Simple Secrets to Better Everyday Cooking (Better Homes and Gardens(R))

Contemporary Cuisine 101--a simple description for Better Homes and Garden's Simple Secrets to Better Everyday Cooking. This book guides the kitchen freshman up to graduation with honors with all of the need-to-know basic tips and techniques to make memorable meals. Simple Secrets offers hundreds of basic how-tos, from choosing the ripest berry to creating caramel shards. Each page features tempting recipes, over 150 included, coupled with helpful tips or techniques, to aid the reader with the recipes. Though it is a great book for the novice, the recipes are definitely in a class above the basic casserole. Each has a sophisticated flair consistent with the current cuisine trends--Provencal Chicken with Herbed Penne or Irish Coffee Meringues, for example. The food photography offers another complement to most of the recipes as a visual aid for the inexperienced cook. Featured recipes, such as Pork Medallions with Fennel and Pancetta, promise a wonderful rich blend of flavors. Though it sounds involved, Simple Secrets makes the preparation easy and understandable, even to the point that the authors provide a simple explanation on how and why it is necessary to pound the medallions before cooking. To complete the lesson, the back of the book features many different menu suggestions, a comprehensive food glossary, and listings of necessary equipment and basic pantry ingredients a good cook should always have on hand. This book makes the grade with tasteful marks. --Teresa Simanton