26 recipes -- and that's about it
930956
Except for the text shown in the "Look Inside" Feature here on Amazon, there are no "chronicles" and only 26 recipes. Only half the ingredients for the first recipe, Fall Off the Bones BBQ Ribs, are show in the "Look Inside" Feature, and none of the directions. The instructions generally are fairly rudimentary; here's a sampling from the first recipe:

"Place the sliced onion in the crockpot. Cut the rack of ribs in half to ensure proper placement in your crockpot. Combine the brown sugar, chili powder, sea salt, and pepper in a small bowl. Rub your seasonings into the ribs, then gently set the ribs on top of the bed of onions....

"Then cover and cook on low for at least 7 hours. Make sure the meat is tender and has started to fall off the bone.

"Gently remove the potatoes and green beans and place into bowl. ...

*Remember: The longer the ribs cook, the more tender they will be."

***

For an experienced cook like me, these directions are clear enough, and the pitfalls are pretty obvious. I can't imagine how green beans would taste after seven hours, or more, of cooking, not to speak of the potatoes. In a few of the recipes, some ingredients are added 45 minutes or so before serving -- the spaghetti recipe for example.

More serious, I think, Ms Meylan doesn't have any introductory discussion about the choices available in slow cookers, some of the techniques that should be followed -- considering the amount of liquid in various dishes, for example -- how to set timers, etc.

On this last point, if one wants to cook a dish for six hours, it may taste better and have better mouth feel, if you start the cooker when you leave in the morning to cook, say on low for six hours, then keep it on warm until you return in the evening -- the ribs recipe is one example. In other cases, one might want to start the cooker to cook six hours before you return in the evening.

I strongly suggest that someone new to slow cooking consult one of the many excellent cookbooks that describe various aspects of the techniques; a very good one is The Gourmet Slow Cooker: Volume II, Regional Comfort-Food Classics by Lynn Alley. My review of that book is at http://www.amazon.com/review/R30MACPQFCLBY0 . (A clickable link appears in the first Comment.)

That said, I've tried several of the 26 recipes, and they did produce very good results, sometimes with a bit of tweaking to suit my taste or the tastes of my customers.

Robert C. Ross
June 2012
3073674
If you're buying this book expecting a lot of recipes from Doctor Who, GoT, and Harry Potter, you're going to be let down. Despite being featured on the cover, there's only one from Doctor Who, three from GoT, and four from Harry Potter. It also contains three from LotR, five from Star Trek and five from The Legend of Zelda along with a scattershot of others from various "geek culture." I have A Feast of Ice and Fire (the official GoT cookbook), and The Geeky Chef Cookbook is nowhere near the same caliber or quality. It comes off amateurish in comparison.

Another thing I disliked about this book is that over half is composed of drinks and desserts -- some of the desserts being as simple as (1) Use this recipe to bake a cake then (2) Cut to shape, cover with fondant/frosting to look like said item. Weak. Are there ingredients you're unlikely to have on-hand? Yes. Are there ingredients you may not have at your local store? Yes. To my great dismay, no substitutions were suggested for those items. Hardcore geeks with little cooking experience may also have a hard time with some of these, especially the ones that don't have a companion picture of which the reader may not be familiar with.

Having said all that, the book wasn't a disaster. The photos are excellent, and the recipes I tried were really good (Gagh is surprisingly tasty as a pasta derivative). While general randomness of recipes might work on Reeder's blog, it makes for a scatterbrained book. I'll probably try a few more of the recipes, but most do not interest this geeky chef.
1578224
If Food Network's Sandra Lee is your idea of a good cook, this book full of "semi-homemade"-style recipes may be for you. It's basically a book full of the kind of recipes you find on the back of a Campbell's soup can: Toss a couple different canned/frozen/boxed products together with maybe some fresh meat or vegetables, bake or heat on stovetop, and you're done. There's a lot of product placement usage of Pepperidge Farm and Swanson items as well.

But how does any of it taste? Well, the results are mixed. I've had reasonable success with a few dishes such as the Saucy Creole Pork Chops but found others bad, bland, or overly salty from the inclusion of too many processed/prepackaged items. Some are too gross looking for me to even want to try; I mean, who would make pasta primavera from a bag of frozen mixed vegeables and a jar of Prego?

Still, it might not be the worst book to have on hand if by some chance you find yourself in a pinch for fresh ingredients--and a cabinet full of Cream of Mushroom soup cans.
1683836
Most of these recipes start with a box of cake mix.  There is not one basic yellow cake in here.  One recipe says add sparkle by dusting confectioner's sugar.  Sparkle?!  The "hacks" are well-worn advice, such as use a pastry brush to get grease into all the crannies of a pan.  There is a reasonable variety, but  bit odd, such as cakes with fruit, ice cream cake, and the flavor combination chapter has things like Red Velvet cake.  This is just not a good basic book of easy cake recipes, unless you want to start with a mix. I rarely return anything to Amazon, but this is going back.
720445
Nice cookbook; attractive layout and photos. I'm not sold on the half-dozen recipes I've tried so far. They've just been okay. Nothing to rave about.
1164934
I picked this up on a whim, and because it was one of two titles available on the shelf.

I should have picked the other one.

Not that this bad, per se.  It's not.  It just very, very basic.  Not just very basic paleo recipes but very basic cooking.

I'm a grandma who went grain free years ago.  I love to cook and have cooked from scratch for years.  I didn't find anything in here that I hadn't served recently.  That said, they are good recipes, but like many other have said, I buy cookbooks for new ideas and there are none here.

Maybe I'll send it to me paleo-curious 30 year old son.
3392851
Wasn't nearly as many recipes as I had hoped for...in fact it was pretty lame with the recipe section....a good basic read...but not really impressed....probably would not recomment...
2866682
Recipes are ok. A few are very good, some are good, but most are nothing to write home about. It's not a bad book to have on hand for reference purposes.
4024972
There are few recipes I'd want to make from this book, and those can be found for free on the web, so this book isn't worth the money.
1697275
Most of the recipes were not new, or original. And there were often repeated recipes with maybe one ingredient changed. I was wondering why this cookbook was so cheap... now I know.
3887817
This is a very basic cookbook with few useful recipes.  The pictures are lovely, though.  Perhaps because I grew up with Polish cuisine it is too rudimentary for me and might be more useful for someone starting to make Polish dishes.  Still light on the number of recipes, though.
3654030
I agree with the other person who said this book is extremely basic. I was expecting a full book full of recipes, maybe several hundred? I don't think there's more than maybe 15 recipes in the whole book. Very nicely illustrated and love the concept. Easy-to-follow, etc. I just felt shortchanged on the limited number of recipes. Admittedly, every step of the process probably doesn't need to be shown. If they just showed key pictures, that probably would have been fine. So, the encouraging word about this book is if you're struggling with good raw food recipes, this has got some good ones. Bear in mind that the book requires a lot of different equipment for the very few recipes it has. A food dehydrator, blender, food processor, etc.
4230223
I'm still trying to figure out how they can call these recipes "5-Ingredient Recipes." I haven't found one that has only five ingredients yet. I guess they were just kidding. Also, the recipes call for many things that aren't on my "OK to eat" list, so I'm questioning the "Cooking Light" promise too. I'll probably keep the book because some of the recipes look pretty good, but over all, I'm disappointed and don't think it delivers what it promised.
3228703
Some of the recipes are good, but some have obviously not been tested carefully enough.  I just did the Moroccan Chicken with Cauliflower and Cashews--it *smelled* wonderful, but it was bland as dog food.  Six cups of cooking liquid that go down the drain will wash away all the garam masala, and waste the pomegranate molasses (a fairly expensive product to waste).  The sweet potato burgers sound better than they are--turned into nasty messes in the pan.  The Gingered Chicken with Cashews, Carrots, Raisins and Scallions is delicious--except it has a lot of kale and not a single raisin.

Who proofread this thing?
1327240
A lot of the recipes are very basic but there are a few good ideas in there. A good starter book.
3581086
Very disappointing! Only 20 muffin recipes and 11 flavored butter recipes. Very basic recipes. I was hoping for something new. If you are looking for new and interesting variations in muffins, this is not the book for you.
1679768
I haven't made any of the recipes yet.  They are all recipes you could probably find on the internet but at 99 I'd rather just have them in one place.