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The Desperate Housewives Cookbook
Reviewed by By Michelle Erica Green
Before I begin to review The Desperate Housewives Cookbook, I have a confession to make: I'm Susan Mayer in the kitchen. To be fair, I never had delusions of being Donna Reed, so I suppose that in that way, I'm more like pragmatic Lynette. But when it comes to actual cooking skills, I, like Susan, am quite capable of producing macaroni and cheese which tastes both burnt and underdone at the same time. Susan would probably look upon the recipes in the "Bree" section of The Desperate Housewives Cookbook as challenges, but even the simpler ones make me want to call my mother for help.
That said, I doubt whether serious chefs were ever the intended audience for The Desperate Housewives Cookbook, which has recipes by Christopher Styler and text by Scott S. Tobis. In addition to the expected glossy photos of beautifully presented dishes, there are numerous stills from the television series, plus some humorous additions like each major character's shopping list, e-mails to Bree requesting culinary advice, and "Desperate Housewives Throughout History" from Eve to Lady Godiva to Mary Todd Lincoln. "When you think about it, it is really not surprising that some form of food served as humankind's undoing," observes the commentary on the first of these women, adding that "We want the one thing we are told we cannot have...whether it's fruit, a handsome plumber, or a promotion at the office, we've all found ourselves committing desperate acts." This is a very enjoyable collectible for a fan of the series, whether that fan intends to cook or not.
So, now that that's out of the way, what do we want for dinner?
Surprisingly, Bree's section of the book comes first. This is an interesting choice because it means many of the more difficult dinner party plans come right at the beginning, but it also allows for some of the basic instruction one imagines Bree would be very good at imparting if she didn't intimidate everyone into fleeing the premises. "In Bree's kitchen, the forty-two inch stainless steel side-by-side Thermidor refrigerator and the thirty-six inch gas stovetop with built-in griddle resting on the oversize island are not just for show," Tobis reminds us. Bree believes that juice should be fresh-squeezed at home and salad should be prepared in one's own kitchen, not purchased ready-mixed, but she is happy to explain that such terms as macerate ("to soak a fruit in liquor or wine") and bruschetta ("basically a fancy version of toast") should not intimidate the novice. Cooking is not easy, warns Bree, but neither should it be needlessly difficult.
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