Everyday Food: Great Food Fast

I love this cook book!!!

I have been a subscriber to Everyday Food since it's conception and have been wonderfully impressed with the recipes. Both easy and delicious make the recipes a "go to" solution to my chaotic life! When I stumbled upon this cookbook I was thrilled! I ordered it right away and then sat down to read it (yes, I sit down and read cookbooks like a good novel) and tagged recipes (out of 250 recipes I tagged over 200) that interested me minutes after UPS dropped it off.

I am a cookbook fanatic (owning over 150 cookbooks) and an intense foodie. That being said, however, I am a mother of 2 young boys and getting dinner on the table quickly during the week is a priority. I consider 30 minutes prep. time the outside limit.

This cookbook quickly rose to my #2 spot (behind the publications by Cuisine at Home) for everyday recipe ideas. The recipes are quick, most 30 minutes or less, healthful, easy, and delicious. I question some reviews saying the recipes were fussy and fancy. Another plus, which I love in a cookbook, were the full page, full color pictures for each recipe. Those pictures made me hungry just looking at them!! The layout is wonderful with the recipes organized seasonally.

Really, I cannot say enough about this cookbook. I would certainly recommend it without reservation to anyone. Quick, easy, healthful, and delicious....what more could anyone ask for?

I've probably cooked about half of the recipes in this book as well as being a subscriber to the magazine. Aside from my COOKs Illustrated books, I could throw all the other cook books out. The recipes are easy to make and flavorful. My husband and I have this book on heavy rotation for week night dinners when there isn't much time. I only wish they offered a LIGHT version of some of the recipes... the nutritional value on some of our faves have sky-high caloric content but boy are they yummy!

Truth be told, I really don't care much for the PBS series upon which this Martha Stewart Living cookbook is based, as a cast of robotic, interchangeable hosts push through a battery of recipes in a shared kitchen set-up. However, this 250-recipe cookbook focuses specifically on the often appetizing dishes they produce and the comparatively easy-to-follow recipes necessary to create them. As a result, it's a winner. Though not as definitive as The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, this one is fast becoming the one I use the most for fast dishes with a healthy orientation along with Ellie Krieger's The Food You Crave: Luscious Recipes for a Healthy Life.

The first thing you notice is the first-class graphic quality commensurate with Martha Stewart's premium brand. Each recipe has a full-color photo of the meticulously presented dish and the general prep time which is rarely more than thirty minutes. But unlike Rachael Ray's belligerent mantra, it's only the prep time which follows that parameter as total cooking for some of the recipes can take well over an hour. The benefit is a more interesting variety of dishes than Ray could possibly make. I have to admit my favorite section is toward the end, the twenty pages that make up the Basics section (pages 345-363) - quick recipes for vinaigrettes, dry rubs, herb sauces and beginner's chicken, as well as the proven fool-proof techniques for perfect pasta, tomato sauce, polenta, risotto, chocolate sauce and whipped cream.

Among the main recipes divided rather arbitrarily into the four seasons, my favorites have been the simplest to make - the Garlic-Roasted Chicken Breasts (page 275), Thai-Style Steak Salad (page 50), Roasted Salmon with Lentils (page 228), many of the quick seasonal side dishes. For dessert, I have made the Strawberry Shortcakes and Lemon Custard Cakes to great acclaim. I have even been able to make great egg salad sandwiches by following their procedure for boiling eggs, far different from the years-ago information from my mother. My complaints with the book are relatively minor - a heavy reliance on heavy cream in some recipes where skim milk would likely be fine; nutritional information is relegated to an index rather than presented with the recipe; my preference for a ring-bound binder rather than a clothbound book for easier shopping and cooking. Otherwise, this is a great addition to any kitchen library.

This cookbook is great for both beginning and seasoned cooks. Easy to prepare dishes that look and taste like they took hours! I have not found a bad recipe in the book yet!

I have bookmarked over half of the book, but in all actuality I would make any one of the recipes in this book. Everything looks amazing, and having tried many already, it was worth the money! Martha Stewart knows how to cook good food, and with out a lot of work in the kitchen!