Martha Stewart's Dinner at Home: 52 Quick Meals to Cook for Family and Friends


Martha Stewart - 2009
    For meals that are meant for sharing with friends and family but created with busy cooks in mind, Martha Stewart's Dinner at Home is a new classic that cooks of all levels will depend on. Whether you're making a Sunday supper or hosting a casual get-together, Martha Stewart has put together 52 diverse menus that make the most of each season's flavors—and the various ways we like to cook as the weather changes. The menus—featuring starters, main courses, side dishes, and desserts—are cleverly designed with a simple preparation schedule that enables you to plan and cook dinner so that it is on the table in about an hour. Using easy-to-find ingredients from the grocery store or farmers' market (and Martha's helpful tips and shortcut techniques), each meal is fresh and inspiring without demanding too much effort. Examples include:  •  Watercress-Cauliflower Soup, Roasted Pork with Sage and Garlic, Braised Fennel and White Beans, Pears with Candied Walnuts and Gorgonzola  •  Asparagus-Parmesan Tart, Shrimp in Saffron Broth, Couscous with Golden Raisins, Apricot-Almond Ice Cream Sandwiches•  Roast Chicken Breasts in Creamy Tarragon Sauce, Warm Lentils with Spinach, Caramelized Endive, Poached Pears with Chocolate Sauce  •  Avocado and Lemon on Toasted Rustic Bread, Seared Tuna in Tomato-Basil Sauce, Green Beans with Lemon Butter, Peaches in Honey SyrupMartha has put so much thought into Martha Stewart's Dinner at Home that cooking for family and friends will be something you look forward to doing again and again.

Perfect Recipes for Having People Over


Pam Anderson - 2005
    In her new cookbook, Pam Anderson shares nearly 200 perfectly convenient dishes, including* Lacy Cheddar Crisps -- An irresistible one-ingredient hors d'oeuvre, ready in 10 minutes.* Oven-Barbecued Pork -- Slow-cooked for 10 to 12 hours. You literally make this one in your sleep.* Creamy Baked Macaroni and Cheese -- When kids are coming, why not serve the best version of their favorite?* Shish Kebabs -- Satisfy every guest, from vegetarians to carnivores, in the same meal. Six exciting flavoring pastes offer all the variety you need.* Easy Baked Risotto -- Elegant and effortless, with many sumptuous variations, including seafood and vegetarian. You socialize while it cooks. * Orange-Glazed Asparagus -- One of the most versatile side dishes imaginable. Ready in 8 relaxed minutes.* Molten Chocolate Cakes -- 15 minutes to oozy decadence.Every recipe comes with helpful suggestions on what to serve with the dish, how to vary it, how to take shortcuts, and how to make it ahead.

Giada's Feel Good Food: My Healthy Recipes and Secrets


Giada De Laurentiis - 2013
    Here are 120 recipes for breakfasts, juices, lunches, snacks, dinners, and desserts that can be combined into 30 days of delicious feel-good meals. So that everyone can enjoy these dishes, many are gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian, and/or vegan, with helpful icons to call them out—and, for the very first time, each recipe includes a calorie count and nutritional analysis. Special sections delve into Giada's everyday life, including her beauty and exercise routines, how she satisfies sugar fixes, what’s always in her bag, and her ordering tips for eating in restaurants. With 100 color photographs, Giada’s Feel Good Food is a beautiful guide to staying on track while still eating everything and enjoying life to its fullest.

Semi-Homemade: 20-Minute Meals


Sandra Lee - 2006
    Sandra brings her Semi-Homemade cooking approach of 70 percent store-bought, 30 percent homemade to create super-quick meals in 20-minutes or less--from start to finish. Irresistible recipes for main dishes, sides, appetizers, desserts and more are included along with a foolproof list of at-the-ready convenience foods to make dinners in a dash.

Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone


Deborah Madison - 1997
    After her many years as a teacher and writer, she realized that there was no comprehensive primer for vegetarian cooking, no single book that taught vegetarians basic cooking techniques, how to combine ingredients, and how to present vegetarian dishes with style. Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone teaches readers how to build flavor into vegetable dishes, how to develop vegetable stocks, and how to choose, care for, and cook the many vegetables available to cooks today. Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone is in every way Deborah Madison’s magnum opus, featuring 1,400 recipes suitable for committed vegetarians, vegans (in most cases), and everyone else who loves good food. For nonvegetarians, the recipes can be served alongside meat, fish, or fowl and incorporated into a truly contemporary style of eating that emphasizes vegetables and fruits for health and well-being.Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone is the most comprehensive vegetarian cookbook ever published. The recipes, which range from appetizers to desserts, are colorful and imaginative as well as familiar and comforting. Madison introduces readers to innovative main course salads; warm and cold soups; vegetable braises and cobblers; golden-crusted gratins; Italian favorites like pasta, polenta, pizza, and risotto; savory tarts and galettes; grilled sandwiches and quesadillas; and creative dishes using grains and heirloom beans. At the heart of the book is the A-to-Z vegetable chapter, which describes the unique personalities of readily available vegetables, the sauces and seasonings that best complement them, and the simplest ways to prepare them. “Becoming a Cook” teaches cooking basics, from holding a knife to planning a menu, and “Foundations of Flavor” discusses how to use sauces, herbs, spices, oils, and vinegars to add flavor and character to meatless dishes. In each chapter, the recipes range from those suitable for everyday dining to dishes for special occasions. And through it all, Madison presents a philosophy of cooking that is both practical and inspiring.Despite its focus on meatless cooking, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone is not just for vegetarians—it's for everyone interested in learning how to cook vegetables creatively, healthfully, and passionately. The recipes are remarkably straightforward, using easy-to-find ingredients in inspiring combinations. Some are simple, others more complex, but all are written with an eye toward the seasonality of produce. Madison's joyful and free-spirited approach to cooking will send you into the kitchen with confidence and enthusiasm. Whether you are a kitchen novice or an experienced cook, this wonderful cookbook has something for everyone.

Bobby Flay's Bar Americain Cookbook


Bobby Flay - 2010
    The Food Network celebrity and renowned chef-restaurateur created his Bar Americain restaurants as our country’s answer to French bistros—to celebrate America’s regional flavors and dishes, interpreted as only Bobby Flay can.Now you can rediscover American cuisine at home with the recipes in Bobby Flay’s Bar Americain Cookbook. Start with a Kentucky 95—a riff on a classic French cocktail but made with bourbon—and Barbecued Oysters with Black Pepper–Tarragon Butter. Choose from sumptuous soups and salads, including a creamy clam chowder built on a sweet potato base, and Kentucky ham and ripe figs over a bed of arugula dressed with molasses-mustard dressing. Entrees will fill your family family-style, from red snapper with a crisp skin of plantains accompanied by avocado, mango, and black beans to a host of beef steaks, spice-rubbed and accompanied by side dishes such as Brooklyn hash browns and cauliflower and goat cheese gratin. Bar Americain’s famed brunch dishes and irresistible desserts round out this collection of America’s favorite flavors.Bobby also shares his tips for stocking your pantry with key ingredients for everyday cooking, as well as expert advice on essential kitchen equipment and indispensable techniques. With more than 110 recipes and 110 full-color photographs, Bobby Flay’s Bar Americain Cookbook shares Bobby’s passion for fantastic American food and will change the way any cook looks at our country’s bounty.

The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook


Deb Perelman - 2012
    It’s as simple as that. She isn’t a chef or a restaurant owner—she’s never even waitressed. Cooking in her tiny Manhattan kitchen was, at least at first, for special occasions—and, too often, an unnecessarily daunting venture. Deb found herself overwhelmed by the number of recipes available to her. Have you ever searched for the perfect birthday cake on Google? You’ll get more than three million results. How do you choose? Where do you start? What if you pick a recipe that’s downright bad?So Deb founded her award-winning blog, smittenkitchen.com, on the premise that cooking should be a pleasure, and that the results of your labor can—and should be—delicious...every time. Deb is a firm believer that there are no bad cooks, just bad recipes. She has dedicated herself to finding the best of the best and adapting them for the everyday cook—the ones with little time to spare, little money to burn on unpronounceable ingredients, and little help in the kitchen. And now, with the same warmth, candor, and can-do spirit her blog is known for, Deb presents her first cookbook—more than 100 new recipes, plus a few favorites from her site, all gorgeously illustrated with hundreds of Deb’s beautiful color photographs.The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook is all about approachable, uncompromised home cooking: stepped-up comfort foods, stewy dishes for windy winter afternoons, an apple cake that will answer all questions: “What should my new signature dessert be?” “What is always welcome at a potluck?” “What did Deb consume almost single-handedly a week after having a baby?” These are the recipes you bookmark and use so often they become your own; recipes you slip to a friend who wants to impress her new in-laws; and recipes with simple ingredients that yield amazing results in a minimum amount of time. Deb tells you how to host a brunch and still sleep in—plus what to make for it!—and the essential items you need for your own kitchen. From salads and slaws that make perfect side dishes (or a full meal) to savory tarts and pizzas; from Mushroom Bourguignon to Pancetta, White Bean and Swiss Chard Pot Pies; from Buttered Popcorn Cookies to Chocolate Hazelnut Layer Cake, Deb knows just the thing for a Tuesday night, or your most special occasion.

Farm to Fork: Cooking Local, Cooking Fresh


Emeril Lagasse - 2010
    A must have for those interested in the Green and locavore movements, and the legions of Emeril’s own fans!

The America's Test Kitchen Cookbook


Cook's Illustrated - 2001
    They want you to serve the best fried chicken and the fudgiest brownies, and they test recipes, equipment, and methods toward that goal on their PBS television show. This companion book to the show illustrates what can happen when cooking experts look under the hood and start to tinker productively with the most basic, everyday recipes.Each recipe starts out with a small introduction on what the cooks want to achieve, then details the various steps -- and missteps -- taken en route to developing the perfect recipe. Of course, the missteps are fun to read about, and the whole process has a food-science/science-fair aspect that is quite engrossing.With Home Fries, for example, the cooks wanted "cubes of potatoes that would be deep golden brown and crisp on the outside and tender on the inside." Fair enough. First they dabbled with different kinds of potatoes, then experimented with cooking methods, kinds of cuts, and cooking oils. Their final recipe uses Yukon Golds, diced and briefly parboiled, then drained and fried in a mixture of butter and oil (peanut or corn). This same exhaustive approach is applied to pizza, hamburgers, fajitas, spaghetti and meatballs, tuna fish sandwiches, margaritas, roast turkey, mashed potatoes, apple pie, and Key lime pie. When you think about it, there are plenty of ordinary dishes that often come out tasting, well, ordinary, so you really welcome experts taking a long look at them. Sometimes, though, you just want to tell them: Hey, guys, lighten up, it's just a grilled cheese sandwich. But, I have to say, their approach -- grated cheese; butter on the bread, not in the skillet; medium-low heat -- makes a really good grilled cheese sandwich!Interspersed through the thematic chapters (Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas dinner, pizza night) are very useful tests of kitchen equipment -- blenders, vegetable peelers, etc. -- and canned goods. I loved finding out that the $40 basic blender beat the $120 classic I've been eyeing, and all the fancy new zillion-speed blenders too.(Ginger Curwen)

Down Home with the Neelys: A Southern Family Cookbook


Patrick Neely - 2009
    It has also won them millions of viewers on the Food Network. Simply put, the Neelys are all about good food and good times. In this, their eagerly awaited debut cookbook, the Neelys share the delicious food they have been cooking up for years both at home and in their restaurants.Pat and Gina hail from families with a boundless love of cooking and bedrock traditions of sharing meals. At the Neelys’, mealtime is family time, and that means no stinting on “the sauce.” Indeed, that’s one of the Neely secrets: the liberal application of barbeque sauce to almost anything—spaghetti, nachos, salad, you name it. Of course, there are other secrets as well, and you will find them all in the pages of Down Home with the Neelys, along with more than 120 mouthwatering recipes.Here are the tried-and-true southern recipes that have been passed down from one Neely generation to the next, including many of their signature dishes, such as Barbeque Deviled Eggs, Florida Coast Pickled Shrimp, Pat’s Wings of Fire, Gina’s Collard Greens, Grandma Jean’s Potato Salad, Nana’s Southern Gumbo, Memphis-sized Pulled Pork Sandwiches with Slaw, Get Yo’ Man Chicken, and Sock-It-to-Me Cake. Certainly, no self-respecting southerner would dream of offering a meal to a guest without a proper drink, so Pat and Gina have included some of their favorite libations here, too.The Neelys work, laugh, love, and play harder than any family you’ll ever meet. Their love for good food is infectious, and in Down Home with the Neelys, they bring their heavenly inspired cooking down to earth for all to share.

America's Best Lost Recipes


Cook's Country Magazine - 2007
    The result is this collection of more than 120 old-fashioned recipes that deserve a place in home kitchens today.Americas Test Kitchen

Gale Gand's Brunch!: 100 Fantastic Recipes for the Weekend's Best Meal


Gale Gand - 2009
    Food Network host, cookbook author, celebrated chef, and mother of three, Gale Gand has long made brunch a part of her life because it’s the easiest way to gather around the table with family and friends. Now, in Gale Gand’s Brunch! she shares 100 recipes for scrumptious brunch fare, all destined to become household favorites. Traditional breakfast treats become inspired dishes when Gale shares how to effortlessly enliven the basics, like Iced Coffee with Cinnamon-Coffee Ice Cubes, Baked Eggs in Ham Cups, and Almond Ciabatta French Toast. In five mini-classes, she teaches how to master easy but impressive classic egg dishes–omelets, quiches, strata, frittata, and crêpes–with numerous variations on each. Finally, no cookbook by Gale would be complete without recipes for the wonderful baked goods she’s famous for, such as Ginger Scones with Peaches and Cream, Moist Orange-Date Muffins, Glazed Crullers, and Quick Pear Streusel Coffee Cake. Special occasion or not, brunch is a cinch with Gale’s irresistible recipes. Start off the day with zesty Breakfast Burritos for the kids, or wow visiting in-laws with Poached Salmon with Cucumber Yogurt. Anyone will find Gale’s salads, soups, and sides delicious and simple, and with 60 color photographs, you’ll be enticed to try a new recipe every weekend. Wake up to a great weekend with Gale Gand’s Brunch!

Top Chef: The Quickfire Cookbook


Emily Wise Miller - 2009
    Everything the home chef needs to assemble an impressive meal and channel the energy of the Quickfire kitchen is collected here, including advice on hosting a Quickfire Cocktail Party and staging Quickfire Challengesat home. Best of all, this book is spilling over with sidebar material, including tips for home chefs, interviews with contestants, fabulous photos, and fun trivia related to the chefs, dishes, and ingredients that make Top Chef a favorite.

The Whole Foods Market Cookbook: A Guide to Natural Foods with 350 Recipes


Steven Petusevsky - 2002
    Whole Foods Market presents the most popular dishes from their prepared foods section, combined with brand-new recipes that showcase the wide variety of delicious ingredients available today. Far from “crunchy granola” fare, sophisticated recipes include Shrimp and Scallop Chalupas, Hazelnut Crusted Pork Loin, Thai-Style Green Curry Chicken, Griddled Sesame and Garlic Tofu with Wilted Bok Choy, Honey Jalapeño Barbecue Sauce, and Maple Butterscotch Macadamia Blondies. From meat and fish to tofu and vegetables, kid-friendly dishes to one-pot meals, the choices are dazzling, and with more than 200 of the recipes either vegetarian or vegan, the options are diverse.But the recipes are just the beginning. Steve Petusevsky and Whole Foods Market Team Members shed light on the confusing world of natural foods, presenting interesting, accessible information and all kinds of helpful cooking advice. The Whole Foods Market Cookbook is as welcoming and fun as a trip to one of their stores. Find out the answers to questions such as:How do I cook quinoa?What are the different kinds of tofu, and how do I know which to buy?How should I stock a great natural foods pantry?What are good alternatives to wheat pasta?What does “organic” mean?A glossary with more than 150 definitions provides a great reference for all of the terms and ingredients that have been edging their way into our vocabularies and kitchens. With recipe bonuses, tips from the team, variations, sidebars, and 30 menu suggestions, this is the natural foods guide that so many of us have been waiting for.

Every Last Crumb: Paleo Bread and Beyond


Brittany Angell - 2014
    Yet sadly, its one of the first items removed from the diet of people who need or choose to transition to a gluten-free or Paleo Diet. Many are left with a "dietary dent" that is not easily replaced.Get prepared to have your life changed. Every Last Crumb will take you down a revolutionary bread-making road with recipes that look, taste and smell like their gluten filled counterparts. These recipes use ingredients that are healthier and accessible to those with the many dietary restrictions. Dairy-Free? Egg-Free? Sugar-Free? Every Last Crumb has you covered.You will be exposed to coconut flour, almond flour, and chestnut, plantain and sweet potato flour that will open your eyes to new ways of making healthy and tasty breads. Experience your favorites that you wont find anywhere else! From Grain-Free croissants and puff pastry to easy to prepare sandwich bread, soft pretzels, bagels rolls and more. Transform your healthy diet into a magical "feel good" experience with no guilt. You’ll find yourself eating Every Last Crumb and then some. Finally, you can experience comfort food the right way!