CookSmart: Perfect Recipes for Every Day

CookSmart: Perfect Recipes for Every Day
by Pam Anderson Executive Editor

CookSmart: Perfect Recipes for Every Day
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Book Summary Information

Author: Pam Anderson Executive Editor
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-05-10
ISBN: 0618091513
Number of pages: 348
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Book Reviews of CookSmart: Perfect Recipes for Every Day

Book Review: Shame on you, Houghton-Mifflin!
Summary: 3 Stars

I am probably the No. 1 fan of Pam Anderson's previous book, The Perfect Recipe. I have made many of the recipes and they have all been outstanding. So the minute I heard she had a new book out, I got right on the computer and ordered it.

In the book's defense, I have not made any of the recipes yet. My gripe is with the layout and editing. Tonight, for instance, I am going to make the Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Rosemary-Orange Crust. One of the ingredients is Quick Brined Pork Tenderloins, the recipe for which is on a previous page. O.k., it's not my favorite thing in a cookbook, but not unusual. The instructions, however, refer me back to yet another page that features a recipe for a tenderloin with a different crust. In that recipe the meat is cooked over a gas fire. I am using charcoal. Which means I must refer to yet another page. That's 4 pages I now have to flip through! I'm tired before I've even begun! This just seems like a cheap way to save on pages. Why can't the recipes be presented in their entirety?

I also am not enjoying the design of the recipe pages with the very, very pale green alternating numbers. It just seems gimmicky and counter-productive.

Ms. Anderson, you are a genius and you deserve better than this from your publisher!

Summary of CookSmart: Perfect Recipes for Every Day

Perfection has never been so convenient.
Pam Anderson's infallible renditions of favorite dishes have made her America's most trusted cook. In COOKSMART, she returns with can't-fail recipes for everyday meals we all love, from spaghetti and meatballs, oven-fried chicken, and fajitas to foods for special occasions like crab cakes and vegetable lasagna. Pam knows today's cooks are too busy to tolerate less than superb results. She has tested and retested every recipe dozens of times so each one works flawlessly in real cooking and entertaining situations.
Cooking smart is about cooking sensibly. It means reducing the time and effort that go into a dish while delivering every bit of the flavor. You'll find oven-cooked ribs as succulent as those barbecued all day over a fire, a voluptuous chocolate cake as easy as a boxed mix, and cinnamon buns as fragrant and pillowy as they are convenient.
Cooking smart also means creating dishes the whole family can enjoy, such as turkey burgers as juicy as the best all-beef burgers but much lower in fat and cholesterol, and a crisp and creamy Caesar salad that isn't made with raw eggs.
COOKSMART recipes eliminate the unnecessary steps and troublesome quirks that keep you from making your favorite dishes. You'll learn how to prepare a pot roast as juicy and tender as the old-fashioned kind in just ninety minutes. You won't need special equipment for the meals in this book. Every ingredient used can be found in your local supermarket.
In COOKSMART, you'll be able to choose from dozens of holiday standbys: fresh shrimp cocktail, stuffed mushrooms, beef tenderloin for a crowd, silky pumpkin pie, and perfect pecan pie. And you'll find just as many effortless family-pleasing meals to rely on during the week, such as chicken Parmesan and Pork Tenderloin with Curried Apple Crust, which comes with many flavor variations.
In every case, cooking smart means making a dish the very best it can be: a gazpacho chock full of summer-vegetable flavor, a pasta salad that -- for once! -- tastes as good as it looks, and a peach pie with a crisp crust and a fruity flavor that slices to perfection.
In COOKSMART, you'll not only get more than a hundred impeccable dishes that will become part of your cherished repertoire, but you'll acquire a wealth of culinary knowledge that you can apply to other recipes.

Pam Anderson's CookSmart: Perfect Recipes for Every Day is a collection of comfort-food favorites that she's perfected through a long process of trial and error. From her own experience as a chef, cookbook author (The Perfect Recipe), and food columnist for USA Weekend, Anderson has created a rigorous approach for selecting the best possible recipe for any given dish, winnowing out weaker, less satisfactory recipes in several stages. She starts by reviewing several recipes for the same dish. For example, Anderson noted that the conventional method of making fajitas included marinating the meat before it is cooked, which, in her opinion, masks the rich flavor of steak. In her version, the fajita meat gets a spice rub before cooking and then a brief, post-cooking sauna-like repose in a simple mixture of lime juice and garlic. The resulting fajitas have the relaxed subtle flavor of garlic, lime, and cumin that complement rather than overpower the tender steak.

This book provides good instruction for the beginning chef, demonstrating how to use the basic techniques to perfect one's own recipe. But there is a lot to read, so be warned. This book is a time commitment if attempting to read cover to cover, and it doesn't necessarily work in the real-time experience of looking and cooking. However, if you're searching for a collection of great, gourmet-style recipes for home-cooked favorites, CookSmart is a pretty wise choice. --Teresa Simanton

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