Amish cooking has a reputation for being delicious and from scratch, with very little processed food. This is was a sample read of a cookbook. There was a page of Common Equivalents which is helpful: for example a pund of apple is about 3 medium apples. I was tickled to find the recipe for a Herman starter. Several recipe called for cream-of-something soup, that doesn't live up to the "from scratch" title of the cookbook.
An interesting story about the author's two-year-old. Perhaps there are other interesting anecdotes.

Review of sample - about 60 of 200 pages. The Kindle sample does not put the book in the best light. Pages are chopped and out of order, making it difficult to distill and follow the theme. The sample appears in order and is attractively presented on the NetGalley app.

I like the idea of this book. I'm a fan of from-scratch cooking, and the best recipes are often those developed and refined in the kitchens of great home cooks. The recipes and layout had the sense of a church cookbook - often the sources of the hidden gems and geniuses of the culinary world. The pictures are enticing, and some of the recipes - particularly those for baked goods and homemade cheese - were interesting. There's even a recipe for clover flower syrup, which is exactly what it sounds like.

From the sample, I was unclear how these recipes reflected the title. Were all of the contributors Amish, and all friends of the author's? Does the frequent use of canned cream of chicken soup qualify as "from scratch" cooking? Or Amish? I have questions.

Also, although I appreciated the author's restraint in presenting the recipes - there are no novellas about how this or that dish reminds her of a childhood cat - I wish there had been more guidance about the recipes and more context about the contributors. Various recipes for fresh cheese call for yogurt, sour cream, and rennet as the curdling agent. I would appreciate some direction about the differences I might expect among them and which I might prefer. And it would be wonderful to have a line or two about each of the contributors, who have marvelously evocative names, and who live in places that sound delightful.

Many thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was looking forward to digging into this book, but the sample I got made it a challenge. I was confused by the intro paragraphs which touted recipes made from scratch and fresh ingredients, but I found that many of the recipes called for store-bought ingredients like a can of soup, taco seasoning etc. Some of the recipes were genuinely from scratch, but I was hoping for more of the traditional recipes. Also, many of the recipes would not be considered to be very healthy.
The best thing about this book may be the mouth-watering photos, but if you're looking for recipes all from scratch, this won't satisfy you.

This is a great cookbook, it's a lot like one of the old church cookbook. The recipes are simple and a lot of recipes are for foods that you don't think about making such as root beer, and cottage cheese. Old fashioned recipes for cabbage rolls and homemade noodles.
This was an arc copy from Netgalley.

Love reading anything by Wanda Brunstetter. The recipes that I could view in this sample of the cookbook looked inviting and homey. There were some recipes listed in the index that I wish I could have viewed. Overall the cookbook looks great with basic staples you would have in your pantry to cook things from scratch.. I especially loved the tips and substitutions part of the cookbook.

Thank you to the publisher, Barbour Books & Net Galley for the opportunity to read an advanced sample of this cookbook. This is my honest and unbiased opinion.

Amish friends from scratch.... while a mouthful it’s an apt approach to this cookbook. While I only received a sample of this cookbook, about 60 pages of an over 200 pages book, it was well worth the look. Beautiful pictures and delicious homemade recipes.

What did I like? While I hate being teased with a sample of a book, you get what you get. I received a choppy out of order file with split pictures and a table of contents in the majority of the pages. It looks like a combination of recipes from friends of the author collaborated and filled the pages with a ton of Amish recipes.

Would I recommend or buy? I have no way of knowing what the entire cookbook is like, only based off the sample. Plenty of pictures, and delicious homemade looking recipes filled what I could see. I would definitely make the recipes. I would love a full copy, hopefully it’s just like the sample.

I received a sample copy of the cookbook, not an entire copy, and this was my opinion based on the sample.