The Best of Chef at Home: Essential Recipes for Today's Kitchen

After owning Michael Smith's first book for some time (and buying extra copies for Christmas presents) I was so glad to see this newer, updated version from his series " Chef At Home." If you own the first Chef at Home book you will find some recipe repeats, but there are so many new recipes that you won't be disappointed. I like his relaxed and informal approach to a recipe, each one contains a sidebar for variations of ingredients and each one that we have tried is easy to prepare and relies on straightforward ingredients that we can readily find in our rural area. So far I can report that the Southwestern Red Beans and Rice were outstanding, the Steakhouse Mushroom Stew was so good that we didn't leave enough for a good lunch of leftovers, the chocolate chip cookies are terrific and we have two more dishes planned all for one week's worth of dinners. And we've only owned the book for a little over a week. I hesitated a little at the secondary market price tag, but the book is well worth it. I can't remember planning and cooking this many recipes out of a new book in this short a time.