I was sent a copy of Saving Dinner: The Menus, Recipes, and Shopping Lists to Bring Your Family Back to the Table to review. The book is a collection of weekly menus, organized seasonally, complete with categorized shopping lists and good clear directions. Each individual recipe is clearly detailed as well, along with serving suggestions and nutritional information. There are six recipes for main dishes each week.   At this point in my life, I would never follow anyone’s  menu for an entire week. Heck, I can barely follow a recipe without tweaking it!  However, when I was first learning to cook, books like this gave me some great ideas on how to plan a week’s worth of meals.  I think even experienced cooks can learn some great new recipes here and get some good menu ideas.

Last night I made some beef kabobs, adding some mushrooms, onions, green pepper and cherry tomatoes to the skewers.

Marinating with Food Saver

I marinated the beef in the recipe from Saving Dinner but used this Food Saver vacuum marinating dish to speed up the process. I also marinated the veggies for an hour or so in some vinaigrette.

• 3/4 cup dry sherry
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 3 cloves garlic, pressed
• 2 tsps ground ginger
• 1 onion, minced (I left this out)
• 2-3 pound flank steak or top round or chuck, trimmed of fat and cut in 1″ cubes

Mix everything but the steak together in a small bowl. Cut up your beef and put in a shallow dish and cover with the marinade. Cover and refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight. (The vacuum thing really does seem to help somehow, as I only marinated the meat for about an hour and it was fantastic!)

In a separate bowl, combine:

• onion wedges
• cherry tomatoes
• green and/or red pepper slices
• mushrooms

Beef and Vegetable Kabobs

Marinate in a simple oil and vinegar dressing while the meat marinates.

If you’re using wooden skewers, soak in water at least half an hour before cooking.

Thread the meat and vegetables on the skewers and cook on the grill 8-12 minutes, depending on how well you like your meat done.

Goes great with rice.

Here are the week’s menu suggestions for the week that includes the kabobs.

Restaurant Style Chinese Chicken

Poached Salmon with Creamy Horseradish Sauce

Cincinnati Chili

Great Greek Salad

Beef Kabobs

Lemon Roast Chicken

There are also do-ahead tips, a nice section of side dish recipes at the back, and a section on freezer cooking with four mini-sessions of chicken, beef, pork and shrimp recipes. (The freezer recipes are not casseroles and stuff you just reheat, but dinner “kits” of things like marinated chicken or chicken with artichoke sauce, shrimp creole and pork fajitas. When I used to use my freezer more, that’s exactly what made the most sense to me. I didn’t want to reheat frozen casseroles and call it dinner.)

I was sent the cookbook “All You, Eat Well, Save Big” to review. It is a nice cookbook, with pictures of each meal, nice easy suggestions for side dishes and recipes for the main courses.  They calculate a price per serving for each meal so you can get a rough idea of costs (although your mileage may vary of course and different ingredients can be quite different prices in different areas and at different times of the year).

I’ve got 5 copies of this cookbook to give away. So enter a comment by12pm PST  Friday Feb 19 mentioning the book or this recipe and I’ll select 5 random commenters to win!  For those of you that don’t win, they’re offering a $1 off coupon bringing the price down to $11.

I’ve only tried one recipe so far, but I’ve got several bookmarked to try later. I’ve just been remiss in reviewing this and wanted to get the review out. The publisher also sent me several issues of the All You magazine, which I’d not seen before. My teenager daughter enjoyed several of the articles on makeup and clothing and I saw several recipes in the magazines that I would like to try as well. Both the mgazines and the book have several coupons in them –and for things I actually buy, which is unusual, like Worcestershire sauce and Mahatma rice ($1 off each, as well as 4 other products).    The only drawback to the book and magazine that I can see is that it seems to only be available at Walmart.  But if you’ve got one of those near you, this is worth checking out. Skim through the recipes and see if it’s something you’d like.

Tonight I made the Parmesan Pork Chops.  This is very close to how I make chicken cutlets but I somehow never thought to do it with pork chops before. Even my daughter that “doesn’t like pork much” enjoyed these tonight.  I served with some applesauce, baked potato and green salad.

• 1/2 cup flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 3/4 cup bread crumbs
• 4 thin boneless pork cutlets (or cook longer if thicker)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 Tbs olive oil, divided
• 2 Tbs butter, divided

Put the flour in one shallow dish or pie pan, the eggs in another, and the bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese in a third. Mix up the eggs a bit with a fork or whisk. Stir together the bread crumbs and cheese.

Salt and pepper the pork chops to taste while you heat  1 Tbs of oil and 1 Tbs of butter in a frying pan over medium heat.  When the butter is foaming a bit, dredge a pork chop in the flour, then egg, the bread crumbs and lay in the frying pan.

Cooking Parmesan Pork Cutlets

Cook about 5 minutes total for thin pork chops, turning halfway through. These were delicious with some applesauce, a baked potato and green salad.

Remember: Enter a comment below before noon on Friday February 19  for a chance to win one of 5 copies being given away!

I’ve been remiss in my book reviews lately.  I’ve enjoyed the Owl Haven blog for quite some time and was thrilled when I heard Mary Ostyn had a cookbook coming out. I didn’t even try to get a review copy but went out and bought a copy as soon as I saw it at our local bookstore.

If you’re new to trying to save money in the kitchen and need to learn how to shop wisely, take advantage of sales, plan menus and the like, you’ll love the front section of this book. I skimmed through that part because that’s pretty much what I’ve been writing about on CheapCooking.com for over 5 years.  Not that there aren’t some fabulous ideas–there are!  It’s just that I bought the book for the recipes.

The recipe collection is a great one, that will expand your culinary horizons in delightful ways. The migas recipe is one of my favorites so far.  And I know I’m going to be exploring a lot of recipes in this book!  Definitely a worthwhile purchase and a book that will more than earn its keep in my kitchen for many years, I’m sure.

There are a spate of new cookbooks from bloggers these days, but this one belongs near the top for any curious cook. Whether you’re after money-saving ideas, and who isn’t these days, or just want to expand your repertoire in the kitchen, this book fits the bill.

The folks at Cooking Light sent me a copy of their September issue, which has a whole new design and layout. Really a great improvement! I used to subscribe but frankly got tired of all the non-food stuff in there. It had turned into more a “healthy lifestyle” magazine rather than a cooking magazine. They seemed to have gotten back to a focus I appreciate more with lots of good looking recipes, many fast and easy for weeknight cooking. They still have some exercise stuff, and often a travel feature with food highlighted, but there seems to be more recipes and the layout is nice and clean. There are now pictures of every recipes as well.

Lots of nutritional information and news, nice instructional section for how-tos, a nice mix of basics and fancier stuff, menus and how-to’s for entertaining, interesting new kitchen gadgets (but not to an excess, which would irritate me because I’m more into cooking than gadgets). The index of recipes, which is right up front where I like it rather than buried in the back, is coded for quick and easy, make ahead, freezable, and kid-friendly, making it easy to find what you need.

Cooking Light (1-year) for $15 at Amazon right now.

I saw a review of this book, Freshman in the Kitchen: From Clueless Cook to Creative Chef, and since I have a daughter about to leave for college I actually wrote and asked for a review copy, a first for me.  Max and Eli Sussman were kind enough to hook me up with their publisher and soon enough a copy arrived in the mail.

First, the binding and the book production itself is fantatsic!  The cookbook is bound a bit differently than I’ve seen before, with spiral binding along the top third and the bottom third. There are pictures for at least half, and probably more, of the finished dishes and they are inspiring. The ingredients are called out clearly, the directions are clear and just detailed enough. Most recipes fit on a single page or are at least on facing pages (I hate having to turn a page in the middle of cooking!). Aside from all that, they “read” great (I’m pretty good at interpreting recipes by reading them through at this point) and the three I’ve tried have been fantastic.

If all you’re looking for is Ramen noodle recipes, tuna melts, and grilled cheese sandwiches, pick up a different book. But if you’re looking for creative recipes that will be fun to cook and don’t require much special equipment, buy this book or send it to your budding college cook.  I had hoped to have my daughter try out a few recipes but somehow summer job and a social life has gotten in the way. I will send her off to college with this book (after photocopying a few recipes!) since she has a kitchen in her dorm and is looking forward to cooking.

I’ve made a few Chinese Chicken Salad recipes before and this one takes the least effort and tastes fantastic. (If you like breaded chicken and are only cooking for one, try this recipe. )  The only change I made to this was to use peanut oil to cook the chicken breast in. Oh, and I had some sate seasoning from Pensy’s, courtesy of a client, so sprinkled some of that on the chicken, but I know it would be good, just different, without.  Oh, I also didn’t have any chow mein crunchy noodles. If you like those on your Asian Chicken Salad, use about 1 cup of them. I also added a cucumber.

• 1 Tbs peanut oil (or vegetable oil)
• 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1/4 cup soy sauce, divided
• 1 head iceberg lettuce
• 1 carrot, peeled and grated
• 1/2 a large cucumber or 1 medium one
• 1 4 oz can water chestnuts, drained
• 1/4 cup chopped green onions
• 1 Tbs sesame oil
• 2 Tbs rice vinegar
• 1 tsp chili paste
• 1 Tbs brown sugar
• 1 Tbs olive oil

Heat a nonstick skillet ove rmedium heat and add the peanut oil.  Add the chicken breasts and cook 2-3 minutes on each side, sprinkling with salt and pepper (and I added sate seasoning, but totally not necessary). Cook until lightly browned.

Add 1 Tbs soy sauce and cook another 3-4 minutes until cooked through. Cut one in half to check–you’re going to slice them up later anyway.   If the pan gets to dry, add some water.  Let the chicken cool a bit while you make up the salad.

Wash, dry and chop the lettuce and add to a large salad bowl.

Peel and grate the carrot (or use the peeler to cut into thin strips). Peel the cucumber and dice. Drain the water chestnuts. Chop the green onions.

Make the dressing: Mix together the remaining soy sauce (3 Tbs), sesame oil, rice vinegar, chili paste, brown sugar, and olive oil.

Cut the chicken into strips. Toss together the vegetables, chicken strips and salad dressing. Garnish with chow mein noodles if you’d like.

Oh  yum!  And you could leave out the chile paste if you don’t have any.

I made this along with Sesame Peanut Noodles. The other recipe I tried from here was for chicken breasts marinaded in an Asian bbq sauce. (Really, the recipes are not all Asian influenced. Just what my taste has been for the last few days! )

Other recipes in the book include Rosemary Roasted Potatoes, Guacamole, Michigan Chicken Salad (with dried cherries, very intriguing!), homemade hummus, Omelets, Turkey Chili, a nice selection of vegetarian dishes, some grill based dishes, and some themed menus (Meditteranean, Italian, and Japanese) plus some nice desserts.

Full title:  America’s Most Wanted Recipes: Delicious Recipes from Your Family’s Favorite Restaurants

I was sent a review copy of this book. So full disclosure, we do NOT eat out near as much as the average family, which is 3 times or more per week according to the press release they sent me with the review copy.  So my review is not based on how “accurate” these recipes copy certain dishes but how they tasted.  And so far so good with one minor exception.

The first recipe we tried was from the Olive Garden, for Chicken Crostina. This has you cook  some boneless skinless chicken breasts in olive oil, then top with a mixture of shredded potatoes, Parmesan, garlic powder, parsley, and bread crumbs and put under the broiler for a few minutes, until the potatoes are cooked. This in itself was fantastic. And it worked well as leftovers, believe it or not. We just nuked the leftover chicken with some topping. Mmmm.  The full recipe called for a sauce of roasted garlic, white wine, cream (I used half and half), Parmesan, parsley and diced tomatoes. The pasta and sauce was so-so. I found it bland. The girls found it “winey.”  Perhaps using fresh garlic rather than roasted would kick it up a notch.  More something was needed anyway.

My youngest asked me to try the Kentucky Fried Chicken recipe next but I don’t have a pressure fyer, which the book said was key. So I did what I normally do for recipes. I took the “gist” of the KFC recipe, in terms of soaking in buttermilk (except I used sour cream thinned with some milk) and egg, then dipped in the flour and mix of 10 spices (flour, oregano, chili powder, sage, basil, marjoram, pepper, salt, paprika, onion salt, and garlic powder. I omitted the Accent because I don’t ever use that because I have reactions to it. )

Then I used the cooking method in the same cookbook for Church’s fried chicken. We don’t have Church’s around here but I can attest that the cooking method works great! Basically, you dip the chicken pieces in whatever–I used the KFC variant of egg and sour cream rather than buttermilk, the Church’s recipe in here calls for just egg and water. (The spice mix for Church’s is  self rising flour, cornstarch, seasoned salt, paprika, baking soda, biscuit mix, Italian dressing mix, and onion soup mix.) So I used the KFC mix mentioned above, but cooked it a la Church’s.

Basically fry in hot oil skin side down about 5 minutes, then turn and cook a few more minutes, then put on a foil lined pan and  cover 3 sides (so steam can escape) and bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes, remove the foil and bake another 5 minutes.

Oh yum!  Turned out great! I served with mashed potatoes and gravy I made from the drippings from frying the chicken so it had all those nice spices in it.  I actually did measure the oil, wondering how much oil the chicken would absorb when I was frying it, since we do try to be moderately healthy around here. I had cut up a whole chicken into legs, wings with meat, thighs, and breasts then cut the breasts in half so basically had 10 pieces.  I started with 1 cup of canola oil and ended up with over 3/4 of a cup after. Then I used 1/4 cup of it for the gravy, which made about 2 cups.

The recipes cover quite a range of restaurants and are well written and easy to follow.

How to Make Gravy for Chicken:

If you’ve cut up a whole chicken as I did, since whole chickens were .79/pound and the cut up ones were over $3/pound, use the neck and gizzards and such to make the broth for the gravy while the chicken is baking.  (If your family doesn’t eat wings, use those as well.)  Just cover the chicken parts with water and simmer. If you have a bit of onion and/or carrot and/or celery add it with some salt and pepper.  Simmer while the chicken is baking and use the broth for the gravy.

Heat 1/4 cup of the drippings in the same pan you fried the chicken. Add 1/4 cup flour while cooking over medium heat. Stir until absorbed and then cook another few minutes, stirring around. Add 1.5 to 2 cups chicken broth (or chicken bouillon and water) slowly, stirring it in until you have it a bit more runny than you like, then cook it down a bit, stirring. Allow about 5-10 minutes at the end for making the gravy. If you want milk gravy, use 1/2 broth and 1/2 milk for the liquid.

Really a great dinner, served with mashed potatoes and a green salad with avocados and tomatoes.

I’ve written before about sprinkling peeled and sliced oranges with a bit of cinnamon and sugar for an easy dessert. Last night I went a different route and sprinkled the orange slices with just a tad bit of sugar, because our oranges are extra tart this year, and then splashed a bit of vanilla extract on them. Stirred them up and refrigerated while we ate dinner. Mmm!

I got this idea from Monday-to-Friday Cookbook. I had assumed it was out of print but am happy to see that it’s been reissued! Lots of good recipes and very much aimed at “real life” cooking.

More cheap menu ideas here from Grocery Outlet.

I received a review copy of 101 Easy Peasy Cookie Recipes at a time when I was a bit overwhelmed with other happenings, so it’s taken me a while to post this. I made their Chocolately Raspberry Streusel Bars, except I used blackberry jam since that’s what I had in the frig. The girls declared them a winner and they really were very easy to mix up.

The book is nicely divided into Bar Cookies, Drop Cookies, No Bake Cookies, Rolled Cookies and Shaped Cookies. There’s a nice variety of cookies in each category and some that are definitely far beyond your ordinary cookie. The recipe for Malted Milk Chocolate Brownies is calling my name next I think.

So bonus points for unusual cookies. My only quibble with the book is the layout. While the ingredients are called out nicely, the directions are all in one paragraph, making it hard to find your place.

If you want to try a few of their recipes before buying, check out their web site. You can try out Colossal Double Chocolate White Chip Cookies or their Oranges and Cream Cookies. Hmmm…. maybe the Oranges and Cream Cookies will be next. Or maybe the Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies.

This will certainly add some great variety to our cookie baking around here!

Normally, I’m happy giving recipes here, understanding that if I put the directions in my own words and since I usually adjust the ingredients a bit, I’m okay with the copyright conventions and laws. But I just cooked two different recipes from the same book and they both came out totally fantastic so I’m feeling a bit at odds. I’ve already blogged about the pork tenderloin recipe, although actually I combined a great marinade with her cooking suggestions. And one of the best recipes for smaller turkeys comes from here as well. And I like my regular chicken pot pie recipe, but we all agreed hers was best when I cooked it the other night. I usually start with leftover cooked chicken, which might be key, as she has ha you poach boneless skinless chicken breasts in chicken stock (although I used turkey because hey, we just had Thanksgiving so the freezer is full of turkey stock!).

I’m talking about CookSmart: Perfect Recipes for Every Day. I also like her The Perfect Recipe and How to Cook Without a Book: Recipes and Techniques Every Cook Should Know by Heart. I know some people get obsessed with Rachel Ray. I think I could get obsessed with Pamela Anderson.

Two nights ago I followed her directions for the perfect pot roast and oh my was it good! Browning the pot roast, then cooking up onions, then adding red wine, return the chuck roast to the pan and cover with foil, bring back to a simmer, then pop in the oven at a high temperature. Mmmmm!

I made up some cooked carrots and mashed potatoes to go with. A big hit of a dinner.

One of the neatest things about having a cooking blog is when publishers send you cookbooks. I never promise to post reviews but I do try to post about those I most enjoy. I will say that I have not yet tried any of the recipes from The Two of Us . . . and Friends but I’m pretty good at “reading recipes” these days and I can say that I will be trying a few of these once the Thanksgiving holiday is past. I also have a nephew whose wife loves to cook and I’m going to pass this on to them after I gather a few gems, as it’s aimed at young people learning to entertain and cook.

The book is nicely organized, with recipes and menus grouped into sections of cooking for “The Two of You,” “Party of Four,” “The Joy of Six,” and “Eight and Up.” She’s got tips scattered throughout and her stories are warm and personable.

A sample menu from the “Party of Four” section:

• Garlic Soup with Croutons
• Red and Orange Beef Short Ribs
• Potatoes Roasted with Olives
• Braised Red Peppers
• Frisee and Baby Greens with Fig Dressing
• Cheese
• Brown Sugar Pudding with Raspberries

Accompanying this are a few side notes about different ingredients, hints on doubling the recipes, and a short bit on making place mats from postcards. That’s pretty typical of a section.

If you’re looking for a gift idea for a young couple check this out. It’s well organized, well-written, and entertaining.