This relatively short cookbook (67 pages, including an excerpt from Miles’ novel Country Heaven) is chock full of the best in comfort food. Not only are the recipes from Country Heaven included, but also several from Miles own family.
In addition to being a bestselling author, Ava also worked as a chef. So you know that she’s made sure to test these recipes out and they’re so clearly written that it’s a sheer pleasure to follow them.
May I say, I was particularly delighted by this book as I had loved the inclusion of recipes in the novel, but they were hard to find (my little magnifier search icon was a bit overused as I searched for corn bread and some other favs). Now, I just open up this handy cookbook and all the recipes are there - and are indexed - so no more searching is needed.
These dishes are both fun to make and a joy to eat. I whipped up a batch of that cornbread last night and it was light, airy, and tasty… I was lucky to have enough left to toast this morning (one of my favorite breakfast treats) after some friendly locusts descended on it.
My friends unanimous taste test verdict? This was probably the best cornbread ever - and I take no credit for it. It’s purely Ava. Really, cornbread was one of my Nana’s (Dad’s mom) favorite things to make, along with Angel Food Cake for birthdays, and Lady Baltimore Cake for special occasions (yes, just like Ava’s family). But I have to say Nana's cornbread was much heavier as the proportion of flour to cornmeal was equal. This recipe shakes that dynamic up and the results are FABulous.
Some other recipes include fried chicken (and yes, this is the exact same recipe that was passed down in my family, even to the milk gravy), a lemon meringue pie that my father would have loved, cream puffs (I’ve never attempted these, but just may with this recipe), candied nuts that just look so tasty, a great BBQ dry rub, and, oh yes, buttermilk biscuits.
Ava makes reading these recipes fun with her personal interjections and humor. But for a cook, this is like a treasured gold mine volume of down home comfort foods.
I look forward to more books - and recipes - in Ava’s Dare River series. Next up is THE CHOCOLATE GARDEN (pub date: 12 August 2014). Chocolate and Ava, mmmm. Can’t wait!
Add Ava Miles' Country Heaven Cookbook: Family Recipes & Remembrances to your cookbook shelf. It's comfort food that will top your chart!
From the Publisher
Country Heaven Cookbook: Family Recipes & Remembrances by Ava Miles
ISBN 9781940565071
Price $2.99
Publication Date: April 23, 2014
If you like The Pioneer Woman, you will enjoy the COUNTRY HEAVEN COOKBOOK.
Former chef and USA Today Bestselling Author, Ava Miles, has assembled the COUNTRY HEAVEN COOKBOOK filled with tantalizing recipes, down home wit, Southern charm, and sweet remembrances about her own grandmother and her fictional character’s reflections from her novel, COUNTRY HEAVEN. Ava’s cookbook serves up a feast of scrumptious, soul-satisfying, cowboy-approved comfort food for the whole family. Included here are recipes for her famous spongy cornbread, decadent gingerbread waffles, and her family’s chocolate chip pie. It’s a fun hodgepodge of Southern cuisine and family farm recipes.
Readers have enjoyed the scrumptious recipes Ava wrote for COUNTRY HEAVEN so much that she wanted to share them all together in a cookbook with some extra family recipes NOT included in the book. The cookbook entries describe her heroine’s reflections about her grandmother, who taught her to cook, and Ava’s reflections about her grandma as well, who made food come alive for her.
This companion to COUNTRY HEAVEN, the first book in her new Dare River series set in the South, is connected to her bestselling small town Dare Valley series that started with the#1 National Bestseller, NORA ROBERTS LAND.
If you haven’t read COUNTRY HEAVEN yet, this is a great chance to see how beautifully food is woven into the story between her sassy heroine, Tory Simmons, and her steamy country singer, Rye Crenshaw. Ava has included an extended excerpt of COUNTRY HEAVEN at the end for your enjoyment.
Add the Country Heaven Cookbook to your Goodreads shelf