Cooking for Two: 120 Recipes for Every Day and Those Special Nights

Cooking for Two is a collection of 120 recipes varying from simple to elegant scaled down for two people. It even includes recipes for dishes that traditionally are made with more people in mind such as casseroles. No more leftovers! Whenever I've seen scaled down recipes, there were always obscure quantities of ingredients that would leave me with odds and ends of various ingredients. This book addresses this issue very well by making substitutions for items. For example a quail egg is smaller than a chicken egg and is, therefore, an excellent substitute for eggs when you don't need to use a whole one. The book also has a nice section entitled "a quick reference guide to some ingredients." It provides useful information on purchasing and preserving many ingredients like ancho chiles and clam juice. Recipes also have certain symbols next to their names if they are simple and quick or more timeconsuming, for maybe that special dinner for two. The escarole, white bean, and roasted garlic soup was delicious. The recipe was easy to follow and came with serving suggestions. I placed a toasted round of bread in my bowl before adding the soup - the best part was on the bottom!

I received this cookbook about 9 months ago as a gift and have tried at least half the recipes in it and have not found one that my husband and I do not like--seafood, beef, pork, vegetarian, salads, and desserts. All of the flavors blend so well and the portion sizes are just perfect for two. We are empty nesters so the 2 part of the book is of great benefit when we try to rein in our portion sizes. Some of the recipes call for ingredients that may be a little difficult to find in your Mom and Pop grocery store but most higher end super stores have a large selection. Very rarely have I had to substitute an ingredient and I live in the deep south where ethnic food is not usually the highlight of the stores. Most of the recipes can be cooked in 30 minutes to an hour. If you would like to expand your cooking expertise and enjoy simple but wonderfully blended dishes this is the book for you.

I appreciated how the book offered recipes with the perfect portion sizes. The authors understand that when cooking for company, there is no need for leftovers. Who wants to eat the leftovers for the remainder of the week? Its also good for singles. There's just enough for dinner and a portion to take to lunch. The authors also offer a variety of dishes and gives an expected cooking time (quick meal, all day meal)for each recipe, as well as several replacement items for the basic staples. Now, if I could only find a book 'Cooking For One', I'd be in heaven.

I've been cooking for my famliy for over 20 years, and this past June, my daughter got married, leaving me my husband and me to eat by ourselves. We enjoy the privacy, but not the food. We hate leftovers so I started buying individual frozen macaroni and cheese and lasagna dinners for us. And I've resorted to break and bake cookies unless the kids are coming over. I just don't want 6 dozen cookies in the house or I'll eat them all. But we miss the taste of cookies from scratch. I saw this book and bought it on the spot. I love that I can bake 6 cookies, or two brownies. I've made the mac and cheese casserole and we love it. I doubled it to serve my daughter and her new husband, which in the end makes this book truly flexible and usable. I recommend this book to any retired couple, newlywed, or engaged couple.