Cooking meals for her two daughters and her husband made actress Jessica Harper crabby. She found herself cooking an early dinner for her girls, who would only eat six things, and then cooking again later for her husband, who would only eat eight things, but not any of the six the girls would eat. It wasn’t until she had friends over for dinner and one by one, began hearing how much they all hated cooking dinner that Harper realized that she wasn’t alone. She decided to write The Crabby Cook Cookbook: Recipes and Rants, a cookbook that would contain only everyday, family-friendly, home-chef friendly recipes that had been tested by her picky family. She even named recipes that everyone would eat “Miracle Foods”.

What makes The Crabby Cook Cookbook really fun to read is that in between the recipes, Harper tells hilarious stories. Just wait until you read about how she made homemade pot pie for the first time and ended up with a crust that tasted like rosemary-scented Play-Doh—to serve to Richard Gere and Cindy Crawford. Or how a “very famous wife” made her so nervous she forgot the husband’s name. Every recipe tells how it came to be, along with stories of Harper’s childhood – her mother had six kids and never had a problem getting a meal on the table, the pancake, um, incident. It’s not like any cookbook I’ve ever read!

The recipes vary, some are extremely simple (cheese crisps made by sprinkling grated cheese in a skillet and frying until crisp) and some are extremely complicated – her burrito recipe has 17 ingredients and her turkey chili has a whopping 21 – but mostly, you’ll find recipes for food every home cook should know how to make, like roast chicken, bean and cheese quesadillas, and chocolatey brownies. Look for recipes marked with a red star for the “Miracle Foods” recipes that Harper says anyone will eat!

And then, as if she isn’t funny enough as a writer, Harper has a blog with more recipes and stories, a Twitter account where she shows her wit in 140 characters or less,  a Facebook page, and a YouTube channel where you can watch her in her kitchen making butter, Christmas cookies, and butternut squash soup among others.  I like this video where Harper crabbily contemplates going next door to borrow sugar from her glamorous TV star neighbor and whether she would have to whiten her teeth first. Ha!

The Crabby Cook Cookbook: Recipes and Rants is available from Amazon.com for $10.49. I received a complimentary copy for this review. No other compensation was received. The links in this post are Amazon Associates.