Product Description

The owner of an inn in the Ozark Mountains called the Dairy Hollow House presents two hundred of her most scrumptious recipes for bread and soups. By the author of Half a Moon and One Whole Star. Original.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #213218 in Books
• Published on: 1992-01-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

From the Back Cover
CRESCENT DRAGONWAGON IS THE ALICE WATERS OF THE OZARKS . . .

turning out a nightly stream of creations wherein the best of country and city converge. -House Beautiful

Consistently rated one of America's ten best country inns, Dairy Hollow House in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, is celebrated for a unique cuisine built on such traditional country ingredients as farm fresh chicken, wild mushrooms, greens, dried beans, and summer's berries. Now in over 200 recipes, chef and owner Crescent Dragonwagon shares all her soup-making, bread-baking, and salad-tossing wisdom in a cookbook that's as gutsy and distinctive as a steaming bowl of gumbo-in five variations. Welcome.

Along with being an innkeeper and chef, Crescent Dragonwagon is a cooking teacher, award-winning children's book writer, and author of four cookbooks including THE DAIRY HOLLOW HOUSE COOKBOOK. She and her husband, Neal Shank, live at the innkeeper's house at Dairy Hollow in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.

A SEASON OF SOUPS . . .

FALL

 Chicken Soup with Forest Mushrooms

 Mussel Soup Dublin

 Autumn Cream of Onion Soup with Brandy and Cider

 RosS and Apple Velvet Soup

WINTER

 Deep December Cream of Root Soup

 Wintery Chicken and Pasta Soup

 Hillbilly Many-Bean Soup

 Winter Borscht . la Vielle Russe

SPRING

 Asparagus and White Wine Soup

 Chicken and Rice Soup with Fresh Spring Vegetables

 Chilled Strawberry Soup with CrSme Fraiche

 Gingered Fresh Pea Soup with Snow Peas and Water Chestnuts

SUMMER

 Chilled Corn Chowder with Dill and Scallions

 Gazpacho Rosa

 Peach Soup with Almonds

 Augusta's Chilled Tomato Soup with Basil Cream

AND A BASKET OF BREADS

 Herbed Mezzaluna Bread

 Skillet-sizzled Buttermilk Cornbread

 Scotch Baps

 Slightly Fanatic Whole Grain Bread

 Custom-Made Biscuits As You Like Them

 Rosemary Focaccia

About the Author
Crescent Dragonwagon, the author of Passionate Vegetarian and Dairy Hollow House Soup & Bread Cookbook, many children’s books, and two novels, was once innkeeper/chef at the acclaimed Dairy Hollow House in Eureka Spring, Arkansas. She now lives, writes, and bakes cornbread near Saxtons River, Vermont.

Customer Reviews

Pick up this book and you'll soon be in comfort-food heaven.
This book is as fun to read as it is to cook from. Dragonwagon has a nice colloquial writing style and gives a lot of background on where each recipe comes from, trivia about the Ozarks and the inn she ran with her husband for many years.

Although this book does have a few pages focusing on breads and salads, the soup recipes (which make up about 75% of the book) are truly the shining stars here. The recipes are divided into chapters on chicken soups, fish soups, vegetable soups, bean soups, dairy soups, nut soups, and fruit/dessert soups. There is also a chapter devoted entirely to making the ultimate gumbo, and one on a very versatile "diet" soup. The majority of recipes fall into the vegetable/dairy/and bean soup categories - making this book quite suitable for vegetarians or people interested in cutting back on the amount of meat in their diets. She doesn't eat red meat, and you won't find any recipes that call for beef, pork, or lamb... although there are a couple of exceptions.

As other reviewers have mentioned, these recipes are all easily adaptable to what vegetables you already have in your refrigerator, though you will probably need to make regular trips to the store to stock up on fresh veggies if you intend to use this book often. The recipes call for lots of ingredients, but you can easily leave some out and still have a great tasting finished product. Many variations are given for each soup and some have ideas for using leftovers. Although she doesn't recommend it, bouillon cubes or canned stock could easily be substituted if you're short on time. However, if you ever wanted to learn how to make a great homemade stock, this is the place for it.

The recipes themselves are excellent and I have had fabulous results and many compliments when serving these soups to others. I highly recommend the Mexican-Style The Soup, Greek Navy Bean Soup, and Pea Soup Caraway Adelle. These soups are a wonderful way to save money and eat healthy while still pleasing your tastebuds.

The book has a nice design, but if you're looking for fancy photographs or art, you won't find them here.

A Constant Companion in my kitchen
Although the focus is Soup here, I began using the baking section first. I found definitive buttermilk cornbread, biscuts and muffins, although I have been a good baker for a long time, these were truly the "best in class" and are the standard for my kitchen. I have some favorites now among the extensive soup section but still need to supplement with other cookbooks when I want a meat recipe since the focus here is chicken, fish, vegetable or legumes based. I found the book gives a blueprint that allows me to make some kind of soup out of what is on hand. I also found the "Sandy's Great Lentil Soup with Greens and Garlic" to be a completely fresh, nutritious take on lentils and simple to boot. The small section on Salads is invaluable. I use the Curried Vinaigrette (for the Curried Lentil Salad with Vegetables) on sandwiches as a spread since it keeps forever. The Mexican Corn and Avocado Salad with the Cilantro Vinaigrette gets raves every time and satisfies my Avocado cravings. I couldn't do without this one. It's a good read too with lots of stories and info imbeded in the text.

My copy's spattered, stained, and used time & again
Soup. Bread. Muffins. Salad. Yum. This is a book full of great recipes and wonderful lore. I enjoy the quotes and anecdotes almost as much as the food, and this is great food. We enjoy the Hillbilly Many-Bean Soup, the Skillet-Sizzled Buttermilk Cornbread, the Glazed Orange Muffins, the Dairy Hollow House Pasta Salad, the Chicken & Cheese Soup with Green Chiles again and again. Some of these recipes even go with us on vacation. There are great directions for making your own soup stocks, and no, you do not have to live in your kitchen all day to do it. We keep finding interesting recipes we want to try, as well as returning to our favorites time & time again. More than a recipe book, this is a visit with a friend who loves to cook. Enjoy!