Sara's Secrets for Weeknight Meals

This cookbook is great, I use it constantly. The recipes are very clear and she really pays attention to the details, which makes all the difference. Plus they are unique without being too unique, if you know what I mean (my kids will still eat the food!) Some of my favorites are the pork tournedos, the southwestern sweet potatoes, basically the whole salads chapter, escarole and white bean soup, keema matar... okay I have a lot of favorites. Am thinking of buying this cookbook as a christmas present for someone because I've had such luck with it. Only complaint is some of the ingredients can be hard to find, but that's probably because I live in a rural area and so grocery store options are limited.

If you don't have perfect eyesight, don't buy this wonderful cook's latest book. I agree with all the raves from other reviewers about the content, but I'm having to strain and squint to read the text, which is in alternating pale beige and pale green type. The ingredient lists are set in even paler shades of those colors. It appears to be a case of a graphic designer's aesthetic sense running amok over the user's need for easy readability in the kitchen.

This is an excellent cookbook, especially at the price (200 recipes for less than 20 bucks!). Sara, while classically trained as a chef, has a good grasp on what your average home cook is capable of, both time-wise and technique-wise. Her recipes are things that your family will actually eat and that you'll be able to afford - no truffle-braised jaw of chilean seabass with balsamic pomegranate reduction here. The book is filled with useful tips about ingredients and cooking methods, and the recipes are clearly well-tested... as far as I can tell, they all work! Learning to cook from Sara Moulton seems a lot like what learning to cook from your mother should be.... and for those of us who are children of the '70s and '80s and had working moms who almost never cooked, that is a real blessing! Well done, Ms. Moulton!

`Sara's Secrets for weeknight meals' goes part of the way to explaining why author, Sara Moulton has been absent from new episodes of shows on the Food Network. While her content on her various shows never impressed me quite as much as my favorites, Mario Batali and Alton Brown, she was always next in line, especially after `In Martha's Kitchen' left the Food Network when Ms. Martha took her little enforced vacation in a federal prison. Much of my appreciation for Sara's shows was based on her being the protégé of the great Julia Child, but even more was based on her great personality on the air. She seemed to have none of the more annoying tics or mannerisms of Emeril, Rachael, Paula, or Tyler, even though I have much respect for the latter three of these hosts' shows and books. I actually liked Sara's earlier one hour `Cooking Live' show than I did the later half hour `Sara's Secrets' show, as, like Martha's show, I really liked the guests on both shows. This seems to be a feature that has disappeared from Food Network shows except for an occasional appearance on `Emeril Live'. `Sara's Secrets' also seemed to be misnamed, as the show was rarely about basic technique. It was all about doing three dishes at home for a typical meal. And, that being so, the `make ahead' aspect of the show seemed to be a bit bogus, as making ahead for Wednesday would take up time you need to make dinner on Monday and Tuesday. The `make ahead' plans seemed to be useful only if you were entertaining, but the quantities were rarely for more than four to six people, so it really wasn't `entertaining' quantities, except on a few special shows dedicated to parties. Therefore, I was just a bit skeptical about what I will find in this new book. I am very happy to say that the book gives us everything I liked about Sara Moulton's TV shows, and very little of what I did not like. As Sara says in her introduction, her first book was simply a collection of all her favorite recipes she cooked at home, with no concern for how long it took to make the dishes. This book is dedicated to `200 recipes for quick and easy dinners', including timings for how long it will take in active and total time to prepare the dishes. In spite of the fact that Sara is poaching on Rachael Ray's territory, this book could not be more different from Rachael's breathless, neologistic style. Being the culinary professional she is, the book is much more like Jacques Pepin's excellent recent book, `Fast Food My Way'. Every recipe is lovingly framed with excellent headnotes on the source of the recipe and ways in which it can fit into a meal with other dishes plus very good tips after some recipes on selected ingredients such as nuts and spices. I recommend this book especially to those who have few cookbooks and may have few cooking skills, but as someone, who has reviewed upwards of 500 cookbooks, I still found important tips and suggestions in this book. Most were not so much a totally new idea as a

Moulton talks about the comments she heard while publizing her last book "Sarah Moulton Cooks at Home". Most of them were about wanting to cook those recipes but not finding time. Moulton was puzzled, thinking these are favorite recipes, but not much time expended on thinking about required minutes to prepare. She goes on to recall how she discovered her need for the same, great food without much fuss for weeknight craziness. Thus, this volume of some two hundred such recipes. They are organized well into common groupings: soups, salads, poultry, etc. She gathers with international flair and flavor, which should help expand many weeknight chef's cusine range. Ingredients are not difficult, given access to normal supermarket pantry offering, however she provides internet and mailorder sourcing as well. There is good section on pantry stocking, as well this collection doesn't take the mese en place attitude, but one that I've followed, doing some things in what would otherwise be down time, waiting for such and such step to be completed. Also, upfront she lists her assumptions which one would do well do peruse and return to on occasion, e.g. "eggs are large; vanilla extract is pure" etc. Time is given for each recipe in two categories: hands-on and total prep. Found absolutely attractive were such as: "Charred Tomato, Chicken and Tortilla Soup"; Mexican Chicken Salad; Brie, Bacon and Spaghetti Frittata; Annie's Favorite Pasta (Cartwheel Pasta wiht Breakfast Sausage and Creamy Tomato Sauce; Thanksgiving Hens; Baked Fish with Horseradish Crust;Potato-Crusted Salmon with Red Wine Sauce; Asian Spiced Roasted Baby Carrots; Radish and Orange Salad with Peppery Orange Dressing; Meditteranean Orzo Pilaf; Blueberry Yogurt Pie. As evident, too many good recipes here. One wants and likely will try many of them, so this purchase represents valuable collection. Even accomplished chef will thrive on this, weeknight exciting food with quick prep. Hats off to Broadway Books of Random House for this stylish offering which rivals Clarston-Potter and Ten Speed Press for good paperstock, clean design and magnificent fourcolor photos. This is destined to be bigseller. Buy one for yourself, then give one to friends, family, etc. Weeknight excellence will be spread without sacrifice of our busy over-scheduled lives.