Beat That! Cookbook: A Humorous Food Critic's Collection of Unbeatable Recipes and Entertaining Stories

by Ann Hodgman

In BEAT THIS!, Hodgman taunted readers: "Are your recipes better than mine? I can't believe it. But if you think your potato salad will make me lie down and dry with shame, send in the recipe." Now Hodgeman presents the winners - including a potato salad that did beat hers. Chockablock with Hodgman's witticisms and pronouncements, this book will have readers laughing aloud as they turn out unbeatable dishes.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction, Food

208 pages, Paperback

Published October 7, 1999

About the author

Ann Hodgman (born 1956) is an American author of more than forty children's books as well as several cookbooks and humor books and many magazine articles.

Ann was raised in Rochester, New York and graduated from Harvard College, where she was a staff member on the Harvard Lampoon and the Harvard Advocate. She was the food columnist for the magazines Spy and Eating Well. Her essay "No Wonder They Call Me a Bitch," about taste-testing various dog foods, was included in "Best American Essays." Hodgman is also known for her three cookbooks, Beat This!, Beat That! and One Bite Won't Kill You. She is the author of the 6-book vampire series My Babysitter is a Vampire and the nonfiction memoir "The House of a Million Pets."

Hodgman is married to author David Owen, a staff writer for The New Yorker, and they have two children, Laura and John.

Reviews

[Joni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this just as much as her first, “Beat This!”…

[Marian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to check this out after Elizabeth Berg rated this her fav cookbook on NPR.org. This is super-fun to read -- the author is highly opinionated (for example, is unapologetic about hating olive oil !?) but if you like her "voice" you will enjoy this cookbook. I made the apple crisp (awesome and easy to make but also, unfortunately, too easy to eat) and the vanilla spiced nuts which were just ok for me, dawg (thank you, Randy Jackson). Some of these recipes are calorie bombs but would be ok for party or once-in-awhile foods.