I am a woman of few cookbooks. I like what I like, and if I don't like most of the recipes in a cookbook, I try to
sell it. This keeps my cookbook shelf small. The one cookbook that was missing did not exist until last month.
Everyday Food: Great Food Fast is a collection of recipes from the Martha Stewart Living magazine
Everyday Food. I subscribe to the magazine and I love the recipes. However, I quickly got tired of fanning through five or six magazines looking for the coleslaw recipe I wanted. That's where Alton Brown came to my rescue.
Brown's manual I'm Just Here for the Food: Kitchen User's Manual is a ring binder with mostly blank recipe pages. As you'd expect from him, there are guides to ingredient substitutions, detailed pictures of meat cuts, and a whole section where you can keep information on kitchen appliance warranties. But it was the blank recipe pages that really sold me. One rainy Sunday, I surrounded myself with a year's worth of Everyday Food magazines and got out the scissors.... A few hours later I had a pile of recipes to paste into my Alton Brown manual and a pile of ruined magazines to recycle.
With the release of the new Everyday Food cookbook, you might think that I don't need my homemade version, but I do ? the magazine is packed with great recipes. And even at 384 pages, the cookbook can't include every one! I do love how the cookbook is organized. Unlike most cookbooks which start with snacks or salads, Everyday Food has a season-based layout. Ever since I listened to The Omnivore's Dilemma (hooray for Scott Brick!) I have tried to cook in season. This cookbook makes it easy. Within the four seasonal sections, the recipes go from starters to desserts, so it is like four mini-cookbooks in one.
If you have shied away from Martha Stewart publications, please give this cookbook a try. The name "everyday" holds true ? this not a fancy food cookbook. With this cookbook you will make easy, great-tasting, and nutritious meals. As Martha herself would say, "It's a good thing."