I was a big fan of television reruns when I was a kid. I watched everything I could, so you know I was glued to One Day at a Time whenever it was on. There were lots about the show that felt very real to me, and I loved the characters. But when Valerie Bertinelli started appearing on the Food Network, I admit I was dubious. Then I watched her show. Watching even just one episode, you can see that her passion for food is genuine. Her Italian cooking chops come from her mother, and her love of fresh ingredients is pure California cuisine. So when I found out she had a cookbook coming out, I knew I had to see it.
Valerie's Home Cooking does not disappoint. The subtitle is "More Than 100 Delicious Recipes to Share with Friends and Family," but paging through it seemed like so many more than that. With recipes for breakfast, midday, and dinner as well as cocktails, snacks, and desserts, it seemed like the recipes just keep on coming, especially if you're a fan of elevated comfort food.
With dishes like Breakfast Biscuit Sammies, Bacon-Caramel Scuffins with Caramel Clotted Cream (they're a half muffin/half scone invention of hers), Lobster BLTs, Quinoa Salad with Cilantro-Lime Dressing, Watermelon Margaritas, Buttery Manhattans, Soft Pretzels with Chocolate-Hazelnut Dip, Glazed Short Rib Stacks, Tom's Espresso Rib-Eye, Four-Cheese Crab Mac 'n' Cheese, Mom's Risotto (Sorta), BLT Pasta, Homemade Baked Tater Tots, S'mores Popcorn, and Lemon Icebox Cake, Bertinelli serves up a wide variety of meal and snack ideas that are perfect for dinner at home or for a dinner party.
Much like the most popular characters she's played, Valerie Bertinelli's cooking is warm, down-to-earth, playfully charming, and wholesome (but not too wholesome--she did win the heart of the rock star, after all). If you're a fan of her show, then you can see this as the natural extension of that--her ease with ingredients, her love of lemon, her use of fresh herbs from her garden; all that is here. But if you don't watch cooking shows, you won't be missing anything as you page through this book. It has all the information you need, along with lots of beautiful photographs, so you too can feel right at home in her kitchen. Because that is one of her most compelling features--making you feel right at home, whether she's in Indianapolis, Cleveland, or her home kitchen in California.
Galleys for Valerie's Home Cooking were provided by Time, Inc. Books (Oxmoor House Books) through NetGalley.com, with many thanks.