by Molly Gilbert
I've enjoyed trying recipes from this book. There are lovely pictures for many of the recipes, which is almost a requirement for a decent cookbook.
The Quick Chicken Pot Pie was not as quick as I'd hoped - with lots of vegetables to cut. The cooking time for some of those vegetables either needs to be longer or I need to cut them smaller. The taste was great, though, and I loved the biscuits on top, even more than pastry. I think this is my favorite recipe so far.
The Curried Red Lentil soup appealed to me, but the rest of the family was indifferent or aghast. It has the benefit of being both tasty and healthy.
The Apricot-Glazed Drumsticks with Quinoa (shown on the cover) were very tasty. We appeased the children by doubling the drumsticks (which they gobbled up) but not the quinoa. We just put half the drumsticks in a different pan.
I really want to try the Thai Turkey with Carrot "Noodles" but haven't had the nerve to put them on the table in front of the kids yet. One of these days I'm going to give them a try.
At first I was surprised at the number of deserts in the book. Aren't most deserts made in a single pan? The brownie sundae, brownie mixed and baked in a cast-iron skillet, was amazing. Because we usually have bittersweet chocolate chips in the freezer, this is a great recipe for a weeknight when you need a desert fast!
I think I was expected a book of casseroles - toss everything in a big dish and throw it in the oven for an hour. Most of the recipes are a little more involved than that and don't actually include a complete meal. I'm not very good at being adventurous with vegetables, so we made do with canned green beans or frozen peas. I guess I should look for a cookbook that gives a complete meal for every recipe.
I was disappointed at the size of most of the recipes. We have four children, so a recipe that serves only four won't work for us unless I can easily double it. However, once I've doubled recipes from this book, they often don't fit in a single pan. The exception to this was the squash bowls with chickpeas. Again, I liked these, but Kansas Dad and I ate them for days and days before they were gone - definitely more than four servings. (The kids wouldn't eat those, either.)
Overall, I'm pleased with this book and will be continuing to try new recipes from it.
I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review. The opinions above are my own. The links in this post are not affiliate links.
