It is no secret that I love to spend time in the kitchen. But, I rarely splurge on a new cookbook (thank you, Pinterest!), so having the opportunity to try new cookbooks through Blogging for Books has been fantastic. I pounced at the chance to review Karen Mordechai’s new tome, Sunday Suppers: Recipes + Gatherings, and eagerly awaited the arrival of my copy. Flipping through the dreamy pages of brioche rolls and whiskey-glazed ribs, I thought I had found a treasure trove of recipes. First, I made the Chocolate Cake with White Icing for my middle brother’s birthday. I skipped the icing and topped it with powdered sugar instead, but the cake was quite good.
But, then disaster struck. After a particularly rough day, when all I wanted to do was eat breakfast for supper, I decided to make the Cream Biscuits with Jam Butters. I am convinced there is a typo in this recipe because it calls for 1 and 3/4 cups cream and only two cups flour. Alas, when it came time to add the cream, the doorbell rang. With thoughts of a package at the door, I paid no attention to the unusual amount of cream and added the entire amount. No good. The dough was too wet and looked like pancake batter instead of biscuit dough. I should have made pancakes with the batter, but even though I was out of flour, I really wanted biscuits, so I added rice flour to the batter. Do not add rice flour! Disgusting! The “biscuits” tasted like grass. While the cookbook is only indirectly responsible for the grass flavored biscuits, I am still holding a grudge. In an attempt to save the evening, I made the Perfectly Scrambled Eggs, but my eggs were finished in under a minute and not the 10 minutes suggested. I can only assume I had my heat at a higher temperature, but if you can get creamy eggs in under a minute, why on earth would you want to spend 10 minutes cooking them?
So, the breakfast recipes did not go over very well, but I refused to give up on this cookbook. I decided to try the Tortilla Soup. It was delicious – hot and spicy – and perfect for a cool, fall day. However, this recipe was a lot of work for what is essentially spicy tomato soup. Still, with a few time-saving alterations, this is a recipe I would try again.
Sunday Suppers: Recipes + Gatherings is filled with beautiful pictures, and the recipes are conveniently divided into sections based on the time of day and type of gathering. The Chocolate Cake with White Icing and the Tortilla Soup are quite yummy and are worth trying. Every cookbook is bound to have a couple duds, and despite my disappointment with the biscuit and eggs recipes, I have several more recipes earmarked to try at a later date.
Blogging for Books accidentally sent me two copies of Sunday Suppers: Recipes + Gatherings, so I am giving away the extra copy.
This book was provided by Blogging For Books in exchange for an honest review.