How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman

Has it ever happened to you that suddenly everything you cook tastes awful? All your years of quick, variations on old recipes go strangely wrong? That happened to me during my recent bouts of morning sickness, to the point that I stopped cooking altogether. But when I did pull myself together, I vowed to take the effort seriously and to make only good, thoughful food.

So instead of relying on auto-pilot chef skills, I turned to this enormous yellow resource. This is the contemporary Joy of Cooking, a book that tells you how to do simple things you thought you knew without making you feel stupid. His recipes are very good, very easy to follow and he also provides all the alchemic know-how that so many recipe books lack. If, for example, you decide to make all kinds of soups from dried beans, he'll take you through all the steps and possible methods so you don't end up boiling beans from morning to night, till you're so sick of the smell that you won't eat the friggin' soup. And I've got everyone baking beets in foil, solving once and for all the beet problem we had (so messy, etc.). Well hey, the book says it is "the single best method for cooking beets" and it's true. He has an opinion! like all the best Home Ec. Teachers of my youth.

The recipes are culturally varied and contemporary, and the advice firm and knowledgeable. He offers suggestions and tips for varying the recipes included as well, so when I do eventually abandon my slavish attitude towards following recipes, I can go back to improvising with confidence. [JL]

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