Not Your Mother's Microwave Cookbook Overview

There are many recipes out there for microwave cooking which is great but it can also be a problem. It is hard to find the good ones, the ones that are actually possible, and ones that you will actually like. Not Your Mother's Microwave Cookbook by Beth Hensperger looks very promising to me. Beth Hensperger is a best-selling James Beard Award-Winning Author. This award is given to people who show excellence in culinary writing, culinary education, and in cuisine itself. They are presented every year by the James Beard Foundation. Beard was a TV personality and cookbook author who became very popular in the 1950s. His show I Love To Eat is considered to have been the first cooking show on network TV. Beth Hensperger received her award from his namesake foundation in 2000 for her book The Bread  Bible. Not Your Mother's Microwave Cookbook was published in 2010 which means it is pretty recent and will have content relevant to today. The cover of the book has a photo of a pretty delicious looking piece of fish with some vegetables and some nice garnish on it. If I had seen the picture without knowing what  I do I never would have guessed that it was prepared in a microwave.

Not Your Mother's Microwave Cookbook

The book is setup very well. The first section is about microwave basics. It gives a brief scientific explanation of how microwaves work, different features they come with, do's and don'ts, cooking techniques, food safety, what should be used in a microwave, and how-to's like "How To Melt Chocolate". She also incorporates a great amount of facts and details such as including the story of how microwave ovens were invented.  The format of the book is clean and easy to read, things are broken up into sections and she uses different colored fonts.  She uses nice language and basic terms. Hensperger does not come off as condescending although she really does know her stuff. I think people would enjoy reading this book and would find it helpful. Here is a link if you would like to check it out for yourself.
'http://www.amazon.com/Not-Your-Mothers-Microwave-Cookbook/dp/1558324194/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1429108932&sr=8-1&keywords=not+your+mothers+microwave+cookbook

The sections of the book are as follows and offer a wide range of items from breakfast ideas including Granola Berry Parfaits to a Rustic Spinach Souffle for a dinner to Lemon Panna Cotta, an Italian dessert. Each recipe starts with a description of what is going to be made. She may also give a personal anecdote or give some fun facts about certain ingredients the recipe calls for such as talking about how the Artichoke-Feta Dip on page 37 is her "mother's all-time, all-the-time favorite artichoke dip". Hensperger adds personality to the pages of the book and her voice shows through. 

The recipes are easy to follow and she even says that anyone can do it and encourages the reader. Each recipe lists how much it will make, the cookware you will need, the cooking time, standing time, then the ingredients, and finally the steps for preparing the food. There are no pictures accompanying any of the recipes though. I think that pictures help to entice people and people do eat with their eyes first. Aesthetics are extremely important and I feel that it is beneficial to have pictures. It is nice to see what the final product should somewhat resemble although it is hard to emulate professionals.  A picture is worth 1000 words though.