While I found recipes simple enough to prepare, I couldn’t help but enjoy reading Pottle’s basic cooking tips. They were like a mini-refresher course on many of ingredients used in this cookbook, as well as, actual cutting and cooking tips.

I’d have to say my favorite recipe is Tamale Pie. Anyone who has ever tried to or has successfully prepared homemade tamales knows it’s not only an all-day affair, but it requires lots of helpers. Now, I don’t have to trot off to my favorite Mexican restaurant, I can make them with ease—at home!

What reads like a series of newspaper columns, written by one distraught, yet hopeful mom is a book filled with motherly insight. And not those pretty, painted pictures you’re often fed in other parenting books. Schmitt lays it all out on line—sometimes serious, sometimes funny—but always insightful.