Paintings by Deb Strain
Publisher: Harvest House Publishers
ISBN: 978-0-7369-5877-5

Warm your heart, be inspired, and try your hand at a few family-favorite recipes that are sure to bring the family around the table to enjoy a hearty conversation and a home-cooked meal,” states the back jacket cover of the book, With Love from a Country Kitchen.

This embossed, square hardbound gift book that has forty-eight pages targets those who love to cook or enjoy food recipes. The beginning of the book contains designated lines to write whom the book is to and from along with the date given. Divided into four chapters, inserted at every section are quotes or verses taken from the New King James version of the Bible. Five pages of fill-in-the-blank are added at the end of the book for personal family favorites.

Similar to other charming gift books, the artwork by Strain graces the pages with simplicity and a homemade country feeling, inviting the reader to stop, relax, and enjoy the designs. With no photographs of the fifteen recipes, the reader may be unsure of the outcome of the finished product.

Listed three to five recipes for every season of the year, one can choose Melinda’s Quiche Lorraine, Mom’s Creeping Crust Cobbler, Take-Along Turketti, or Grandma’s Best Zucchini Bread to name a few. Ingredients with instructions are listed on an area the size of a five by seven inch note card.

Also spread at the beginning of each season are famous quotes from writers, poets, and statesmen such as Alcott, Beecher, Dickens, Eliot, Emerson, Irving, Jefferson, Longfellow, Rousseau, Shakespeare, Socrates, Thoreau, and Washington as well as Psalms and French, Irish, and Jewish proverbs.

Here is a sampling of some of the noted sayings:
“We are shaped and fashioned by what we love.” ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Love needs new leaves every some of life.” ~ Harriet Beecher Stowe
“Home is the sacred refuge of our life.” ~ John Dryden
“Truths are first clouds, then rain, then harvest and food.” ~ Henry Ward Beecher
“Worries go down better with soup than without.” ~ Jewish Proverb

This mishmash blend of recipes and quotes with quaint paintings makes a thoughtful, charming gift to give to someone that loves to cook and enjoys poetry. It would be especially appreciated by those who decorate in country-charm style to put on a coffee or bedside table.

Thanks to Harvest House Publishers for furnishing this complimentary book in exchange for a review based on the reader’s honest opinion.

Follow Here To Purchase With Love from a Country Kitchen: Homegrown Memories and Recipes