LITTLE ROCK — If the release of the movie Julie & Julia has you wanting to know more about Julia Child's cooking, especially the basics, the recently re-released paperback edition of Julia's Kitchen Wisdom by Julia Child ($14.95, Knopf) is worth checking out. Novice cooks will likely find the 160-page cookbook less intimidating than some of Child's other cookbooks. Originally, the book was a companion to the PBS cooking show of the same name and is based on Child's cooking notebooks. The recipes focus on the basics, with each chapter featuring a "master recipe," then variations.
There are also plenty of tips and advice, for example, how to pass off canned chicken broth as homemade and how to fix a broken sauce.
And on the other end of the cooking spectrum is Super Market Shortcuts, Shop Smart!
365 Recipes to Save Time and Money from Better Homes and Gardens ($19.95, Wiley). The 400-plus-page, spiral-bound cookbook is packed with recipes, cooking tips, meal planning advice, shopping tips and a handful of color photographs all centered on serving a "home-cooked" dinner in a time-crunched world.
Chapters include Shortcuts to Supper; One Grocery Bag: Five Meals; Make Now, Serve Later; and Workday Dinners (meals that are on the table in 30 minutes or less) with recipes for such favorites as Italian, Chinese, Mexican and dessert.
Also included is a list of 10 items to keep on hand that will make seven dinners. Most of the recipes rely on at least one "convenience" food such as packaged beef or chicken stirfry strips, frozen vegetables, deli-roasted chicken, canned beans or condensed soup.
Food, Pages 34 on 08/26/2009