500 Fast & Fabulous 5-Star 5-ingredient Recipes Cookbook (Best of the Best Cookbook) (Spiral-bound)

by Gwen McKee (Author), Barbara Moseley (Author), Gwen McKee and Barbara Moseley (Editor), Tupper England (Illustrator)
Key Phrases: cup frozen seasoning blend, frozen vegetable section, large zipper bag, Editor's Extra, United States, Cool Whip (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"recommend(s) it for anybody on your Christmas list who is just getting started in the kitchen because it doesn't overwhelm with lots of unusual ingredients and the instructions are very easy to follow."--David Holloway, Food Editor -- The Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA) December 12, 2007

"recommend(s) it for anybody on your Christmas list who is just getting started in the kitchen because it doesn't overwhelm with lots of unusual ingredients and the instructions are very easy to follow."--David Holloway, Food Editor --The Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA) December 12, 2007

Product Description
These five-star recipes were specifically selected and perfected by renowned cookbook authors and editors Gwen McKee and Barbara Moseley as the 500 Best of the Best 5-ingredient recipes to be found anywhere.
The outstanding recipes in this book will make you realize how delicious and easy 5-ingredient recipes can be. Big flavor with few ingredients: Ten-Minute Santa Fe Soup, Creamy Sherbet Margarita, Shrimp Scampi Pasta in a Flash and the Best Baby Backs Evah!

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Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 288 pages
• Publisher: Quail Ridge Press (January 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1934193054
• ISBN-13: 978-1934193051
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #153,208 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Hit and Miss, Mostly Miss, July 17, 2008

By	A. Alexander "Redline" (Hilliard, OH USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: 500 Fast & Fabulous 5-Star 5-Ingredient Recipes Cookbook (Paperback)

I got this cookbook from my Mom as a gift. I thought it would be great since I am a student on a budget, and buying 5 ingredients seemed to be very economical. As it turns out, the ingredients for each recipe are indeed easy to find and easy to work with (at least on the recipes I have made). Granted I have only cooked 13 recipes out of this book, which is barely scratching the surface.

In any case, out of the 13 recipes I have tried, only 2 of them have resulted in something that I would make again. The Quick and Easy Lasagne was great, although I added italian sausage and ground sirloin to the recipe. The recipe overall was not much of a deviation from how I would normally make lasagne, so I was sure it would be fine. The next one is the Enchilada Soup. That is some of the best soup I have ever made! Goes great with a chicken quesadilla or even just some crackers. It is also incredibly fast to make. In this case I cheated a little by getting a rotisseri chicken, shredding it the day before, and putting half of it aside for the soup. I just added chipotle seasoning, and it came out great!

Unfortunatly, that leaves 11 other recipes that I have tried and did not like. I had high hopes for the Late-Evening Breakfast Dinner (I think that is the name), however after trying it three different times and wasting a dozen eggs, a package of english muffins, and two cans of corned beef hash, I decided it was time to give up on that one. Getting the eggs to stay on the hashbrown/english muffin base was near impossible, even after making a hashbrown cradle. Although it didn't seem to matter anyway since since baking the eggs turned them into rubber, and would make the already toasted english muffins into frisbees.

The other big disappointment was the Spicy Oven Fried Chicken. I don't have a deep fryer or an iron skillet, so frying chicken (properly anyway) was out of the question. This recipe gave me hope that maybe I could make something that was close to fried chicken. I think the cornflakes killed it for me though. They just didn't seem to taste right after they had been baked. The chicken also ended up with dry spots on the crust, and yes I did add the optional oil to help prevent that. I think panko bread crumbs or even crushed croutons would have been a better option then corn flakes. The buttermilk and hot sauce mixture is something I would carry over though, it added a nice kick.

I won't get to far into the other recipes that I tried, but suffice it say that I am thus far not impressed with this cook book. I will give a few more recipes a try, like the Monkey Bread recipe, but I don't have high expectations for any of them. Maybe its just me, but I have been cooking on my own for the last six years (I'm only 24 cut me some slack :P), and I have yet to have such a run of bad recipes from one cookbook. I am no Alton Brown, but I know I don't suck bad enough to ruin 11 recipes in a row.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best of the Best 500 Fast and Fabulous Five Star 5 Ingredient Recipes, March 30, 2008

By	Monita Olive "Cookbooks EtCetera" (Sunny Southern Texas) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: 500 Fast & Fabulous 5-Star 5-Ingredient Recipes Cookbook (Paperback)

I am currently working on my collection of the Best of the Best state cookbooks by Gwen McKee and Barbara Moseley and am only about 1/4 of the way through the states, mainly collecting those where I have so far lived, or have received as gifts during cookbook swaps. Not even being halfway through the list however finds me wishing for more states in the US besides just 50. I love the concept of a grouping of cookbooks and then recipes from within cookbooks that these two ladies have found for us, but with only 50 states in the USA, there probably won't be many more of these unless we see some second volumes coming out and that would be o.k. with me!

I should not worry with Gwen and Barbara in the kitchen as they will continue to find plenty more cookbooks and recipes to edit and develop for us hungry cookbook collectors and recipe testers. After researching, editing and cooking for more than thirty years, they were bound to come up with new ideas for new cookbooks and that one of them should be for easy and few ingredients was almost a no- brainer for them, I'm sure.

We were delighted just a few years ago when "Beyond Grits and Gravy" appeared and now I've received a copy of "500 Fast and Fabulous Five Star 5 Ingredient Recipes". The good thing is that there are MORE than 500 recipes, the better thing is that they are easy, and the best thing is that each recipe requires only 5 ingredients.

There seems to be a "5" theme to this cookbook -- not only in the title but throughout the cookbook. I didn't expect to read anything about the Pentagon in a cookbook, but it has five sides so there is a short description as well as photo of it on the page with recipes for "Classic Cheese Straws" and "Crisp Criss-Cross Cheese Wafers". On page 63 with recipes for "Enchilada Soup" is a definition of "High Five" -- a celebratory gesture made by two people, each raising one hand to slap the raised hand of the other. What a fun and interesting theme they have chosen to include here.

The recipes are easy and delicious and I'm delighted to find one for "Peanut Butter Cornflake Candy" since it was a favorite of mine in my teen years. Other favorites I'm happy to see included are "Lemon Jell-O Cake" and "Apricot Nectar Cake".

What a fun cookbook this is turning out to be! HIGH FIVE to Barbara Moseley and Gwen McKee on their latest "Best of the Best 500 Fast & Fabulous Five Star 5 Ingredient Recipes". They do know how to pick
winners!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow!, June 1, 2008

By	V Mohr "Tully" (Illinois, United States) - See all my reviews

This is probably the best cookbook I've run across - I began trying items and taking them to work - they went over so well, that everyone wanted the recipes. I finally purchased 6 more copies - one for everyone in my office! Highly recommend.