealing (Blueberry Cheesecake Stuffed French Toast, Loaded Skillet Fries, Hawaiian Slow Cooker Chicken, Greek Pasta Salad, Cherry Cake Bars) and others just made me think "what?!" or "ew" (Spaghetti Squash Burrito Bowls, Beet and Kale Lasagna Roll-Ups, Raspberry Basil Whipped Butter, White Chocolate Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes, Cocoa and Zucchini Strawberry Shortcake). That being said, obviously I don't expect to love every recipe in a cookbook - no one will, but I wanted to give a few recipe titles to give you an idea of the range of recipes in this book. However, my main complaint with this cookbook was the fact that every main dish recipe in this book save one (and many in the other sections as well) serve just 3-4. I have never, ever seen a cookbook that gives recipes with such a small serving size. Most recipes serve at least 4, if not 6. The "serves 3-4" really put me off because with a family of 6 (let alone if anyone else is eating dinner with us), every single recipe would need to be doubled. I found this very bizarre and off-putting. However, this cookbook might be great for a couple or a small family. Just keep in mind that if you have a larger family size than 3-4 people, you will need to double nearly every recipe.

I received a copy of this book from BookLook Bloggers in order to provide an honest and unbiased review. All opinions are my own.

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