HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE – Cooking For The Clueless

GIFT IDEA – COOKING FOR THE CLUELESS DVD

With the new year beginning tomorrow how many of you are promising yourself that you’ll eat out less and cook more? How many of you are promising to learn how to cook some new things? Cooking For The Clueless offers an affordable way to learn some techniques and recipes in the comfort of your own home.

About Cooking For The Clueless

As we know, cooking shows, chef reality shows and “hot new restaurant” write-ups flood our TV’s, local newspapers and favorite blogspots, it’s no surprise that America is obsessed with cooking. But, there remains one growing obstacle for food lovers — many of us still can’t cook! Cooking for the Clueless is a 2-disc DVD set featuring chefs & homecooks alongside someone who’s clueless asking all of the questions we really want to know.

I received a copy of the Cooking For The Clueless DVD. What I really like about it is that it’s a whole lot easier to understand what it meant or required when you see it, something you can’t say about a cookbook. The host and guest chefs are friendly and the instructions are easy to understand. The timing of the instruction in the recipes is good – it  doesn’t move so fast that you miss things or so slow that they drag on.

The DVD is broken into categories:

• The Restaurant Factor
• The Italian Way
• The Classic Meal
• No-Cook Cooking
• It’s a Piece of Cake
• Stocking your Pantry
• Knives, Chopping & Cutting Boards
• Chef’s Opinion: Pots & Pans
• Food & Wine Pairing 101

The DVD includes recipes for the following dishes:

Appetizers

• Chèvre-Stuffed Apricots
• Olives and Feta Marinated with Lemon and Vermouth
• Prosciutto Pear Bites
• Tuna Tartare with Cucumber Salad

Dinners

• Broiled Flank Steak
• Paglia e Fieno (Straw and Hay) Pasta
• Pan Seared Sea Scallops with Fennel, Orange and Watercress
• Pan-Roasted Salmon with Tomato and Herb Cream
• Spaghetti al Pomodoro
• Whole-Roasted Chicken

Side Dishes

• Creamy Mashed Potatoes
• Oven-Roasted Potatoes

Desserts

• Chocolate Ganache
• Cream Cheese Frosting
• Devil’s Food Cake
• Vanilla Sponge Cake

My favorite segment by far was “It’s A Piece Of Cake”, the dessert section. It was fun to watch how easy it can be to make something that sounds or looks fancy and a little out of reach to a novice cook. RB’s favorites were the fish recipes, particularly the scallops. What struck him the most about the DVD was the look of the dishes made – simple and pleasing. He likes larger portions so he thought that it would be helpful if a few brief tips on upsizing the recipes was included.

I think it would be great if future versions were offered in just types of food or cooking. Each DVD could be like a mini cooking course on DVD in that type of food. For example, one DVD course could be on pastas, another on beef, another on pork, another on fish, another on desserts and so on. I myself would be far more likely to purchase a DVD that offered numerous recipes in an area I wanted to learn more about. The pricing of this cooking DVD is reasonable. Something else that could be considered is a club for consumers who return to buy future releases.

WIN IT!

ONE WINNER will receive their own Cooking For The Clueless DVD.

HOW TO ENTER. (MANDATORY)

To enter check out the Cooking For The Clueless recipes and then leave me a comment on this post telling me a dish you’d like to see included in a future version of Cooking For The Clueless.

BONUS ENTRIES

1 – Subscribe to my newsletter. (at top of sidebar)
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1 – Tweet this giveaway.
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1 – Blog about this giveaway, including a link here.
1 – Place my button on your blog. (in sidebar)
1 – Visit HereAndThere.US (my Mom) and leave a comment on any post (except a giveaway post) there. Then return here and leave a comment on this post telling me one thing you read or learned on my Mom’s blog. (That’s two comments you need to leave for this bonus entry, one there and one here.) Unlimited entries for this method of entry.

Leave an additional comment for each entry you qualify for. You must have completed the first entry according to the instructions to be eligible for any bonus entries.

THE SMALL PRINT.

US addresses only please. This contest will end on Saturday 01/09/09 at 11:59 pm est.  If you’ve entered any of my giveaways before then you know that only comments containing all of the requested information will be eligible for entry. The winner must contact me to confirm they wish to receive the prize within two days of my email notifying them they’ve won.  Good luck to everyone!

The product(s) featured in this review was provided free of cost to me for the sole purpose of product testing and review. This review has not been monetarily compensated and is based on the views and opinions of my family and/or self. Please note that the opinions reflected in this post have not been influenced by the sponsor in any way.

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.