- Paperback: 262 pages
- Publisher: HarperPerennial (May 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0060984422
- ISBN-13: 978-0060984427
- Product Dimensions: 20.5 x 13.6 x 1.7 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,929,920 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Born in Louisiana and at home in Tennessee, author Michael Lee West makes any old body feel downright welcome at her kitchen table. The coffee's hot, the iced tea is sweet, the cake's a little dry and the conversation shows no sign of abating, even as the last page is turned and the cover is closed on Consuming Passions: A Food-Obsessed Life. The subject is variously food, family and Mama, wherein Mama is as much a state of mind as an embodied soul. This is about the South, honey, some of which is of the New South stripe, and some of the Old.
In an easy, talkative style, author West spins tales, shares recipes and hands out advice. In a chapter titled "Funeral Food" she includes recipes for "Lemon Chess Pie" and "Lemon Squares". Among her rules for funeral food, she notes that dishes must be easy to transport as well as appealing to the bereaved. Some foods are simply inappropriate. "I myself have never seen appetisers at a funeral," West writes. "This is not the time to bring "Better Than Sex Cake" or "Death by Chocolate". And it's never a good idea to use uncooked eggs in funeral food."
Consuming Passions is about home cooking, about church basement food, about growing up in Mama's kitchen shadow and learning to cook away from home. West is ever willing to try something new, to fail, to try again, and to defend to her last breath the virtues of her favourite mayonnaise. West has the spirit of a close friend who'll share all her secrets, including her best recipes, some of which her various family members (we meet them all) failed to take to their graves. Sit down, pull up a chair and get ready to listen. --Schuyler Ingle --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
Written with the same flair and color as West's highly praised novels, Consuming Passions chronicles the author's love affair with food. West lends her warm, distinctive humor and often hilarious insights to the stories of her trials and tribulations as a Southern woman who becomes an "accidental gourmet".
This wonderfully entertaining volume seamlessly weaves West's evocative voice and humor to the uniquely American form of kitchen tales. Consuming Passions is rich with gracious Southern hospitality and the delicacies that accompany it, including the recipes that have passed through generations of the author's family. This tantalizing read will satisfy the cravings of West's ever-increasing fan base as well as everyone who loved Laurie Colwin, Fried Green Tomatoes, and Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
Many hundreds of years ago, when I was a small girl, I used to eat dirt. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Many hundreds of years ago, when I was a small girl, I used to eat dirt. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book now sits next to cookbooks and I've made sure to paste a label with my name on it, as I will always want it returned to me. For anyone with a sense of humor, this is the book for you. I've prepared a few of the recipes the author has included and not only are they easy, but they are quite good. I can't wait to read more by Michael Lee West and have warned my family that not only will I be "all-consumed", they had better be ready for more hilarious outbursts of laughter and tears as I read.
Format:Hardcover
I am always searching for a book that rates 10 stars like Laurie Colwin's "Home Cooking" & "More Home Cooking", and this book comes close. It's a wonderful mixture of stories about food, family, love, and recipes. I'm not a southerner, but reading this made me thirsty for iced tea from a cut glass pitcher and hungry for some good fried chicken & potato salad. West's stories about the food we prepare for the family we love are almost as good as the food itself.
Format:Hardcover
This book is terrific. A great fluffy summer read, whether or not you like to cook. The author shifts between light-hearted backyard over-the-fence neighborly chat to poignant musings on funeral food (my favorite chapter). My only beef with the book is that the last chapter or two don't really have much to do with food or eating. I was left with the feeling of just having a wonderful meal, with anticipation of an equally fantastic dessert which doesn't come. But don't let that discourage you from reading this book -- it is truly a stand-out. I've ordered a couple for gifts.
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