The recipes are created, borrowed and stolen ideas from a variety of sources including Amy’s friends, family members, backs of cans, old cookbooks and her own noggin.They mainly consist of American comfort food basics (think macaroni and cheese, pies, stews, casseroles, potato salad, chicken parmesan etc).

Sauté with butter, salt and pepper.” Yes, she stays true to her vision. Right at the beginning of the book she lays out her vision: “Think simplicity, because if there is one thing I am, it’s clinically simple.” This is illustrated in a section entitled “Rich Uncle Comes to Visit” where there is side dish named “carrots coins” and the entire recipe reads: “Slice carrots so they look like coins. For example, a key lime pie recipe which I made into tartlets for a party a few weeks ago simply consists of one can of sweetened condensed milk combined with eggs yolks, lime juice and poured into a pie shell. The 1950s are also rehashed in some Amy’s no-fuss let’s use convenience/canned foods approach to cooking and baking. I Like You channels a retro vibe through its colorful pictures they give off that warm 1970s glow and you feel like you’re flipping though an old Betty Crocker cookbook. It may look like just a tongue-in-cheek entertaining guide, reminiscent of the more sincere 1940s book Entertaining is fun!by Dorthy Draper, but it definitely has some great recipes and tips in there… It’s a real treat to look through and what’s more is that this book is deceivingly useful.

I adore this book and wish that I had thought of it myself. This is Amy’s universe of wacky creative kitsch manifested as tasty food, weird crafts and even weirder thoughts. Opening Amy Sedaris’s I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence is entering another universe.

Vanishing oatmeal raisin cookie recipe