Customer Reviews

Everyday Food: Great Food Fast

5 star:		(149)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Having subscribed to the magazine since issue #1, I was sad having to give all my back-issues away due to a move. I was so happy to see this book which is much nicer than the magazine - no advertising! The layout is very smart. Each recipe(except for some side dishes)has it's own page with a full photo on the opposite page and divided into Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter sections which is very practical for cooks who shop seasonal, like myself. One can write their grocery list directly from each seasonal section. I've never seen the TV show, so I can't say if these recipes where ever shown on TV, but they do include the nutritional data for each recipe at the back of the book. Simple basics like how to boil rice etc., is also included at the back for quick review. The Tomato and Olive Penne, on page 244, has become a household favorite.

This book is so beautiful it actually makes me look forward to planning and preparing dinners. As other reviewers have related, the layout, photography, and organization are all top notch, but the actual recipes are the best part. The Everyday Food people really found a wonderful middle ground for competent, but unpretentious cooks. I was so tired of recipes that either required 25 different ingredients to make a dish or, on the other end of the spectrum, relied on over-processed add-ins (like cream of mushroom soup) to round out the recipe. Great Food Fast does neither, delivering a huge array of recipes which feature around 6-10 ingredients with advertised prep times which are pretty darn-near accurate. Tip: Start with the Sauteed Chicken in Mustard Sauce--delicious!

I am also a longtime subscriber to 'Everyday Food' magazine and was so happy to learn about the cookbook. The photographs and book layout are just beautiful, and I love how the recipes are organized by season. I have had alot of success with the 'Everyday Food' recipes I've tried from the magazine, and can't wait to try more of the ones listed in the book. I've also found that the prep and cook times stated in the recipes are pretty accurate, so there aren't any surprises. Easy, fresh and delicious food for the whole family!

I know most women will think, do I really need another cookbook? Well, with this charming edition I would have to say that it's really a pleasure and a worthy investment.

I subscripted to the little fabulous food magazine "Everyday Food" so I felt that I knew most of the recipes, but I was pleasantly surprised with a wonderful melange of useful new dishes I haven't seen before but which were still pretty simple. The real beauty of this book is the easy font, nice photos of each dish - makes picking out what's for dinner that much easier - and the ease of preparation not to mention the simple list of ingredients and finally recipes that work. Everything that I tried from this book was almost picked on a whim, and it turned out beautifully, I felt like a culinary genius as my friends and family thoroughly enjoyed the dishes I made with this book's help. I have collected cookbooks since I was a little girl and some I have because they are fancy and beautiful and I might cook form them one day, but this one is in constant use as I borrow this and that from each page and mix my own meal. Cooking at home is never daunting when books such as this one give so many simple ideas to turn into a hot supper any day of the week. Separated by season the recipes are easy to find, if I'm in the mood for hearty and spicy I pick winter or fall, refreshing and bubbly recipes are from the spring and summer menu.

I have been a proud owner of this book for a few months now and I only review cookbooks that I have actually made food from. Pretty pictures and pleasant sounding ingredients are charming but if I can't make anything form a book and it's not helpful I will certainly make that clear in my review, I also would never recommend or bash a book I have never used - so I can proudly say that this book is nice to look at, everything in it looks tasty and it actually makes me want to get into the kitchen and cook, and after testing large amounts of it I know that it will not fail me during any meal.

There is a recipe for macaroni and cheese in here that made my head spin, I was used to making it one way from my first Nigella Lawson cook book "How to Eat" and I never thought I could improve on it, but improve I did! There is a secret ingredient that sounds out of place but which made my macaroni spectacular, cheesy and yum - simply stuff that comfort food dreams are made of. I also often buy chicken for dinner, raw of course and then wonder of ways to improvise on it on my way home, well the recipe for the Buttermilk chicken was so easy I forgot I was cooking at all, and once it was baked and I was relaxed in from of the TV with a glass of wine with the boyfriend, the dinner was ready. Sometimes I would pick a protein form one recipe and combine with leftovers I had from the night before, missing chicken with warmed up kasha and sautéed string beans were all hot and spiced to perfection, yet I made then by choosing random sides and entrees from the book. I also loved the beef bulgogi - which looks good enough to eat from the picture, cheesy and herbal asparagus and gruyere tart was a show off meal but really not a big sweat to make, flank steak with lime marinade was ridiculously easy but satisfied my craving for something charred and rustic but with a sour kick at the same time, the roasted salmon with lentils is now a staple on my repertoire - I can't believe I didn't cook lentils before, they are easy and taste heavenly, grilled chocolate sandwiches are now a heartbeat away for dessert when I have my panini press out, the gooey dark richness melts with the buttered toasted bread and other things I loved were seasonal soups and pastas. I cant even remember all the things I made from it but they were tasty and certainly I will make them again.

At the end of the book there are some fabulous pages with tips and tricks that make life easier - it's a section called Basics. It discusses vinaigrettes, eggs, chicken, rubs, herb sauces, easy chunky tomato sauce, how to cook pasta, perfect white rice, best couscous, soft polenta, how to cook risotto, chocolate sauce, whipped cream - basically giving a standard recipe and helpful little bits of info that I sometimes would have to look up online before I used other books.

This book is not expensive and not at all pretentious, anyone can make new favorite weeknight and weekend suppers with its help and the ease of preparation makes it worry proof when hungry family member demand them again. It's really good ingredients and books such as this one that remind me about cooking being a hobby and not a chore.

- Kasia S.

Each recipe comes accompanied with beautiful large color pictures and nutritional info on the back. The book is divided into sections by season and each starts with soups and ends with desserts. At the end of the book are some kitchen "basics," which can be quite helpful.

I've made the spinach and feta orzo which was a snap and an apricot chicken which my boyfriend loved.

I docked it a star because the title can be a little misleading. If you're a 9-5 person, it may be difficult to cook at the end of the day. I find that I would cook from this book moreso on the weekends.

As a mother of a 5 year old and three year old it is sometimes a challenge to find recipes the whole family loves. This book delivers! Everything I make out of it they love. Especially the cream of asparagus soup. How often does a 3 year old "love" asparagus.
This book makes it easy to feed my family healthfully. I also love that the book is organized by seasons. It allows me to take advantage of the produce in season and on sale! So it's a budget saver too.

I love Everyday Food magazine and this book is basically a collection of recipes from past issues of the magazine. This is a great magazine for busy people who like to cook. Everything I have ever made has turned out well. The recipes are easy to follow and quick to make. In fact, my kids, ages 6 and 3, love to cook with me from the magazine and book - the text is simple enough that my 6 yr old can read it and my 3 year old likes that many recipes show pictures of the ingredients so he can help gather them. My only complaints about the book is that they didn't include alot of my favorite recipes from the magazine (guess the couldn't put in everything) and in some cases devoting 2 pages (photo and text) to a simple recipe seemed like a waste when there were so other recipes that could have been included.

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 is a very good book and the photos are wonderful. However, I wish they had some lower fat cooking alternatives for some of the recipes.

This cookbook is right on for the busy person who doesn't have a lot of time to cook or put much thought into meal planning and grocery lists. I like that the recipes are broken down into the seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. The lay-out is great and the recipes are quick and healthy and call for real food that you can easily find at the grocery store. No weird or exotic ingredients. Being a visual person I also like that each recipe is pictured. The only reason for 4 stars rather than 5 is that I would have liked to have seen the nutrition section indicate the "exchanges" for the recipes for diabetics and people who try to model their diet after the food pyramid.