Title:	Valerie's Home Cooking : More than 100 Delicious Recipes to Share with Friends and Family
	Author:	Valerie Bertinelli
	Published:	October 10, 2017, Oxmoor House
	No. of Pages:	272
	Cover Price:	$30.00 Hardcover, $17.10 Kindle

---

Most celebrities aren’t shy about releasing a cookbook with recipes they claim are theirs. Many are co-written by some stranger, and it’s really doubtful that the celebrity in question actually cooks. Not so with Valerie Bertinelli. Although many of us remember her as an adorable actress in long-ago sitcoms, it seems that cooking is really one of her passions. Not only does she have her own cooking show, but the vignettes and stories in her cookbook, Valerie's Home Cooking: More than 100 Delicious Recipes to Share with Friends and Family, tend to bring her down from someone famous and inaccessible, to someone who cooks from family recipes for her husband, son, friends and neighbors just like we do. She’s still adorable, however, and that attribute is definitely reflected in this fun cookbook.

Every recipe in this book is pictured, and most of the recipes are suitable for everyone from beginning cooks to those who are experts. The emphasis is on recipes that can be made in home kitchens without help from sous chefs and other behind-the-scenes people who support professional cooks.

One of the best parts about this excellent cookbook is that the recipes are for dishes people actually want to make. And, the dishes actually turn out picture-perfect. Favorites already include Spicy Killer Shrimp Soup, Chicken with Lemon-Wine Sauce, and a quick Avocado and Grilled Corn Salad with Green Goddess Dressing. She’s included some delicious breakfast breads like Bacon Caramel Scuffins (a cross between a scone and a muffin) with Caramel Clotted Cream, and Egg-in-a-Bagel Hole. We loved the Brown Sugar Sriracha Bacon Bites, and there are several other appetizers that I’m hoping to try very soon.

Bertinelli has included down-to-earth desserts, including some family Christmas cookies. Many of her recipes have an Italian influence from her childhood, like the Ricotta Cookies with Sour Cream Glaze; these turned out soft and luscious.

This cookbook is well-organized, the instructions are easy to follow, and most of the dishes call for ingredients that are readily available. The book is also beautiful and is one you’ll want to display in your kitchen.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.