Beat This! Cookbook: Absolutely Unbeatable Knock-'em-Dead Recipes for the Very Best Dishes Paperback – March 22, 2011

I was excited to see this cookbook had been updated. I have her older ones and love them. I sit and read Ann Hodgman's cookbooks like they are novels. Her comments are super helpful and hilarious. A few recipes are too complex even for me to try (I cook a lot) but most are great. I highly recommend this cookbook if you are looking for wonderful recipes for truly homemade things.

An entertaining read with lots of tempting recipes, too! Warning! Do not read it in bed late at night when you are overdue for a trip to the grocery store, and the pantry stock is low on staples.

I normally wouldn't write a review for a cookbook since you usually don't sit down and read a cookbook word for word, but I consider Beat This! a humor book as well. I originally recieved it as a galley, but as I got into it, I knew I had to buy my own copy (the Caremelized Bacon recipe is probably worth the price alone!) In the internet age, it's so easy to Google any recipe you need, but Hodgman has made this one worth the price for two reasons: her writing is witty AND practical, and she's gone to the trouble of finding "the Best" of each type of recipe. I also appreciate that she doesn't use far-fetched ingredients and tools that the common shopper would have trouble tracking down. A really great buy, and I'm going to look into purchasing any of her other books!

Buy this as a starter cookbook for an adult beginner: easy recipes with good outcomes and a dollop of humor to make it fun. Buy an extra copy for yourself, if you're tired of trying 30+ recipes for the same dish. Warning: Any cook with any level of experience who opens this book will want a copy-- stock up!

Even if you never cook - but like food and eating - you will love Ann Hodman's crazy sense of humor and fun approach to food, cooking and eating. And, even better - these recipes really ARE among the best! Not particularly healthy, but hey, we all need a cookbook that is a bit of an indulgence, without being too time-consuming or difficult. THIS one fits the bill. I now have all her cookbooks...

I can't get excited about the choice of recipes or the preparation techniques. I see nothing unbeatable or knock-em-dead. If one is a young mom, it might work. To make things worse, the font ink is red and hard to read (if you are the "age" of an experienced cook).

I read this book and it's companion book Beat That! many years ago. They were library books. I forgot about them until I found one in a Salvation Army bookstore, so I ordered this one to make the set. They have really good simple recipes, at least the recipes I tried worked and were very tasty.

What a fun cookbook! It came highly recommended by Elizabeth Berg, one of my favorite authors and so far I've only made the peach pie (delicious!) but there are lots of great-sounding recipes. Time will tell on those, but I love the irreverent narrative.Why are you reviewing this book, you might ask, since you can't comment on the recipes? Because it's in 10 pt. PINK type, that's why. Who's your demographic? Twelve-year-olds with youthful eyesight, apparently. You certainly weren't thinking about baby boomers - I need 300 watts in order to read it. What were you thinking?