Rachael Ray's Big Orange Book: Her Biggest Ever Collection of All-New 30-Minute Meals Plus Kosher Meals, Meals for One, Veggie Dinners, Holiday Favorites, and Much More!

While it may seem that Ms. Ray has already explored every possible food combination in every possible configuration, the fresh offerings in this full-color, glossy-paged enthusiastic book (her largest recipe collection yet), show she's only just hitting her stride. Divided into nine specific categories, from the ubiquitous 30-Minute Meals to new additions to the Ray canon, such as Kosher Meals and Meals for One, each offers a plethora of ways to turn everything from chickpeas to bratwurst to Asiago cheese into a quick and tasty meal. Ms. Ray's willingness to use ordinarily taboo fun foods (Bacon! Hamburgers!) alongside more exotic ingredients (hummus, couscous) make the combinations as refreshing as her chatty writing. While the book includes familiar sections for burgers, sandwiches ("sammies" in Rachael-speak), and soups, don't expect to find familiar recipes here: in fact, if you're looking for a basic, traditional cookbook, this is not the collection for you. However, if the thought of Eggplant Stew with Honey and Golden Raisin Polenta or Spanish Chorizo & Chicken Chili inspires you to reach for a frying pan and the E.V.O.O., "The Big Orange Book" will be a delicious revelation. For the adventurous cook, it achieves the greatest heights a recipe collection can aspire to - it makes eating out seem positively second-rate by comparison. Have to have this one!

Big Orange Book is an excellent resource for those who want a lot of tasty thirty-minute recipes, a la Rachael Ray. Even more than usual, she has provided spicy and interesting tastes. Why is called a Big Orange Book? Ms. Ray says that she likes the color. Here's the Table of Contents so you can see the distribution of subjects: 1. 30-Minute Meals (Often the recipes are grouped to make interesting meals) Page 11 2. Entree Burgers Page 113 3. Vegetarian Meals Page 139 4. Kosher Meals Page 171 5. Meals for One Page 197 6. A Little More than 30 Minutes . . . But Worth It Page 222 7. From My Family to Yours (Family Recipes Shared) Page 247 8. Starters and Snacks Page 269 9. Holiday Menus Page 301 As you can see the smaller sections are like appetizers on those subjects rather than entrees. But they will give you some nice variety. If you keep a kosher kitchen, this book won't give you what you need to feed your family. It's a little strange to find kosher recipes in a book that features so many pork-based dishes. If you know someone who is just starting out with cooking and who likes Rachael Ray, this is probably the right book to give as a gift for that person's first cookbook by the nonstop chef. Here are some of my favorite recipes in the book: Quick Pork Pozole Rock Soup Potato Soup with the Works Cacciatore Stoup with Turkey Sausage Meatballs Steak House Shepherd's Pie Sliced Steaks with Sauerbraten, Onion Hash Browns, and Spiced Red Cabbage Indian Spiced Beef and Warm Curry Potato Salad, Tangy "Creamed" Spinach Pork Chops in Tangy Fire-Roasted Tomato Sauce and Bacon Pea Polenta Spicy-Sweet Watermelon and Watercress Salad with Grilled Hot and Sour Shrimp Tilapia with Balsamic Brown Butter and Creamy Farfalle with Bacon, Tomato, and Peas Portuguese-Style Roasted Cod with Tomatoes, Stovetop Potatoes, and Cut Green Beans South by Southwest 7-Layer Sliders Chipotle-Pumpkin-Black Bean Soup with Cranberry Sour Cream and Apple-Jalapeno Salsa Black Bean Chili Four-Layer Mediterranean Dip Mediterranean Feta Dip Mother's Day Pasta Sampler Tea Party Passover Feast The Ultimate BBQ Burger with Chipotle Ranch Sauce German Cheese and Beer Fondue Turkey Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie Orange Balsamic Cornish Hens Get ready for some very tasty, quick meals!

I like that this cookbook is actually one of hers that you can read. The print isn't orange on a blue background. And the pages in this cookbook are heavy quality instead of that recycled, matte stuff. These recipes seem a little better than some of her past productions in that these recipes actually have ingredients that you can buy. The Golden Ice Cream Cakes were very cute and tasty and easily made with store bought ingredients. She put these in the Oscar Night Party section but these would be very cute birthday cakes. I also liked the red, white and blue slaw and thought it very tasty with the bleu cheese crumbles added. I would have not thought of that on my own. The recipe for the German Cheese and Beer Fondue I had made before from the food network website but am glad it's in this cookbook. It's a very good cheese fondue. The Thanksgiving meal suggestion was Turkey Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie. It's something I will definitely make but after Thanksgiving using the leftovers. It calls for a banana so we'll see what twist that gives this dish. The butternut squash riscotto I had made from one of her other cookbooks so I see it's included here as well. This is truly a big book. Over 350 pages...worth the money per recipe unlike her little books she put out a couple of Christmas' ago. The pictures are good quality though there are only a few. This would make a great Christmas gift combined with one of her garbage bowls and Sutoku knife. What a cute under the tree gift. What I like about having the vegetarian section is that I don't think it's meant for vegetarians to purchase but for the meat eater who wants to eat less meat on occasion. We tried doing the "Meatless Monday's" where the meal was completely vegetarian but it didn't work out to every Monday, too many vegetarian recipes taste like "side dishes" and not "meals." But this way the hubby sees you cooking out of this book and he'll assume there's meat in the dish even though he can't necessarily see it. 'Cause we all know Rachael is the queen of meat eaters. LOL. So the family is happy and you've gotten them to eat a little healthier with no one the wiser. The roasted garlic and tomato Ratatouille pasta dish was very good. I would recommend it for the company pot luck. Would be very tasty and still not rock your budget for the company dinner. All in all a lot better than several of her last cookbooks. Sell those on Ebay and purchase this one. You won't be disappointed.

Why the title? Ray herself says (Page 8): "It's orange simply because orange is my favorite color." Simple enough! This has the normal complement of 30 minute meals. However, there are some features to this volume that attracted me to order it: vegetarian meals, holiday menus, some recipes longer than 30 minutes (breaking out of one's mold is a plus to me), Kosher meals. The vegetarian is especially important for me now, since my family is asking me to develop some more vegetarian meals (more on this below). The recipes here are doable by amateur/wannabe chefs. From an earlier cookbook of hers, I found that I could make some tasty meals without a lot of heart palpitations. This cookbook is well over 300 pages long, so I don't aim to give a comprehensive detailed review (would take too many words). What I'd like to do here is focus on a few recipes and use these as examples of what this cookbook provides. The contents: 30-minute meals Entree burgers Vegetarian meals Kosher meals Meals for one A little more than 30 minutes--but worth it From my family to yours Starters and snacks Holiday menus 30-minute meals: "That's Shallota Flavor Spaghetti" (ugh for the bad pun!). A meatless pasta dish (consistent with my family's wishes). Extra virgin olive oil (what Ray calls EVOO), butter, garlic, shallots, salt and pepper, spaghetti (she calls for wheat, but that would not be necessary), parsley, and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. Very simple to make. I have not yet tried this, but looking at the recipe, this is a "can't miss" recipe. "Roasted Pork Tenderloins with Escalloped Apples." My family wants me to lay off pork tenderloin. But this recipe might change their minds! Lemon zest, Montreal steak seasoning, thyme, EVOO, pork tenderloins, butter, apples, salt, flour, lemon juice, and sugar. Another pretty straightforward recipe, and one that I hope can get my family to give pork tenderloin another chance! The section on burgers is pretty cool. Beside the standard beef-based recipes, there are turkey burgers and salmon burgers, etc. Some imaginative recipes here. As mentioned before, I have been empowered to develop more vegetarian recipes. One of those mentioned here is on next week's schedule of menus--"Popeye Risotto with Beefy Balsamic Mushrooms." Portabella mushrooms are at the heart of this recipe, along with balsamic vinegar. Another that is easy to make and, by the description, a can't miss dish (I don't need to cook something to know that the recipe will work)--"Jaw-Droppingly Delicious Asparagus Penne." Very tempting and a sure winner. Asparagus, penne pasta (whole wheat), EVOO, garlic, flour, vegetable stock, half-and-half, Dijon mustard, lemon zest, pepper, lemon, and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. As Ray would say, "Yum-O." I cook a lot of chicken dishes (lower cholesterol and fat). Here's a goodie. "Chicken cutlets and spaghetti with pepper and onions." Some pasta dishes that take more than 30 minutes. . . . "Elsa's Baked Ziti." And "B

If you watch Ray's show or have other cookbooks by the author, and you looked through Rachael Ray's Big Orange Book without glancing at the cover, you would immediately know it was hers. To begin with, it's loaded with her unique language--EVOO (extra virgin olive oil,) "sammies" (sandwiches,) and more. The largest section of the book is comprised of Ray's famous 30 minute meals. This section is broken down to soups & sammies, pasta, chicken, beef, ham & pork and fish. Ever since my husband got back from a business trip in California and told me about a delicious meal of fish tacos, I've been experimenting. So, when I saw "My-oh-mahi tacos," I had to try them. They were delicious! The best part was that the recipe has you first wrap the filling with a corn tortilla, then a flour one. I think the corn tortillas taste and texture are great, but I hate how they always break, spilling taco contents everywhere. With the flour tortilla wrapped around it, everyone plays nice and stays inside. There is a vegetarian chapter. Now, I assume if you are a vegetarian, you would not buy this book for the one chapter. However, be warned if you make Winter Greens Pasta for a vegetarian eater--the recipe calls for ANCHOVIES! Anchovies are FISH--therefore, this is not strictly a vegetarian dish. Other chapters include kosher, family recipes, entree burgers, starters and snacks, holiday menus and dishes that take more than 30 minutes to prepare. I also made Broken Florentine Lasagna Bake, because I love swiss char and am always looking for new ways to prepare it. This was very good and a very healthy meal. Recommend. By the author of the award winning book, HARMONIOUS ENVIRONMENT: BEAUTIFY, DETOXIFY & ENERGIZE YOUR LIFE, YOUR HOME & YOUR PLANET.