Real Simple: Meals Made Easy (Real Simple S.)
by Editors of Real Simple Magazine
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Book Summary Information
Author: Editors of Real Simple MagazineBrand: Books
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-04-11
ISBN: 1933405031
Number of pages: 192
Publisher: Real Simple
Book Reviews of Real Simple: Meals Made Easy (Real Simple S.)
Book Review: Very Good simple recipes from reliable source
Summary: 4 Stars
`meals made easy' by Renee Schettler and the staff of `Real Simple' magazine is their first culinary book, which reflects the editorial philosophy of the magazine, especially since everything in the book is reprinted from the magazine's pages.
It is not surprising that this book has a strong similarity to `Martha Stewart Living', as `Real Simple' magazine came out shortly after Martha created her own company by buying her way out of her contract with Time-Life. Both magazines have a very clean look about them, strongly distinguishing themselves from the rather dowdy `Better Homes and Gardens' and `Good Housekeeping' aesthetic which seem to be stuck somewhere in the 1950's. `Real Simple', as it should be easy to guess, distinguishes itself from `Martha Stewart Living' by focusing on the interests and resources of the energetic young professional couple where both partners work and have relatively little time for elaborate techniques for window treatments or even novel new techniques for decorating Easter eggs.
The design of this book reflects everything I like about the `Real Simple' aesthetic. Layout is clean and sparse, allowing you to focus on the essentials. I am somewhat impressed by the cleverer than average cover picture, where a logical sequence is depicted by the front and back photographs. For an especially reasonable list price of under $25, I am also impressed by the book designers' including a built-in bookmark ribbon (I'm certain there is a really good technical term for these little devices, but I don't know what it is. I only know that very few cookbooks come with them, and more should include them, especially those that will find their way to the kitchen table after a quick browse in your favorite armchair to find an attractive recipe). I am also impressed by the excellent tip index in the back of the book, although I sense that the index is more useful than many of the tips (more on this below).
As I am a real stickler for books' delivering on the promise of their titles, subtitles, and other `trailer' material, I'm just a bit disappointed with this book's subtitle which promises `quick' recipes. Of the seven chapters in this book, only one promises '30 minute meals'. Another chapter does promise `shortcut meals' based on prepared ingredients, but even some of these recipes require over 90 minutes of total time, even though `hands on' time may be much less. And, many of the one pot meals unashamedly state that they take over 14 hours (baked beans) to complete. I also found the `No Shop' meals chapter to be a bit misleading. I cook dinner four to five times a week and I bake often, yet almost all these dishes had at least one ingredient I do NOT stock on a regular basis. These include goat cheese, fresh chives, pita bread, chicken cutlets, Boston lettuce, Jalapeno chilis, fresh thyme, tomatoes, and fresh basil, among others. I suspect someone who is less involved with home cooking carries even fewer of these recipes' ingredients in their pantry, if they even have a well-defined pantry to begin with.
I'm compelled to warn you of these little teases, but I still find this book an excellent source of recipes for the typical `Real Simple' reader described above. The book does well not to stay exclusively in `Rachael Ray' country, since limiting yourself to fast cooking runs afowl of Marold's first law of quick cooking, which says that the faster the procedure, the more expensive the ingredients (on average). While it does not tout this fact, the book includes many dishes, especially the single pot braises, which use very reasonably priced materials.
I also find this book a confirmation of Marold's second law of quick cooking, that you can only accomplish both speed and good results in cooking if you have a firm grasp of good cooking techniques. I suspect the `hands on' times on these recipes do not take ingredients prep time into account, or at least ingredients prep time as done by someone with poor to nonexistent knife skills. I suspect finely chopping a shallot, zesting a lemon, squeezing juice from a lemon, thinly slicing a garlic clove, pitting a cup of Kalamata olives, dealing with a teaspoon of honey, and dissecting a cauliflower head into florets can easily take all 25 hands on minutes of the roast chicken with olives and thyme recipe. And that's allowing that the fresh herbs will have been cleaned and prepped in advance and the cook will use the tip to buy chicken parts instead of dealing with a whole chicken! But that doesn't deny the fact that this looks like a darned tasty recipe which is indeed relatively easy to make.
My biggest objection to this generally excellent book is that it suffers from being just a collection of recipes rather than a truly in depth treatment of `real simple' cooking. I believe that true culinary simplicity comes at the cost of sound culinary knowledge and experience. I believe it is much better to encourage owning a great, sharp chef's knife and teaching good knife skills rather than giving tips on easy shortcuts such as cheap mandolines. The knife will do 10 times as many jobs as the mandoline, and take up less space. The book is similarly obtuse in glossing over the fine points of making an omelet and cooking en papillote (In Paper). The omelet recipe instruction is a crude cross between a French omelet and the Italian frittata. An omelet is the ultimate in elegance from simple ingredients handled with skill. Simplicity does come at a price, usually in knowledge. The steaming in paper method is even worse, in that it avoids some of the finer points of creating a paper envelope for steaming fish, thereby actually making the technique more complicated than it really is.
`Real Simple' still has much to learn from Martha Stewart's excellent culinary books, but it seems to be on the right track.
Summary of Real Simple: Meals Made Easy (Real Simple S.)
When it comes to the challenges you face every day, getting dinner on the table is always at the top of the list. Not only do you want the meal to be healthy and taste good, but you want it to be fast and simple to prepare. As straightforward as that sounds, somehow-in the midst of a busy life- the task seems nearly impossible. In "Meals Made Easy", the first of a series of "Real Simple" cookbooks, you will find smart and doable dinnertime solutions for every night of the week, no matter how little time (or few ingredients) you have. Even better, these are dishes the whole family will love, yes, including your children. Featuring more than 75 foolproof recipes, all illustrated with large, lush photos, "Meals Made Easy", is custom-made for your life, with chapters dedicated to: dishes that can be prepared and ready in 30 minutes or less; freezer-friendly dinners to make ahead of time and eat whenever; cuisine that calls only for a cutting board, no cooking necessary; meals you can cobble together using the items in your cupboard; and recipes that require just one pot (and blessedly very little cleanup time).Cooking Books
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