Foodie Friday

So I didn't do much cooking this week other than Christmas prep.  I definitely wasn't using my cookbooks for this month other than The Pioneer Woman's Mashed Potatoes which are the usual mashed potatoes on our holiday table.
So instead of talking about the recipes I made which is pretty much the paragraph above I figured I would review the cookbooks I've been using.

I've used all 3 of Ree Drummond's cookbooks and both of Southern Plate's Christy Jordan's cookbooks.  All 5 of these books are wonderful and not in the fancy impressive food way but in the I'm tired and I need to get a good solid meal on the table that my family will eat.

So here's the breakdown:

The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes From an Accidental Country Girl and The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food From My Frontier and both fairly comprehensive books incorporating everything from drinks and desserts to main dishes and side dishes.  You could easily put together an entire meal from either book.  The recipes are always good and pretty easy to find the ingredients for and put together.

Her newest book The Pioneer Woman Cooks: A Year of Holidays is structured a little different.  Instead of breaking down the recipes by category it breaks them down by specific holiday.  There's a New Year's Eve chapter, a Mother's Day Chapter, a Valentine's Day chapter each including everything you could use for any of those holidays from drinks to desserts and everything in between.

Which Would I Buy?  If I could only buy one I would probably buy her second book Food From My Frontier which I seemed to tag the most recipes out of.  Her mashed potatoes recipe and sour cream pancakes aren't to be missed but they're available on her blog The Pioneer Woman Cooks.

Christy Jordan from the blog Southern Plate has two cookbooks.

Her first one Southern Plate has lots of recipes and is divided seasonally.  There are lots of main dishes, breakfast foods, muffins, breads, cookies and cakes and the majority of them are very good.

Her second book Come Home to Supper focuses mostly on main dishes.  What's great is they're usually pretty quick main dishes that can go from start to table in easily under an hour.  There are a sprinkling of sides, desserts and breads but the focus is definitely on the main dish which makes sense considering the name.

Which Would I Buy?  Probably Come Home to Supper because of all the fast tasty dinner recipes.  They're both great but I think CHTS is probably the most useful.

Both authors have blogs worth following for family friendly food.  I definitely recommend Southern Plate and The Pioneer Woman Cooks when you're out of ideas or need a little inspiration for what to cook.