Some time ago I received an e-mail from a nice woman named Renee Pottle asking if I maybe would like to take a look at her cookbook I Want My Dinner Now!, published by Hestia's Hearth. She explained that she wrote the book after a long career in Home Economics and teaching to help harried families eat healthier dinners. Seeing as the topic is on my mind almost constantly I happily agreed and a short while later a copy arrived in my mailbox.
Like other books with similar themes (the best known of which may be Saving Dinner) the book is aimed squarely at moms who probably have something other than cooking that they'd like to be doing or who find the job taxing. Ms. Pottle cleverly includes sixteen weeks of menus, shopping lists of basic pantry items and a chapter of rudimentary recipes all designed to get a kitchen up to speed, as it were, as well as good kitchen safety and hygeine information. These basics are covered quickly, but thoroughly, and a beginning cook will find them understandable and easily incorporated into a daily routine.
The recipes themselves are well laid out and written for either two or six servings, a nice touch, and organized into chapters with descriptive - albeit cutesy - titles like "Let's Use Those Appliances" and "Throw It In the Oven". It's evident that Ms. Pottle leans toward a solid, middle-American sensibility with regards to food. There is nothing particularly challenging, but slight touches of the exotic in the form of mild curries, the inclusion of rice noodles and Thai spices keep things from becoming too pedestrian.
I warned Ms. Pottle that I wouldn't write about the book unless the recipes I tried actually worked. To a one, they did. Many of the recipes don't fit into my family's taste at all - there are many in the sweet-and-sour and fruit-with-pork vein, which I do not care for at all - but those we did try worked well. Steve's Jambalaya was quite nice, not to mention easy, as was the ziti with bacon - a sort of riff on carbonara. None of the recipes has overlong lists of ingredients, great for a developing home cook, and the instructions are very clear. Someone looking to learn a few basics from a non-threatening source with no foodie agenda could do very well with I Want My Dinner Now as a sort of primer on the subjects of variety, technique and just generally how to get started.
I have two issues with the text, neither of which really take away from the book's overall goals. One has to do with the inclusion of ingredients like dried, minced onion and instant minced garlic. Ms. Pottle recommends them on the grounds that onion and garlic don't keep well, an assertion that startles me as I keep both around quite successfully for months at a time. Sure, proper storage conditions are important and I think it would have been great for readers to have been informed as to what they are. She steers clear of processed foods in general, which is great, but I wish she would have gone a little farther in this regard.
The second issue has to do with the thorny subject of authenticity. Long-time readers know that I am not a bugaboo on this subject although I do appreciate a glance in its direction. (This may be a good time to introduce the Hot Water Bath Authenticity Scale, with Sandra Lee of Semi-Homemade Fame at zero and Madhur Joffrey representing authenticity as a concept at ten. I am about, oh, say, a six or seven.)
I Want My Dinner Now makes no claim whatsoever to presenting authentic anything, so I realize it's not entirely fair to judge the book on such terms. Even so, a recipe for paella that doesn't include - or even mention - saffron kind of bothers me since saffron is kind of the whole point. Now, I've certainly made paella-esque things in my time, rice dishes that contained, say, chicken instead of seafood and no saffron (mostly on budgetary grounds) and I have no problem with the inclusion of a similar recipe here. My objection is that no effort is made to explain what paella really is, or why it's been altered for the book, perhaps for reasons of cost, skill or accessibility to a harried or beginning home cook - all perfectly valid and simply not addressed. Similar lapses are present for the curries, a "Thai" chicken which includes salsa, as well as something called a Ratatouille Bake, which features seasoned stuffing mix. In my opinion, if one is going to adapt or Americanize well-known and well-loved international recipes, one really ought to explain why.
Neither of my complaints is worth passing the book by altogether, though. Renee Pottle has accomplished what many cooks really want to do (including, if I may add, Amanda Hesser, as she describes in an essay in Cooking for Mr. Latte) by creating a repertoire of solid, dependable, enjoyable dishes to return to again and again. A developing home cook or even a reluctant family chef looking to make the job easier may well find a lot to like in I Want My Dinner Now And I am certainly going to make that Jambalaya again - the kids loved it.
Like other books with similar themes (the best known of which may be Saving Dinner) the book is aimed squarely at moms who probably have something other than cooking that they'd like to be doing or who find the job taxing. Ms. Pottle cleverly includes sixteen weeks of menus, shopping lists of basic pantry items and a chapter of rudimentary recipes all designed to get a kitchen up to speed, as it were, as well as good kitchen safety and hygeine information. These basics are covered quickly, but thoroughly, and a beginning cook will find them understandable and easily incorporated into a daily routine.
The recipes themselves are well laid out and written for either two or six servings, a nice touch, and organized into chapters with descriptive - albeit cutesy - titles like "Let's Use Those Appliances" and "Throw It In the Oven". It's evident that Ms. Pottle leans toward a solid, middle-American sensibility with regards to food. There is nothing particularly challenging, but slight touches of the exotic in the form of mild curries, the inclusion of rice noodles and Thai spices keep things from becoming too pedestrian.
I warned Ms. Pottle that I wouldn't write about the book unless the recipes I tried actually worked. To a one, they did. Many of the recipes don't fit into my family's taste at all - there are many in the sweet-and-sour and fruit-with-pork vein, which I do not care for at all - but those we did try worked well. Steve's Jambalaya was quite nice, not to mention easy, as was the ziti with bacon - a sort of riff on carbonara. None of the recipes has overlong lists of ingredients, great for a developing home cook, and the instructions are very clear. Someone looking to learn a few basics from a non-threatening source with no foodie agenda could do very well with I Want My Dinner Now as a sort of primer on the subjects of variety, technique and just generally how to get started.
I have two issues with the text, neither of which really take away from the book's overall goals. One has to do with the inclusion of ingredients like dried, minced onion and instant minced garlic. Ms. Pottle recommends them on the grounds that onion and garlic don't keep well, an assertion that startles me as I keep both around quite successfully for months at a time. Sure, proper storage conditions are important and I think it would have been great for readers to have been informed as to what they are. She steers clear of processed foods in general, which is great, but I wish she would have gone a little farther in this regard.
The second issue has to do with the thorny subject of authenticity. Long-time readers know that I am not a bugaboo on this subject although I do appreciate a glance in its direction. (This may be a good time to introduce the Hot Water Bath Authenticity Scale, with Sandra Lee of Semi-Homemade Fame at zero and Madhur Joffrey representing authenticity as a concept at ten. I am about, oh, say, a six or seven.)
I Want My Dinner Now makes no claim whatsoever to presenting authentic anything, so I realize it's not entirely fair to judge the book on such terms. Even so, a recipe for paella that doesn't include - or even mention - saffron kind of bothers me since saffron is kind of the whole point. Now, I've certainly made paella-esque things in my time, rice dishes that contained, say, chicken instead of seafood and no saffron (mostly on budgetary grounds) and I have no problem with the inclusion of a similar recipe here. My objection is that no effort is made to explain what paella really is, or why it's been altered for the book, perhaps for reasons of cost, skill or accessibility to a harried or beginning home cook - all perfectly valid and simply not addressed. Similar lapses are present for the curries, a "Thai" chicken which includes salsa, as well as something called a Ratatouille Bake, which features seasoned stuffing mix. In my opinion, if one is going to adapt or Americanize well-known and well-loved international recipes, one really ought to explain why.
Neither of my complaints is worth passing the book by altogether, though. Renee Pottle has accomplished what many cooks really want to do (including, if I may add, Amanda Hesser, as she describes in an essay in Cooking for Mr. Latte) by creating a repertoire of solid, dependable, enjoyable dishes to return to again and again. A developing home cook or even a reluctant family chef looking to make the job easier may well find a lot to like in I Want My Dinner Now And I am certainly going to make that Jambalaya again - the kids loved it.
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