Removes much of the guesswork and stress—and the possibility of unpleasant surprises—from cooking.
A detailed guide to sourcing recipes, shopping for ingredients, and preparing to cook for novice home chefs.
The experience of growing up with a mother who relied upon what LeJeune calls the “B-A-R-F” method—boil, assemble, reheat, fry—made the author determined to make delicious, well-crafted meals for her own kids. But, as a working mom, she totally understands why people feel like they don’t have time to cook. As an IT professional, she excels at turning complex projects into simple systems, and with this book, she describes how she does just that in the kitchen. The process begins with a color-coded key for marking up recipes. For example, she uses a black pen to draw a circle or a box around all the ingredients and a yellow highlighter to mark these ingredients as they appear in the recipe instructions. After introducing the first step in her system, LeJeune launches into cranky commentary about kids who won’t learn to cook and the young adults who rely on Instant Pots. This feels unnecessary; she does have a point, though, when she suggests that no beginner is going to learn how to cook a meal from a three-minute video. Her list of favorite sources for great recipes is useful, and her suggestions of sources to avoid is interesting (she is no fan of The Joy of Cooking). When she circles back to the system that is the basic premise of this book, she describes her approach to shopping for food and preparing to cook. The annotated recipes she’s collected streamline the weekly trip to the grocery store; they help ensure she knows how much she needs of every ingredient and the precise nature of each ingredient—for example, if she simply adds “spinach” to her list, it could be fresh or frozen. The mise in the title refers to mise en place, the French technique of having all ingredients prepped and portioned before cooking begins. Anyone who has ever watched a cooking demo has an idea of what this looks like, but LeJeune ends her book by providing extremely detailed, step-by-step examples of how she “mises it” as she prepares several dishes, including Butter Chicken and Apple Pie.
Removes much of the guesswork and stress—and the possibility of unpleasant surprises—from cooking.Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-03-914152-0
Page Count: 140
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An above-average celebrity memoir from an intriguing spirit.
The longtime Hollywood actor looks back.
“What does it mean to be a ham?” asks the author, rhetorically. “Was I a ham? I was naturally and inordinately theatrical. I liked to carry on. I liked attention. I liked extravagant speech. I liked to emote. I liked to talk.” All of these qualities are abundantly evident in Kilmer’s memoir, which is as much a spiritual journey as it is a chronicle of his life and career. The author recounts the depth of his Christian Science faith, his formative years in a family of privilege in Los Angeles, his teenage romance with fellow actor Mare Winningham (“my first real girlfriend”), his training and rebellion at Juilliard, and his decision to leave Broadway for Hollywood. There, he writes, “I was not yet a burgeoning talent but ‘Cher’s lover,’ ” when she was in her mid-30s and he in his early-20s. After scoring big with Tom Cruise in Top Gun, Kilmer turned down Blue Velvet and Dirty Dancing: “Neither part spoke to me.” He played Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone’s The Doors, which he considers “one of the proudest moments of my career.” Marlon Brando and Sam Shepard went from being idols that Kilmer worshipped to becoming friends. He was slated to star as Batman in three films but jumped ship after Batman Forever, which he considers “so bad, it’s almost good.” He married and divorced British actor Joanne Whalley and wooed Daryl Hannah (“kind of the female me, only better”), and he wrote and starred in a one-man show as Mark Twain. When he was hospitalized for surgery due to his throat cancer, he prayed, he read Twain and Christian Science’s Mary Baker Eddy, and he “didn’t wrestle with my angels. I sang and danced with them.” Kilmer was never a shrinking violet, and he still refuses to wilt.
An above-average celebrity memoir from an intriguing spirit. (photos)Pub Date: April 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9821-4489-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 11, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.
The chef, rapper, and TV host serves up a blustery memoir with lashings of self-help.
“I’ve always had a sick confidence,” writes Bronson, ne Ariyan Arslani. The confidence, he adds, comes from numerous sources: being a New Yorker, and more specifically a New Yorker from Queens; being “short and fucking husky” and still game for a standoff on the basketball court; having strength, stamina, and seemingly no fear. All these things serve him well in the rough-and-tumble youth he describes, all stickball and steroids. Yet another confidence-builder: In the big city, you’ve got to sink or swim. “No one is just accepted—you have to fucking show that you’re able to roll,” he writes. In a narrative steeped in language that would make Lenny Bruce blush, Bronson recounts his sentimental education, schooled by immigrant Italian and Albanian family members and the mean streets, building habits good and bad. The virtue of those habits will depend on your take on modern mores. Bronson writes, for example, of “getting my dick pierced” down in the West Village, then grabbing a pizza and smoking weed. “I always smoke weed freely, always have and always will,” he writes. “I’ll just light a blunt anywhere.” Though he’s gone through the classic experiences of the latter-day stoner, flunking out and getting arrested numerous times, Bronson is a hard charger who’s not afraid to face nearly any challenge—especially, given his physique and genes, the necessity of losing weight: “If you’re husky, you’re always dieting in your mind,” he writes. Though vulgar and boastful, Bronson serves up a model that has plenty of good points, including his growing interest in nature, creativity, and the desire to “leave a legacy for everybody.”
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4478-5
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
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