I have worked as a teacher in a cooking school in Northeast Ohio for twenty years. A past caterer, artisan baker and culinary teambuilding entrepreneur, I am presently working as a free lance food writer and co-author with Meredith Deeds of 6 cookbooks. I am also the teleforum coordinator for the Food Writers, Editors and Publishers Section of IACP, a member of Les Dames d'Escoffier and recently served as a judge for the IACP Cookbook Awards. Our first book, The Mixer Bible, has sold over 100,000 copies. Our second book, The Big Book of Appetizers, was a James Beard nominee in 2007. Our fourth book, 300 Sensational Soups, was chosen by Good Morning America as one of the top ten books of 2008. Our sixth book, The Little Black Dress Cookbook, will be published in spring 2011.
I'm currently working on a book project with my four twenty-something kids and just finished shooting a cooking show with them for my local cable TV station.
I love to read cookbooks and look forward to a lively give and take in this rapidly changing cookbook climate.
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Mushroom LasagneI love every recipe I make from this book, but the mushroom lasagne showed me how cheesy lasagne can and should be. What makes it different is the amount of cheese blended into the bechamel, like 6 oz of Gruyere. The spinach noodles make it colorful and the assorted porcini and fresh mushrooms share the stage with the ricotta and cheesy bechamel. I'm thinking about making it again for Christmas Eve. It's that good.
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This cookbook won the James Beard award this year in the American catagory and it was my pick as well. Every recipe I've tried from the the book has been delicious. The Jambalya recipe uses a great technique to add flavor. The author, Donald Link, has you adding chicken stock to the mixture then stirring and cooking it off and adding more then cooking and stirring it off ,kind of like a risotto. It built a wonderful base flavor to the dish that wouldn't have been possible otherwise. Love the book. It's a keeper.
- German Chocolate CakeIf you love German Chocolate Cake, this is the recipe for you. My main issue with this cake has been that they are often a bit on the dry side and never have enough icing (important if the cake is dry). In Donald Link's recipe, get ready for triple layers of moist buttermilk chocolate cake with the best icing I've ever tasted. It actually uses two cans of evaporated milk and makes enough frosting to fill the cake and then completely frost the top and sides. You will worry about the batter being a little on the thin side, but not to worry, it will bake up just fine. I made it for my boys birthday a few months ago and still remember how good it was. I might have to make it again for Father's Day.No likes Can’t Like Unlike Like No likes