500 Treasured Country Recipes from Martha Storey and Friends

500 Treasured Country Recipes from Martha Storey and Friends: Mouthwatering, Time-Honored, Tried and True, Handed- Down, Soul Satisfying Dishes by Martha Storey          E-Book  544 pages

WOW!   I was totally blown away by this all encompassing, comprehensive book that I thought was a cool sounding cookbook but it is so much more than that.   Think Martha Stewart know-how on steroids.   It is like a home economics class, with a country hands on do-it yourself course with a cooking in the kitchen with your grandmother course all rolled into one.   This book truly earns the description – amazing.    Not only are the recipes you will find here Iron Chef quality, but, you will also learn how to scale and carve fish, prepare wild game meats, make beer, wine, how to bake bread from the yeast up, omgosh!    So much information here and finally a cookbook that explains not just every cooking term a person will encounter, but, every implement you might possibly use in a lifetime of cooking, not just the normal utensils but from normal to Chef, Gordon Ramsay cooking accoutrements.    It teaches you step-by-step how to set up and plant your own garden, spring, summer, fall and holds your hand and walks you through making homemade pickles, even your own green products for self or gifting from making your own counter and cabinet cleansers to scented essential oil gifts to give.   Also food gifts, how to make your own jellies, ciders, ad infinitum to crafting gifts, soaps, votives, etc. decorative crafts creating your own beautiful wreaths from simple grapevines wound together with shorter left over pieces to use as decorative rings.    It is a cornucopia for all things home.   I was salivating so over the recipes, let me tell you my stomach started to growl and I wasn’t even hungry!   They just sound so good you can picture the resulting phenomenal meal you can put together and wish you had immediately in front of you so you could dig in.    I like to check out cook books, and over the years my staples were Good Housekeeping which was given to me by a dear friend many years ago and of Betty Crocker who has been the go to for generations but, Sorry GH and BC – this Cookbook Course covers everything including how to sew your own tote bag!     Everyone should own this book – it is something everyone who enjoys cooking, crafting, urban gardening on a large scale (backyard) or small scale (herbs in pots in your windowsill) creating/inventing should own.    I cannot recommend this book highly enough it is truly AWESOME in the utmost definition of that word.    I can see why there are so many of Martha’s Friends involved because each section of the book is so deeply instructive that everyone bringing their passion and specialty to the table or to the editor so to speak, makes this a goldmine of quality information on so many topics that the title, while absolutely true still doesn’t mention everything you will learn from this gem of a book.     After this read you will feel you’ve had a semester at Harvard.  I’m not kidding!