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.

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.

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 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.

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!

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.

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.

The series start with a former rising star chef working for his girlfriend in a chain restaurant, his creativity stifled. She submits his resume and he gets hired to be the chef in a new restaurant–opening in 48 hours. He assembles a crew of old coworkers and pulls it off, despite serving a severed finger to an ex-girlfriend who showed up to review the opening night. Black market food exchanges, sex, humor–it’s got it all. Actually, there hasn’t been much actual sex in the first four episodes but it’s still there permeating the edges of the story.

The DVD set includes 13 episodes, although apparently only 4 showed in the US before it got cancelled. What a pity–but a treat for those who pick up the DVD.

The recipes are all in metric to begin with, which makes trying to follow them just a bit more effort for folks in the US, although there are sites that will help you with converting measurements and cooking temperatures. And of course you could always get a kitchen scale to help out with those things measured by weight rather than volume as we’re used to doing here.

Second, the recipes are oftentimes a bit too simplistic for my tastes. However, if you’re just getting started in the kitchen or just want to put simple meals on the table every night without too much ado, I think this book would be a great place to start.

There are 8 weeks of menu plans and recipes and shopping lists, with a few recipes giving you the option of fixing the main course in the oven or slow cooker as suits your needs. I do like to sit down and make up my own week’s menu, list of recipes, and shopping list but I cook too much to follow anyone else’s list. But when you’re getting started it can be very helpful to follow someone else’s plan a few times to get a feel for how to put together a whole meal, how to time the preparation so everything’s done at the same time, and so forth. Later, you can go back and pick your favorite recipes to create your own plan. And if you’re just having a brain-dead week, go ahead and follow someone else’s plan for that week and relax. I always say that coming up with the menu plan for the week is much harder than actually cooking dinner every night!

Drawbacks: There are a few recipes in here that gave me pause, including one that included directions of “follow the directions on the packet” for roasting a whole chicken. There are desserts for nearly every meal and there’s no way I’d serve dessert at every meal. I think it might have been better to remove these from the weekly plan and just offer a few easy desserts in the back section, with variations for variety.

So a mixed review. I wouldn’t buy the book for myself but I might buy it for someone else who needed a jumpstart in the kitchen.

As I understand it, first there was a newsletter service. Each week you get 5 recipes suitable for weeknights, complete with a grocery list to make your life simple. The recipes are organized seasonally and provide a really nice variety, with everything from beef to fish to vegetarian entrees. Suggested side dishes are noted as well.

What I have is the book that came after the newsletter but it’s organized the same way. You get 52 weeks of seasonal recipes. You can copy the grocery lists from the book or go online and print them out. You don’t have to follow the menus, of course. I don’t. But if you wanted someone to do the work for you of planning your meals until you get the hang of it yourself, you’ll find some awfully good food on your table with very little effort.

The recipes are clear and well-written. The index is done well, so you can find a particular recipe you might want to repeat later. Some seasonally organized cookbooks get too cutesy with the names and I can never find a recipe again later! Plus there’s an extra index of recipes by category, making it easy to find something for potlucks or to make ahead. I’ve already recommended the book to a few friends who struggle with what to cook every night.