Love, Welcome, Serve: Recipes that Gather and Give by Amy Nelson Hannon

I wrote a review for this delightful cook book a couple of years ago, but lost it in an unfortunate computer accident.  I still want to review this cook book as I enjoyed reading it and also cooking some of the recipes.

Author Amy Nelson Hannon owns a boutique kitchen store, Euna Mae’s, in Springdale, Arkansas.  Euna Mae’s is named after her grandmother.  Amy channels her grandmother and states that good food can be used to welcome, love, and serve family, friends, and the community. 

The cook book starts with a great introduction from Amy Nelson Hannon on why she wrote the cookbook and her thoughts on cooking.  She then has a section called “A Few Things about a Few Things” where she goes into detail on the quality and types of ingredients she uses and why she uses them (for flavor, texture, quality), and items you should have in a well-stocked kitchen and pantry.  I thought this was all very interesting.

The recipes themselves are sorted into categories that you often see in cook books, but Hannon has great titles for them.  For appetizers she has “Bites that Welcome” and her desserts section is title “For the Love of Sweets.”   It gave me a smile just reading the titles for the sections.  Each recipe has a tasty looking picture, a paragraph about where the recipe originated, helpful hints, and what it could be used for.  I loved just reading through the recipes.  The directions were very detailed and worked great for making the recipes.  The ingredients were all items I could find at my local Piggly Wiggly.

We selected a few as a family and discovered some new favorite items to cook.  We made the 30-minute spinach artichoke penne and it was very tasty.  Recipe sizes are large for gatherings so we made half the recipe for our family and it was plenty.  My husband accidentally bought marinated artichokes for it . . . which did taste a bit funny.  We’ll have to make sure to buy artichokes packed in water for the next time we make it.

We also made the layered spaghetti pie which the entire family enjoyed.  It had a really good crunchy top and I even found the picture I took of it.  It made a lot and did not fit into my spring foam pan, I had to use a 9”x 13” pan to fit it in.  Next time I make it for just my family of five, I will half the recipe and put it in my spring foam pan.  This would be a good recipe for a big family gathering.  It did take me two hours to prepare so it is a weekend meal.

My family is a lover of desserts.  My fourteen-year-old son Kile especially loved the double chocolate blondies in this cook book.  I made them once and he has made them multiple times since then.  We’ve also taken them as a dessert to pass to various functions.  The chocolate peanut butter dream pie was good and a nice dessert to present to my book club.  I have some other recipes I still want to try out in this cook book!

Overall, Love, Welcome, Serve is a great cookbook.  I loved the stories about the recipes, the pictures, and the recipes themselves.  It was very tasty to try out with my family!  As author Amy Nelson Hannon says, good food brings our family and friends together.  I can’t wait to serve my friends and family when we can all be together again.

Book Source:  Review Copy from FaithWords – A Division of Hachette Book Group.  Thank-you!