Pure & Simple: An InCircle Cookbook (Neiman Marcus)

The recipes in Pure & Simple put out by Neumann Marcus are easy to follow, have personal notations by the named contributors.

I got this 20+ years ago from my mother-in-law. At the divorce, my ex took it. I finally have it back. The jalapeno roll-ups for dudes are my favorite and a staple in my party repertoire. I sometimes use chipotle instead of jalapenos.

In hopes of trimming my cookbook collection, I cooked out of this book for one week straight. I truly thought I would dislike most of these recipes and happily hand it off to the local thrift store. In one week's time, I tried out: Chicken Florentine Blackberry Cake with Seven-Minute Frosting Pollo da Pordenone Gateau au Chocolat Classico Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta Chocolate Cake Lemon Bars Chocolate Jaycees Of the eight recipes I tried out, only one disappointed (Classico Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta - and that is only because too many vegetables in one place at one time freak me out. My boyfriend, an openly out veg lover, liked the dish.) It's only after you build a relationship with a cookbook do you realize what it's truly about. This reads more like a Junior League book or heirloom recipe collection than Neiman Marcus restaurant fare. Many of these donated recipes were family loved and handed down through the generations. Some I had never heard of like Cocoa Pink Cuplets, Glop, and Calla Lily cookies. The only reason it's receiving 4 stars rather than 5 is because some of the directions are not reasonably clear. For example, the Chocolate Joycies call for both unsweetened and semisweet chocolate. The directions never stipulate which chocolate to set aside and which to melt. Nor does it specify that interchanging both is fine. ??? Better editing would go a long way. However, it is kinda fun to think it through and use my detective brain while cooking, so ultimately, it's no big deal. And the cookies turned out to be incredible. So good. Overall, really good food comes out of this book, so it gets to stay.

Great food. This is such a bunch of treats. Needless Mark-Up does many things well, but this os certainly one of the best.

Perfect

Disappointing recipes

Great addition to your cookbook lineup!

Fun book