Grilling for Dummies & 500 Smoothies and Juices

Grilling for Dummies by Marie Rama and John Mariani was the first cookbook i reviewed. Even though i was reading it with no intention of going out and grilling, i still enjoyed looking it over. The pages were aesthetically pleasing with little warnings and reminders down the side, a great use of white space, and easy to read font. This book was clearly designed for those with no grilling experience whatsoever, and was organized to take the first time griller (it even helped you go through the grill purchasing process) all the way to searing fire meats. The words were friendly and the over-all feeling of the book was a comfortable one.

The second cookbook i look at was more of a recipe collection. 500 Smoothies and Juices by Christine Watson was certainly targeting a different audience. Upon first picking it off the shelf it seemed just like any other book, albeit slightly brighter colored on the front. As i sat in a couch at Barnes and Nobles reading through it i received more and more odd looks. I took a moment to step outside of myself and realized that it would look somewhat odd for a strapping young male such as myself to be holding a dwarf sized, bright orange covered book with pages shaded hot pink, sky blue, and lime green. This book would never be seen on the shelf of a bachelor's kitchen. Getting past the looks of the book however, 500 Smoothies and Juices was a lot less comforting to read than Grilling for dummies. It merely gave the ingredients needed and very vague directions for what to do with them, sometimes even leaving those out. I still don't know what the difference between Puree' and Pulse on my blender is. Besides the fact that the latter makes a cooler sound. I did like the large pictures showing what each recipe was for, but the only text besides the ingredients and lacking directions were cheesy selling lines. "A delicious blend of your favorite tropical fruits." Personally I'd like something more personal in my cookbooks. Although for all intents and purposes i suppose if you just wanted to know in a short and simple way how to make 500 different types of smoothies, milkshakes, and margaritas this would be an excellent read.