Monday, October 1, 2012

Cookbook Review: Make-a-Mix

Make-a-Mix

Karine Eliason, Nevada Harward, Madeline Westover
Running Press, 2006

My mother-in-law loaned me her copy of this book--but it's the first version which came out many years ago (she used her much-loved copy when my husband was a little boy!). It's been a huge timesaver this semester. I highly recommend it.

The premise is a basic one: create your own mixes for everything from homemade Bisquick to cake mixes to muffin mixes to meat-based mixes.... Then, you can create biscuits, rolls, muffins, pancakes, cookies, cakes, brownies, pretzels, soups, Sloppy Joes, spaghetti, and many, many more dishes much more quickly using your prepared mixes. There is a nice blend of sweet and savory, and baked good mixes and dinner entree mixes. To date, I've only tried the baked goods mixes, but I've used some of them A LOT (the cornmeal mix for cornbread muffins, the wheat mix for the BEST pancakes, the oatmeal mix for delicious oatmeal muffins, the gingerbread mix for gingersnaps and gingerbread men,...). I tend to substitute butter for shortening, so I store my baking mixes in the freezer. I have to chip away at them, but so far, it's been doable.

I've since checked out the newest edition (shown above) from my local library. I'd thought I might purchase it, but after looking at the latest edition, I'm going to hunt down a used copy of the original. Just goes to show: always test drive a cookbook from the library if you can before buying! What's different between the two? Some of the mixes I've used and enjoyed are NOT in the new one! (Wheat mix, oatmeal mix, and the ginger snap one). There are some new ones that look good (such as a whole wheat hot roll mix and the pork roast mix), but I think I may just photocopy the few new ones and stick with the old tried and true.

If you've never seen the older edition, though, you may be perfectly happy with the new one!

Cover image from goodreads


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