Sunday, November 12, 2017

Weekend Book Reviews

The Wildlife Gardener by Kate Bradbury focuses on creating wildlife habitats in the home garden.  The book will help you welcome everything from birds to creepy crawlies.  Each section includes 10 things to do for the particular species of wildlife.  Most of the included projects are very easy and can be done with items already in your garden.  I think my favorite is the bumblebee nester.  The final plus of this book is the list of plants including trees to plant for wildlife.  This is a great book for gardeners who want practical advice for welcoming wildlife into the garden.

Valerie Bertinelli's Valerie's Home Cooking promises recipes for family and friends.  I found many recipes that my family and friends would enjoy as well as some that I would love.  The all-in-one breakfast smoothie is one that I would not want to share.  I am excited to try my hand at homemade tater tots.  I was disappointed that so many of the recipes were for alcoholic drinks.  Overall this is a good and useful cookbook.  I would actually make many of the recipes rather than just read the cookbook!

Looking at the cover of The Artful Baker by Cenk Sonmezsoy I thought it would be way above my home baking skills.  I was pleasantly surprised to find myself marking recipe after recipe to try.  A few were more adventurous than my liking.  Overall I was pleased with the mix of recipes.  I decided to try the recipe for dulce de leche brownies. It mixed up well and the flavors were good.  My problem was with the baking time.  I had to back them almost an hour before they were done in the center.  This made the edges a bit over done.  I think they would have baked better in a quarter sheet pan.  I am not writing the book off completely, but some adjustments do need to be made. 

disclosure:  I received these e-books through NetGalley but was not otherwise compensated for these reviews.  All opinions are my own!

No comments: