Recipe Reviews Dutch Oven Obsession Cookbook

My favorite one pot meals have always been soups, stew and chili.  I enjoy a meal of mostly vegetables and little to no meat.

I rarely made pot pies because I never had a good recipe to follow - until now.  The Pot Pie recipe title in the Obsession book is called, "Chicken, Leek, and Mushroom Pot Pie".  Sometimes we must be open minded, and I figured I could easily make this without the leeks.  I also don't make my own pie crust when the store bought kind is quite good.

So I set about making an after-Thanksgiving, turkey leftover pot pie.  It came out delicious and I used the filling part of the recipe to make it.

My mother was not a good cook.  I don't remember her owning a dutch oven, and I certainly don't remember her teaching me any handy cooking secrets.  In fact most meals I ate as a child I would just as soon forget.  When I went out on my own I had to learn how to cook food I would love to eat.

As my own family grew to include four kids, I should have been using a dutch oven to make big meals that provided lots of leftovers.  But no one told me about cooking in one pot and it would have saved me so much trouble!

This recipe book lists each step to creating the dish by number, which anyone should be able to follow.  She often adds a little paragraph about the meal, or to offer suggestions for substitutions to the recipe.  The recipes range from super simple to more advanced, so you have a choice.

I suggest reading through the recipe first to get an idea of what will need to be done.  And make substitutions if there are ingredients you don't like.  Don't let the recipe titles turn you off.  Some of them are very long and fancy, but the food itself sounds heavenly.  Substitutions can be made!

The author states that all recipes in the Dutch Oven Obsession cookbook were made in a 5 1/2 quart size dutch oven.

Because my LeCreuset is only 3 1/2 quarts and I've found that it's the perfect size for a small family of 2-3 people.  Usually I cut the recipes in half, and it's plenty, but entire recipes would usually fit in my pot.

View the "look inside" to view the list of recipes.  Choose the paperback edition which will show the index.

Most reviewers who give books fewer "stars" do so because of lack of pictures.  I understand that people like to see photos of cooked food, but realistically I think this is difficult to do when writing a large cookbook.  

Other negative remarks are for lack of nutritional information and / or calorie count.

When I cook, I use a basic recipe and add / subtract as I choose.  I use a cookbook to help give me ideas about what to make.  If a book contains recipe titles that sound good, I will want to try them.  If the recipe lists lots of unusual and odd foods, I will pass on that book.  To each his / her own.

As I was trying out one of the recipes in the Obsession cookbook, it seemed that part of the directions were missing.  I had to wing it, and ended up not liking the dish in the end.  It was made with butternut squash and white beans.

I e-mailed the author, but got no reply.  So that was disappointing.

More recipes to try include:

Beef Bourguignon, pg. 83

Beef Chili With Butternut Squash, pg. 84

No-Knead Crusty French Loaf, pg. 186