The I Hate to Cook Book Review and Giveaway

I was really excited when I got the chance to review The I Hate to Cook Book. I’ve been wanting to cook more at home, and having trouble trying to decide what to make, so the opportunity to read a new cookbook and try some new recipes came at the perfect time.

I was also excited because this is the 50th anniversary edition of the book.

It has been revised and updated, but it’s been fun for me to read the asides in the book, and get a glimpse into life in 1960.

I was also overjoyed when I read the book, and found the recipe for Aunt Bebe’s Bean Bowl – this sounds suspiciously similar to a dish I loved at a cookout last year, only to find out that it was marinated beans from a food service.

I’m really looking forward to trying it, and a few other recipes – like the Fancy Sliced Tomates that I can’t wait to try when my tomotoes are finally ripe.

The I Hate to Cook Book really is a book for people who don’t like to cook, and you don’t have to be a good cook to use it.

I love that the book tells you when you can cook other items in the oven with one dish, and even tells you when to put extra items in the oven, so they’ll be done when dinner is ready.

The “Company’s Coming” and “Lunch for the Girls” chapters provide complete menu’s, so you don’t have to worry that you’ll be missing an important part of the meal when you sit down to dinner.

This book has a lot of great recipes, and useful tips, and I can’t wait to try more of them.

Giveaway

**This giveaway is now closed**

We have 2 copies of The I Hate to Cook Book to giveaway!

To enter do one or all of the following.

Please leave one comment with each entry.

Leave a comment telling us if you hate to cook.
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Contest valid in US only. Contest will end August 14 at 12:00 am and winners will be announced the following Monday. Winners will have 72 hours to respond to my email with their mailing address, or a new winner will be chosen. Prize will be shipped by Hatchette Book Group.

Disclosure: Samples from the company or the representing PR agency were provided for this review and for this giveaway. The opinions presented in this review are my own. I was not financially compensated for this review or the giveaway.

I kind of feel sorry for my neighbor

She planted Clematis along her fence, and after two years, all of the blooms (a grand total of 3) are on my side of the fence, since it’s sunnier there.

And the apple is gone

The one tiny snowsweet apple we had is gone…maybe I’ll actually get to taste them next year!

We do have some raspberries that are starting to get ripe, and we had a few strawberries that were overripe, but it looks like that’s the only fruit we’ll be getting this year.

I hope next year will be better!

It's Diaper Sprayer Time

Yep, I’ve decided that I need a diaper sprayer.

Which ones the best?

I was kind of scared by the amazon reviews, because so many of them had bad reviews and complaints about leaking fittings.

I definitely don’t want to deal with that.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Watermelons

I can’t find started watermelons for sale anywhere.

I saw them at one place, but I can’t remember where, and no one else has them.

Maybe it’s fate.

We did get watermelons to grow from seeds the first summer we were here, but we haven’t had much luck the last two summers.

The seedlings we started died, so I did plant two Moon and Stars seeds in the ground.

I hope they will at least grow.

Did you plant watermelons?

What kind?

How are they doing?

The Garden is Planted

Finally, the garden is planted!

I am so excited.

We planted several varieties of tomatoes, and we still need to get some dirt for our two topsy turvy tomato planters.

We also planted bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, nepalese bell peppers, hot portugal peppers, corn, cantaloupe, and watermelon.

I hope they’ll all come up!

I’m still not sure what we will do with the nepalese bell pepper, and the hot portugal pepper, but I’m sure we’ll figure out something.

We’ve never tried them before, and we didn’t get them to grow last year, so we’re really excited about them.

How is your garden growing?

First foods and Great Grandma

I’m slowly learning that people don’t always act the way that I expect them to.

While we were recording our little one eating her first food, (avocados and breast milk) my husband took a cell phone video to share with the family.

Her Great Grandmother called, back, and Jeff didn’t answer, because we were still recording our little one playing with her food.

I told him to go ahead and call her back, because it might be fun for our little girl to hear what her Great Grandma thought about her first foods.

You’d think that would be why she was calling, right?

Nope, she called because she didn’t know we had a high chair.

Even though her daughter gave us the high chair, and she was at the baby shower when we got it.

Oh well…

Now should I edit that part out of the video, or leave it in?

I kind of feel like it spoiled it, but of course, that’s the way she is.

Then again, if I had 5 kids, and tons of grandkids and great grandkids, maybe I wouldn’t be excited about another one of them eating for the first time.

But I still think that would be more interesting than whether or not they had a high chair.

Don’t you?