Ackley-McPhail, Danielle. Auntie D’s Recipes. Paper Phoenix, 2024.
Reason read: an Early Review pick from LibraryThing.
First the facts: Auntie D’s Recipes contains 87 recipes in a 128 page book. There are photographs for nearly every recipe, taken by Danielle herself. The categories of recipes are organized into breakfasts, breads, dips, crockpot specific, side dishes, main dishes, appetizers, sauces, desserts, soups, cookies, and drinks. There are even a few “Uncle Mike” recipes. Unlike typical cookbooks with indices, you won’t be able to search by ingredients, which could be a little inconvenient. There was some attempt to organize the categories, though.
This is not meant to be your Joy of Cooking bible. The recipes are simplistic in terms of ingredients and could even be memorized once you got used to the unconventional measurements and vague instructions. I appreciated the extra information about materials needed but wished there was an explanation for some things like the use of an electric frying pan. Wouldn’t a stove-top frying pan with a tight lid work as well? If Ackley-McPhail really wanted to get fancy, she could have given directions for equipment like air fryers and rice cookers in addition to crockpots and electric frying pans.
Author fact: Ackley-McPhail and her husband, Mike, are science fiction buffs and are cat people.
Side note that I loved: Everyone needs a good cheerleader in their life and Ackley-McPhail found hers in a women named Ruth Freedman. Thank you, Danielle, for naming your hero. Not many people give credit to the people who are the inspiration behind the creation.
Another side note: the very first recipe is for blueberry lemon pancakes yet the blueberries and lemon zest are optional ingredients. Why not have a recipe for plain fluffy pancakes and include optional add-ins like blueberry and lemon or raspberry and almond or bacon and chocolate chip (my personal favorite combination)?
~*LunaSea*~ 