Review: The Anne of Green Gables Cookbook: Charming Recipes from Anne and Her Friends in Avonlea

The Anne of Green Gables Cookbook: Charming Recipes from Anne and Her Friends in Avonlea by Kate Macdonald
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received a Courtesy Reading Copy from Net Galley and Quarto/Race Point Publishing House in exchange for an honest review.

Reader, you know they had me at Anne.

I was happy to receive a courtesy copy of this beautifully illustrated reissue of Kate Macdonald's 1985 book, The Anne of Green Gables Cookbook. I was even happier to see that many of the recipes are gluten-free or readily adapted to gluten-free! And I was also happy to see that celery and cucumber are evidently popular in the P.E.I. kitchen, since I love both.

This book is clearly targeted to middle grade to high school age readers who are learning to cook. The recipes are simple enough so that any child age eleven or older, with a bit of low-key supervision, will be able to have success. (I'm pretty sure grown-ups can enjoy them, too.) There is a brief set of useful tips at the start and a glossary for common cooking terms like folding, kneading and simmering. Photos for each dish help the young cook visualize how the finished dish should look.

These recipes are drawn from foods and beverages mentioned in the books Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, and Anne of Windy Poplars. I've only tried two of the recipes thus far (Raspberry Cordial and the best and yummiest egg salad sandwich, using gluten-free bread and goat butter or ghee!) but a number of the recipes, while simple and homespun, look quite lovely. The vegetable soup is up next for me (part of my Instant Pot project, actually. But that's going to be another review...) And who knows, if I can figure out how to adapt it, Anne's Liniment Cake might be after that. (Sans Liniment, I promise.) Then I long to try to adapt the Rebecca Dew-inspired Orange Angel Cake. (Yes, that's a lot of eggs to be experimenting with. And you guys wonder why I want to raise chickens?)

This is a beautiful, if slim, cookbook, already available in hardcover or Kindle edition.

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