11/12/10

Cookbook Review: Perfect One Dish Dinners: All You Need for Easy Get Togethers by Pam Anderson

Format: Hardcover
Pub Date: September 2010
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
FTC: Digital galley received from the publisher via Netgalley

Despite the title, this cookbook is not for the cheap, easy casserole-minded cook. These dishes do go together in (mostly) one dish, but most involve long lists of ingredients and plenty of time.

We made the Frogmore Stew which is essentially a seafood boil. The proportions and cooking instructions were clear and easy to follow. And it was a one dish meal.

I really liked the appetizers and dessert recipes that go with each one dish dinner. The book is really more One Dish Main Course than One Dish Dinner, but that's okay with me. I loved the way some recipes have alternative substitutions that take far less time than the "star" recipe. It adds to the value of the book that these recipes are kind of snuck in rather than set out on their own pages to pad the recipe count.

There are some clever almost Semi-Homemade ideas, too, such as the recipe for Miniature Lemon-Raspberry Cakes that you can find on Amazon here.

The mostly one dish dinners is because many of these require second recipes to make them work. So while there are fewer dishes to dirty (and clean) titling the book "One Dish" is not really accurate.

Also, these recipes are geared towards entertaining, so they are more calorie-laden and involved than your average dinner. At least at my house. ;)

I like the recipes, I like the presentation, but this is more of a Simple Ideas for Entertaining than One Dish or Easy.

My Grade: B

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