The Carefree Cook

by Rick Rodgers

The Carefree Cook introduces a new, relaxed way of cooking from an award-winning star of the culinary classroom. Rick Rodgers, author of the “101” cookbook series (Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Barbecues) and many other cookbooks, presents more than 150 recipes that busy home cooks will love, both for their ease and their flavor.Many home cooks’ palates have reached lofty levels of sophistication, but the amount of time and energy available for cooking has plummeted. With that in mind, Rick Rodgers has come up with a brilliant solution.In his most comprehensive book to date, Rodgers replaces stress and fuss with creativity and ease. While Rodgers has included numerous quick ideas in this collection, he believes “slow food” has a place in the kitchen of the busiest home cook, so many of his selections simmer and roast at a leisurely pace while the cook does something else—or nothing at all. Written in Rodgers’s appealingly irreverent style, each of the 150 recipes in The Carefree Cook draws dazzling flavor from just a handful of ingredients. What’s for dinner? Rodgers has compiled an enticing array of entrées, including meat, fish, chicken, pasta, and vegetarian Pork Tenderloin with Lime Butter Sauce, Halibut with Herbed Oil, Grilled Five-Spice Chicken, Bucatini Carbonara with Zucchini, and Santa Fe Corn Pudding, to name just a few. Soups, salads, and hot and hearty main-dish sandwiches (Potato and Roasted Red Pepper Soup, Carrot Slaw with Miso Vinaigrette, Bistro Skirt Steak Sandwich) can be mixed and matched for satisfying suppers.

To make life even easier he supplies what he calls “bonus recipes.” These are based on making larger quantities of a dish that can serve as the basis for future meals. Thus a meat stew can turn up as a pasta sauce later in the week with the addition of crushed tomatoes and some extra simmering, or a large roast chicken can be the basis of a chicken casserole the following night. He also provides the easiest and best recipes for sweets he has collected over the years, including Rocky Road Chocolate Cake, “Faux” Peach Tarte Tatin, and Banana Streusel Coffee Cake. Every recipe is conveyed in the realistic, detailed format that has won Rodgers so many fans.A down-to-earth approach to fine cooking, The Carefree Cook will give even the most inexperienced novice in the kitchen the confidence to cook well and have a good time doing it.

Genres: Cookbooks

352 pages, Hardcover

First published October 14, 2003

Reviews

[Kellea · Rating 3 out of 5]

While The Carefree Cook has a very appealing cover and very what looks to be mouthwatering and fairly easy to follow recipes, I'm a little disappointed in the lack of vivid color photos to match the recipes. There are a few photos sporadically placed throughout the book, but not enough for me. This cookbook reminds me more of at textbook rather than a modern cookbook, it's like I feel like I should be enrolled in a class in order to even be able to follow along and that I'm going to get reading assignments and quizzes every week. Perhaps that's what the author was going for, in the old school manner of a traditional cookbook like The Joy of Cooking and others, you know, as if to say, "if you are a serious cook, you don't need pictures". Well, call me old fashioned but I am a serious cook and I do enjoy kid-friendly color photos on every page of a cookbook so that I can see just how a recipe should look.

Otherwise, The Carefree Cook has some great recipes and I would probably consider adding the book to my collection....eventually.

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