I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. I loved the new cookbook because it's easy to follow and I'm excited to try some of the recipes. I definitely want to purchase a copy for the branch.

What a great cookbook! The material is well written and presented in an easy to follow manner. I look forward to trying out several of these recipes.

I love this book! The photos of the family makes the book more more special and you feel like you know the author! The food photos are gorgeous and mouth-watering! The book layout is very pretty and well organized. The first part of the book is all about Pinewood and the author's story. Then the second part comes with tips and lots of great informations! And then part three: the recipes! yay! Lots of yummy recipes using ingredients from the farm to table! I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review

I sure do love some down good southern cooking. If you have ever had southern cooking, you already know that you enjoy every single bite taken but you also feel stuffed and miserable because you can't stop eating. I like that the author is able to give us alternatives to eating southern delicacies without feeling the bloat and dealing with a number about of GI issues.

My Pinewood Kitchen, A Southern Culinary Cure by Mee McCormick is my absolute favorite kind of cookbook - a good story told in a friendly voice with a lot of fun and inventive recipes that I'll actually commit to making at home.

The story part of the book explains the author's passion for allergy-aware and gut-friendly cooking. Not surprisingly, it started with her own digestive issues, and ramped up when she realized she wasn't the only one dealing with the fall out from an over-processed and unhealthy diet. After a stint on TV and a cookbook, the next logical step was to open her own restaurant. And, like all new chef-owners, there were bumps - as she notes, not everyone wanted to eat the ways she wanted them to.

It also shares her philosophies about everything from farm-to-market menus to the family table to food as a conveyor of kindness. These sections are both charming and inspiring, an make the journey to the recipes all the sweeter.

The second part of the book gets into the nuts and bolts of gut-friendly cooking and eating. This section is clear and informative and has the proper tone for what is, essentially, a scientific discussion on digestive enzymes and biomes. There's enough meat here to convince someone new to the movement to give gut-friendly eating a go, without overwhelming them with too much technical stuff. The author uses this section to talk about her own choices and lay out the basic foods and food groups in the approved group and why they're there. This section is highly sourced and the book has a comprehensive bibliography at the end, which I think is important when you're talking about specific health benefits of foods. Information is power, and the author - although a practical expert - is not a scientific expert, so including those experts is important.

The remainder of the book is filled with a delightful mix of Southern recipes, how-to's and basics of a gut-friendly kitchen.

Recipes are grouped as salads, soups, main dishes, veggies, dips, spreads, saudexs, faux cheez and more, farmhouse breakfast favorites. and gluten-free baking and sweet endings. Since much of gut-friendly and allergy-aware cooking relies on substitutions, the recipes and ingredient lists are somewhat more complicated than most cookbooks. That said, the instructions are well organized, clear and logical. Many include additional substitutions or variations. They do not, however, include nutritional information which many readers might find helpful.

And, the author's previous work as a stylist is on display with beautiful photos!

Several of the recipes are already on my to-do list, including Shawty's Pressure-Cooker Short Ribs, Full-on Falafel Burgers, Celebrations Brussel Sprouts, Orange Spice Carrots, Baked Egg and Avocado with Sauerkraut, and my grandkids have long been fans of Carrot Wieners!

If you have digestive issues, or cook for someone who has them, My Pinewood Kitchen, A Southern Culinary Cure by Mee McCormick offers some great gut-friendly options that still provide the enjoyment and flavor of home cooked Southern-inspired meals. Even if you're just trying to eat more intentionally or wanting to try a more gut-friendly way of eating, this cookbook has a place on your shelf.

This review is based on an advance copy read.

I was skeptical going into this, but the author won me over a bit with how knowledgable she seemed about everything we can put into our bodies. Still not for me, but will be great for some people.

Very informative and interesting cookbook. Background reads like a story; usually I skip the preliminaries and head right to the recipes. That is not the case here, everything was presented beautifully and held my interest. The reasoning and explanations are done well. Beautiful photos and easy to follow recipes.

The only drawback is a lack of nutritional information.

This is a beautiful cookbook with gorgeous pictures and great recipes. It's full of whole food, cooked with love. The recipes look and sound great with the added bonus of being good for gut health.

I appreciated that all recipes are gluten free and many have modification instructions to also make them meat free or dairy free. Although I eat gluten, meat and dairy, it's nice to have options when cooking for others who may have restrictions.

The cookbook has chapters for salads (with homemade dressings), soups, main dishes, veggies, spreads, breakfast and dessert. I liked that soups, salads and veggies had equal amounts of recipes as I personally have a shortage of those recipes in my repertoire.

This book does rely on some uncommon (at least in my home) staples such as hijiki, tahini, miso and tamari. Although there are many recipes that don't use these ingredients, it seems like they'd be worth the investment to get the most out of the book.

This is not only a great cookbook but I found it to be a great resource for gut health focusing on impacts people may feel from certain foods and food categories. In addition, the author provides a wonderful look into her life's journey and what brought her to Pinewood, what she loves about it and why cooking and eating healthfully is so important to her personally.

Thank you HCI books and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. I can't wait to start cooking.

This review will also appear on Goodreads

Wonderful perspective on cooking and changing up your lifestyle. As someone who has several people I love with digestive problems , IBS, Crone's, gluten intolerance , lactose intolerance, and others a view point of someone who has experienced and overcoming the pains and complications in the kitchen is awesome. Mee has a peaceful Zen to her writing that makes reading her story and viewpoints very smooth. Typically when I grab a cookbook - I'll start reading the beginning and get bored and jump to the recipes . In this case , I actually read all of the beginning and felt very connected to the recipes before I even got to them . I like that she gives ample substitution for meat free , egg free , dairy free , etc. It's a great book and I'm excited to test out every recipe. The recipes are easy to follow and don't have ingredients that you've never heard of in them. It's definitely a use often kind of cookbook.

This cookbook explains why we should eat better, and how to do it. And it does it deliciously! Five stars from the family on everything we've tried making so far!

Love the approach of this cookbook. I usually avoid Southern cookbooks because of the unhealthy deep fried recipes but this one surprised me.
The author shares her story and her health issues. The book includes a lot of information about gut health and provides citations to studies. The southern classic recipes are there but with healthy twist. I was surprised at the good amount of vegetarian recipes and things like coconut bacon, definitely doing that for my salads!!
The vegan Mac and cheese and carrot weiners are super tasty. Trying tomorrow the raspberry lemonade muffins and many others that are already bookmarked.

This cookbook is amazing it is filled with fantastic information on gut health and how to feed your body to help your gut heal. The photos make every dish look amazing and the recipes I have tried are sooooo good. This book is a wonderful find for anyone suffering with digestion issues I was mainly interested for the aspect of healthy meals for weight loss but I have learned so much about gut health and properly eating to heal from within that I highly recommend this book if you are looking for answers to so many ailments. I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher for an honest review.

This is maybe Southern...let’s call it “southern-ish.” It seems southern, but most of it does not meet the “appetizing” standard I expect from southern food. There were no dishes that made my mouth water, but I am going to make the gluten free chicken and dumplings. We shall see if it’s good.

4 stars for creating a sort of southern cookbook that definitely would help a diet-restricted person to enjoy the types of foods that are sometimes not so healthy.

Mee McCormick has written a healthy eating guide/cookbook with warm and easy charm as well as medical details explained in a friendly and understandable manner. This is combined with her own difficult yet positive and appealingly written narrative of her own life and health. The recipes are delicious with options and substitutions for most of them, and the photos are clear and appealing.

Fresh, fresh, fresh! The recipes in this gorgeous cookbook are all fantastic. Everything is simple, beautiful, and fresh. This is more than a cookbook though, it is a lifestyle. Mee explains her life story, battle with gluten, and how she has cured her digestive issues over time. Even if you aren't interested in a gluten-free lifestyle, this book would still be an amazing edition to a home library. Gorgeous pictures and a very unique family!

I loved this book and cant wait to try all of the recipes. It is a great book for people who eat gluten free recipes. I personally suffer from multiple health problems like severe rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia so I already have too much inflammation in my body so eating gluten free recipes helps keeping me from having even more inflammation. I also love southern cooking since I'm from south so this was a great book for me.

As a Southerner and a nutritionist with multiple food allergies, the title and description of Mee McCormick’s new cookbook intrigued me immediately. My Pinewood Kitchen: A Southern Culinary Cure has the description that the book with “bring a Southern twist to comfort food classics”. The book does just that with recipes that are gluten and mostly dairy-free. There are healthy adaptions for fried chicken, hot wings, roasted okra, mac & cheese, biscuits and even a carrot hot dog!

The first third of the book gives a bit about Mee’s background and the story of the Pinewood Kitchen restaurants. Another chapter discusses gut health, the various foods and ways to support it, and how to cook beans and grains to improve their digestibility. The remainder of the book is 120 recipes. The photographs are gorgeous and make me want to try and make each recipe. I have not made any yet, but marked a number that I plan to fix.

I was not familiar with Mee McCormick before, but this book and its wonderful recipes have made me eager to go eat at Pinewood Kitchen. It will be a definite side trip when I next visit my daughter who lives in Nashville. I highly recommend this cookbook for anyone who wants to make good Southern food with a healthy twist.

Thank you to HCI Books and Net Galley for an e-ARC of this title in exchange for my honest review. This is a unique fine...a southern cookery book that shows you how to cook items that are not only gut friendly, but helpful for inflammation (a big topic lately). The book is not only beautiful, but the recipes are easy to follow. I really enjoyed this cookbook.

I'm quite picky when it comes to cookbooks but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I loved this one. The author runs a popular TN restaurant that caters to people with food allergies and health issues even though it's a southern country restaurant. She knows what she's talking about (and cooking about), as she fixed her own severe health issues with this kind of cooking. She's gluten free and dairy free, but her recipes are fantastically approachable and tasty. I can see why people drive over an hour to eat at her restaurant. This is all classic comfort food made healthy and fun. And while she eats vegan almost all of the time since that keeps her health the best, she also offers recipes that use meat and seafood to keep everybody happy.

The color photos are fantastic and many of the recipes do have a picture. My one gripe is that this is yet another health-based cookbook without nutritional information. Even if you personally don't care about factors like calorie count, protein count, fiber, sodium, etc., many people need this information to manage illnesses or take control of health issues. There's no excuse for a major publishing house not to put somebody in charge of plugging in these numbers and including them at the end of recipes.

All that said, I do love this cookbook and plan to cook from it often. Also, do be sure to read all her information about healing foods and how to incorporate foods like beans into a healthy diet even with gut issues. She's been researching this for decades and has incorporated it into her own life and she has really good information that debunks a lot of common misconceptions about foods and autoimmune illness. If you're struggling to heal chronic illness for yourself or a family member, she's done a ton of the work for you.

Great book, likeable author, really fantastic read. Well recommended.

I read a digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.

I just could not get into this memoir and cookbook, which was surprising since this is one of my favorite genres. The pictures were beautiful, but I just did not find the book to be compelling. The recipes looked delicious, however!