Cookbook Review: Food Network Magazine Great Easy Meals

I have what some may call an addiction to cookbooks.  I am somewhat powerless to resist them.  Making space for books is always important in our house, but at the same time, I don't want to feel that I'm drowning in them.  Too messy.  I am getting ready to purge my books of the regrettably purchased, seldom opened tomes lurking about my shelves so that the double stacking can stop.  It makes me crabby.  I go to the library and get cookbooks now, with the intent of copying the few recipes that I am interested in, rather than buying the whole book and thus losing shelf space to something mediocre.  Sometimes, though, I can't help myself.  If I have so many Post-its sticking out of the top of the book to mark pages I want to copy, I figure it is more cost effective (within reason) to go and buy the damned book instead of using up lots of ridiculously pricey printer ink.  The latest addition to be deemed worthy of purchase is Food Network Magazine Great Easy Meals. 

The Food Network website is a great resource for recipes and how-to information.  Their magazine is good too, although I do a fair amount of weeding out of the recipes published therein.  The cookbook, however, has done the weeding for me.  Everything I've tried so far has been very good, with minimal tweaking (but I always tweak recipes, so I don't count that as a strike against it). The nice thing, also, is that the recipes really are very easy.  When I sit down with several cookbooks and plan out my menus and shopping list for the week I often have delusions of grandeur.  "Why, yes, I think making my own pasta (or tortillas or pita bread or...) on a Wednesday night will be completely doable!"  And then Wednesday night rolls around and I've been at a child's sporting event until much later than expected, and so it's quesadillas on store-bought tortillas (which, don't get me wrong, are delicious).  So having these recipes that are quick and easy but also delicious (and made without a drop of cream of mushroom soup) is awfully helpful.  I even made the grilled Rosemary-Mustard Pork Tenderloin with Peaches for a special birthday dinner for company.  So easy, no stress, delicious.

It's good to have a go-to source that is reliable, and that gives me (and my family) a change of pace.  So far I've made the pork above twice, Spicy Chinese Beef, Chicken Korma, the roasted asparagus, and Pork Tenderloin with Eggplant Relish (which was spicy and made with Japanese eggplant, which I would never normally buy, and which even the anti-veggie delegation happily ate, although, to be fair, said delegation may not have known it was eggplant...).  Everything is very flavorful, it's on the table quickly, and ingredients are easily obtained.  The only quibble I have is the "kitchen tips from the stars" that are touted on the cover.  You'd think that meant some...uh...kitchen tips, just say, but not so much.  Melissa D'Arabian telling us how great it is to cook with kids, Ellie Krieger reminiscing about her daughter recognizing the smell of basil on a bus, Guy Fieri building a second kitchen at his house--I'm sorry, I don't care.  But really, that's a small complaint, and a very small part of the book.

I see no reason why the rest of the recipes in Food Network Magazine Great Easy Meals won't be every bit as delicious as the ones I've tried so far.  On Amazon.com it is less than $15, and it is well worth the money.