Customer Reviews

Dinners in a Dish or a Dash: 275 Easy One-Dish Meals plus Tons of Time-Saving Tips

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I think that Dinners in a Dish or a Dash deserves a premier place in every busy cook's kitchen; I'm so glad I have it in mine and so is my family! I've found so many imaginative recipes that offer a wonderful variety of quick and easy dishes that I can use year 'round. The chapter called Getting Set gave me dozens of new wrinkles on do-ahead items like the Dumpling/Biscuit Topping Mix or Mushroom Paste ( gives a fabulous boost to soups and stews). I particularly like the Notes and Tips that accompany many of the recipes; they really save me prep. time and make the recipe come out perfect every time. I've found that this new cookbook not only saves me valuable time but the recipes are foolproof and not run of the mill at all. Last but not least, I give "thumbs up" to whoever thought to print the ingredients in a different color to the method ... it sure helps to read the numbers more easily (and quickly) when the book is nearly 3 feet away from my eyes on the kitchen counter.

I have to say, I kind of expected this book to go on the shelf with all my other "one-pot meal" books and get used maybe once or twice a year. But I think I'll be using it much more often, for inspiration as well as recipes.

Two things that impressed me most: first, Anderson's tips for weekly pre-prep of ingredients you'll be using throughout the week, i.e. rice cooked just enough so that all you have to do is steam it when you're ready to serve it (or add it to a hot stew); minced garlic kept in a little ramekin; a jar of lemon juice you squeeze yourself that will keep for a week in the fridge. (There are many more tips than this!) I like to cook when I come home from work, so I'm not one to do "once-a-week or -month" cooking, but I have to admit that recipes with lots of juicing or mincing or simultaneous pots of boiling water sometimes put me out of the mood to cook anything! And these tips remind me of restaurant cooking, where you have your essential ingredients prepped & at the ready (mise en place). It just makes good sense.

Second: I no longer feel guilty about wanting to make good meals with ground beef! I like to use ground beef, sometimes more than steaks or fillets, because I don't always feel like slicing raw meat or waiting for chunks of roast to brown. Ground beef really is a time saver; the only problem is that I've been getting really tired of the regular old ways to fix it (enchiladas, pizza, pasta, meatloaf, even cabbage rolls & casseroles). Anderson finally brings to the forefront some really good and interesting recipes for ground beef, including some classics that have been adapted to utilize this type of meat (carbonnade and paprikash, to name two). Hooray! And thanks for putting my ground beef woes to rest.

A friend put me on to Jean Anderson's cookbooks a few years ago and now they're the only ones I use. I never have failures with her recipes--and now "Dinners in a Dish or a Dash" tops them all. After my first run through of the book, I must have about 30 post-its marking the recipes I want to make immediately.

All the recipes I've tried have come out great. So in that respect, this book is a good cookbook. However, I have a problem with the author's reliance on pre-prepped food, either that you pre-prep or that you buy from the store. Personally, the reason I buy cookbooks like this is because I am busy and don't have a lot of time to prepare meals. I like to be able to pull stuff from the pantry/refrigerator/freezer in the evening and put together a tasty, nutritious meal for myself and my husband. He works and I am in school and working, so we don't have a lot of free time, and when we do have free time I'd rather not spend it pre-mincing garlic or making duxelles mushroom paste or rice for freezing. I also do not have an unlimited food budget, so buying pre-cooked pre-sliced meat, bagged salad, pre-chopped veggies etc. from the supermarket is not an option for me. I'd rather buy a head of lettuce at $.99 than a bagged salad for $3.49, and I'd rather buy a whole bell pepper and chop it myself than buy it pre-chopped, at three times the price, from the supermarket. I could make the recipes in this book "in a dash" but I would have to spend precious time in pre-prepping food or precious money buying pre-prepped food to make it work the way the author says it should. To me, if you've had to spend four hours on Sunday pre-prepping food for the week, a 30 minute savings each day really doesn't equal a "quick" recipe. However, if you just follow the ingredients and make the rice, chop the peppers etc. as you go, it takes longer but the result is still good.

My only other beef with this book is that the author occasionally takes a very snotty tone about certain things. In one instance, she talks about bottled lemon juice and how she "won't give shelf space" to it because she prefers fresh. Hey, I do too, but when it's 7 p.m., we're both hungry, and the choice is run to the store for lemons or use the bottled juice, I'm using the bottled, honey.

In final analysis, there are other quick-cook cookbooks out there that do a better job of telling you how to make good food quickly at a reasonable price, but this one does have some tasty dishes.

Being super busy, I'm delighted to learn how to put dinner on the table fast. Frankly, I've usually ignored a lot of the ready-to-use salad, slaw mixes and other foods at my supermarket because I thought,I know how to grate cabbage and tear greens. But what I didn't know was how to use these prepped foods in new and unusual ways and that is exactly what this book teaches. And I would never have dreamed of cooking a huge batch of rice ahead of time and stashing it in the freezer. This is a truly global collection of recipes and the ones I've tried have all been great. These prepped foods do cost more, I'll admit, but I figure the time I save is worth a whole lot more.

I'm a busy career girl who loves to entertain but has no time to cook. DINNERS IN A DISH OR A DASH has solved all my problems. I've already served a couple of the book's main-dish salads and pastas to friends. They were so impressed and couldn't believe that the recipes were quick and easy. Or that I didn't dirty every pot in the kitchen! THANKS, Jean Anderson. These dinners were so successful, I'm going to cook my way right through your book.

Anderson's book was a revelation to me! I was already an enthusiastic buyer of all the time-saving, quick-fixing, pre-chopped/sliced/diced/julienned convenience foods available -- but DINNER IN A DISH/DASH showed me (for the first time) how to make the most and best of them. The recipes are enticing, and the tips on buying, storing, and pre-cooking are priceless. I also like the writing style -- breezy, confident, and clear. Couldn't wait to try the Pacific Rim chicken salad, and my family loved it.

I commute to work and am away from home from 7 in the morning until 7 at night. When I finally get to my kitchen I'm not feeling very creative and it is way past time for dinner to be on the table. I just love Dinner In A Dish and A Dash and use it almost every evening. You can just check to see what you have on hand and always find something delicious in this resourceful book to put together fast. I love all of Jean Anderson's books and this one is surely right on for today. My copy is already starting to look kitchen worn, used and loved. I would recommend it for anyone who thinks they are too busy to serve great dinners in a hurry.

When it comes to getting dinner on the table in a hurry every evening, I need all the help I can get. I love to cook and have some favorites that I make over and over, but most nights I just look into the refrigerator and sigh. Dinners in a Dish or a Dash has come to the rescue with so many good ideas that I can't wait to try them all. The recipes are easy to make, call for things I am used to buying, and don't result in a sink full of pots to clean up. I can already tell that lots of these recipes are going to join my list of things that I make over and over. And, the first chapter and on-page notes give tips and techniques that are worth the price of the book.

My husband and I are great fans of Jean Anderson. Her comprehensvie books are fabulous references, but here is the one that will get the most use. The one-dish meals make our mouths water, so clear and well presented. And the kind of food we all love. Ms. Anderson always includes great tips and shortcuts with her simple but never plain recipes. If you have a couple of her bookbooks, you'll never need anyone else's.