A Taste of Washington: Favorite Recipes from the Evergreen State

Nice book. I purchased several copies as it featured a recipe from a restaurant I am very familiar with. Only thing I thought could be better is the names of the Restaurants and Chefs are printed in a very light color making them difficult to read. Would recommend it as a gift for your recipe loving friends.

Absolutely gorgeous book! Really beautiful book and the recipes appear to appeal to any level of cooking experience. Eager to try some of them. I usually consider a cookbook a "find" if I can find one or two receipes that I want to try. This book is full of them! Well done!

What I'd expect from a good, local cookbook.

There are a lot of cookbooks out there. And a lot of them write about Washington and the Pacific Northwest “cuisine”. I should know; I have several of them. But sometimes, one book stands out among the scads on the local bookstore’s shelves.Michele Morris’s A Taste of Washington: Favorite Recipes from the Evergreen State is that book.A Taste of Washington combines recipes from Michele’s own repertoire with others from restaurants around the state. I was over-the-moon thrilled to see that she managed to finagle the Wild Iris Inn‘s fiesta frittata recipe out of them – now if only I could get that cookie recipe … *plots* :DI’ve already tried three recipes from the book, and while my Grand Marnier prawns still need a little work to get the sauce to the right consistency, everything has been extremely tasty, runny sauce notwithstanding. The Swedish pancakes were my favorite, and the first I’ve found that can almost rival my mother’s. :)I’m eager to try more of the breakfast and brunch recipes – especially the marionberry pancakes and orange butter croissant French toast. (And who can resist Oranges Chardonnay?!)Michele also highlights the best of the Pacific Northwest – Walla Walla sweet onions, in her crispy fried sweet onion recipe; and of course Dungeness crab cakes. Northwest oysters, lobster, scallops, and more round out the seafood; she also features a recipe for warm cinnamon applesauce, that blessedly references some of the key Northwest strains of cooking apple (most notably my well-documented obsession, Gravenstein). Michele – that alone would make for a five-star review from me … ha! Easily pleased, but abjectly opinionated – that’s me. Really, though – Gravensteins mush appropriately, which is what you really need when making applesauce, no?From comfort food (chicken pot pie) to haute cuisine (ossobuco with salt-roasted fingerling potatoes, or of course the black cod with fingerlings and Manila clams), Michele covers it all in A Taste of Washington, and admirably so. The recipes are drool-worthy (two kinds of bisque! What shall I do?!), and the pictures only enhance that. She took many of the photos herself, and they are truly fantastic, whether full-page or 2×3″.I’m excited to continue working my way through the cookbook, especially as the calendar keeps trotting on toward fall and winter. Michele – congratulations on a job very, very well done. I highly recommend A Taste of Washington!Disclaimer: I received a free copy of A Taste of Washington from the author. I was not compensated in any way or pressured to leave a review. All opinions are my own.

Washington is a bit more diverse thatn this cookbook. Where are the great Mediterranean restaurants such as Ammar's Mediterranean Grill in Tacoma? The great sushi restaurants such as Shiro's Sushi  Shiro: Wit, Wisdom and Recipes from a Sushi Pioneer ? Or the newer Ethiopian and Somali influences? Or the WSU exploration of Washington foods  The Crimson Spoon: Plating Regional Cuisine on the Palouse ? Or the avant garde of the Northwest such as  Sea and Smoke: Flavors from the Untamed Pacific Northwest . Or our award winning Renee Erickson  A Boat, a Whale & a Walrus: Menus and Stories ? In short, this is a collection of traditional recipes from some of the best traditional restaurants in Washington. Don't misunderstand me, I revere the Herbfarm  The Herbfarm Cookbook , Ethan Stowell  Ethan Stowell's New Italian Kitchen: Bold Cooking from Seattle's Anchovies & Olives, How to Cook A Wolf, Staple & Fancy Mercantile, and Tavolàta , our new vegan  Plum: Gratifying Vegan Dishes from Seattle's Plum Bistro  etc. But they only represent a small slice of Washington State cuisine.That being said, the cookbook presented is well chosen, visually pleasing, with recipes interesting enough to try presented in an appropriable manner. So I see why many reviewers give it a higher rating. If one did not expect a representative cross-section, this would be a very satisfactory volume.

Michele's Taste of Colorado cookbook is sitting on my counter constantly and I was delighted to receive her latest book as a gift last night. I have already read though the recipes twice, tagged the ones I want to try and cannot wait to head to the market in the morning with my ingredient list!Michele's easy to follow recipes and EXCEPTIONAL photos makes cooking an adventure. I cannot wait to find my favorites in her Washington book to intersperse with my favorites from her Colorado book. Such a wonderful gift for me.........and I have already started my list of recipients for holiday gifts this year.

Michele's Washington cookbook is just as good as her Colorado cookbook! The photos of finished recipes and the specific directions are especially helpful to me. She also has an excellent section at the beginning explaining why specific ingredients should be used, and what substitutions are acceptable. The dishes I've tasted so far are delicious, and I look forward to trying more! I agree with the other reviewers that her cookbooks make wonderful Christmas presents.

Delicious recipes, great read and stunning pictures! :) I'm not much of a cook, but have tried many of Michele's recipes inher 'A Taste of Colorado' book and they all make me feel like a chef! I just read through A Taste of Washington and am anxiousto try being a a chef again, this time from Washington! Great Christmas gifts!