A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table

I adore this book! Molly is open and honest about her life, linking food to family, friends and events. Recipes range from simple to complex, and involve real food.I've already made the banana bread with crystalized ginger and chocolate chips, and stewed prunes with cinnamon and citrus are cooking as I write this.I'd have to agree that Molly is an old soul. The narrative is engaging and heartfelt, funny, heart-wrenching , and revealing.Highly recommend!

Wizenberg has a real talent for curating recipes. She has such a keen eye for foods that are both unexpected and accessible--by which I mean that her recipes include unusual gems, little known versions of classics, and quirky twists, but at the same time they are relatable and easy enough to appeal to the average home cook (like myself). I am also impressed by her commitment to the recipes: she clearly has tested every recipe many times, making sure the directions are precise, and she goes out of her way to explain procedures and steps that a cook needs to take to make the recipe work. I appreciate it, because such steps are not often obvious (not to those of us who are mere amateurs, I guess). I just finished reading the book and I'm dying to make at least ten different things in there.However, the book disappointed me on one count--the literary. Although Wizenberg is an entertaining writer, funny, candid, and relatable, the short texts that precede each recipe read more like annotations than a book proper (even though this is a memoir with a clear progression of events and a sequential flow). This is not a bad thing per se, especially if what you want is something akin to the blog experience (and she really is an outstanding blogger). However, I prefer more "traditional" food literature, such as Ruth Reichl, M.F.K. Fisher and James Beard--that is, literature about food, and not annotated recipes. So I didn't find her book as gripping or evocative as those by these authors. Still, I laughed, cried, and salivated plenty, and I guess that's already a lot you can say about a cookbook.

Most days, I maintain a good balance of creating, nurturing, working and cleaning. But then a book like "A Homemade Life" arrives in the mail and from the first page, all that balance goes out the window and I'm stuck on the couch, completely consumed by Molly Wizenberg's moving stories and delectable recipes.Wizenberg relates so beautifully how food unites us as a culture through her own personal experiences: the death of her father, her decision to forego a career in academia to become a food writer and a blossoming romance with a hansome foodie. Hers is a tale of love and nurturing by way of the kitchen. With a knack for storytelling and an incredible talent for creating beautiful, homespun recipes that beg to be shared with loved ones, "A Homemade Life" (and Wizenberg's hugely successful blog, [...]), have lifted me out of my own cooking slump, a gentle reminder in increasingly complicated times that good food is worth the time to make and sharing it with friends and family is one of life's greatest pleasures. I've tried three recipes in 24 hours and it is no exaggeration to say that our little family of three feels transformed. Highly recommended.

This is a lovely memoir with nice recipes. But even after reading her blog, Orangette, for only a few months, I think it is much better written and more entertaining than this book. That was confusing for me: maybe it's an issue of editing? I think this writer's very fine voice is somewhat muted and constrained in her book, whereas on her blog, it is in full bloom and I really like it. That said, I think this is well worth your time and money; I just really like her blog so much more.

I just love this book. Much like her blog, it is the perfect combination of storytelling and yummy recipes. I have only tried to make about 4 of the recipes. Every one (even the ones I scrunched my noses at upon first reading) turned out to be delicious and something that I will continue to make. Her writing draws you in and has a familiarity about it that makes you think she's a friend you have had all along. I seriously think that if we lived closer, Molly could be my best friend. Bold Words but what cay I say ... I'm a dreamer. This is my favorite recipe book. One of the things that I really like about it is that her directions are very percise and detailed. She even tells you what brand ingredients work the best. She doesn't seem to have any problems sharing her secrets and I'm so very thankful for it and so is my stomach.

Semplicemente meraviglioso! Consigliatissimo!

Great book with nice recipes and a storyline to match

Molly is a great story teller. Enjoy her mix of how food has impacted her life. Love the recipes

Großartiges Buch für alle, die Essen lieben! Molly Weizenberger lässt uns in intimen Einblicken an Ihrem Leben von Kindheit über College bis zu Ihrer Hochzeit teilhaben und zeigt, wie einzelne Gerichte sie durch diese verschiedenen Zeiten begleitet haben. Ich hatte mir ein Rezeptbuch mit ein paar netten Anekdoten versprochen. Meine Erwartungen wurden absolut übertroffen und ich konnte das Buch kaum noch aus der Hand legen.

I stumbled across this book here on amazon and I hesitated for a long time before finally getting it from the library. I think it was the title that put me off for so long. But I guess it goes for titles as for covers - don't judge. Because this is an absolutely wonderful memoir and cookbook. It's not that Molly has led an extraordinary life but the way she portraits her family and friends is just so compelling and I think that most people will be able to relate to many of the experiences she writes about. The chapter about how she lost her father was very touching and written in such a delicate way that it left me in tears. Other stories made me laugh but all of them left me with the desire to cook. The little stories are great appetisers for the recipes and I've tried several of them so far but especially love the pickled grapes with cinnamon and plack pepper and the banana bread with chocolate and crystallized ginger. After getting it from the library I started to write some of the recipes down but I soon realised that I would have to copy most of the book, so I ended up buying it instead. A very good decision!