A review by khchristensen
The Homemade Kitchen: Recipes for Cooking with Pleasure: A Cookbook by Alana Chernila

4.0

I liked this cookbook a lot more than I thought I would. A couple things that turn me off from a cookbook:

-recipes for pickling things
-the insistence that "if you make it yourself, you'll never go back to buying it from the store!" (usually talking about cheese)
-recipes that use kefir, or whey, or any other byproduct of cheesemaking (again with the cheesemaking!)

...etc. As you can probably tell, I'm not big on the "homesteading" movement. This cookbook includes all of the above. However, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked this book. The photos are lovely without being too lovely. The food looks like actual food. Alana's writing style can be flowery at times (which I normally can't stand), but I found myself enjoying it, rather than hating it.

This cookbook is quite a departure from Chernila's last cookbook, which was just 100+ recipes of "things to make at home and never buy from the store again" (see above list)

I would recommend this cookbook to "brave cooks," which is how the author refers to herself. But I would also recommend it to people who enjoy and appreciate simple meals, easy homemade foods, and fresh ingredients.