Cooking 'Round the Clock: Rachael Ray's 30-Minute Meals

by Rachael Ray

Book Overview

Rachael Ray is a household name and a best-selling author, thanks to her simply fabulous recipes, free-hand style of cooking, and unfailing good results. This latest collection of recipes, a companion book to her show, will feature flexible menus for cooking great meals 24/7.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1891105167
• ISBN13: 9781891105166
• Release Date: October 2004
• Publisher: Lake Isle Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 2.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 7.1" x 10.1"

Customer Reviews

Rachael

I received this book as a Christmas gift from work. All I can say is FABULOUS! I absolutely love Rachael Ray; she is very imaginative and creative with her meals, the recipes are easy and delicious, and she is very positive about everything. Several people have said that the cookbook does not have an index. Although this is true, it does have a table of contents towards the beginning of the book, separated by meal time, that gives the name of the dish and page number. So, if you were looking for a dessert, it would not be hard to find. I am thrilled to have this book. It is the first cookbook that I have from her collection, and I plan on buying more of hers in the future. This would be a good investment to make.

Another rebuttal.....

I also have to challenge the previous reviewer who very obviously has maybe caught only a few episodes of RR's 30 minute meal show. Her recipes are easy and focus on fresh and healthy ingredients. With even a bit more creativity you can "health" up her recipes even more if you feel the need to do that. I watch religiously every day and I can reassure you that she doesn't use tortillas and taco shells frequently. It's quite the opposite. I'm amazed by the wide array of flavor combinations that she continually comes up with. My only thing -- you don't really need the book. Tape the show, and download the recipes (which are all available of the website) and make your own book of your favorites. Bottom line -- Great recipes for people who want good healthy food fast.

Rachael is a Genius!

I have to totally disagree with Cinnamon Heart's review. Rachael DOES NOT rely heavily on processed ingredients, and she does offer a wide variety of recipes. Her recipes are not thrown together, but well thought out with plenty of options for any occasion. Not every recipe contains taco shells and tortillas. The canned/pre-packaged items she uses are for simplicity - beans, broth, dried pasta, etc. But otherwise, she uses fresh ingredients. Also contrary to Cinnamon Heart, she does not instruct people to chop lettuce for salads. She almost exclusively uses the pre-washed and bagged lettuce. I have never seen her use bottled salad dressing or pasta sauce - she makes her own. Her recipes include many kinds of seasonings and spices (not just jalapenos). Her recipes are not all tex-mex but include a wide variety of tastes and types. She also uses everyday kitchen tools that just about every kitchen probably has - you don't have to go out and buy any new equipment for just one recipe. Her main utensils include a knife, cutting board, and pots/pans, with the occaisional use of the microwave, food processor, and blender (I think I've seen her use the blender once in the year since I've been watching her). This particular book is laid out as it is titled. She begins with breakfast/brunch recipes and then moves her way to lunch, dinners (early and late), and late night snacks. She will rely on some boxed ingredients when baking, but she is the first to say that she is not a big baker and uses pre-packaged mixes to accomodate her 30 minute timeline. The only thing I would say is that a 30 minute meal can sometimes turn into a 45 minute meal for me since my knife skills aren't nearly as good as hers. Yes, she's perky, but she's also engaging and entertaining. I'm amazed that she continues to come up with such great ideas. I can't recommend her recipes highly enough. I use them almost exclusively in my kitchen and haven't been disappointed yet.

Yes, she's a bit much, but the woman can cook

Rachael Ray can be painfully perky at times and I wonder at her inner life, but the woman sure can cook. And unlike other glamorous FoodTV babes who make it look easy but produce quite challenging recipes with hard-to-find/expensive ingredients, Ray's dishes are cheap, easy and good. Friends still ask about her cream-cheese potato recipe that I made for Thanksgiving--three years ago!

Rachael Conquers Breakfast, Lunch, and Midnight Snacks

`Cooking `Round the Clock' is by Rachael Ray, who is seeming more and more like an old friend, as this is the fourth of her books I am reviewing on top of watching her an average of 90 minutes a day on the Food Network and twice that on Fridays when her travelogue / celebrity interview shows air in the evening. For those of you who really live the 30 Minute lifestyle and can't wade through my usual 1000 words, I will say that this volume is as good or better than it's `30 minute' precursors because it gives recipes for those times of the day which simply are not well covered by most cookbooks. And, Miss Rachael continues her previous style of easily available ingredients, very few `convenience' prepared foods, lots of fresh meats and vegetables, and no preaching about prowling local farmers' markets for the stuff which was in the ground two hours ago. I continue to be impressed by the fact that both her '30 Minute Meals' and `$40 a Day' concepts were all hers before she started with the Food Network. And, after six cookbooks in about four years, I also like to think that all her recipes are also her own creations, although from the evidence of her acknowledgments and other chef / writers' practices (such as Jamie Oliver), I suspect a lot of Rachael's contributions to these books are rough drafts on TV scripts, cocktail napkins, and Dictaphones, all assembled and tightened up by a copy editor. My mother, for one, wonders how she can manage three shows AND cookbook writing all at the same time. But, most of this is idle speculation and the real issue is how useful is Rachael's latest work to her core audience of busy young family members who like to cook but have no time to read Julia Child or Marcella Hazan or Paula Wolfert, or even `The Joy of Cooking' for that matter. One cannot discount the fact that looking for a recipe and shopping for ingredients may take as long as the time in front of the range. In this regard, Miss Rachael's recipes maintain the fast cooking lifestyle by not requiring any Internet shopping or trips to distant big city specialty markets. This book gives lots of recipes for the neglected meals of the day, a hearty breakfast, a fast but tasty lunch, evenings in front of the TV watching a movie, and late night snacks. Among the more than 300 cookbooks I have reviewed, I have seen but two on breakfasts and one on sandwiches. Rachael fills this gap for people who want good, interesting food the other 23 hours of the day and don't have time to track down uncommon books by authors whose names they don't know. Nancy Silverton and Marian Cunningham may be foodie heroes, but the average 10 hour a day young professional does not know who these people are and whether or not they can trust their sandwich and breakfast books respectively. Rachael's `brand name' is a lot like that of Howard Johnson's in the 1950's. You know you are not getting gourmet fare, but you also will not get an unexpectedly poor meal. In spite of the non-pr