YOU BE SWEET - SHARING YOUR HEART ONE DOWN-HOME DESSERT AT A TIME

You Be Sweet - Sharing Your Heart One Down-Home Dessert at a Time by Patsy Caldwell and Amy Wilson did not impress me very much.  I liked the idea of having little stories at the beginning of each chapter but I found them to be a little boring and scattered.  I love desserts and I was pleased with the recipes but, overall, it was mainly just a regular dessert cookbook with nothing too unique about it setting it above the rest of the many cookbooks out there.  I would have loved to have more pictures in You Be Sweet; however, the pictures that were provided were colourful and well-done.  Since it mentioned many memories of old times and compared the recipes to that which one’s grandmother would have made, I would have expected the ingredients used to be similar to those that would be available in years gone by.  However, I was surprised to see a number of the recipes using artificial colours, flavours, and processed products.  In this book’s defence, I must admit that I have a long list of recipes I am still eager to try and to enjoy the wonderful results of a delicious home-made dessert.  Some of the desserts I liked were quite unique beings ones that I’ve not seen elsewhere in my frequent perusing of decadent dessert cookbooks – two recipes being Geraldine’s Paper Bag Apple Pie and Concord Grape Pie as well as the fried pie and cake recipes included.  Also included were some common favourites that were useful to have on hand such as Graham Cracker Crust and the coveted Molten Chocolate Cakes recipe that I have long searching for.

Smack Dab in the Middle of God's Love

I read Smack-Dab in the Middle of God’ s Love to my 6 year old son. He loves having books read to him and so is sort of an expert on kids’ books. After reading it he concluded that it was a good book... not a really, really, good book and not a bad book. He said he liked the pictures (which are colourful and pleasant looking) and pointed out a few pages that he especially liked. He had a difficult time telling me what it was about or what he had learned. He certainly learned that “smack-dab” means right in the middle. I appreciated the example of the childless couple investing their lives selflessly in the lives of the neighbourhood children. The man in the story always called God “Abba” which is similar to calling Him “Daddy”. His presentation of God to the children also communicated this familiar, close intimacy. This is what God desires of us to be our Abba and this book presented God and His love for us in a light, fun, easy way that was also meaningfully expressed. I consider the book to be a valuable addition to a children’s library but it did lack some excitement. However, reading the book definitely inspired me to find a honey sopapilla recipe that I could try for my own!