(Image from Barnes & Noble)

I've long been a fan of Six Sisters' Stuff, a website that features family-friendly recipes, crafts, product reviews, and more.  Maintained by—you guessed it!—six sisters, the site offers a lot of great, free content.  Because I love SSS so much, I get especially excited every time they come out with a new cookbook.  I own most of these glossy, colorful treasure troves, and have enjoyed everything I've made from them.  No lie.  I've never made a SSS recipe that didn't turn out well.

Their newest offering, Copycat Cooking, just might be their best.  It contains over 100 recipes for popular dishes from restaurants like Cafe Rio, The Cheesecake Factory, Panera, and Applebee's (even Disneyland) that you can make at home, including many of my personal favorites.  With only a couple exceptions, the recipes require fewer than ten ingredients and don't take a whole lot of time to prepare.  With bright, mouth-watering photos and clear, easy instructions, Copycat Cooking makes it easy to enjoy the restaurant food you love without having to leave your house.

I don't like to review a cookbook without trying a recipe or two.  In this case, I couldn't resist—I picked three!  Actually, my kids chose them since my oldest daughter's favorite appetizer is Panda Express's cream cheese rangoons, my son's #1 fast food meal is orange chicken (also from Panda's) and my youngest can't get enough of the lava cake at Chili's.  Thus, our dinner/dessert menu was born.  Because my 9-year-old just could not wait to bake, we worked on dessert first.  Although the prep was a little messy (probably because said 9yo wanted as little supervision as possible), our lava cakes turned out divine.  My husband said they tasted just like the Chili's version.  I actually think they're better since they're smaller and not quite as rich.  Next, came the rangoons.  My 16-year-old Panda's lover made these herself.  Although the wrapping and frying was a little time-consuming, her rangoons turned out really well.  Again, we thought the copycat recipe better than the original since ours tasted more flavorful.  The orange chicken also took more time than I thought it would, but it came out well.  All of us thought Panda's was better, but we agreed that the SSS version was a fine substitute.  Like I said, I've never had a Six Sisters' Stuff recipe not turn out and these were no exception—even with kid cooks.  There are a bunch more scrumptious-looking dishes in Coycat Cooking I can't wait to try.

I'm not going to lie, most (perhaps all) of the recipes in Copycat Cooking are available for free on the Six Sisters' Stuff website.  However, this is a great cookbook to have in your kitchen or to give away as a gift (believe it or not, Christmas is coming up fast).  It's sturdy, fun to look through, and convenient to have on hand.  At around $20 (it's only $15.50 on Amazon right now), it's totally worth the buy.  I love it already!

(Readalikes:  Other Six Sisters' Stuff cookbooks, including Celebrate Every Season; Dinner Made Easy; A Year with Six Sisters' Stuff; Sweets & Treats; etc.)

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(Image from Barnes & Noble)

Although I get most of my recipes online these days, I still love flipping through old-school print cookbooks.  It's fun to explore the culinary possibilities inside their pages, marvel at the drool-worthy food photos, and imagine the ooohhs and aaahhs such delights are certain to elicit.  Who cares if I never actually make any of the recipes?  It's a joy just to think about making them!