Rating: 
Summary: The book that got me back to scrumptious meals
Review: After years of cooking lovely, but-oh-so-hard-to-do, meals I got burnt out. Then for nearly 8 years I just snacked; I didn't want to even make a salad because that was too much bother. This is the cookbook (given to me by a well-meaning friend)that got me back to making delicious meals. They are easy, healthy, no-fuss and absolutely mouth-watering. I've made most of the recipes in the book and though I have my favorites, there aren't any that I didn't like or thought was too difficult. I'm buying a copy for a friend who has a boat and needs easy meals for a family of 4 that can be made in a tiny cabin kitchenette. This is the cookbook for her and I'm sure many others will enjoy it too.
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Summary: A must for any cook
Review: As an owner of many cook books I have found this one the most convienient by far for a quick and satisfying pasta meal. The flavor combinations are new and tasty. Ingredients can be subsitued for low and fat free meals.
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Summary: No-Cook Pasta Sauces
Review: Best book of recipes I've found for truly good and nourishing meals that can be prepared in a jiffy. If you are vegetarian, it's a plus, there are many recipes that do not contain any meat, some using fish but mosly cheese and vegetables. Meat can be added to many of the recipes but they are excellent as they are. I have had the book for a long time but wanted it for my college-age grandson.
Rating:
Summary: No-Cook Pasta Sauces
Review: Best book of recipes I've found for truly good and nourishing meals that can be prepared in a jiffy. If you are vegetarian, it's a plus, there are many recipes that do not contain any meat, some using fish but mosly cheese and vegetables. Meat can be added to many of the recipes but they are excellent as they are. I have had the book for a long time but wanted it for my college-age grandson.
Rating: 
Summary: pretty good if you KNOW you'll be pressed for time
Review: I like this book for those nights when I know ahead of time I'm going to be crunched for time. I'm the kind of person who plans a week of meals at a time before grocery shopping, with an eye on what nights will be busy vs. when I'll have oodles of time. I also keep a pretty extensive pantry on hand. I think if those 2 things weren't true, this book would lose alot of its usefulness. But with the right ingredients around, there are some good quick meals in here.A few things to be aware of:
- These recipes are LOADED with butter, oil, and fatty cheeses, typically half a stick of butter, 1/2 a cup of cheese to serve 4.
- There is a little bit of prep required before you boil the water, but it's light, like chopping a garlic clove or grating some cheese.
- Most of these recipes uses strong tasting ingredients, like raw chopped garlic, crushed red pepper, and basil. If you don't like these ingredients, you might not like a lot of these recipes. So, with those caveats, I would recommend this book. I especially like the sauce made from riccotta cheese, bottled red peppers, basil, garlic and parmesan cheese. I typically serve these with boiled broccoli and quick frozen garlic bread, and dinner is ready in like 20 minutes.
Rating:
Summary: pretty good if you KNOW you'll be pressed for time
Review: I like this book for those nights when I know ahead of time I'm going to be crunched for time. I'm the kind of person who plans a week of meals at a time before grocery shopping, with an eye on what nights will be busy vs. when I'll have oodles of time. I also keep a pretty extensive pantry on hand. I think if those 2 things weren't true, this book would lose alot of its usefulness. But with the right ingredients around, there are some good quick meals in here. A few things to be aware of:
- These recipes are LOADED with butter, oil, and fatty cheeses, typically half a stick of butter, 1/2 a cup of cheese to serve 4.
- There is a little bit of prep required before you boil the water, but it's light, like chopping a garlic clove or grating some cheese.
- Most of these recipes uses strong tasting ingredients, like raw chopped garlic, crushed red pepper, and basil. If you don't like these ingredients, you might not like a lot of these recipes. So, with those caveats, I would recommend this book. I especially like the sauce made from riccotta cheese, bottled red peppers, basil, garlic and parmesan cheese. I typically serve these with boiled broccoli and quick frozen garlic bread, and dinner is ready in like 20 minutes.
Rating:
Summary: This is my FAVORITE cookbook!!
Review: I recommend it to everyone I know. The dishes are easy to prepare, and taste simply amazing! I just love the whole concept of this cookbook!!
Rating:
Summary: simply wonderful
Review: I went to a bridal shower (the bride was vegetarian) where my cousin made some recipes from this cookbook, and they were wonderful. I asked her for the recipes, and she told me the name of this book. I am so pleased with the book, I have given it to several friends as a gift
Rating:
Summary: Great survey of cheap, tasty dishes from star pantry item
Review: Jolie Warner has produced another of her 20 cookbooks, `take a tin of tuna', in that relatively undistinguished but very worthy genre of recipe collections centered around a single ingredient, in this case, canned tuna. While Ms. Warner does not have the high wattage name like Cat Cora, Tony Bourdain, or Rachael Ray, she is doing us a service as good or better than these very readable chef / authors. That is, she is giving us 65 recipes for an extremely inexpensive, durable staple. With this book and similar books on recipes for pasta, potatoes, sardines, corn meal, and canned tomatoes, one can live like a king with good recipes on a pauper's income. Ms. Warner has put one more nail in the coffin of my projected book on cooking cheaply but well.
Before I go any further, I must put in a plug for canned tuna. Like several other ingredients that have been available in a can for a very long time, this product has virtually taken on a life of its own, completely distinct from the cuisine and recipes based on fresh tuna. Like salt cod, it is not only accepted as a different product, it is actually better for many recipes than the fresh flesh, which is both highly perishable and requires a fair amount of subtlety to cook well. Even the highest authorities on French cooking give us Salad Nicoise made with canned tuna.
The first chapter in this book is the routine intro. on showing us around the varieties of canned tuna and itemizing good pantry items to have on hand to work with tuna. While this list, especially the first half, is better than most, it violates my standing rule about pantry lists in that it lists several relatively perishable items in the refrigerator and dried basil in the spice rack. I use lots of dried spices, but I would not use dried basil or parsley short of having a gun put to my head. Both are available fresh the year around and fresh parsley is usually dirt-cheap. I do respect the author's recommending selected national brands for bacon and mustard. I have seen good things said about her recommended products, but I have seen bad things said about them as well. Be very aware that in spite of the sense that it is virtually imperishable, please know that mustard looses its pizzazz after about three months in the bottle, so don't stockpile the stuff, especially the stuff shipped to us from France.
Among the recipes, you will find all the old standards such as Salade Nicoise, Tuna salad, and Tuna casserole, but you will find lots of other goodies as well. The first chapter of recipes is on starters with recipes for stuff such as tuna tapenade, tuna dips, tuna and caper spread, tuna wontons, and tuna tapas, for example. I think I will pass on the tuna fondue.
The second chapter of recipes gives us tuna coups and chowders where, among other things, we have tuna standing in for clams and keeping company with beans, corn, broccoli and cheddar, and tomatoes. I get strongly positive feelings about all these recipes. This may be worth the price of the book.
The third chapter of recipes covers sandwiches, the home of the classic tuna melt. The author does here what lots of recipe writers do in turning a recipe for a salad into a sandwich, with virtually no alterations except that the ingredients are plopped between two halves of crusty bread. Ms. Joie does this with a tuna nicoise sandwich, simply leaving out the potato salad which, I'm sure, you will be happy to find as the featured side dish.
The fourth chapter is the center ring for sure for the canned tuna show, as these are the salads, both classic and nuveo. The author essays tuna with lots of tomatoes, beans, curries, leafy veg, and Mexican themes. These recipes are more traditional than the soups, but swell to have all in one place.
The last chapter of recipes is largely all the things that do not fit in other categories. These are terrines, pies, omelets, and pizzas. Shades of Wolfgang Puck.
I regret that the author and her publisher did not see it fit to list the author's previously published titles. Either they are not from Chronicle Books or they are not considered worthy. I also find the $20 list price just a tad high for 65 recipes from a journeyman author.
Both of these nits are relatively trivial. This is a very good book for people both on a diet and on a budget and in serious need of some variety in their meals. If you can get it for less than $15, I say snap it up.
Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: The Best and Easiest to Prepare Pasta Sauces!
Review: My neighbor and friend received this book for Christmas and raved about it, promising to let me borrow it. She did....for two whole days then retrieved it. Seems she uses it several times weekly and could not do without it any longer. I searched a couple of local bookstores for it and also a cooking website to no avail. I'm so happy to have found it that I'm ordering one for myself and my sister. It's GREAT!
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