how to without Assistive Information

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1. Sager says

   I realize I’m going to be raked across the coals for daring to review this book negatively, because it seems like everybody else loved it. Well. I didn’t, and I’ll explain my opinion. This is only my opinion.

   The book teaches you how to memorize basic cooking techniques by using cute, catchy mnemonic rhymes. For sauteing: “Add butter or oil, swirl it around, add spiced meat, cook until browned” — stuff like that (not an exact quote, but you get the idea). It’s not a bad idea, but it’s obviously for beginners. If you didn’t know how to put some oil in a pan, add a piece of meat, and leave it there until it browns, then you’re a beginner. There’s no question there, right? So it can be assumed that this book is aimed at beginning cooks. That’s fine, and that’s not my problem.

   My problem is that a lot of the other stuff in the book is totally worthless for a beginner. Actually, I ran across a bunch of information that’s worthless for me — and I’ve been cooking for fifteen years. I won’t go over it chapter by chapter, but here’s one example of what I mean.

   There’s a recipe for making a quick cheese quesadilla. The instructions begin by stating to put a skillet onto high heat and wait until it begins to smoke. I don’t know about you, but my skillets generally do not smoke when they’re empty. I’d be pretty worried if an empty skillet suddenly began emitting puffs of smoke when placed onto the burner. I honestly don’t understand what the author means here — either she omitted the part about putting some oil or butter into the pan, or she intends for you to use a heavily seasoned cast iron skillet that hasn’t been cleaned very well (which almost no beginner is going to own). Since she doesn’t state either of those qualifiers, I really don’t know how she expects an empty skillet to smoke. I do know that anyone unfamiliar with cooking is going to be waiting an awfully long time staring at a skillet on the burner, waiting for smoke that doesn’t come, and assuming that they’ve done something wrong.

   Assuming that you own a magic skillet which begins smoking after a few moments, the recipe next states to place the flour tortilla into the skillet, quickly pile shredded cheese and other ingredients onto it, and cook until the bottom of the tortilla begins to brown nicely. That would be the bottom of the tortilla that’s in the skillet, yes. You know, the one that’s currently piled with cheese. Maybe your magic smoking skillet is also made of translucent glass so that you can tell when the bottom of the tortilla has begun to brown. For someone who ran a test kitchen for so long, “until the bottom begins to brown” is an incredibly poor way to instruct how long to cook something in a skillet!

   The entire book is full of similar examples. I can tell from reading the recipes that the author is an excellent cook, but she’s very bad at explaining her techniques in a way that would allow somebody to follow along. I think she could benefit from taking an inexperienced cook into her test kitchen, giving them this book, and watching as they attempt to follow recipes that make no sense or instruct things that are physically impossible (gauging the browning of a tortilla whose bottom surface you can’t see, etc). That way she’d realize when something needs to be explained in a different manner. It can be really tough to view a recipe from the eyes of someone who DOESN’T have the experience you do, who doesn’t take certain techniques for granted.

   As I said, the recipes in here are excellent. It’s the instructions and explanations that pull the book down. If you need a sing-song rhyme to remember how to dress a green salad, then you’re not going to be able to follow 50% of what the book instructs. And it’s a shame because you’ll be missing out on some of the great foods this book has to offer.

   November 10, 2009, 6:59 am
2. Jager says

   This is the best cookbook ever. I never learned to cook at home and when I moved out and got married I did what I could with what I could figure out. I was however missing fundamentals and how to do anything without a recipie. I now have learned basics of cooking and how to vary them to enjoy endless possiblities. I also would spend so much time the the store buying things for each individual meal and never knowing what to do with what I had I had at home(or what stuff to have stocked on hand). I think everyone should read this cookbook.

   November 10, 2009, 1:05 pm
3. Rahman says

   Overall, I was very disappointed in this book and am quite glad I didn’t pay the cover price. I felt the author was trying to complete a high-school essay assignment for a required number of words.

   If I truly needed a 5-page methodology and exhaustive potential ingredient list for tossed salad, followed by an “all-purpose” recipe for tossed salad, and six pages of specific variations of tossed salad using the aforementioned potential ingredient list, I may have liked this book. The same theory applies in this book to the making of “all-purpose” soup, the cooking of “all-purpose” eggs, and the sauteeing or searing of “all-purpose” meat. An entire page explains how to bake a potato, and two pages tell you how to mash them. If you are an absolute novice, or if you’re missing any basic techniques (you can’t make tomato sauce at all, for example, or make rice without a boil-in bag) then by all means…this book will indeed help you out. But if my pantry were stocked per her recommendations, I’d be using my own tried and true recipes, and unexpected guests wouldn’t be a big worry.

   A terrific book for someone wanting to learn basics, but it won’t see frequent use at my house.

   November 10, 2009, 7:03 pm
4. Chamberlain says

   During a recent move, this was one of the cookbooks that I refused to put into storage. I use it about once a week and don’t know what I would do without it. It is a handy reference and has helped me create meals from the pantry, the refrigerator and the freezer when I would have sworn we had nothing to eat in the house. If you don’t already own it, go buy it.

   November 11, 2009, 1:31 am
5. Jennings says

   When I was in college about 8 years ago, my boyfriend (now my husband) gave me this cookbook for Christmas or my birthday. How prescient of him! I expediently read it cover to cover, and it changed how I thought about fixing dinner. I had never been one to follow a recipe exactly, but I needed a framework for putting together ingredients to make simple, satisfying, quick meals. This book provided it. Instead of detailing recipes for inspiration, Pam Anderson offers exercises in rationale – how and why ingredients put together in a certain way “work” to form a delicious dish.

   It’s not gourmet… although some of the dishes could fake it. But it’s a far cry from Hamburger Helper, too! Pam’s chapters provide ideas for a wide variety of fresh weeknight dinners that I come back to every so often when I’m lacking inspiration. I still crack a “real” cookbook occasionally – when I need to bake a special cake or want something completely different from my norm – but “How to Cook without a Book” set me up for everyday dinner success. My husband and I thank you, Pam!

   November 11, 2009, 7:01 am
6. Riche says

   Good info. It’s helpful to hear how to deal with others without getting into a fight if that’s what you want to do.

   November 11, 2009, 1:42 pm
7. Deng says

   I found the messages in the book to be very useful, but the manner that it is communicated to be labored and somewhat academic. Thankfully the book is only 170 pages.

   November 11, 2009, 7:44 pm
8. Cortez says

   I revcieved the book within a reasonable timeframe, it was what I was after, there were one or two minor things wrong with it however nothing big.

   It would have been nice to know about the stickers on the cover before I bought it but they do not take away the content.

   November 12, 2009, 1:51 am
9. Agustin says

   This book is indispensable if you find yourself having to choose between being taken advantage of or being mean. It offers a perspective that allows one to identify verbal hostility and to respond to it in a way that preserves your own balance and can often lead to calming the entire situation and re-establishing connection. It’s funny, practical, full of useful examples and a good framework for thinking about hostile language.

   November 12, 2009, 6:55 am
10. Nevarez says

    This was actually the first book I read from Suzette Haden Elgin’s series of books on the art of verbal self-defense. Very enjoyable and compelling read.

    After discovering this book, naturally I also read her other books and was intrigued and continue to be intrigued by Emotional Intelligence and verbal self-defense techniques.

    November 12, 2009, 1:43 pm
11. Dockter says

    +++++

    This humorous but practical and easy to comprehend book or guide, by Canadian journalist and writer, Charles Long, is about being a conserver. A conserver is a person who learns how to get by with less and make do with what he/she has. A person who lives as a conserver lives “the conserver lifestyle.”

    Despite the book’s title, it is actually a book for everyone: for those employed, for those without a salary, city dwellers, and country dwellers. Or to put it another way this is a book for everyone “concerned with the diminishing purchase power of their dollar.”

    Long practices what he preaches! All the philosophy and economic theory behind the conserver lifestyle came from him (and his family) living and surviving without a salary.

    This eleven chapter book, as the author states, revolves around three key premises:

    (I) Control expenditures and save money. The author shows you how in his four chapters entitled:

    1. The Secondhand Market
    2. Auction Buying
    3. Alternatives to Buying
    4. Cheap Tips

    (II) Income of some sort is still required (for those who decide to survive without a salary). This income does not have to be made through employment. The author has a full chapter entitled:

    5. Casual Income

    (III) Preparing yourself for the conserver lifestyle takes time (especially for those deciding to survive without a salary). The chapters covering this are entitled:

    6. Assessing Yourself
    7. Needs
    8. Getting Ready

    There is even a chapter on how to answer questions if you decide to live the conserver lifestyle without a salary. It’s entitled:

    9. What Do You Do For a Living? (and other difficult questions).

    So far I have mentioned nine chapters. Even though all chapters mention this, one chapter is devoted exclusively to the philosophy of the conserver lifestyle. (This chapter also discusses other relevant topics.) It’s entitled:

    10. What’s the Catch?

    Another chapter discusses taxes & insurance and how to save on them. It’s entitled:

    11. Caesar’s Due.

    There are three problems I had with this book:

    First, there are no (foot)notes (or hardly any). True the book profiles the author’s personal experiences but I did notice some numbers and statistics given that were not given credit.
    Second, the author sidesteps the issue of health care. Perhaps it is because he is Canadian and they have universal health coverage. However, countries like the United States do not have this and since health care is expensive, it would be difficult for most Americans to leave a salaried position. They, however, still could be conservers and live the conserver lifestyle but with a salary.
    Third, although this is not absolutely essential, it would have been helpful to have a brief summary in the form of a list at the end of each chapter.

    Note that this book has no index but since its table of contents is so comprehensive, an index is not really needed.

    Finally, there is another book that that gives a slightly different and perhaps a more comprehensive spin on this subject. It’s called “Your Money or Your Life” by Dominguez and Robin. Another useful book is “The Joy of Not Working” by Zelinski.

    In conclusion, this is a book that outlines an alternative lifestyle called the conserver lifestyle. Discover for yourself why “[t]he greatest security is not in having the most, but in needing the least!”

    (revised edition first published 1996; preface; 11 chapters; main narrative 200 pages)

    +++++

    November 12, 2009, 7:16 pm
12. Upstill says

    This book was laugh out loud funny in several places, but also has some interesting ideas about how to live one’s life in an enjoyable, but far less expensive way. Much of it I had heard before, but never seen in such an easily accessible and funny/easy to read format. As simple as much of the ideas here are…and ANYONE can use them…living the “conserver” lifestyle is not for those already living at or below the poverty line…as his “method” points out you need to be out of debt and have savings and investments set up to live this way practically. So, really…like several other books I’ve read recently (most notably The Joy of Not Working) this is really a book for people making 30,000-60,000 (or more) and are tired of the rat race and looking for a new and “better” way to live and enjoy life.

    I also think it’s important to point out that How to Survive Without a Salary is NOT about living with out a job or some other form of income, it’s really about taking a few steps away from the strangle hold of corporate America and living for one’s self and one’s family…this book isn’t so much about dropping out as it is about opting out to another type of job that is more conducive to living a good family life and comes with a lot of funny anecdotes if you do it “right.” I think maybe the average person working at poverty level MIGHT able to do this, but it would most likely take 5x as long as he predicts and would be a serious hardship for families (not so much for single people or married without kids couples).

    What I think this book does best is demonstrate an alternate way of thinking about how we live and how we spend our money. Some of the best advice here is the logical and oft repeated, don’t buy it on credit…but also he admonishes us not to run out and buy things RIGHT when the need arises (if at all possible), because often, an alternative solution will arise (sale, used item given, ect…) that winds up saving the person a great deal of money. Also a warning…the author is Canadian and this book does not deal with the health care dilemma that most of us in the US are faced with, so from that perspective, this book would require some serious thinking for the average American working class family to undertake…because we don’t get health care for free. That said, I would definitely add this to my library…but as I am currently living at poverty level, I am at a place where I have to figure out extra income to make this type of life a reality for myself, at least the parts that I would like to incorporate into *my* plan.

    November 13, 2009, 1:49 am

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