Supermarket Confidential: The Secrets of One-Stop Shopping for Delicious Meals

With an economy and climate that have brought the idea of cooking and home entertaining back into fashion, and with kitchens that have morphed into all-purpose rooms, shoppers want to stay at home and share comforting, delicious meals with family and friends—without spending hours searching out fussy ingredients. Joanna Pruess offers the essential guide to doing just that, with indispensable information about how to buy, store, and cook outstanding meals using ingredients found in todays supermarket aisles, and more than 300 tried-and-trusted recipes. She includes recipes using prepared ingredients and a minimal number of ingredients, techniques for preparing meals ahead of time, and strategies for successful grocery shopping in the twenty-first century.

Cook delicious meals from ingredients found in your local market and learn how to choose and keep those ingredients fresh with this unique cookbook.

JOANNA PRUESS, author of the award-winning Eat Tea, has written for the food column of The New York Times Magazine, Food & Wine, Food Arts, Saveur, The Washington Post, and is a regular contributor to the AP syndicate. She writes a column for Specialty Food magazine and develops recipes for specialty food manufacturers in the U.S. and France. She lives in Bedford Hills, New York.

(A) Let Your Supermarket Work for You (1) Vegetables * Introduction * General Buying * Suggestions * Salad Greens * Some of My Favorite Salads * Herbs * Salad Bars: Convenience Beyond Lettuce * Vegetable Versatility * Recipes * (B) Buying by the Seasons (2) Fruit * Introduction * Recipes * (C) Fast and Fresh from the Shelves (3) Poultry and Game Birds * Introduction * The A B C's of Working with Poultry * Chicken * Turkey * Duck * Rock Cornish Game Hen * Pheasant * Squab (D) Surviving the Supermarket: A Lighter Look at Food-Shopping Dilemmas (4) Meat * Introduction * Beef * Hamburger Hints * Lamb * Pork * Veal * Game (E) Storage: Keeping Fresh Food at Its Best (5) Fish and Shellfish * Introduction *Hors d'Oeuvres * Entrees * Soups * Salads * Main courses (F) Label Literacy: Extra! Extra! Read All About It (6) Dairy Products * Introduction * Appetizers and First Courses * Sauces * Main Courses * Desserts (G) Stocking a Baker's Pantry (7) Staples: Flour, Sugar, Nuts, and Chocolate * Introduction * Pastry * Pancakes, Waffles, Muffins, and Breads * Cookies and Brownies * Nibbles and Candies * Sorbet and Mousse * Confections, Cakes, and Tarts (H) A Well-Stocked Cupboard (8) Staples: Oils, Vinegars, Beans, Tomatoes, Pasta, Rices, and Grains * Introduction * Vinaigrettes, Dressings, Mayonnaise * Dried Beans * Sauces * A Pasta Primer * Pasta * Rices and Grains * Canned Fish (I) Doing It All Ahead (9) Frozen Foods * Introduction * Recipes * (J) Suggested Menus from the Supermarket (10) Entertaining from the Supermarket * Introduction * Taking Take-out One Step Further * Simple ideas for Enhancing Purchased Food * (K) All That Glitters: Products Beyond the Packaging (11) Glossary (12) Index