My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It’s definitely the season for soups! As we’re in the cold days of winter (interspersed with crazy days in the 50’s to 70’s before dropping back below freezing here in the South!!), I love making hearty, warming soups for my family.

The first soup that grabbed me was Winter Soup from the Chalet. It sounded so delicious and exactly what we needed on a day that the high wasn’t getting above freezing! It calls for chicken broth, but I had just made some homemade beef bone broth, so I substituted that. You can imagine my astonishment when I tasted the soup that it was a little…flat. There wasn’t much depth of flavor and even my extremely un-picky husband agreed that it needed something! I added the liquid from some garlic paste (surprisingly, there is no garlic in this recipe!) along with more herbs and a touch more salt, and that brought it more where it needed to be. Most of us thoroughly enjoyed it.

A favorite lunch for my kids when it’s cold is grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, so yesterday I whipped up the Winter Tomato and Garlic Soup. I skipped the Gorganzola Bruschetta and let them make regular grilled cheese (cheddar) sandwiches to go with it. Even the youngest who isn’t a big tomato fan went back for seconds! It was a huge hit, and I’m sure we’ll be making it again.

Now, I went for the heart, winter soups as that is the season we’re in, but there a soups for all seasons, including chilled soups for summer. There are also Sandwich Specials, Salads for All Seasons and Delicious Endings included. I haven’t tried their recipe for “Melt in Your Mouth” Lemon Rosemary Cookies, but I plan to soon. I’ve had a similar cookie before, and it was amazing! Dark Chocolate Pistachio Brownies are on my list as well!

There’s a lot to love in this cookbook. You might have to tweak a touch here or there like I did with the Winter Soup for the Chalet, but the bones were there, so that is easily done. Overall, I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to others.

I received a copy of this book from Rizzoli for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.