Review: The 2011 Book Blogger's Cookbook compiled by Christy Dorrity

Book: The 2011 Book Blogger's Cookbook compiled by Christy Dorrity
Genre: NF/Cookbook
Rating: A
For: Review for book tour
From: an ebook gifted by the author

Now here's a fun book project! Local blogger/author Christy Dorrity decided to combine several of her favorite activities into one book....reading, blogging and cooking! The end result is a fun look at several popular books (complete with simple summary) along with a recipe connected to that book (complete with beautiful pictures) followed by a handful of short reviews by bloggers (and even a few of mine included!) Great idea, no? Yes!

It was very fun to get my hands on (scratch that...I should say EYES on...welcome to my first ebook review!) this lovely book. It's simply laid out, simply put together, with simple fun recipes and simple, but beautiful pictures. I loved looking through it, reading about all the books that are highlighted, and deciding what recipes to try.

Some of the highlighted books include: Princess of the Midnight Ball, The Clockwork Three, The Maze Runner, Shiver, Before I Fall etc. Some of the recipes included are: Seven Layer Dip, Tadpole Soup, Calico Brownies and I Hate Chocolate Cake!

As part of my review, I decided to try a recipe.... actually two recipes because we (we meaning the kids and I) couldn't stop at just one. First, we made Frozen Hot Chocolate.... basically a chocolate smoothie. I was hoping it would be a little like a Frosty, but it turned out to be a bit thinner. I think, though, my problem was that I doubled it hoping to make enough for the whole family, which probably threw my ratios off a bit. But still, it was really refreshing and yummy and perfect for cooling down on a hot summer night. This particular recipe was connected to Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater.

Here's the recipe if you'd like to give it a try:

Frozen Hot Chocolate

3 ounces chocolate
2 teaspoons store-bought hot chocolate mix
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 cups milk (divided)
3 cups ice
Whipped topping (I use lite; I like to think it cancels out the rest of the calories)
Chocolate shavings

Chop the chocolate into small pieces. Melt the chocolate in a microwave-safe container, stirring every 30 seconds until melted. Transfer the chocolate to a small saucepan. Add the hot chocolate mix and sugar. Stir over medium heat until completely melted. Remove from heat and slowly add ½ cup of milk until smooth. Cool to room temperature.

In a blender, place the remaining cup of milk, the room-temperature chocolate mixture and the ice. Blend on high speed until smooth. Pour into a giant goblet and top with whipped cream and chocolate shavings.

And because I love everything chocolate, and because these sounded so easy, we also made Time Stopping Chocolate Truffles, a recipe to go along with The Hourglass Door by Lisa Mangum.... of course! So easy, simply melt chocolate chips, mix them with cool whip... let it get little hard in the freezer. Roll them in balls and roll them in cocoa. Here's my daughter having fun with that part:

They are really yummy, though quite rich. We made ours with dark chocolate chips (darker than semi-sweet even) and found that freezing them for eating works really well.

Bottom Line: A very fun cookbook with fun and simple recipes. Not to mention the great blogger comments about some awesome books! :)

If you are interested in this book, it's only .99 on Amazon right now! Also, be sure to check out this post on Christy's blog for an awesome contest she is hosting as part of this book tour. Just comment for a chance to win a Kindle!  (But hurry and click over now, because today is the last day!) On that page, you can also see the list of other reviews that are part of this blog tour.