Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food: Fresh Flavor Fast

Food Junta has been a rewarding experience for me in so many ways. I mean that in the sentimental, oh-it’s-so-rewarding sense, but I also mean it in a concrete sense: Free stuff.

Not that much of it, but a little, including a few cookbooks. I want to share my thoughts on these books with you – and to keep getting free stuff – but I also want to be careful in navigating the potential ethical issues at play here, so I’ve come up with a little policy. It’s mine, not FJ’s, so you can think I’m a shill if you want, but Claire maintains her integrity. My ethical policy has two parts: First, I promise that when I discuss a book or product I’ve gotten for free, I will very clearly disclose that fact. Second, since I don’t really consider myself an authority on much of anything, I won’t do real reviews. Instead, I’ll recommend anything that comes my way that I think you, the loyal reader, might be interested in. Sound fair? Here we go:

Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food: Fresh Flavor Fast (which I received for free from the publisher)  is a welcome addition to my cookbook shelf. It has good recipes and gorgeous full-page pictures, but the reason I really like this book is that it is an extremely well-curated collection of dishes. Weighing in at 250 recipes, the book is actually pretty concise as cookbooks go, but that just makes choosing something to cook all that much easier. And I haven’t found any bad choices yet…

I’ve been using this cookbook for a few months now, and I am quite pleased. I already told you how good the Chicken and Dumplings and the Chicken, Edamame, and Udon Stirfry recipes are, and there’s lots more here worth your while. The second in her “Everyday Food” series (the first is subtitled Great Food Fast), the book is obviously marketed as a guide to quick and easy meals. But the recipes all reflect a good balance between quality and convenience. The recipes are simple dishes with a minimum of ingredients, not weird casseroles using prepared foods.

I described the book as “well-curated,” and here’s what I mean by that: There’s been a trend in cookbooks recently toward the encyclopedic. The most obvious example is Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything, which comes surprisingly close to delivering on its titular promise. I love HTCE, and it will always have a prime position on my bookshelf. But the problem with these gargantuan cookbooks is that they don’t really work when you want a book to flip through for inspiration. There aren’t many pictures – if any – and there are just too many recipes. Fresh Flavor Fast, on the other hand, is perfect for this purpose. There aren’t thousands of recipes here, but the 250 that are included are well-chosen and intriguing. Every time I pick this book up, I find something new I want to make, and that, ladies and gentlemen, is a good thing.

My only real complaint about the book is that the binding comes apart almost immediately, but a well-loved cookbook is a beat-up cookbook, so I don’t really mind. Plus, it’s actually kind of nice to be able to take a page out of the book rather than trying to keep the whole thing propped open. So: Really not a big deal.

With clear descriptions of basic cooking techniques, Everyday Food: Fresh Flavor Fast is a great guide for the kitchen novice and with creative recipes for easy weekday meals, it’s a good resource for everyone else as well. Consider it shilled.