Real Simple: Meals Made Easy

by Real Simple

Book Overview

Whether you have only 15 minutes until the kids invade the kitchen or only a hunk of Parmesan and cold pasta in the fridge, 'Meals Made Easy' is sure to become your favourite guide for nightly meal... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1933405031
• Release Date: April 2006
• Publisher: Oxmoor House
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 2.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 10.0" x 1.0" x 10.3"

Customer Reviews

Great Purchase

This cookbook is just as the title implies - "real simple". The recipes are interesting and tasty, plus there are great photos of the prepared foods. This is a good go-to cookbook when you dont have a lot of time.

Best cookbook ever

Granted, I don't sit around reading cookbooks, but this one was the best I've ever picked up. Wonderfully simple yet creative... and the pictures alone could earn it a place on my coffee table. Incredibly modern. Worth the investment. This is how cooking should be.

Delicious and surprising!

I had a few reservations when purchasing this cookbook, I wasn't sure that I could actually prepare a decent meal without having to go to the store. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself well equipped to make dinner on a moment's notice last week using only what I had in the house. Despite my mediocre cooking skills and reluctance to obey all directions (from stubbornness, not expertise) the meal still turned out well and even looked like the picture in the cookbook! I must admit that all of the pictures looked fantastic; I may begin cooking more out of a desire to make good-looking dinners rather than just hunger. This was a good purchase for a beginning cook with little spare time to shop for exotic ingredients.

Beauty in simplicity

Most of the cookbooks I see lately try to fit in too much information, too many little shortcuts, and scads of esoteric ingredients just for the sake of trying to be different. But there is something to be said for doing one thing, and doing it not just well, but above and beyond what you would expect out of a cookbook. The recipes in this book may be simple and fresh, but they are extremely refined in a way that reaches to the very esssence of the dish. One of the highlights of the Real Simple book is the photogaphy by Anna Williams. This could very easily be the coffee table book that chefs keep in their living room. The culinary arts are made up of not just taste and texture but poise and presentation; 'Meals Made Easy' excels in this regard as well. Having tried some of the other tired cookbooks that seem to fall off the truck every week, I must say that this book and these recipes emphasize the beauty in simplicity, night after night, in cuisine that is as easy as it is delightful.

A cookbook I will use (and I don't use many cookbooks)

I am a "been there, done that" cook. So I use very few cookbooks. If I am baking a cake, sure, I pull down "Joy of Cooking" or better yet, I am likely to make a genoise from "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." I have about 10 cookbooks, but those two plus "The New York Times Cookbook" are the only ones I refer to. Otherwise, I am making my standard fare most nights. For parties, I pull down my three or four tried-and-true recipes from my card box. BUT...."Meals Made Easy" is a cookbook I think I will be adding to my slim pile of regulars. Wow! I found page after page of easy but elegant meals, from corn-scallop chowder (a variant on my standard crowd-pleasing corn-potato chowder), and a number of composed salads of great merit like tuna and white bean, Greek Salad. The Greek salad is not the usual romaine-and-feta-and-olive, either. This one has cherry tomatoes, pear tomatoes, cheese, pepperoncini and cucumber cubes. And there were sauces and variants on chops and steak that go from boring to glorified. And there are variations on meatballs, chops, steak strips, stir fry that are a twist on the usual but are absolutely easy. The pictures are appetizing and inspiring, which helps you decide, yes THAT'S what's for dinner. The book is divided into the following sections: 1. One Pot Meals 2. No Shop Meals 3. 30 Minute Meals 4. No Cook Meals 5. Freezer Meals 6. Shortcut Meals 7. Reliable Sides There are a few basics like lasagna and roast chicken. There are money saving ideas (from boning chicken breast to those no-shop meals that save a budget-busting takeout night or restaurant night.) There are no desserts. There is a section on suggested kitchen equipment, including the mandoline for fast slicing (I use a version attached to a bowl and I do agree, it speeds up salad and side dish cooking tremendously.) I think this is a must-give for weddings and graduation-just-starting out. Anyone can enjoy this book (except the passionately vegan) and it's full of easy but beautiful ideas for fine meals whether you alone, you and yours, or with friends for entertaining. I highly recommend this book as a standard for any cookbook shelf. Joanna Daneman