Average customer rating:
- Comment on Jaundice and breastfeeding
- FABULOUS book...
- A Must-Read for Moms
- It's not that hard & a great book on eczema.
- Great book!
|
Superimmunity for Kids : What to Feed Your Children to Keep Them Healthy Now, and Prevent Disease in Their Future
Leo Galland , and
Dian Dincin Buchman
Manufacturer: Dell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Pregnancy & Childbirth
| Women's Health
| Personal Health
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
| Baby Names
| Fertility
| Fetal Drug & Alcohol Syndrome
| General
| Sears, Dr. William
Pregnancy
| Special Conditions
| Diets & Weight Loss
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
Family Health
| Parenting & Families
| Subjects
| Books
Health & Nutrition
| Parenting
| Parenting & Families
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Parenting & Families
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
How to Raise a Healthy Child in Spite of Your Doctor
-
What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Children's Vaccinations
-
Smart Medicine for a Healthier Child
-
Vaccinations: A Thoughtful Parent's Guide: How to Make Safe, Sensible Decisions about the Risks, Benefits, and Alternatives
-
The Fat Resistance Diet: Unlock the Secret of the Hormone Leptin to: Eliminate Cravings, Supercharge Your Metabolism, Fight Inflammation, Lose Weight & Reprogram Your Body to Stay Thin-
Accessories:
-
Health o Meter HDC100-01 "Grow with Me" Teddy Bear Scale for Babies and Toddlers
-
Braun IRT 4020 ThermoScan Ear Thermometer
ASIN: 0440506794
Release Date: 1989-08-01 |
Customer Reviews:
Comment on Jaundice and breastfeeding.......2007-02-02
HI, I was just browsing through this book online and I came across the paragraph on jaundice and breastfeeding. This information was supremely inaccurate on this particular subject. The book says that breastfeeding makes jaundice worse and that you will have to stop nursing for your child to be cured of it. I am a very well read La Leche league member and breastfeeding is well known to reverse jaundice by helping your baby to excrete the bilirubin build up. The more often you nurse the faster your baby gets rid of the dead red blood cells. It is the best treatment for jaundice despite was this book says. Stopping brestfeeding during the crucial first weeks is dangerous for your baby's nutrition and immunity and bad for mom in terms of losing your milk supply and suffering engorgement or mastitis. Other than that topic I didn't read the rest of the book so it may otherwise be a good book.
FABULOUS book..........2007-01-17
We love this book. Except for the oysters (my kids just don't get into the texture), we follow everything on this book and our kids are SO MUCH healthier than their friends. They eat better at home AND they make healthier choices when they go to parties/events, as they are not used to so much sugar! I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking to help their kids improve their immunity through diet.
A Must-Read for Moms.......2007-01-06
I found two things to be most helpful about this book: 1) the information on the essential fatty acids that young children need in their diets from flax oil, evening primrose, cod liver oil, etc, especially if they have allergies; and 2) the specific doses of certain vitamins and minerals for each age group.
My son's allergies to milk and wheat are gone, in part, I believe because I introduced flaxseed oil into his diet nine months ago as result of reading this book. Flaxseed oil, I found is the easiest to incorporate into a young child's diet because it's readily available at health food stores and it doesn't have any taste. I generously poured it onto my son's oatmeal every morning and it provided a good source of fat for him and, in my opinion, played a role in eliminating his allergies. Evening primrose and cod liver oils were a little tougher to be consistent with, but if your child has severe allergies, it's a small price to pay for the potential positive outcome.
As for vitamins and minerals, Dr. Galland has specific recommendations for safe upper dosing levels for different age groups. (Who knew that a 2-3 year old can have up to 1000mg/day of vitamin C as long as his tummy will tolerate it?)
I also found the chapter on nutrition for pregnant and nursing moms to be really helpful (for example, too much of the mineral manganese in the mother's diet can be toxic to a nursing infant up to six weeks of age).
The main concern for me, however, had to do with Dr. Galland's recommendation for so much soy in children's diets. There has recently been much controversy over the safety of soy for kids because of the high amounts of isoflavones or naturally occuring plant-based estrogen. Babies on soy formula have been observed as young as three years old to go into puberty, it is believed, due to the estrogen in soy. [...] So I wonder if Dr. Galland were to write an updated or revised version of this book, if he would still recommend so much soy for children.
At any rate, the book is a brilliant reference point for moms and it's easy to pick and choose what is doable and helpful for your child and lifestyle. I consider it a valuable and insightful must-read for every mom. Thanks, Dr. Galland, for sharing your expertise on child nutrition. It's so refreshing to hear from nutritionally oriented MDs who don't resort to medication for every problem.
It's not that hard & a great book on eczema........2006-10-25
Why feed your kids something that actually depletes the nutrition you are trying so hard to give them [such as hydrogenated oils which prevent your child's body from absorbing other nutrients it needs]?
This book makes it clear what kid's need & what they don't need. I found the explanation of which vitamins/minerals can be too much - blocking absorption of other necessary nutrients - very helpful. Everyone I have turned on to the book has loved it!
Another thing I found helpful was the chapter on what to start feeding your 6 month - 1 yr. old. It lists what to start them on & what to hold off on & explains why. This is far more detailed than our pediatrician's information. The prenatal chapter is good as well & I wish I had this book when I was pregnant.
Especially easy & helpful is the information on which supplements are beneficail for your child's specific needs/problems like hyperactivey, yeast infections, eczema, cradle cap, fatigue, diabetes ect..
It's really not that hard. It's very basic nutritional information just well explained. It's really not difficult to feed your kids & yourself basic whole foods. Read the labels! You may quickly realize these are lifestyle changes that you want to make since it is so beneficial to your child's health & development of their brain, eyes, etc.
Great format & an easy read.
THIS IS THE BEST BOOK I HAVE FOUND ON ECZEMA FOR CHILDREN OR ADULTS.
I also recommend:
Chemical-Free Kids: How to Safeguard Your Child's Diet and Environment by Allan Magaziner, Linda Bonvie, and Anthony Zolezzi
This book better explains the importance of organic foods among other things.
Another great format & an easy read.
Great book!.......2005-10-19
I agree with one reviewer who said that it is difficult to pull off. But, I will still give this one 5 Stars. First I never knew how much important EFAs are and this book explains that well. Second it talks about tackling EFA and other mineral defficiencies for kids of various ages starting from Prenatal(pregnancy). I love the format in which this was written. Very easy to refer. My three and a half yr old is a very picky eater. I might not make her eat all the healthy stuff thats said in the book. But I started rubbing FLAX oil onto her skin, and her eczema is getting better.
The book also tells you about anti-nutrients. I now think a little before giving junk food to my kid. Recipes sound good but I never tried them yet. Hopefully I will get my kid to eat atleast a few of those. Highly recomment to parents who worry why your kid gets sick more often and suffers more than all the rest of the neighbourhood kids.
Amazon.com
Mark Bittman, award-winning author of such fundamental books as Fish and Leafy Greens and food columnist for the New York Times ("The Minimalist"), has turned in what has to be the weightiest tome of the year. There are more than 900 pages in this sucker--over 1,500 recipes! This isn't just the big top of cookbooks: it's the entire three-ring circus. This isn't just how to cook everything: it's how to cook everything you have ever wanted to have in your mouth. And then some.
Bittman starts with Roasted Buttered Nuts and Real Buttered Popcorn, and moves right along, section by section, from the likes of Black Bean Soup (eight different ways), to Beet and Fennel Salad, to Mussels (Portuguese-style over Pasta), to Cream Scones--and he hasn't even reached seafood, poultry, meat, or vegetables yet, let alone desserts. There are 23 sections in this cookbook (!) that reflect directly on the how-to of cooking, be that equipment, technique, or recipe.
Every inch of the way the reader finds Bittman's calm, helpful, encouraging voice. "Anyone can cook," he says at the beginning, "and most everyone should." More than a few college kids are going to head off to their first apartments with Bittman's book under arm. More than a few marriages will benefit with this book on the shelf. And anyone who loves cooking and the sound of a great food voice is going to enjoy letting this book fall open where it may. No matter what the page, it's bound to be a tasty and rewarding experience. --Schuyler Ingle
Book Description
Great Food Made Simple
Here's the breakthrough one-stop cooking reference for today's generation of cooks! Nationally known cooking authority Mark Bittman shows you how to prepare great food for all occasions using simple techniques, fresh ingredients, and basic kitchen equipment. Just as important,
How to Cook Everything takes a relaxed, straightforward approach to cooking, so you can enjoy yourself in the kitchen and still achieve outstanding results.
Praise for
How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman:
"In his introduction to
How to Cook Everything, Mark Bittman says, 'Anyone can cook, and most everyone should.' Now, hopefully everyone will -- this work is a rare achievement. Mark is in that pantheon of a few gifted cook/writers who make very, very good food simple and accessible. I read his recipes and my mouth waters. I read his directions and head for the kitchen. Bravo, Mark, for taking us away from take-out and back to the fun of food."
-- Lynne Rossetto Kasper, host of the international public radio show "The Splendid Table with Lynne Rossetto Kasper"
"Mark Bittman is the best home cook I know, and
How to Cook Everything is the best basic cookbook I've seen."
-- Jean-Georges Vongerichten, award-winning chef/owner of Jean-Georges
"Useful to the novice cook or the professional chef,
How to Cook Everything is a tour de force cookbook by Mark Bittman. Mark lends his considerable knowledge and clear, concise writing style to explanations of techniques and quick, classic recipes. This is a complete, reliable cookbook."
-- Jacques Pepin, chef, cookbook author, and host of his own PBS television series
"Sometimes all the things that a particular person does best come together in a burst of synergy, and the result is truly marvelous. This book is just such an instance. Mark Bittman is not only the best home cook we know, he is also a born teacher, a gifted writer, and a canny kitchen tactician who combines great taste with eminent practicality. Put it all together and you have
How to Cook Everything, a cookbook that will inspire American home cooks not only today but for years to come."
-- John Willoughby and Chris Schlesinger, coauthors of License to Grill
Customer Reviews:
Great reference book, recipes are a little mundane.......2007-09-04
I use this book all the time, when I'm looking for simple recipes to cook ingredients I have on hand. The recipes are all good and consistent, but none are really great. It's good as a one-stop reference book, but nothing exceptional
Today's Modern All-Purpose Cookbook.......2007-09-02
Along with Jean Anderson's THE NEW DOUBLEDAY COOKBOOK, Mark Bittman's HOW TO COOK EVERYTHING is it's contemporary equivalent as essential cookbook references. Not quite as detailed as Anderson, it is however, a big-fat, recipe-stuffed miracle of a book. Lately Bittman has begun to take himself far too seriously. He seems to revel in the fact that he isn't not a trained chef or didn't go to culinary school--that he is completely self taught. I don't care how he learned to cook. He's practical, intuitive, always on the prowl for good flavor in a dish, and has a reassuring and supportive voice as he guides the cook through a recipe. I also find I turn to Bittman as one of the final authorities on a classic recipe. Generally speaking he uses fewer ingredients, and his writing is so concise, I'm never in doubt. For instance--I recently was looking for a recipe for coffee ice cream that I wanted to adapt by adding one more ingredient. I tried a number of recipes in my collection for the best coffee ice cream before turning to Bittman, and his was by far, the best. Along with his weekly column of in The New York Times, HOW TO COOK EVERYTHING shows what a smart cook Bittman is, and I recommend it without any reservations.
Simple Recipes for Great Food.......2007-08-30
The subtitle really sums it up. This book just does not let me down, either for specific recipes or as a jumping-off point with ideas, techniques, ingredients, or menus. My only two negative points are: the binding is not of the highest quality; I had to buy myself a second copy after several years of heavy use, because the first one completely fell apart. And there is no conversion table (as in, "3 tbs = 1/4 c" etc). But this book really is worth 5 stars. It's a good housewarming gift too.
excellent reference.......2007-07-27
Good cookbook to get as a reference, particularly for veggies and fruits. The bread making section is also great. Gives a lot of tips for using the food processor as well. No pictures of finished products prevents from getting 5 stars.
An Essential Cookbook.......2007-07-24
Easy to read, full of great recipes and tons of food trivia. There's also a section in the back with quick-fix meals and suggested menus for different occasions.
The style of the book is great for a beginner OR for someone looking to have a go-to recipe for just about anything. A fabulous resource for any kitchen.
Book Description
Make a quick home-cooked meal tonight!
Ziti with Creamy Gorgonzola Sauce. Shrimp Marinara. Broiled or Grilled Chicken with Pesto. Stir-Fried Spicy Beef with Basil. With How to Cook Everythingâ¢: Quick Cooking, great-tasting, satisfying dishes like these can be made in 30 minutes or less!
Mark Bittman, the award-winning author of the bestselling kitchen classic How to Cook Everythingâ¢, shares his favorite simple-and infinitely flexible-quick recipes. You'll be able to prepare family-pleasing everyday meals, spur-of-the-moment dinners for friends, even special-occasion feasts. To inspire you and help you plan your meals, you'll find Bittman's straight talk on cooking and special features, including:
- Creative recipe variations and ideas
- Tips for shopping, preparing, and cooking the recipes
- Illustrations to demystify trickier techniques
- Menu suggestions for a Weeknight Family Dinner Classic, an Elegant Dinner Party, and more
- At-a-glance icons highlighting recipes done in 20 minutes or less
Customer Reviews:
This is a repackaging of the original material, but I'm OK with that.......2006-10-16
Unlike many readers, I was somewhat uncomfortable with the heft and bulk of Bittman's original master tome, "How To Cook Everything". Somehow the prospect of having to search through 1000 recipes and several hundred pages for a review of some half-remembered shred of information daunted me, and I couldn't see how the book, as packaged, could hold up to the physical wear and tear of daily cooking. (See some reviewers' remarks about problems with the binding of the Big Book). So I was actually very pleased to see the author and publisher break out these smaller recompilations based around themes like "The Basics" and "Quick Cooking". I have both these smaller tomes on my shelves and find them easy to work with and employ.
One thing I've noticed about Bittman (I also have "The Minimalist Cooks DInner", and "The Minimalist At Home") is that many of these recipes are perhaps more "miminalist" than they really ought to be. Einstein once said that "things should be made as simple as possible but no simpler". There is no question that Mark Bittman knows what he is doing in the kitchen, but many of his recipes seem to skew in favor of convenience and simplicity instead of flavor and texture, and if you don't really know what you are doing, his terse directions can sometimes leave you with a 2nd rate (but still edible) dish. Even so, there are enough bits of helpful lore and advice casually sprinkled throughout his books that anyone who pays attention will improve overall in their knowledge and skills as a cook. For instance, in his recipe for a beef stir-fry, Bittman remarks about "the holy trinity of beef, onions, and ginger"; I read that and said to myself "...Yeah. YEAH. That's absolutely right, and I never thought of it quite like that!".
Many reviewers have remarked on Bittman's "calm, encouraging voice", and I think this is the true virtue of "Quick Cooking" as well. Bittman is like an older brother showing you the ropes in the kitchen, casually mentioning ideas and concepts and combinations as he goes along. In that sense, reading Bittman is more like getting a "brain dump" on his approach to cooking than a structured pedagoical work; it tends to leaves out a lot of contextual detail that might help the less skilled and intuitive kitchen mongers among us climb further up the learning curve.
On the other hand, I am never afraid to at least TRY one of his recipes, no matter how imposing it may seem at first glance. And even if I screw up, (you should have seen my first attempt at "Bangers and Mash"!) there will almost always be enough to enjoy about the results that you will probably decide to give it another shot.
Well worth owning if you don't mind the concept of repackaged material and you don't already have the original magnum opus.
Bookselling Gimmick not worthy of Author's Reputation.......2004-04-17
Mark Bittman, a widely recognized and respected cookbook author and New York Times food columnist, has succumbed to greed. He and his publishers have split up his very well received book `How to Cook Everything' into several separate pieces and is charging for the pieces more than the price of the original book. This volume, `Quick Cooking' is one of the pieces.
The author and the publisher are not trying to hide this fact, although I suspect they will not shed a tear if you buy the book with the impression that this is new material.
On the surface, I am sure they will rationalize that they are doing their readers a service by providing parts of this very good book at a lower list price than the whole book. This is pure hokum. The original book is a very good contribution to the genre of `If you own only one cookbook, this would be it' cookbook. So, why would I want to buy only part of that book? If I want a book on basics, I would do much better to buy Alton Brown's `I'm Only Here for the Food'. If I want a book on quick cooking, I suspect one of Rachael Ray's books will be better AND cheaper.
Speaking of Herr Doktor Brown, he and his Food Network colleague Ina Garten seem to have caught the same case of avarice in that they have had knockoff volumes published with artwork which is based on their best-selling volumes, but which contain cut rate material, or maybe even no material. They are selling pure hype.
I have a great amount of respect for all three of these authors. I have even met Alton Brown and find him a truly gracious gentleman who deserves all good fortune and celebrity he can garner. But I do not wish these authors to put out products that some people can easily buy under a false expectation fostered by the product's marketing.
Do not buy this book. Buy the complete `How to Cook Everything' and be done with it.
The answer to my prayers!!.......2003-09-03
This book has great recipes and ideas for making satisfying meals with real food in 30 minutes or less. It's for cooks with busy schedules. Includes 90 easy-to-follow quick recipes.
Book Description
Join Mark Bittman as he takes on the nation's top chefs in a culinary battle of home-style vs. restaurant style!
"Mark knows food. Mark knows chefs. Chefs know Mark.You know this has gotta be a great cookbook!"
—Al Roker, Host, NBC's Today show
The Chefs Who Took the Challenge
- JOSÉ ANDRÉS, Zaytinya/Washington, D.C.
- DANIEL BOULUD, Daniel/New York
- JAMES BOYCE, Studio/Laguna Beach
- GARY DANKO, Restaurant Gary Danko/San Francisco
- SUZANNE GOIN, Lucques and A.O.C./Los Angeles
- GABRIELLE HAMILTON, Prune/New York
- ANNA KLINGER, Al di Là/New York
- CHARLES PHAN, The Slanted Door/San Francisco
- MICHEL RICHARD, Citronelle/Washington, D.C.
- SUVIR SARAN, Devi/New York
- CHRIS SCHLESINGER, East Coast Grill & Raw Bar/Boston-Cambridge
- KERRY SIMON, Simon Kitchen & Bar/Las Vegas
- JEAN-GEORGES VONGERICHTEN, Jean-Georges/New York
Customer Reviews:
A smorgasbord of great chefs and Bittman's simplicity too! .......2005-06-30
The time may yet come this summer when you tire of the same old steak, burgers and chicken on the barbecue and yearn for something a little different. Like Lemongrass-Grilled Rack of Lamb with Tamarind Sauce, perhaps, or Grilled Tuna with Soy, Wasabi, and Pickled Ginger or a Lobster Burger involving scallops, ginger mayonnaise and Tomato Confit.
These are restaurant-style chef dishes, of course, and Bittman's responses, intended to show how simple, home-cooked food can be just as enjoyable are, respectively: Grilled Squid with Black Pepper and Sesame-Lemon Sauce, Tuna Teriyaki, and a Lobster Roll, served with melted butter on a hot dog bun.
It's a gimmicky idea, but fun, even if the connections sometimes seem farfetched (rack of lamb vs. squid?). Bittman, author of "The Minimalist" column as well as many books, adheres to a simplify-without-sacrifice philosophy and consequently is wildly popular with busy but serious home cooks. This book accompanies Bittman's public television series and includes short profiles of the 13 chefs, their restaurants and their dishes juxtaposed with Bittman's responses.
Sidebars include some of the show's repartee as well as cooking tips (like Jean-Georges Vongerichten's subtle use of cayenne instead of black pepper to season fish) and Bittman's variations, simplifications, explanations and suggestions for home cooks who want to prepare the chefs' signature dishes (Gary Danko's Duck Confit and Potato Hash as template for croquettes of many kinds; choosing lemons or persimmons, making shrimp shell stock, clarifying butter).
The chefs run the gamut from classical French (Daniel Boulud, Michel Richard) to Vietnamese (Charles Phan), Spanish (Jose Andres), Indian (Suvir Saran) and various trendy Americans (Kerry Simon, Anna Klinger, James Boyce). Some are young, some well established; all are confident and opinionated.
Illustrated with shots taken from the TV show, this is a clever, energetic book which offers a smorgasbord of the nation's leading cooks and an expert home cook's take on a wide range of recipes and techniques.
Ignore the "Challenge" Try the Recipes.......2005-06-07
The basic premise of this book is that the recipies concocted by the author featuring simple down to earth cooking can compete with the chefs from fancy four star restaurants.
Each "challenge" resents a chef's special dish followed by Bittman's more accessible interpretation. My conclusion is that "No, they don't compete." The basic rules are too different. Instead, what the guest chef cooks and what the author cooks are two different dishes. In looking over the recipies, sometimes I would prefer one, sometimes the other, often both sound like they would be good to eat --Example: A chef cooked Baked Stuffed Crab, Bittman cooked crab soup. Not the same disk, but I could handle either one but the baked one sounds better.
This book is the companion to a series of TV shows where these "challenges" will be shown. Here you have the recipe and you can cook either one or both at your leisure. The challenge part is just part of the TV show. The recipes are what count.
Good Idea with some good recipes.......2005-05-20
The idea of presenting complex and time consuming recipes from renowned chefs along side simplified versions is a great one. Bittman falls a little short in this regard since his recipes are not simplifications or variations in most cases, but a different recipe with similar main ingredients and a similar effect.
This aside, I like the cook book and have been pleased with the results from the recipes I have tried, especailly the Apple Confit, an impressive and time consuming dessert.
The food inside is good, so all other complaints are just nit-picking.
WTP?!?.......2005-05-10
What's The Point? It's a cookbook where half the recipes are from well-reknowned chefs exposing their true form, and the other half are Bittman's adulterated versions that are nothing like the original. In some he doesn't have the same method or technique; in others he doesn't even use the same base ingredient. It's like comparing apples to motor oil. Complex to Simple? Of course it's simple if you remove 90 percent of what was in the original! You cannot compare a grilled version of a protein dish to a sauteed version of another no matter how much you try to spin it.
And the photos are the worst I've ever seen for a major release of a cookbook. They are still photos taken from the video shoot while they were in the kitchens. Some of the photos have big block squares; the tell-tale sign of how the digital rendering couldn't be made. Take any .jpg file and blow it up 1,000 percent and you'll see exactly the results printed in this book.
Very disappointed.
Good Insights into Pro / Home Cooking.Flawed but Good Read.......2005-04-07
`How to Cook Everything, Bittman Takes on America's Chefs' by New York Times culinary journalist, Mark Bittman is another step in turning his `How to Cook Everything' into a brand and by raising expectations for what one may find in this book. Bittman certainly raised my expectations high enough to buy it immediately upon seeing the name of the author and the subject.
Contrary to my glib title to this review, this book is much less a real cooking competition between Bittman and famous chefs than it is a `cover story' for a foodie book genre which may have been created by Julia Child late in her PBS career. The underlying structure is that the host, a journalist / cookbook author as with Bittman or Child or a famous chef, as in the case of Jeremiah Tower, visits each `FAMOUS CHEF' in their restaurant kitchens or similar venue and cook some stuff. In the case of Julia Child, the focus was strictly on the cuisine of the visiting fireman. Bittman tweaks the premise by adding his own home cooking dishes to match up with the efforts of the professional. Then, with no judges or time clocks in evidence, each samples the other's dishes.
One of the first revelations in this book is that Bittman admits to not being a very good cook himself. While this is very interesting, it is not surprising, as Jim Villas in his `Between Bites' essay on Craig Claiborne, states that the great New York Times culinary writer was pretty deliberate in the kitchen himself (a kind way of saying `slow'). I believe it is fair to say that this certainly does not mean Bittman or Claiborne don't know food and cooking. It means that they have not spent years cooking the same dishes over and over and they have not spend decades practicing their knife skills to the point where they can reduce an onion to a fine dice in seconds. In contrast, Chris Schlesinger describes Bittman's knife skills with an onion as an exercise in `hacking'.
My anticipation and enthusiasm for the book grew as I started reading about the differences between home and professional cooking. I have seen it said before, but never with such force, that while many restaurant dishes simply cannot be done in the home, the opposite is true as well. There are some dishes that simply cannot be made as well in a restaurant as they can at home. The primary advantage of the restaurant kitchen are the very hot heat sources, either as oven, wok, or grill plus specialized forms of heat such as salamanders and Indian tandoori ovens. Other advantages are the battalion of prep chefs and the access to very high quality ingredients (See the excellent essay on this matter in `Kinkead's Cookbook'). The home cook has the advantage of time. If a dish requires a long cooking time followed by immediate delivery to the dinner table, a restaurant simply cannot make it. All restaurant dishes must be prepped up to the final step, where ingredients sit in preparation to be fired and completed in no more than 20 minutes.
So now I have read the introduction on how Bittman collected his collaborators, starting with old friends such as Daniel Boulud and Chris Schlesinger and ending with long time collaborator Jean-Georges Vongerichten. In between, he visits ten other major culinary stars such as Michel Richard and up and coming luminaries such as Kerry Simon. The anecdotes in this intro have honed my anticipation for the descriptions of the cooking. So now, I get to the section entitled `The Chefs and The Dishes' and am puzzled by tables of dish names by venue and chef. The reason for this section is explained as I turn to page 33 with the title `Starters' and find that all the recipes are arranged by type of dish. I am as deflated as a souffle when the oven door opens too early!
Bittman has raised my expectations of tales of culinary rapport to a high peak, only to dash them on an organization of recipes that totally swims against the main premise of his book. When I reviewed Jeremiah Tower's similar book, I was pleased with his arranging the recipes by type or course, since this improved the value of the book as a conventional reference cookbook. I expected that Bittman's premise would make an organization by chef the best choice, as this would best highlight all the differences between Bittman's home style and the chef's professional style in the four to six dishes the two cooks prepare together. It would also be an effective way to compare, for example, the French classicism of Vongerichten and Richard against the Spanish new wave cooking of Jose Andres. But this was not to be. What made it worse is that `The Chefs and The Dishes' outline did not give page numbers pointing to all the recipes of, for example Daniel Boulud. As I check the publisher, somehow I am not surprised to find that it is Wiley Publishing, the same house that does a slipshod job of editing the CIA books. Never have I more wanted to be a book editor in a position to prevent this mistake. Given my reaction to the book, it seems as if there was no senior editor at Wiley who sat down and looked over the whole project and did not see the weaknesses in the design of the book.
After all that, this is still a very good foodie read, similar to `Kinkead's Cookbook'. Just as Bob Kinkead has thousands of cookbooks, but has never prepared a dish directly from one of these recipes, this is a book you want to read from cover to cover and garner as many insights about techniques as you can. The sidebars and headnotes are full of useful and entertaining information, but the book could have been much better!
Book Description
Mark Bittman’s New York Times column, “The Minimalist,” is one of the most frequently clipped parts of the paper’s Dining section. For Bittman’s millions of fans who regularly pore over their clippings, here is reason to rejoice: A host of Bittman’s wonderfully delicious and easy recipes, 350 in all, are now available in a single paperback.
In sections that cover everything from appetizers, soups, and sauces to meats, vegetables, side dishes, and desserts, Mark Bittman’s Quick and Easy Recipes from The New York Times showcases the elegant and flexible cooking style for which Bittman is famous, as well as his deep appreciation for fresh ingredients prepared with minimal fuss. Readers will find tantalizing recipes from all over, each requiring little more than basic techniques and a handful of ingredients. Cold Tomato Soup with Rosemary, Parmesan Cups with Orzo Risotto, Slow-Cooked Ribs, Pumpkin Panna Cotta—the dishes here are perfect for simple weeknight family meals or stress-free entertaining.
Certain to appeal to anyone—from novices to experienced cooks—who wants to whip up a sophisticated and delicious meal easily, this is a collection to savor, and one destined to become a kitchen classic.
Customer Reviews:
"The Minimalist Cooks" v2.0 is a great value.......2007-05-27
This book appears to be contain the recipes from two previous NYT recipe compilations by Mark Bittman, "The Minimalist Cooks Dinner" and "The Minimalist Cooks At Home", possibly along with some new material (the cover copy also says it contains "The Minimalist Entertains", which I never got). I no longer have my copies of those Bittman books, so it is hard to certain. Since those collections were $25 hard backs and this is a $19 trade paperback, the savings are obvious, and any Bittman fan who doesn't have the "Minimalist" books will want to pick this up posthaste. The one draw back is that the design for this collection isn't as plush - no food photography, and no shiny pages. I also can't say how much overlap exists between the NYT "Minimalist" columns and "How To Cook Everything", since I don't have the Big Book (I was doing fine with the two "Minimalist" collections I had before they were lost in a move). Readers with a limited budget or minimal shelf space may need to compare this book with HTCE (and possibly "The Greatest Recipes In The World") to see if they really need or want this book.
But boy, I sure did like my two "Minimalist Cooks" collections, so I am delighted to have this compilation. Bittman makes even formidable sounding dishes sound approachable and his calm, spare, economical style makes me want to break out the pots and knives and have at the recipes without delay.
Some people might bridle at this as another "repackaging" of the Bittman brand name, but this particular collection just makes me happy.
Book Description
Cook something special this weekend!
Classic Beef Stew. Bread Pudding. Lamb Shanks with Tomatoes and Olives. Chocolate Mousse. Weekends are when you can indulge yourself a little, and with How to Cook Everythingâ¢: Easy Weekend Cooking, you can enjoy making delicious comfort food favorites and exciting specialty dishes.
Mark Bittman, the award-winning author of the bestselling kitchen classic How to Cook Everythingâ¢, shares his favorite simple-and infinitely flexible-weekend recipes. You'll be able to prepare bountiful brunches, fun outdoor meals, family feasts, even dinner parties. To inspire you and help you plan your meals, you'll find Bittman's straight talk on cooking and special features, including:
- Creative recipe variations and ideas
- Tips for shopping, preparing, and cooking the recipes
- Illustrations to demystify trickier techniques
- Menu suggestions for a Lunch Buffet, a Summer Weekend Cookout, a Weekend Dinner with Good Friends, and more
- At-a-glance icons highlighting recipes also good for weekdays
Customer Reviews:
Does it get any better than this??.......2003-09-03
This new cookbook offers 90 weekend entertaining and make-ahead recipes. 90!!! How to Cook Everything: Easy Weekend Cooking shows the reader the easy way to shop for, prepare, and cook every recipe. I'm thrilled to own it.
Book Description
Hundreds of indispensable recipes and cooking tips can be found in this unique calendar, based on the best-selling book, How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. The calendar pages are removable 4" x 6" recipe cards that you can store in the sturdy calendar box or in your own recipe files, carry to the store, and share with others. Each card features such essential info as how to roast the perfect chicken, the basics of broiling, or how to cook a hard-boiled egg.
The patented Easy Fold-a-Round box is perfect for storing favorite recipe cards and includes perforated monthly and category dividers to use throughout the year.
Books:
- Temptation's Kiss
- The Avengers and the Thunderbolts
- The Baby Book: Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two (Revised and Updated Edition)
- The Bible for Dummies
- The Chronicles of Amber I and II: Nine Princes in Amber, the Guns of Avalon, Sign of the Unicorn, the Hand of Oberon, and the Courts of Chaos
- The Coconut Oil Miracle (Previously published as The Healing Miracle of Coconut Oil)
- The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life
- The DASH Diet Action Plan: Based on the National Institutes of Health Research: Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension
- The Day the Voices Stopped: A Schizophrenic's Journey from Madness to Hope
- The Lavalite World
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Site Engineering for Landscape Architects
- Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance
- Film Directors, 16th Edition
- Gardening in the Lower Midwest: A Practical Guide to the New Zones 5 and 6
- History: Fiction or Science
- Marketing Metrics: 50+ Metrics Every Executive Should Master
- ISO 14000 Guide: The New International Environmental Management Standards
- Mushrooms of the Adirondacks: A Field Guide
- From the Indian Kickapoo Reservation to the Bright City Lights
- Estonia Business & Investment Opportunities Yearbook