Sigh.  I really wanted to like this cook book.  I love cook books, in general, either as food porn, or as good books to get receipies from to make things. I have read books as complicated as Julia Child's <em>Mastering the Art of French Cooking</em> and as easy as the cookbooks my daughter used when she was learning to cook, such as Klutz's <em>Kids Cooking</em>, so I think I know about cook books. I may not know as much as some, I'm sure, but my four shelves of cookbooks mean I have been around the block a few times.

I'm brining this all up, because I didn't really like this cookbook.  It didn't seem to know who it was aiming at? The introduction, and the recipes are written as thought this is a cookbook for younger children, probably pre-teen.  The recipes are easy enough to follow, I give them that, and the photos of the food, are also quite good.  But the design of the book is very old fashioned, which sort of makes sense, being this is supposed to be about Anne, and yet, it felt as though there was no research done.  Nothing to say that this is how these would have been made back then, which is what you really should want from a cookbook like this.

A good example of a cookbook that feels as though it came from the era that it is working on is <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8204.The_Laura_Ingalls_Wilder_Country_Cookbook" target=
_blank">The Laura Ingalls Wilder Country Cookbook</a>.  Of course, it helps that a lot of these recipes came from Laura herself.

A friend of mine, while researching recipes for a cook book from Jane Austin's time (<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50385.Cooking_with_Jane_Austen" target="_blank">Cooking with Jane Austin</a>), would have cooking parties, to try out the recipes she had discovered.  She would tells us how the meals were cooked, originally, and how she had translated them for the modern oven.  It was all very educational.

I guess what I am trying to say, is that none of these recipes feel as though they old fashioned, nor do they feel as thought they were researched beyond their name.  Other than the wall paper, and the quotes from the books, the food does not seem all that different.  I have never seen Vanilla Ice Cream made with a gelliton and not one drop of vanilla.

And maybe I am just being grumpy, and these might all be great recipes.  The pictures from around Prince Edward Island are nice.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

The Anne of Green Gables Cookbook by Kate Macdonald is a free NetGalley ebook that I read in mid-September.

The botany, tapestry-like, daintily photographed cookbook that'll make you say, "Oh, yeahhh, raspberry cordial," but also go agog at the fact that the author is L.M. Montgomery's granddaughter. My favorite recipes are Mrs. Irving's delicious shortbread, sunshiny corn soufflé, Miss Stacy's baked macaroni, and Rachel Lynde's North Shore fish cakes.

So I actually thought this was a new cook book when I requested it from NetGalley, but alas it appears to be from 1985. Although it does mention inside the cover that This is a revised and expanded edition of The Anne of Green Gables Cookbook published in 1985 by Oxford University Press. So I guess there is some new material here. I have to admit I am not a fan of when NetGalley does this. There should be some mention in the descriptions that this is a reissue or something.

Moving on...I am a HUGE fan of Anne Of Green Gables. I am not sure you can call yourself a Canadian and not be. So you can imagine how excited I was to get my hands on this book. This is a relatively short little book coming in at just over 100 pages. The graphics and photos are beautiful, and the book is broken up into a few different chapters (COOKING TIPS, RECIPES FROM ANNE OF GREEN GABLES, RECIPES FROM ANNE OF AVONLEA, RECIPES FROM ANNE OF WINDY POPLARS, RECIPES FROM L.M. MONTGOMERY’S KITCHEN). The recipes are easy to follow and include quotes from different books in the series. If you are a fan of this series or know someone that is then this would make a great gift. Two thumbs up from yours truly.

Here is just a small sampling of the recipes you will find within...

-- Sunshiny Corn Soufflé
-- Anne’s Liniment Cake
-- Matthew Cuthbert’s Yummy Biscuit Sandwich
-- Old-Fashioned Lemonade
-- Creamy Butterscotch Pudding
-- Orange Angel Cake
-- Green Gables Shepherd’s Pie