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Cooking for the beginner or clueless
Foolproof recipes for the incompetent cooker (myself), or the beginner. I am sick of eating out and ramen noodles! I wanted to eat healthier, deliciously, and affordably. Great book on how to set up a basic kitchen, learn the terminology and techniques simply. Encourages confidence from shopping, chopping, and meal planning and preperation. 150 basic foolproof recipes that create a base upon which to build upon and inspires creativity in spicing alchemy... did you know you can make your mashed potatoes asian inspired with wasabi?! I tried it... served alongside my fresh greenbean almond stirfry. YUM!!
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JesseLP
Posted February 23, 2010
I Also Recommend:
Fantastic for novice and budding cooks
I bought this book as a (completely self-serving) Valentine's Day gift for my boyfriend, who cannot cook. We have been long time fans of Mollie Katzen and I was excited to see her add some meat/poultry and seafood recipes to her typically veg repertoire. I am an omnivore and my boyfriend is an occasional meat-sneaking vegetarian. The recipes remind me of home style classics that I learned to cook by. Only, I wish I had Mollie to guide me through the process. The recipes are pretty basic and certainly not intimidating, but also offer more advanced or creative ideas to add when you get the confidence to. The get cooking website is a brilliant compliment, but the book alone should prove an invaluable resource to anyone looking to gain some basic culinary know how.
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I especially like the recipes for: chinese chicken salad, three bean salad (how retro), black bean burgers, braised brussels sprouts, spaghetti with meatballs and stuffed acorn squassh. -
Jane53JG
Posted February 13, 2010
Excellent cookbook for beginners and for experienced cooks
Get Cooking contains many delicious recipes. The directions are clear, informative and instructive. This is a wonderful book to own and give as a gift.
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Anonymous
Posted January 3, 2010
Excellent Once again - Love the New Additions
I just wanted to express my thanks to Molly Katzen for being daring enough to include beef stew in her new cookbook. I have used and enjoyed her cookbooks for 30(?) years - it seems like forever.
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I didn't pick recipes or her cookbooks because of vegetarianism but simply good eating. I'm an omnivore, an economic omnivore. I eat whom I can afford. In addition to gardens I raise my own meat, on pasture, and slaughter it myself to assure that my family gets the best quality without involving the Big Ag CAFO high petroleum input pharmaceutical meat industry. We can raise and eat meat sustainably.
Some people have the misguided idea that eating meat is murder or dying is painful. Neither is innately true. We create the lives we take to eat. This is natural just as the wolf, the tiger, the bear and the shark. Slaughter as done with modern humane methods is orders of magnitude more humane than death in the wild. Anyone who fails to understand this should seriously investigate and understand the brutal drawn out process when prey dies at the claws and teeth of predators in the wild.
The reality is we are all a part of the natural world, part of the web of life. Only a Kingdomist would make a suggestion that we all must go vegan. The reality is we eat and we all shall be eaten in our time, unless one goes for extra crispy (cremation) or pickled (embalming) which are terrible wastes of nutrients and energy. When my time comes I want to be composted and spread on my apple trees, strawberries and rhubarb.
Eat meat, just less than average of it. Eat pastured meat, not confinement raised, petroleum intensive, chemical laced CAFO meat. There is balance in everything. Have balance in ones diet too. So a big thank you to Molly for being brave enough to publish a recipe for 'beef stew'. In little ways we do make a difference.
Cheers,
Walter Jeffries
Sugar Mountain Farm, LLC
Orange, Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com -
Get Cooking - straightforward recipes, tasty rewards!
Get Cooking takes the beginner through all the steps, clearly and briefly, from how to study a recipe to make sure that you have all the ingredients and tools and to understand the whole process of preparing the food to getting it on the table on time.
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Each chapter begins with the essential facts about the type of food, the tools and ingredients that you will most often use, and even an assessment when the inexpensive or moderately priced tools and ingredients will suffice and the times when the added expense is worthwhile.
Katzen describes the cuisine as "'Big Tent,' accommodating a broad base of tastes and needs, vegetarian, meat-loving and everything in between." Most of the dishes are familiar - the items that you'd find at a party, picnic, or enjoy at home. We've made the teriyaki chicken thighs and the poached salmon - which were both easy and tasty! I am eager to try the recipes for carmelized balsamic-red onion soup with cheese-topped croutons, linguini with clam sauce, linguine with spinach and peas, green pea and feta quiche, and deeply roasted cauliflower.
The three bean salad, mac and cheese, spaghetti with meatballs, pasta with tuna, white beans, and artichoke hearts, chinese-style peanut noodles, chocolate-chip mint cookies and intensely chocolate brownies are sure to become regulars at our home.
Get Cooking would be excellent for someone just learning to cook - it gives you the essentials of cooking in simple steps and offers tasty rewards for your effort.
Publisher: HarperStudio (October 13, 2009), 288 pages.
Review copy provided by the publisher.