Review
Title: The Essential Mormon Cookbook- Combined Edition
Author: Julie Badger Jensen
Publisher: Deseret Book
Genre: Cookbook
Year Published: 2018
Number of Pages: 280
Binding: Hardback
ISBN13: 9781629724409
Price: $24.99
Reviewed by Trudy Thompson for The Association For Mormon Letters
My late Mother instilled in me a love of cooking. From a very early age, she had me assisting her in the kitchen. Not just by setting and clearing the table, and doing the dishes, but Mom encouraged me to help her prepare, create, and serve all the delicious foods she made. She subscribed to at least six women’s magazines, and her favorite sections were always the recipes! I even started a tradition of making a special meal for my parents’ wedding anniversary every year. One year I surprised them with baked pheasant.
With such a background, it is no wonder I have a very extensive cookbook selection. But there is always room for just one more. This newly released edition is now part of my collection.
The Essential Mormon Cookbook-Green Jello, Funeral Potatoes, and Other Secret Combinations was first published in 2004. After that, a follow up cookbook, Essential Mormon Celebrations, was released in 2005. The two have been out of print for some time, but in this lovely new spiral bound edition, both cookbooks are now merged into one handy volume.
The book is conveniently divided into the four seasons of the year — Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. Within each of these sections can be found suggested dishes to prepare for each season. For example, for Father’s Day the author suggests a delicious dinner of Beef Stroganoff, green beans with bacon, and Quick Onion bread using Bisquick, which sounds downright delicious. Of course the crowing glory is the Mississippi Mud Cake!
I tried the Beef Stroganoff, and it was quick and easy to make, with a delicious creamy sauce of sour cream, butter, onions, garlic and mushrooms, served over steak strips and noodles.
Under the summer section, there is a category called Let’s Make Sandwiches, which includes Hot Beef Hoagies, Grilled Reuben, English Muffin Seafood Melt, Monte Cristo Sandwiches (one of my all time favorites), and a recipe for Lahvosh Sandwich Wraps. Lahvosh is a thin, crispy, yeast raised bread from the Middle East, also known as Armenian cracker bread.
Other offerings include a Graduation Luau with Sweet and Sour Pork, Shrimp in Shells, Roasted Salmon with Cucumber Sauce, and Coconut Cream Dessert.
There is a subsection titled Feeding the Multitudes, and has ideas for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Breakfast includes a casserole, Morning Glory Potatoes, and Butterscotch Bundt Rolls. Dinner consists of Baked Ham and Ham Sauce, along with the ever-present and popular Funeral Potatoes.
Perhaps the most unique part of this cookbook is the creative index. Not only does the index include the recipes by seasons and holidays, and the usual alphabetical listing of dishes, it also includes the unexpected. I don’t recall ever seeing an index listing for pecans, or cottage cheese, or a category called Coming Home. The following categories are also include Conference dinner. I have lived in Utah for 42 years and have never heard of or had Missionary Chicken, but with chicken breasts smothered in a blend of cream of chicken soup, sour cream, Parmesan cheese, sliced mushrooms, and asparagus spears, how can you go wrong?
There are many other interesting and fun listings in the index, like Football Bowl Party, Gourmet To Go Picnics, Christmas Gifts, Neighbor Meals, Dressings and Sauces and Oreo’s, M &M’s, Sharing the Harvest, Potluck, President’s Day, Ritz Cracker Crumbs, and of course all the holidays of the year.
The fact that all these sections give complete menu suggestions and recipes makes this book a true standout among cookbooks.
I wish I had known about this two-in-one cookbook when I went to a wedding reception several weeks ago. It would have been so much more fun than my cash-in-the-card gift. The only thing missing from this extensive cookbook is a few photos to supplement and add to the interesting and fun recipes.
But even just a quick glance through this volume will draw readers in and entice them to the kitchen to try out these recipes!
This delightful two-in-one volume is the perfect bridal shower or wedding reception gift. It is also a welcome visiting teaching or birthday gift, hostess gift, daughter or daughter-in-law gift — you can’t go wrong giving this to anyone who loves too cook!
Now if you will excuse me, I need to peruse this volume to try and decide what I will try next. Shall it be the Fresh Peach Drink, the Lemon Chicken Italiano, or the Chocolate Caramel Bars for the Bishop, The Relief Society Ham Roll Ups, The Scripture Cake, Marbled Cheesecake Bars, Courtship Brownies, Great Grandma’s Heavenly Ham Loaf — you get the picture. This collection is a cook’s dream!