The Lady & Sons Just Desserts: More Than 120 Sweet ...

Amazon.com Review:
Warmly effusive and dear yet gritty, Paula H. Deen seems mythically Southern. But this cooking luminary, proprietor of Savannah, Georgia's Lady & Sons restaurant, is the real thing. The Lady & Sons Just Desserts, her all-sweets follow-up to The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cookbook and The Lady & Sons, Too!, celebrates the Southern sweet tooth with 120 recipes, including traditional formulas for the likes of Brown Sugar Pound Cake and Lemon Chess Pie as well as best-loved restaurant innovations like Turtle Cake, Lemon Curd Pudding, and Gooey Butter Cake. ("These are very, very rich," Deen advises, "and a little goes a long way--even for piggies like me!") Lovers of the restaurant--which grew to prominence from $200 and lots of determination--as well as those seeking easy-to-fix temptations should put this book to happy use. Among its wide-ranging recipes, Desserts offers Carolyn's Jell-O Cheesecake, Lauren's Chocolate Drizzle Pie, and Hidden Mint Cookies--recipes based on cake mixes and other convenience foods. These creditable sweets are of course work saving, but are perhaps better viewed as solidly characteristic of their time and place. Equally particular are candies like Mamma's Divinity and Uncle Bubba's Benne Candy, and "other sweet things," as Deen dubs them, such as Banana Split Brownie Pizza, Easy Homemade Oreo Ice Cream, and Fresh Apples with Butterscotch Dip. With asides by Deen family members, including son Jamie's "Food Is Love" ("I am right this minute 20 pounds over-loved," he writes), useful tips (Deen provides an "emergency" recipe for sweetened condensed milk), and plenty of piquant anecdote (after Deen had rattled on endlessly to her grandmother about her intention to open a restaurant, the older woman paused and replied, "Paula, have you lost you damned mind?"), the spiral-bound book is not only full of delectable eating, it's lots of fun. --Arthur Boehm

disappointed:
I was very disappointed by this book. There were very few photos (16 pages of photos for 120+ recipes). I expected higher class recipes from a restaurant (less use of canned Pillsbury biscuits, brownie and cake mixes, jarred ice cream topping, frozen whipped topping, and saltines). And way too many recipes call for coconut (with no note of possible substitutions or omissions). I bought this book for my mom. I hope she likes it more than I did.

my favorite cookbook!:
This is the first of Paula Deen's cookbooks I have owned, and wow! Recipes are so easy, and most ingredients are already in my pantry (really amazing for me!!) Tonight I made her gooey butter cakes, and what a hit! So far, haven't found a recipe we haven't liked! I love cookbooks, but normally only find a couple recipes I actually like in the entire book. Not this one!! My favorite!!!

It's a cookbook.:
So it's a cookbook, along with many others. It does have easily found common ingredients and the recipes are fairly easy to follow. Not a bad buy.

Delicious Recipes:
Paula Deen delivers in this book full of fantastic recipes. So far everything I have tried in this book has turned out great. I always get praises from the desserts I have made from this book. If you like to bake, I'd highly suggest purchasing this book. You won't be disappointed!

Could be better:
I love Paula Deen, and I love to bake. I am also pretty good at it. Most of the recipes are very tempting, but I do not like to use cake mixes and other pre-packaged food in my baking. I expected better from her. Also, I have made 2 things so far. The orange brownies, and the pumpkin squares. While the brownies were very tasty, the baking time was way off, and the glaze is very thick - way too thick to pour, as she directs in the recipe. It's a very simple recipe, and I am sure that it was a mistake in the instructions. The pumpkin cake was very good, but that was because of the icing. The cake itself was bland and tasteless, and crying out for additional spice and butter instead of corn oil. I belive that a cake needs to stand on its own, and the icing just enhances it. That said, I'll still use the book, but I am aware that I will have to make a lot of adjustments.