What could be better than having a cookbook with step-by-step instructions outlining how to prepare delicious meals in your own kitchen? How about having three of those cookbooks combined into one.Well, that's exactly what we did. This book contains 118 recipes found in the three books of the Know about Cooking series. Although each book has its own theme, you can easily mix and match recipes from all three books to produce a lot of very creative menus. The first book in the series, I'll Have the Soup and Salad, has tasty, homemade soups, including a chapter called The Basics to help give you a head start on your homemade soups. The soup section is followed by the salad section. These menu items go hand in hand to provide you with a healthy, delicious meal. You will find 38 delicious recipes like: Chicken Noodle Soup Southern Style Vegetable Soup Cheddar Cheese and Potato Soup Seafood Gumbo Minestrone Basic Vinaigrette Salad Dressing Caesar Salad Green Garden Salad Potato Salad Spinach Salad The second book in the series, Katherine's Southern Cooking, has comforting southern style recipes, but with a twist. The traditional way of seasoning southern food has been updated to use healthier ways to season the old-time favorites. This book has 40 recipes covering traditional southern cooking. Here are some of the recipes you will find. Buttermilk Biscuits Cornbread Dressing Chicken Pot Pie Fried Flounder Southern Style Deep Fried Chicken Asparagus Casserole Collard Greens Creamed Style Corn Macaroni and Cheese Banana Pudding Southern Sweet Potato Souffle The third book in the series, Katherine's Gourmet Cooking, covers special occasion recipes.These are the dishes that normally make you think "restaurant time." But you can easily prepare these at home yourself. This book contains 40 recipes to help you cook like a chef: Chicken Parmesan Scallops in White Wine Sauce Standing Rib Roast Veal Marsala Burgundy Mushrooms Risotto Stuffed Baked Potatoes Fettuccine Alfredo Rigatoni In A Creamy Tomato Sauce Spaghetti With Olives and Cream Sauce Bechamel Sauce Herb Butter Lemon Caper Sauce The recipes in this book will have the number of servings, preparation time and total time from start to finish, so it will be very easy for you to adapt the recipes for your holiday cooking. There is also a nutritional analysis with each recipe calculated using the USDA database, Version SR-24. A nutritional analysis is very important if you have any dietary restrictions or if you are trying to lose weight. A lot of the recipes have a Tips section that will help you with creative ideas to add to a particular dish. I also indicate if a a dish freezes well since I do cook in fairly large batches sometimes and freeze the additional food for later meals. Book one in the series has a chapter on Cooking Tips and Techniques that outlines suggestions for freezing food and organizing your freezer. The great thing about cooking at home from scratch is being able to make a dish that suits you and your family. You can take a recipe and tailor it any way you like. Often times, it's not the "what to cook," but the "how to cook it." I hope this books helps you with that and makes your time spent in your kitchen a little easier. Now, go cook something good."