By Tawra Jean Kellam
269 Pages
Spiral Bound Paperback
$14.95
ISBN:0- 96769-7409
Review by Cheri Sicard
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Anyone browsing the array of offerings available on the shelves of bookstores might easily overlook Tawra Jean Kellam's new publication on frugal cooking. Like its theme, the book's appearance is deceivingly simple and homespun, a diamond in the rough compared to its glossy, higher budgeted competition. But those who are lured past this humble book by the glow of the gorgeous full-color photography on the latest treatises on Biscotti and Teacakes or Nouvelle Pan-Asian/Eastern European fusion cuisine, will have missed a treasure.

The first thing that surprised me about the book was its scope, it covers nearly everything any basic modern cooking encyclopedia would, with the addition of lots of old fashioned recipes you might not have thought about in years. I was constantly surprised and delighted by childhood favorites I'd long since forgotten.

Which is not to say the book isn't modern as well. You'll find familiar staples along side creative new classics. Interspersed among the recipes are tons of practical cooking and money saving tips, all told with Tawra's delightful sense of humor.

And should you ever decide to take life in the kitchen too seriously, you'll find many clever bits of advice to remind you otherwise. One of my favorites is, "Life's too short to stuff a cherry tomato."

Frugal or otherwise, this is a great down home-type cookbook. If you had to get by with just one cookbook in your kitchen --I'm shaking at that mere thought of that, cookbook junkie that I am -- but hypothetically speaking, you could eat quite well with this as your only guide.

Sample Recipes from Not Just Beans

• Pasties -- Savory Pies
• Leftovers Hash
• Easy Orange Marmalade
• Candied Orange Peel

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Not Just Beans -- 40 Years of Frugal Family Favorites.
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