Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen: A Memoir and Cookbook (Vintage Contemporaries)

I have worn my paperback copy to shreds so I just bought a secondhand hardback copy via Amazon. That alone should tell you much about this book!It is basically a collection of essays about food and family It does contain excellent recipes but more importantly the author frequently references other cookbooks. Through this, I have read many other books that I would never have known existed. It is a book I come back to and always enjoy.

I loved this book,"Home Cooking" by Laurie Colwin. It is written like a novel and also gives you wonderful recipes. The recipes are easy to follow and the food delicious. She has also written a follow-up cooking book called "More Home Cooking". And she had a very engaging way of talking about her recipes. It is like one great story!Barbara Hall

I discovered Laurie Colwin by accident (luck!), and have fallen in love with her writing. I read "Home Cooking" in two days, and then went on to devour "More Home Cooking." Reading this book makes you feel like you are in Laurie's kitchen with her, just chatting and creating some delicious food. Her musings are interesting, inspiring, and down to earth. In many ways, she is the anti-Martha Stewart, as she openly admits short cuts she takes (cutting up canned tomatoes while they're still in the can!), and discourages purchasing lots of kitchen paraphenalia. Throughout all of her writing and her cooking, the biggest ingredient is love. I felt warm all over reading this book, and whether you're into cooking or just having a great read, I'm sure that you will too!

I enjoyed reading the 2nd "Writer in the kitchen" book and thought I'd backtrack and read the 1st. I enjoy this woman's writing style very much. Light, witty, very engaging. It's sad this woman died so early. As for the recipes, for the most part they are pretty ordinary if not downright boring by today's standards. I realize these books were written many years before the avalanche of cooking magazines and chef's cooking shows and cutting edge restaurants. So, at the time the books were written, the simplicity of ingredients and casual cooking style was probably very refreshing. If you don't cook much, both these books might give you confidence to start. The cranberry pie thingie was great.

It took me about 20 pages to settle into her "voice"... the result of which was, unfortunately, about 20 pages until I decided I did, after all, like the narrator. At first, I thought she was a kind of snarky know-it-all. But once I settled in, I realized she was a self-deprecating, well-experienced, down-to-earth cook from the mid-80s, with a very dry sense of humor. And I quite <i>liked</i> her sense of humor.At the beginning, Colwin says that she reads cookbooks like novels. This is perhaps why she's written this book the way she has... it reads like a sort of series of short stories, anecdotal short stories, but it's also a cookbook. She manages to pull off jumping around from subject to subject, from story to story, and from recipe to recipe, in a way that makes the reader want to read more, know more, eat more, and COOK more!Some review I read said that this book is like having a telephone conversation with your best friend. I would agree with that. The way Colwin approaches not only her stories, but also the recipes, is familiar, close, intimate.Overall, this was a lovely book that I intend to re-index (because there already IS a useful index at the end!) for my own purposes so I can use and re-use and hopefully impress dinner parties full of people...Highly recommended for people who want to cook, who are good at cooking, who are bad at cooking, or who just like food. or who just like to eat. ;)

A folksy and fun memoir of food and good company. Colwin provides recipes in narrative style that are simple and designed to facilitate the care and feeding of her friends and family. A quirky New Yorker who will win your heart, I predict, if you assent to her unfussy and penurious approach to food and its preparation. Does her early death make this seem bittersweet? Yes.

I'd rather dine out than in, and I hate to cook, but I like Laurie Colwin's style of writing, so I bought this book. Even Ms. Colwin admitted that she bought cookbooks just to read them, but I'm sure she tried some of the recipes as well. She described, by name, several cookbooks she had on hand, most or all out of print, and it made me wish I could read them as well. To show how cleverly she turned a phrase, I was inspired to cook something and did! I tried a recipe for bread that, when she wrote it, had me almost tasting it. Alas, said bread did not turn out as hoped. I had someone else (an experienced cook) try it as well, and it was somewhat disappointing. No big deal. I'd rather read than cook, anyway.

Colwin is an artist in the kitchen. Her recipes are clear, unfailing, and straightforward. There are no bizarre ingredients; there is no high-tech methodology. What you get instead is an invitation into the kitchen of a good friend who is a good cook. As the two of you talk, the prep gets done. Then, happily, you can leave the food alone for three hours and go play Scrabble. Or go to the park. The recipe for Beef, Barley, and Leek soup is worth the price of the book. Stop reading this and go make some!

Worth reading if you like to cook

I bought my first copy of Home Cooking many years ago.It is a lovely book filled with family recipes and the stories that surround them.A pleasure to read and to cook from. I have since then bought it for several friends, this purchasebeing the most recent. Each time I order it, I re-reread it and am never disappointed.A must for anyone who enjoys the art of cooking and eating.

After reading the warm descriptions of food in her novels, I was moved to check out her cookbook, and now wished I'd done so a lot sooner.

Really enjoyed Ms. Colwin's essays and am very sorry she died so young (in the '80s, of an aortic embolism, I understand). Her voice would have been a very welcome addition over the past few decades. She doesn't speak of exotic places, haute cuisine, or Michelin starred restaurants. She speaks of, describes, and cooks food that schmecks. I don't know which is best; her engaging tales of her personal experiences (good and bad, it must be said) with food and cookery, or the quiet and warm education she proffers with her tales and recipes. I love that she doesn't micro-advise. She assumes, for example, that you know how to make polenta, or how to (basically) bake a chicken ("leave it in the oven until it's how you like it - some like it to fall of the bone (me) and some like it just done".I'm a big M.F.K. Fisher fan, btw, and I'd say she compares very favourably. Better, perhaps, as it's easier to relate to Ms. Colwin's food than to Ms. Fisher's.A good addition for any foodie. Or anyone interested in a larger food horizon.

A cosy easy read with short chapters introducing recipes. Chicken recipes - and cold ones at that - appear to dominate. There is a lot of potato salad. The first half was better than the second. She writes well.