Customer Reviews

The Carefree Cook

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In preparation for working with Rick at a local bookfest I went searching for his new book. Immediatly I was struck by how basic but gourmet these recipes were. We're talking after work fair, something you can make for dinner any night of the week. What we're not talking about is cream of soup casserole plop.

So far I've made 2 recipes from the copy of the book I purchased. I'm looking forward to trying more. The recipes were the pork souvlaki and the viennese noodles. The pork was easy, and using the broiler fooled my family into thinking it came off the grill. The Viennese noodles are not light fare but talk about an indulgent dish.

Next on the horizon, bacon and guacamole sandwhiches...

Rogers is a prolific cookbook writer, having over twenty already! They range from basic, Christmas 101 to the exotic Kaffeehaus Desserts from Vienna.

This one has unique theme of carefree. Rogers explains that it's not using five ingredients, or cooking in less than 30 minutes or such, but great cooking using fantastic flavors with minimum effort. He relates that when chefs gather to eat they don't shave truffles or elaborate desserts, but rather lavish on well prepared food with maximum flavor and minimum prep. The intro is worth reading about this philosophy.

The recipes which flow from this concept are that: flavor packed and minimize the effort. The likes of "Pork Chops in Creamy Mushroom Sauce"; "Double Baked Potatoes with Goat Cheese and Cremini Mushrooms"; "mangoes Foster"; "Tuscan Roasted Spareribs."

What especially would be good for many home cooks is his writing on knife selection and skills, prep helps and aids throughout. There is some color shots, and the writing is exceptional as all Rogers' works are.

This would make great gift for wedding or just for someone who likes to cook or would like to cook better.

I have worn out my first copy of this cookbook, and can't begin to count how many copies I've given as gifts. I love to cook, but as a busy mom, often don't have time for complicated recipes. This cookbook has gourmet meals that are not difficult to pull off, and they are delicious! Plus he gives great advice, you can see how his years as a teacher have paid off in his writing.

We especially love the barbecued pork chops, lemon rosemary shrimp, chicken pan bagnat, and pork souvlaki...but there are so many other wonderful recipes in here, you will go back to it again and again. Whenever we have people over for dinner, I always serve at least one of Rick Rodges' recipes. He ROCKS!

All of the recipes in this cookbook require minimal active time. While some take longer (such as the Short Ribs-- which, incidentally, are the best I have ever eaten), they are still relatively low-maintenance. Another advantage to this cookbook is that the ingredients are readily available in most grocery stores and are standard items many people stock in their pantries.

This is a wonderful cookbook full of simple, reliable recipes.

Highly recommended.

I received this book as a gift and am very grateful that I did! So far, I have only tried a few recipes -- the "Short Ribs Provençale" are amazing! However, I am looking forward to trying more recipes from this book. The book has very clear instructions and beautiful pictures. It also has a lengthy introduction which discusses everything from grocery shopping to flavoring food to chopping vegetables. The introduction to the book (as well as the shorter introductions to each chapter) would be useful whether or not one ever applied the information to the recipes in this book. There is very good advice on how to make staples such as rice and mashed potatoes (it turns out the secret to perfect mashed potatoes is to use buttermilk).

The dessert section is not the most exciting part of the book, in my opinion, for people who really love to bake. Most desserts are fruit-based with little or no baking required. However, the author explains that part of his aim in choosing these desserts was to present recipes that one could make "quickly, on an impulse." There are a couple simple layer cakes, though, and there is a delicious-sounding recipe for a plum cake which I plan on making in the near future.

This remains one of my favorite everyday cookbooks precisely because the recipes are so delicious and easy to put together. True, there may be some out of the ordinary ingredients, but since I make some of the recipes calling for those ingredients many times over, I don't mind.

I consider myself lucky if, out of any cookbook, I get two recipes that I'll make with any frequency. I've gotten many more than that out of this book, as well as some new solid stand-bys. The "osso bucco" with chicken thighs (what a great idea!) is amazingly good, as are the salmon cakes and chinese cabbage slaw.

Serving suggestions are a much appreciated inclusion with each recipe in this book, making the whole meal a more easily done deal. I sent this book to my sister and she loves it as much as her Barefoot Contessa books.

I don't get what's so carefree about this book. The cover states that there are more than 150 hassle free recipes for cooking every day. Most of the recipes in this book would cause me to go shopping for ingredients that I would hardly ever use again every day. That's not carefree or hassle-free. I don't know what this guy keeps in his pantry at home, but a lot of the ingredients in this book would only be found in a restaurant or a restaurant chef's home kitchen. This book is a complete waste of money. Even the front matter doesn't have any good ideas for stocking your pantry (unless you work as a chef).

Do yourself a favor and get the book "What to Cook When You Think There's Nothing in the House".