Customer Reviews

Seriously Simple: Easy Recipes for Creative Cooks

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I own all of this author's cookbooks and love them all. But this one reaches a new height. The author understands what it means to live in a house where all cooking adults work but where no one is satisfied with restaurant or take-out food. She provides recepies that are in fact simple: marinades that are easy to make; combinations of ingredients that are immediately accessible; good healthy food that all members of the family are likely to enjoy. The recepies are for the most part easy, but they are also extremely elegant. Kids will love the simplicity and the great taste. Gourmets will admire the subtlety. A user-friendly, teriffic book.

My sister bought this book for me, knowing that with two small children I don't have much time to prepare gourmet meals. This book gives some great ideas on how to prepare fabulous meals easily and with little time required. I especially love how the author includes "the clever cook could" section to most of the recipes which gives ideas on how one could serve any leftovers or jazz up the meal. The photographs are beautiful as well. I think this book would make a wonderful gift to anyone who loves to cook or just wants a change from what they usually prepare at mealtime.

First of all, I am not a cook but now there is hope for me using this wonderful new cookbook. My family likes to eat in restaurants and these recipes let me prepare that kind of food.
The recipes are as the title states: serious and simple. I particularly loved the section on setting up a pantry. If you want to cook, eat, and learn about high quality, healthy, fresh, food, run out and buy this book. ps Try the scallops!

Simple, extremely flavorful, and easy to modify recipes to personal tastes. You end up with dishes that look and taste like you ordered them from some nouvelle cuisine restaurant. I haven't made anything in here that didn't simply rock. Flavors actually sparkle. Wonderful attitude about cooking.

This cook book is one of the better finds out there. Most cook books with the word "simple" in the title are filled with recipes that start with a can of condensed soup. This cookbook really is creative. The fish stew is fabulous. A friend of mine prepared it for me (along with the marscapone toasts with honey and berries). I like it so much I had to get the cookbook. I've since tried several other dishes--all fabulous.

I love this cookbook! The recipes ARE simple, the flavors are wonderful. They're easy enough for everyday cooking, and delicious enough for guests.

I LOVE this book. The title is perfect. Every recipe I have tried has seriously been simple to prepare. Great color photographs make it easy to flip through and find something new to try. The dishes actaully look like the pictures! Each dish turns out tasting wonderful, and many have become repeat favorites in our house. I've purchased this book as a gift several times and won't hesitate to do so again.

This is the first cookbook I have been truly happy with, ever! The author uses fresh ingredients that can be purchased from a standard grocery store. No cans of "cream of" soup, no packaged mixes, just real food to make simple and fast meals. When I cook a meal from this book I feel like my kids are getting solid home cooking, not convenience food. The advantage is, it goes together fast and easy at the end of our busy days.

The binding on this book is crummy so I am having it rebound at an office store. If I had to complain about something, that would be it. However it is a great book and worth having bound.

I checked this book out of the library a while back and I had to track it down again, just for the recipe for fish stew. So good, and I hate wine, (it uses red)! Give me a big bowl of this stew and a loaf of french bread, anyday.

The only thing which keeps me from giving the book 5 stars is the fact that the recipes aren't NECESSARILY all that simple. The stew, for example, requires some less commonly available ingredients, (leeks, a fennel bulb, a can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce), plus a bottle of wine. The techniques, themselves, are not complicated, but the shopping may be. The end result, however, is totally worth it!

All the recipes in this book give delicious results with minimal effort. My kind of cookbook -- I wish she would write a sequel.