Cooking with Friends: a rare gem among gimmicks
Ok. Yes. It’s a gimmick book made as a promotional item to pray on the unsuspecting fans of an uber-popular television show. And yes, usually books like that stink and offer little in the way of real life cooking.
But this one is different, I tell you.
Cooking with Friends has had a special place on my bookshelf for close to a decade and I am still finding recipes in it that I just love. Mr. Geller’s Pasta with Sundried Tomatoes, Rachel’s Peanut Butter Cookies and Real South-of-the-Border Salsa are among my tried and trues. And when I was flipping through it to write this article, I bookmarked several to try soon.
The great thing about this book is that it treats the gimmick - the quotes, photos and dialogues - as an aside to what it’s really about: real recipes. And it doesn’t call for you to pick up any specific brand oil or anything. In fact, it calls for a lot of fresh foods rather than processed or dried. The instructions are clear and to the point. It’s so easy to follow that as a 17-year-old I could easily whip up anything I chose from it.
And it’s fun to read dialogue from old Friends episodes while cooking.
I highly recommend this out-of-print gem.
