Reviews for New New Southern Basics

The average rating for New New Southern Basics based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-10-30 00:00:00 Randy Mordes I first encountered Julia Reed when she was on CNN in 2005 commenting on Hurricane Katrina and its effect on her adopted home of New Orleans. Since then I've seen her popping up everywhere from Vogue and Garden and Gun magazine to Anthony Bourdain's travel/food show on television. In this book she reminisces about growing up in the Mississippi Delta and learning how to entertain from her mother and her friends in a highly Ya-Yas Sisterhood manner. The recipes are mostly old Southern stand-bys (or variations of the same) and the reminiscences are mostly amusing if a little precious. Ms. Reed tries to pretend that she did not come from a rarified background, but she isn't fooling anyone.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-06-03 00:00:00 Laura Lorena Torel OK - what is the idea of a cookbook with no index of recipes in the back? Very bad oversight on everyone's part. And the fact that Reed knows everyone can get a little grating, but still a great summer read: breezy party stories and food for every occasion. I've already made the potato salad twice. Frankly how could I not be hooked on a book with a chapter titled "Friendly Persuasion" that was about Lee Bailey AND Mary Cantwell (Nan are you reading this??) I bought Bailey's "Country Weekends" with my first unemployment check when I lost my job during the 1983 recession. I spent the summer dreaming about food and what I would cook and who I would entertain when I got back on my feet again. Not quite in that same boat this summer but close enough that reading about Bailey may be enough to make it all turn out right in the end.