Make-A-Mix
by Karine Eliason, Nevada Harward & Madelin Westover

Publisher:  Fisher Books
ISBN:  1555610730

In this day and age of rushed meal preparation, many home cooks resort to packaged food mixes to save time. It's much easier to grab a pre-assembled box of ingredients, add liquid and cook for 20 minutes than to assemble and measure the ingredients yourself. Yet packaged goods can cost more than twice the amount of the ingredients within. The obvious success of these commercially-packaged products leads authors Eliason, Harward and Westover to write Make-A-Mix, a compendium of make-ahead mixes along with hundreds of recipe variations for using those mixes.

Probably the most commercially-successful packaged products are dry mixes, particularly baking mix which can be used for any number of applications from pancakes to biscuits. Of course Make-A-Mix includes such a recipe to make your own baking mix, along with nineteen different uses. Yet the dry mixes go beyond this basic staple to include mixes for brownies, cakes, puddings, coating, seasoning and other packaged mixes used often in the home, each with recipes for various different meals.

Make-A-Mix then goes beyond dry mixes to include savory mixtures which can be prepared ahead of time, frozen and used as the basis for quick main dishes such as soups, stews, casseroles, and skillet bakes. Bean, salad dressing, gravy, and beverage mixes are also included.

Make-A-Mix includes 67 do-it-yourself mixes and 306 recipes for using those mixes. The book is generously sprinkled with tantalizing photographs of the recipes in progress as well as the end product. Helpful tips are peppered throughout with variation, time and money-saving hints. The simple instructions for both the mixes and recipes are presented in an easy-to-read format, making it perfect for the novice cook. You won't need to hunt down any exotic ingredients. A full page of tips for lowering fat is also included.

For those cooks who like to give personalized mixes in clever packages for gifts, you'll find many dry mix recipes to choose from in Make-A-Mix. The mix recipes can easily be personalized to fit your family's needs or to put your own personal spin on a food gift for any occasion. Make-A-Mix will enhance the kitchen of any busy cook.

Peggy Trowbridge, your Guide for Home Cooking