Tag: recipes

The Secret of Orange Blossom Cake by Rachel Linden

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The Secret of Orange Blossom Cake is a wonderful, magical healing read! It is filled with love, regrets, hope and mending past choices. It is also filled with Italian delicacies and of course the Orange Blossom Cake! Yes, there may be a bit of magic, but in the end the power of strength comes from inside themselves. In the end it’s all about familia!

Jules Costa has an on-line cooking show with her roommate. But when he is wooed by an LA company to star in his own show, he decides to take the opportunity and go leaving Jules to have to decide to end her beloved show. But she also has a bigger problem. She signed to create a cookbook of her favorite Italian recipes. Unfortunately, since her father’s tragic death years ago, she can’t even remember the food she cooked with her Nonna Bruna in Italy where her family has an olive farm. And her deadline is fast approaching.

Enter her mother who decides she wants to spend the summer with Jules’ stepfather and Jule’s stepsister Alex has nowhere to go so her mother is insisting they both go to Italy to visit Nonna Bruna. But Jules has never really been close to Alex and has not stepped foot in Italy since her father’s death. But she decides to take the trip because she hopes Nonna will be able to help with her memory of all the foods they use to cook when life was so simple.

But when they get there, Alex already wants to go back and basically sits on her phone or in her room alone. And Jules discovers that her first love, Nicolo has not only come back to their small town but is helping her Nonna with the upkeep of the farm. You see Nicolo’s Nonna and Jule’s Nonna have had a feud going on forever with no one really know what happened.

As the girls settle in Jules discovers her Nonna’s recipe book. It is blank. She asks Nonna but she will not tell her why. But Nonna does tell her about a recipe which has magical properties, Orange Blossom Cake. But they must figure out how to create the recipe. Could this cake be the answer to all their prayers?

As they all work together to find answers, they also discover there has been much left unsaid since Jule’s last visit. As the healing begins, everything starts to fall into place. But is it really magic or just love? Will we ever know?

The Secret of Orange Blossom Cake is such a funny burst of love, even though it has heartbreaking moments, in the end those moments are what make you stronger and happy and at peace. Oh, and yes, the recipe for this magical cake is at the end of the book!

Thank you #NetGalley #Berkley #RachelLinden #TheSecretofOrangeBlossomCake for the advanced copy.

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Tart by Slutty Cheff

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First and foremost, don’t let the author’s name, Slutty Cheff make you believe this is some kind of very smutty read…it is not, and neither is she. That is her Instagram name, and she has kept herself anonymous for some time. Her posts of food and restaurants never include her face. And her posts as well as her personal story are delectable!

Tart is her autobiography of sorts. She decided to make a transition from her 9-to-5 corporate job which she hated to something in the food industry because she loved food. As she was taking a course on cooking, she got her first job as the lowest cook in a restaurant and has not looked back since. Well, she did take a few mental illness, need to figure things out “vacations”.

As she began her restaurant jobs, she fell in love with the hustle and bustle, but so much more. The cooking, the comradery between employees, the after-service drinks at the bar…and yes, even falling for a bartender and a few chefs!

As she takes the reader into the kitchens where she is working, we see not everything is exciting. When she was starting out, she was basically the only woman in the kitchen and unfortunately was looked down on a bit. As the male chefs stripped off their clothes to get into their cooking outfits, she would just stand there awkwardly and wait so she would be able to change. Many chefs who for whatever reason could not fathom a woman in the kitchen, made sure she knew how they felt. And let’s not get into the bullying which would have any human resource department’s head spinning! But she got used to this and she endured.

She loved the work and the long hours and the food. She also explains in the book how she fell in love with a couple of chefs, and this is a part of her story as well. Parts which would break anybody’s heart and have them retreat and never want to step foot in a restaurant again. And she does give herself a break, only to realize cooking and food are in her blood and no matter what she knows this is where she truly belongs.

Tart will amusingly immerse you into the world of a woman chef who through her wit explains her loves of food, hard work, loss and bravery. It will also make and keep you very, very hungry!

Thank you #NetGalley #S&S/MarysueRucciBooks #SluttyCheff #Tart for the advanced copy.

Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten

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I have always enjoyed Ina Garten. Her cookbooks and television shows, her soft-spoken funny approach to cooking and her obvious love for her husband Jeffrey have fueled me on at times to try recipes I probably would not or more realistically should not have tried. So when she came out with her memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens, I hesitated at first to reading it. What on earth after following her for years could I possibly learn about her that I don’t already know? Well, everything actually!

In this fascinating, very open and honest book, she really delves into what her life was like as a child, and that was sad to read, how when she met Jeffrey when she was in high school and he college, her life truly began and since that meeting their lives which have had ups and downs has been what I would call a magical cooking ride. What a life this woman has lived!

Her childhood was not happy. Her mother did not mother and her father was a strict disciplinarian who abused both her and her brother. Structure and order was how the house was run. Her mother, a nutritionist, never allowed a carb in the house. It would be years into her life when Ina would eat her first bowl of pasta. Her parents kept her under their strict rules and when she would explain what she wanted to do with her life they would always tell her no. You are getting married and running a household. Sadly, Ina thought everyone’s parents were like this.

But, that all changed when she met her husband Jeffrey, accidentally at the college her brother was attending. That meeting would change the trajectory of not only Ina’s life but of Jeffrey. And the question Ina is grateful she never has to answer is what if she had not met Jeffrey?

Her parents were hesitant to allow her to date him, but Jeffrey in his calming intellectual way was able to make them love him. But when it came time to ask for Ina’s hand, well that was tough. And for the first time in her life, Ina put her foot down and made the decision to marry and told her parents whether they liked it or not it was going to happen.

And then they married and that’s when the magic truly set in. They decided to take the summer and go camping in Europe. And by camping it was on the ground in a little green tent with one pan. They lived on five dollars a day. But for Ina this was when she truly discovered her love for cooking as they would go each day to the farmer’s markets and gather ingredients for their meals for the day and sightsee and meet new people. As they continued the adventure that summer, Ina told Jeffrey someday she wanted to go to Paris and live there. Again, a dream which came to fruition years and years later.

But reality set in and they moved to Washington D.C. where Ina worked writing bills which were never passed, and she was bored out of her mind. What she would spend most of her time doing during the day would be creating menus for their dinner parties which they would have every weekend. And some of them were pretty epic and hysterical!

Then one day while at work she saw an advertisement for a specialty store in the Hamptons which was for sale called The Barefoot Contessa, mentioned it to Jeffrey and of course, that would once again change the trajectory of their lives forever.

But buying the store and working up to 16 hours a day, and with Jeffrey still working in Washington, put pressure on their marriage and at one point she told Jeffrey she felt they needed to separate for a while. And once again, Jeffery with his wisdom told her if that’s what she really wanted then they would. But as we all know they did resolve their differences.

Ina had complete control of the menu at Barefoot and created delicious concoctions the tourists during the summer would line up for. During this time she had been approached by Martha Stewart to do a cooking show but that did not go very well.

When Ina felt she had completed her task of creating what she wanted at Barefoot, someone suggested she write a cookbook of all the recipes from the store. And with that the real Barefoot Contessa was born. And over time there was television which she very reluctantly stepped into.

Ina has worked hard all her life, but to her it’s playtime. When another offer comes in, she analyzes it and sees how she feels. Childless by choice, her baby is her love of food and her love of making people happy by eating and of course, Jeffrey. She and Jeffrey who is a dean at a college comes home on weekends and oh yes, she built her own apartment in Paris where they travel to constantly.

Be Ready When the Luck Happens is a rollercoaster ride of the life, love and stories of a woman who was determined to do what she wanted not to matter what the outcome with the love of her life by her side. To add to this amazing story, she has included her most popular recipes for all of us to try. How good is that?

Published by Crown Publishing

The Secret Ingredient by Sue Heath

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The Secret Ingredient is just the most beautiful story filled with grace and kindness. It’s about friendship, loss and the coming together of people through companionship and recipes from their pasts. It’s about heartbreaking pain and how with the help of others even though there is darkness, you can get to the light. In more ways than one.

Kate Shaw’s life changed in the blink of an eye. Now, three years later, with the grief and guilt still overwhelming her, she decides to quit her job as a teacher and do something else. Not sure what, she just knows she as to do something to stop her life from spiraling out of control. Not very close to her mother, she carries her burdens alone. In the dark. With no comfort.

But that suddenly changes when an elderly man named Charles knocks on her door. He tells her the story of how her home use to be a bakery of sorts with tea and he and his wife Mary used to go there. He tells her his wife is ill and the one thing he thinks will help her are the scones which came from this bakery. Now, Kate not only does not cook, although her grandmother did and she still has her recipe book, but the thought of any kind of cooking breaks her heart.

But Charles convinces Kate that Mary would so much appreciate the scones that she could help her make them. In the meantime, as Kate is looking around her neighborhood, which while working she really never did, or never wanted to do, she meets another person, Della who loves to garden. Della offers to help Kate with her gardens which have been neglected. In return, Kate invites her to the tea to try the scones. Della is divorced and lonely, but her dog is everything to her. Of course, she jumps at the chance. Then there is Jack, who himself was a famous restaurant owner/chef who gave everything up. You see, Jack has lost his mojo and by mojo, his sense of taste. Without that, he has nothing. Or so he thinks.

And those my friends are the wonderfully charming characters you will learn to love and care about, even if you say you won’t. It’s about opening up about fears, pasts, guilts and losses. It’s about a group of unknowns who meet and through the love of eating, cooking and memories begin to bond and grow in strength separately and together. My friends, it’s about love.

Each person brings something to the table as they not only share meals but share themselves with the others. Every person has their own special secret ingredient in life. Sometimes if your very lucky you will find others whose ingredients will combine with yours and you will find true happiness in your life too.

Thank you #NetGalley #OneMoreChapter #SueHeath #TheSecretIngredient for the advanced copy.