false 138070 0 0 236011 0767902793 9780767902793 20 <![CDATA[How to Cook Without a Book: Recipes and Techniques Every Cook Should Know by Heart]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172981193m/236011.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172981193s/236011.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/236011.How_to_Cook_Without_a_Book_Recipes_and_Techniques_Every_Cook_Should_Know_by_Heart 4.10 70 How to Cook Without a Book author Pam Anderson, and you'll serve great food fast. Recognizing that most cooks feel challenged in the face of daily meal making, Anderson provides a game plan: prepare dishes based on available ingredients and simple cooking techniques you've mastered--not on recipes you've got to look up and ingredients you'll need to shop for--and you maximize the potential of kitchen ease. Cooks looking for a way to address the what-will-we-have-tonight quandary definitively, or those who feel they lack the energy or know-how to tackle cooking every night, should find the book essential. In chapters such as "Simple Stir-Frys" or "Weeknight Ravioli and Lasagna," Anderson presents a particular cooking procedure, provides a recipe that embodies it in its basic form (the protein-adaptable Weeknight Stir-Fry, for example), then offers simple variations (such as Stir-Fried Chicken with Asparagus and Mushrooms or Stir-Fried Shrimp with Pepper and Scallions). Chapters conclude with an at-a-glance review of key technique points. Following Anderson's tips and innovations, lasagna, for example, becomes a weeknight option (use egg-roll wrappers for the pasta, Anderson advises, and forgo the baking); she also shows how, once mastered, her Big Fat Omelet, which serves four, can become the basis for a wide range of lunch and dinner entrées. With a comprehensive pantry section and a dessert chapter that puts frozen puff pastry to work in imaginative ways, the book is a trove of information that cooks can use and depend on. --Arthur Boehm]]> 138070 4.06 136 38 2000 2254946 0618835962 9780618835966 8 <![CDATA[The Perfect Recipe for Losing Weight and Eating Great]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2254946.The_Perfect_Recipe_for_Losing_Weight_and_Eating_Great 4.05 21
To millions of citizen cooks, Pam Anderson is a trusted friend who does all the work for them, testing and retesting until she arrives at the best version of classic favorites and simple dishes for company. But gradually, Pam found herself standing with the two thirds of Americans who are more than a few pounds overweight. Fed up with whipsaw cycles of losing and gaining, she vowed to change—but not if it involved dieting, hunger pangs, or saying no to the foods she loved. Complicated recipes were out. She streamlined, creating meals as satisfying as they are quick—pizzas that take just thirty minutes, big-bowl combos, and gratifying snacks to forestall cravings. She discovered a few simple habits that make all the difference. Four years later, she's still maintaining her forty-pound weight loss. The Perfect Recipe for Losing Weight and Eating Great is a way to eat for life. It's filled with voice-of-experience tips for curbing appetite, no-nonsense shortcuts for getting food on the table pronto, and recipes that could only have been developed by this food-loving pro—no compromises, no wasted steps, just extraordinary results from ordinary ingredients.]]> 138070 4.06 136 38 2008 700104 0618132694 9780618132690 4 <![CDATA[The Perfect Recipe]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1177388059m/700104.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1177388059s/700104.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/700104.The_Perfect_Recipe 4.00 18 Cook's Illustrated, has your answer.

"I wanted a stir-fry formula that I could commit to memory and make with meat, vegetables, and flavorings I had on hand, and a number of different sauces," Anderson writes. "I wanted a chicken pot pie that I'd actually have time to get on the table on weeknights, and macaroni and cheese that both my kids and I would eat. I wanted foolproof coleslaw and potato salads that would go with all sorts of dishes.... I wanted answers to questions that had been dogging me for years. Which cut of beef is best for stew? When mashing potatoes, which comes first: the butter or the milk?"

The Perfect Recipe answers these and many, many more questions. Anderson sets herself the task of finding the perfect recipes for, say, chicken stock, and explains how she got to her result. You end up learning a little bit about the science and chemistry of cooking. Then she gives you several delicious, and perfect, recipes for chicken soup. Or clam chowder. Or beef onion soup. She walks you through chicken and, after having roasted 40 turkeys, she shows you how to get perfect results every time. Her brownies are every bit as fudgy, chewy, and cakey as she claims. Her muffins are divine.

While most of these recipes are for everyday foods (and what could be more important?), there are a number of recipes dedicated to entertaining--how to cook the perfect prime rib even though you only do it once a year, for example. Anderson truly delivers the building blocks of good, sound, flavorful cooking--the kind of cooking you can always count on. --Schuyler Ingle

]]> 138070 4.06 136 38 2001 157704 0618329722 9780618329724 4 <![CDATA[Perfect Recipes for Having People Over]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172267265m/157704.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172267265s/157704.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/157704.Perfect_Recipes_for_Having_People_Over 3.75 16 138070 4.06 136 38 2005 1063427 0395894034 9780395894033 1 <![CDATA[The Perfect Recipe: Getting It Right Every Time : Making Our Favorite Dishes the Absolute Best They Can Be]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1180669290m/1063427.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1180669290s/1063427.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1063427.The_Perfect_Recipe_Getting_It_Right_Every_Time_Making_Our_Favorite_Dishes_the_Absolute_Best_They_Can_Be 4.50 8 138070 4.06 136 38 1998 645100 0618091513 9780618091515 0 <![CDATA[CookSmart: Perfect Recipes for Every Day]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1176689280m/645100.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1176689280s/645100.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/645100.CookSmart_Perfect_Recipes_for_Every_Day 3.50 2 CookSmart: Perfect Recipes for Every Day is a collection of comfort-food favorites that she's perfected through a long process of trial and error. From her own experience as a chef, cookbook author (The Perfect Recipe), and food columnist for USA Weekend, Anderson has created a rigorous approach for selecting the best possible recipe for any given dish, winnowing out weaker, less satisfactory recipes in several stages. She starts by reviewing several recipes for the same dish. For example, Anderson noted that the conventional method of making fajitas included marinating the meat before it is cooked, which, in her opinion, masks the rich flavor of steak. In her version, the fajita meat gets a spice rub before cooking and then a brief, post-cooking sauna-like repose in a simple mixture of lime juice and garlic. The resulting fajitas have the relaxed subtle flavor of garlic, lime, and cumin that complement rather than overpower the tender steak.

This book provides good instruction for the beginning chef, demonstrating how to use the basic techniques to perfect one's own recipe. But there is a lot to read, so be warned. This book is a time commitment if attempting to read cover to cover, and it doesn't necessarily work in the real-time experience of looking and cooking. However, if you're searching for a collection of great, gourmet-style recipes for home-cooked favorites, CookSmart is a pretty wise choice. --Teresa Simanton

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