u/cookbookreviewer

Making a few from Snaking Cakes. Any recommendations? I’m thinking I will frost my cupcakes with the cream cheese frosting recipe from Dessert Person.

I heard y’all might appreciate this post of my quick review of a great book - full of amazing history - by ATK, When Southern Women Cook.

Fried boneless chicken thighs: 9/10. Going into permanent bi-weekly rotation. ATK’s testing shows here, crispiest chicken I’ve made at home. So good.

Drop biscuits: 7/10. Solid - no notes.

Chicken and pastry: 6/10. Leans hard on your stock. Use something homemade and I think this jumps a point. I used boxed stuff.

Made the strawberry shortcakes yesterday but of course we ate them so fast we forgot to take a picture of the finished product. So delicious and easy to make. Looking for other suggestions to try.

Cooked a few recipes from When Southern Women Cook by ATK.

Fried boneless chicken thighs: 9/10. Going into permanent bi-weekly rotation. ATK’s testing shows here, crispiest chicken I’ve made at home. So good.

Drop biscuits: 7/10. Solid - no notes.

Chicken and pastry: 6/10. Leans hard on your stock. Use something homemade and I think this jumps a point. I used boxed stuff.

Has anyone else cooked out of this one? Only had a handful of recipes but such a fun book.

Homemade lady fingers and a combination of strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries with a little mixed berry jam to sweeten them up.

Fudge brownies: 7/10. Good. Surprisingly so, given they’re hitting a protein target. Don’t taste like a compromise. Would make again.

Marry me chicken: 8/10. The best thing in the book by a wide margin. Rich sun-dried tomato cream sauce, juicy chicken, tastes like a restaurant meal. Does not taste like health food. If you buy this book, make this but I still prefer the sunny kitchen’s marry me chicken recipe.

Seasoned crispy drumsticks: 7/10. Reliable weeknight protein. Nothing exciting, but good crust and easy. Dependable. You can find this recipe online.

Pick me up mocha smoothie: 4/10. Wanted to love it. Coffee, chocolate, protein, all in one glass sounds great. Just didn’t come together. Won’t repeat.

Rice: 4/10. Same story. Didn’t hit the way I wanted.
The thing that bugged me:

This book leans hard on healthy substitutions. Almond butter, almond milk, cacao powder, coconut cream, arrowroot powder, bone broth, on and on across basically every recipe. Two practical problems with that. It adds cost, because a lot of these are specialty items. And it makes the recipes feel less accessible, because calling for arrowroot powder on a weeknight is a barrier for a lot of people. I’ll also say this carefully because it’s not a light criticism…the constant swapping of regular ingredients for lower cal/lower fat versions across nearly every recipe can feel familiar to anyone who’s had a complicated relationship with food. Not saying the book promotes that. Just saying if you’re mindful of those patterns, worth knowing going in.

Tested four recipes over the past couple weeks. Short version: good book, not perfect, the planning system is better than the recipes.

What I made and how it went:

Dump and bake hidden protein pasta: 6/10. Fine. Easy to throw together but nothing about it made me excited to eat it. The “hidden protein” doesn’t do anything weird to the texture which is good, but this is firmly a Tuesday night I have nothing else going on meal, not something I’d make for anyone else.

Tangy maple barbecue sauce: 7/10. Genuinely better than bottled sauce. The maple keeps it from being a one-note sweet barbecue situation. Worth making if you have the time, but it adds to your prep so don’t count on this being a quick weeknight thing.

Sheet pan barbecue chicken and pineapple lettuce cups: 8/10. Best thing I made from this book. The pineapple and the sauce work well together and the chicken doesn’t dry out. Heads up though: this took me 30 minutes not the 15 the recipe implies. I’m also a more inexperienced cook so that might also be the reason why it took me longer. Also ditched the lettuce cups and used tortillas because my family isn’t a lettuce cup household and honestly it works better that way.

Salty peanut butter pretzel energy balls: 7/10. Good grab and go snack, nothing more. Make them on Sunday and you’re set for the week.

Who I’d recommend it to: Anyone who stares into the fridge at 5pm with no plan. The system genuinely helps with that.

Who I wouldn’t: If you want technically impressive recipes or anything that’s going to make people ask you for the recipe, this isn’t that book.

Overall I’d give it a 7.6. Not my favorite cookbook of the year but one that got me thinking about meal prepping in the kitchen.