Feed These People: Slam-Dunk Recipes for Your Crew

Ever since getting my hands on Jen Hatmaker's Beef Bourguignon recipe in her book For the Love, I have dearly wished she'd write a cookbook. That is the best dang beef stew recipe you will ever put in your face hole, and I knew if she could make one dish that marvelous, she had to be able to cook more.

The angels have sung and my wish has come true. And I have Jen Hatmaker's cookbook in my hot little hands, and IT IS GLORIOUS. The pictures are stunning, the stories are wonderful, and the author's sense of humor and personality shines from the pages.

I've made a few of the recipes (and more will follow!). When I'm cooking, I feel like Jen and I are old friends, and she's hanging out at my house, and we will make all the food and eat until we are stupid and have a marvelous time.

The Gingerbread Spice Dutch Baby is an amazing breakfast that smells like Christmas. I'd never made a Dutch baby before, but I see many of them in my family's future. The Pecan Crusted Chicken Tenders were wildly popular with my boys, who are notoriously picky eaters. Our favorite so far, though, is the Potato Chip, Bacon, and Raspberry Grilled Cheese. My husband tried it and said he could eat NINE of them and we should never do a grilled cheese sandwich any other way ever again. It sounds weird, I know. But trust me. You NEED this sandwich in your life.

My one teeny little disappointment is that Jen does not have a sweet tooth like I do, and there's only one dessert recipe in the whole book. But she's got recipes for hummus and fried mozzarella sticks and migas and queso, so that redeems the lack of dessert recipes. For good queso, I can skip dessert.

Five stars for food that sounds so yummy I want to lick the pages, and for a cookbook that's well organized and does a great job of breaking recipes and techniques down so that even kitchen newbies can make the tasty, tasty food.