Valerie's Home Cooking

October 16, 2017
The television star and host of the Food Network’s Valerie’s Home Cooking brings her cheery personality to this well-rounded cookbook. Her family-inspired everyday-eating repertoire includes semihealthy staples such as smoothies, egg-white frittatas, and avocado toast. Other home-style recipes are hearty and offer creative accents. Slow-cooker beef sandwiches, for example, are dressed up with giardiniera aioli; a Manhattan cocktail gets a smooth finish with butter-infused bourbon; and chocolate “tacos” are filled with vanilla ice cream and strawberries for a Neapolitan spin on the frozen novelty. Whether the recipe is for tuna casserole with potato-chip topping, slow-cooker sloppy joes, or carrot cake, there is no impulse to set trends with this cookbook. Rather, Bertinelli offers a sincere and accessible presentation of recipes.

September 15, 2017

Actress Bertinelli (One Dish at a Time), the host of the Food Network's Valerie's Home Cooking and cohost of Kids Baking Championship, presents recipes she's gleaned from friends, coworkers, handwritten recipe cards, and other personally significant sources. There's a substantial selection of American comfort foods (e.g., lobster BLTs, chicken potpie, slow-cooker sloppy joes, homemade baked potato tots), along with a scattering of Italian, Asian, and Mexican dishes. Home cooks who want time to enjoy watermelon margaritas and key lime martinis will be glad for Bertinelli's occasional store-bought shortcuts; for instance, she hastens to produce breakfast biscuit sammies by using all-purpose baking mix and fills a lemon icebox cake with packaged vanilla wafers and jarred lemon curd. VERDICT Brimming with chatty anecdotes, this celebrity chef cookbook will satisfy readers seeking foods for everyday occasions and casual entertaining.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2017
Bertinelli may be better known for her TV acting roles than her cooking show, but it's clearly in the kitchen where she feels most at home. This light and easygoing cookbook is her take on comfort-food recipes for everyday meals and entertaining friends and family. Expect homey fare, such as sausage-and-pepper sliders or chicken potpie, yet often with her own twist, like rethinking a breakfast classic (egg in a bagel hole) or re-creating a restaurant favorite (bacon-wrapped shrimp with cherry-cola BBQ sauce). Recipes are prefaced with personal anecdotes, and directions are concise. Bertinelli also includes dishes with a range of cooking timesrecipes that can accommodate families on the go (tuna noodle casserole) as well as cooking enthusiasts eager for a project (lobster bisque with homemade lobster stock). A chapter on cocktails includes several inspired winners, like a spicy margarita with jalapeno and ginger, plus snacks such as spiced pepitas. Overall, the book is a solid collection of approachable, familiar recipes infused with Bertinelli's warm and whimsical voice.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)