THE BON APPETIT FAST EASY FRESH COOKBOOK (John Wiley and Sons, 2008,
770 pages, ISBN 978-0-470-39912-5, $34.95 US hard covers) has been
pulled together by Barbara Fairchild, the Editor-in-Chief of Bon
Appetit food magazine. The book proclaims, "1100 quick dishes for
everynight cooking". So at three courses a night that comes to a year's
worth of relaxation in the kitchen, maybe with time for a drink or some
chatting. Not. Advanced preparation is the rule – you just cannot do
this kind of cooking night after night by contemplating food choices at
4 PM and picking up stuff on your way home. And you'll need space for a
large pantry of ingredients to have on hand. Nevertheless, this is a
great, definitive all purpose recipe book for every quick and easy
situation. Hundreds of contributors are listed at the end, but there is
no contributor index for their recipes – just an index by the recipe
itself. The table of contents lists the titles of all recipes in page
order, and this is useful for an overview. "Quick and easy" is full of
compromises and shortcuts. Quick stews use packaged broths and tender
meats – what you will need if you don't start a slow cooker in the AM
before work. Most recipes can be done mostly in advance or with careful
use of leftovers. Why wait until the last minute, unless you like
living on the edge. But if it gets you away from fast food home
delivery, then more power to the book! Your best choices for quick and
easy remain the appetizers, soups, salads, sandwiches, burgers, pizza,
pasta, rice, chicken, and seafood. There is a drinks section, alcoholic
and non-alcoholic. There is an index to recipes and an index to serving
sizes, beginning with 1, 2, and then 4, 6, 8 – right up to 24.
Audience and level of use: the harried, those with ADD.
Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: there are three gazpacho
preps, plus a dozen other chilled soups, and there are 16 stews.
The downside to this book: all of the recipes are in avoirdupois, and
there is no metric conversion chart. Apparently, they couldn't find a
spare page, although the inside covers are often used for this kind of
information in this kind of book. Also, there are no indication of
total timings for each recipe's prep and cooking times, as a separate
category or cook's note.
The upside to this book: the layout is attractive and useful, with two
recipes per page.
Quality/Price Rating: 89.
770 pages, ISBN 978-0-470-39912-5, $34.95 US hard covers) has been
pulled together by Barbara Fairchild, the Editor-in-Chief of Bon
Appetit food magazine. The book proclaims, "1100 quick dishes for
everynight cooking". So at three courses a night that comes to a year's
worth of relaxation in the kitchen, maybe with time for a drink or some
chatting. Not. Advanced preparation is the rule – you just cannot do
this kind of cooking night after night by contemplating food choices at
4 PM and picking up stuff on your way home. And you'll need space for a
large pantry of ingredients to have on hand. Nevertheless, this is a
great, definitive all purpose recipe book for every quick and easy
situation. Hundreds of contributors are listed at the end, but there is
no contributor index for their recipes – just an index by the recipe
itself. The table of contents lists the titles of all recipes in page
order, and this is useful for an overview. "Quick and easy" is full of
compromises and shortcuts. Quick stews use packaged broths and tender
meats – what you will need if you don't start a slow cooker in the AM
before work. Most recipes can be done mostly in advance or with careful
use of leftovers. Why wait until the last minute, unless you like
living on the edge. But if it gets you away from fast food home
delivery, then more power to the book! Your best choices for quick and
easy remain the appetizers, soups, salads, sandwiches, burgers, pizza,
pasta, rice, chicken, and seafood. There is a drinks section, alcoholic
and non-alcoholic. There is an index to recipes and an index to serving
sizes, beginning with 1, 2, and then 4, 6, 8 – right up to 24.
Audience and level of use: the harried, those with ADD.
Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: there are three gazpacho
preps, plus a dozen other chilled soups, and there are 16 stews.
The downside to this book: all of the recipes are in avoirdupois, and
there is no metric conversion chart. Apparently, they couldn't find a
spare page, although the inside covers are often used for this kind of
information in this kind of book. Also, there are no indication of
total timings for each recipe's prep and cooking times, as a separate
category or cook's note.
The upside to this book: the layout is attractive and useful, with two
recipes per page.
Quality/Price Rating: 89.
Chimo! www.deantudor.com
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