Synopsis (from Netgalley, the provider of the book for me to review.)
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A delicious, down-home cookbook for all your favourite comfort foods! Nothing beats a warm, cozy meal, and Comfort Food Essentials is here to provide you with endless ideas for everyone's favourite kind of food!

From breakfast, lunch, and dinner to sides, breads, desserts, and even toppings and condiments, this comfort food cookbook features over 100 hearty recipes the whole family is sure to love. Packed with recipes for chicken noodle soup, pizza, mac and cheese, meatloaf, chilli con carne (or chilli non carne), and so much more, each all-time favourite, down-home recipe is sure to warm your heart and soul as you gather around the table and dig in!

Author Kim Wilcox is the owner of the popular family-owned restaurant It's All So Yummy in Knoxville, Tennessee. She is the author of The Great Book of Grilled Cheese and her recipes have also appeared in the wildly popular The Ultimate Spam (R) Cookbook Make delicious, comforting, warm recipes the whole family will love, with Comfort Food Essentials!

Warm and cozy? It is 110 degrees and HUMID as I type this, but I have so many plans for this book come October when it comes out … in fact, I ordered a copy of it for my own personal use! (if I can jigger the recipes to make in my InstantPot which creates zero heat in the kitchen I will make them now … that is about the only appliance used from June through mid-September in this home!)

The foods presented in here are YUMMY looking and sounding and no recipe is beyond the skills of even the most basic of cooks. And, homemade means less UPF (ultra-processed foods) in your belly – I admit that due to budgetary restrictions, we eat a lot of boxed macaroni and cheese but I add in a tonne of veggies to it so it is mixed veggies with a little macaroni in it.) The perfect cool and cold weather cookbook, I will recommend this far and wide and share that I bought it for myself!
#shortbutsweetreviews

p.s. why do the English call is macaroni cheese ... do they like omitting "and"? And don't get me started with "in hospital" ... the distinct lack of THE annoys me too... #butIdigress

This cookbook feels like my favorite diner with hearty, home cooking. Upside down pineapple pancakes! Need I say more??!! So fun and I want to make every recipe!

Comfort Food Essentials by Kim Wilcox was an eye-opener. I am going to be honest here it felt glutinous. Especially when I got to page 68 the Bacon & Pimento Cheese Smash Burger piled with at least four chamber patties topped then with bacon.

Let's all face it we're all trying to eat healthy but we all need comfort food so this book instantly appealed to me. I rather indulge in the occasional comfort food, of mac and cheese etc. than dive into ice cream or liquor but this just went too much in my book. I know Kim Wilcox has a restaurant in Tennessee and perhaps the culture of this type of food in the mainstream but for most of us, our bodies just can't tolerate that much to our systems.

All of us love our Sunday pot roasts or steak sandwiches etc but honestly, this book didn't stand out as special or any different than other comfort food cookbooks except the glutinous part. And it didn't feel essential.

I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher Fox Chapel Publishing for the opportunity to read and review Comfort Food Essentials by Kim Wilcox.

Simple comfort foods presented with beautiful pictures but lackadaisical text, but really the text is filler for most cookbooks. I always wonder at the assumption of “comfort foods,” I mean isn’t that different for everyone? This was a good but not great resource for everyday cooking.

Comfort Food Essentials has so many of my childhood favorites inside. From breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert, soups, sandwiches and main dishes, this cookbook will have you covered if you are looking for any of your favorite comfort foods!

The pictures are mouthwatering and delectable. There is also a section of favorites from some of the author's chef friends. This is neat, because it adds a little bit of cultural variety to the offerings.

The only thing I would add to this is an index of recipes that are gluten free. There are quite a few, but they aren't specially marked. Just having a page at the front or back with a list would be helpful. [I'm reviewing an advanced copy, so this may be fixed by the time the book is published. I hope so!]

This is really a fantastic cookbook with tons of amazing childhood favorites. It's definitely one everyone should have in their kitchen!

Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this eARC in exchange for my honest review on the book!

A good collection of home easy home cooked recipes. The author shares a lot of tips and notes to make it easy for the reader. There are recipes included from several professional chefs as well. The pictures and imagery are wonderful, and the food consists of food you would actually cook for your busy family!

Comfort food is my jam! A meat loaf slider? Don't mind if I do! Sunday Pot Roast? Do we have to wait until Sunday?? One advantage to living in the north is a long comfort food season. We revel in dishes like this almost all year long. From soups to desserts, it's all here.