Two Cookbooks that are going to change my life

I was at my local Barnes & Noble the other day perusing the Cookbook section, as I'm wont to do, and I came across a couple of gems. Everyday Food, a division of the Martha Stewart Living empire, has two amazing cookbooks: Fresh Flavor Fast: 250 Easy, Delicious Recipes for Any Time of Day and Great Food Fast: 250 Recipes for Easy, Delicious Meals All Year Long.

Fresh Flavor Fast showcases recipes that are fast and easy to make and the recipes are arranged by courses and ingredients. Great Food Fast is arranged by season so whatever time of year it is, you can easily go to your current season and pick from a suitable selection of recipes that match what's available and appropriate.

These books are stunning. Each recipe is simple, basic and unique and every single one has a stunning photograph to accompany it. It's difficult to go through these books and not start salivating after a few pages. Don't read them on an empty stomach!

I'm going to be spending a lot of time trying out the recipes from these books which will mean two things. 1) fewer recipes on Thoughtful Eating for the time being and 2) more experience and variety to add to my cooking repertoire.

So far I've made two amazing recipes from these books. Moo Shu Pork and Indian Spiced Chicken Burgers. The Moo Shu Pork was a combination of stirfried sliced pork tenderloin, scallions, ginger, napa cabbage and shittake mushrooms dressed in rice vinegar and soy sauce and served with tortillas and hoisin sauce for dressing. The Indian Spiced Chicken Burger was a blend of ground chicken, lemon juice, thinly sliced scallions, minced ginger, paprika, cumin, salt and cayenne pepper, grilled and served in whole wheat pitas with a drizzle of plain yogurt, some cucumber slices and fresh cilantro. Paired with watermelon slices, it's the perfect summer meal.
I highly recommend getting this books! I've added some preview widgets below for Thoughtful Eating readers to check out. If you do decide to invest in either of these books, please make sure to report back! I'd love to hear your thoughts. Happy summer!






2 comments:

Laura said...

I've found EVERYDAY FOOD the single most useful magazine in terms of the number of recipes which look -- and taste -- appealing, so I can imagine these books would be terrific!

Happy cooking,
Laura

Raquel Stecher said...

Laura,

I didn't even know there was an Everyday Food magazine?! Perhaps I've seen it on the newstand at my local B&N. These books are superb so I'm not surprised that you like the magazines since I'm sure the cookbooks are just a collection of magazine recipes.

Thanks for stopping by (oh and please ignore my next post!).