A Well-Kept Home : Household Traditions and Simple Secrets from a French Grandmother
	Author: Laura Fronty Published: 2001-04-21
	List price: $35.00 Our price: $25.48	Usually ships in 24 hours As of: January 06th, 2009 04:34:02 AM
Customer comments on this selection. Your French Grandma was pretty DUMB! HOLY COW WHAT A LOAD OF C%%*, this book has been given a new cover and recycled, with the same stuff in it. Not to mention the stuff in the book is nether wise nor safe. Whoever the grandma was who provided these tips didn't actually make any of this stuff because if they did they wouldn't have made it to be a grandma. Ditto on the CYANIDE-would be almond flavor added to your jam, what the hell? they new you had to get all of the pits out of the fruit before storage in ancient Rome? Ever hear of Oil of Bitter Almonds? DUMB. I think someone sat down and imagined this stuff. Even in hard times you would never do these things. Oh and the preserved fruit in oil and salt? One word "Botulism". You could look at the pictures though! I am an avid canner and preserver. I am not a skidish person when it comes to doing things the old fashioned way, unfortunately this stuff is just someones idea of what the old fashioned way would be. I think the French Grandma for this book was pretty DUMB. Warning -- Same Book, Different Title I only gave this book three stars because it is the same book as "Secrets of Good Housekeeping" also by Laura Fronty -- same content, lovely photo's, etc., only difference is the title. Pictures are best component Disappointing content. Pictures are nice but not worth more than a quick browse. Disappointing This book is nothing but a hardcover magazine. Gorgeous pictures, useless content. These are not the memories of a French grandmother so much as a big... ad for you to buy a whole lot of products, try out some weekend project that never ends, give up and go out and buy more useless products. There are much better books on this topic for people who are serious about the running of their home but are mostly, unfortunately out of print. Not very useful or safe. About 50% of this book offers advice that is either useless or dangerous. A few potted geraniums on your windowsill will NOT keep away mosquitoes. You do not make "Homemade soap" by squashing together the remains of previously-used soap. Ditto for "Homemade cheese". Anyone who tries to "save" rancid butter by massaging in a few tablespoons of baking soda and water is just asking for a bellyache. Do you have any "Spanish White" around your house? Neither do I. If I'm going to make a special trip to "any local hardware store" to pick up a tube of Spanish White and a vial of "methelated spirits" so I can blend them into silver-polishing paste, why wouldn't I just snap up a cheap tube of silver polish and save myself the added expense and mixing effort? The worst advice in the entire book is this: "Give your apricot, plum or cherry jam an almond taste by cooking a few crushed fruit stones, enclosed in a small muslin bag, at the same time as the fruits." That almond taste you've just added is CYANIDE, a deadly poison found concentrated in fruit pits and usually used to execute gas-chamber prisoners in a really horrible way. Do you really want to add that to your jam? Wouldn't you rather use an inexpensive and non-poisonous almond extract, almond milk or even marzipan paste instead? And for those of you who argue that a little can't hurt - how much arsenic or lead do you usually like to add to your food? Cyanide is MUCH worse. How much is too much? The authors certainly don't say. They don't even mention that it's poison. If anything, the photographs in the book are exquisite, and if you study them for decorating ideas, gardening ideas and color combinations, the book is certainly worth a dent in your credit or library card. The prose, however, needs more than a little tightening up and perhaps some fact-checking.
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