Reviewed by Carolyn Howard Johnson, MyShelf.Com
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Learning the Process
Hollandaise Sauce and Every Other Processable Thing for Dummies

Most cookbook reviewers just love to cook. So when they say, "I just loved this book," I think, "Yeah, and I'll hate every recipe in it because they'll take 12 hours to prepare and taste awful because I don't know the difference between confectioners and granulated sugar."

So, as a cookbook reviewer, I'm in a class by myself. But then, so is "Process This!" by Jean Anderson. It does not exist to entice the reader with pictures nor to tout the author's restaurant or TV show. It exists because it has something to show people who cook-- beginners or veterans, those who cook out of necessity or love.

Anderson, whose cookbooks have won many awards, treats this book on cooking with food processors as a research manual. Every question (I think!) a cook could have on the subject is contained therein, from the pros and cons of processors (both new and old) to what foods are not suitable for processing.

And the recipes are to die for! Because they are all processor recipes and because they are presented in carefully delineated steps, they are simple and fast enough even for me. Oh, by the way, there is section on equivalents that will "help you adapt your own recipe favorites to a processor." You know, your recipe calls for ½ cup coarsely chopped apples; on this chart you'll find that 1 medium apple will do the job without processing ½ apple, measuring, and starting over again.

What a boon! Come to think of it, this book may solve my gift-giving dilemma at the next wedding shower I'm invited to. Would that it had been around back when I got married. I surely would have been a better cook-maybe even a more confident one.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, is the author of "This is the Place"