Robin Miller the host of a popular Food Network TV program provides the reader with 200 recipes which cook up in as little time as 15 minutes from start to finish.  The perfect answer to today's busy cooks. Most of us don't have all the time in the world these days to prepare really good, creative meals each and every time.

This is an easy cookbook to use and the reader will appreciate how she uses the main meal to create recipes for other meals. Her recipes are pantry-friendly in that she uses products that most of us already have in our pantry.

For those of you that choose a cookbook based upon lavish photos this is not the one for you. If you appreciate new ideas for meal solutions and time is a scare commodity, Robin Miller's QUICK FIX MEALS cookbook is well worth getting.

Because most of what we're consuming today is not food, and how we're consuming it -- in the car, in front of the TV, and increasingly alone -- is not really eating. Instead of food, we're consuming "edible foodlike substances" -- no longer the products of nature but of food science. Many of them come packaged with health claims that should be our first clue they are anything but healthy. In the so-called Western diet, food has been replaced by nutrients and common sense by confusion. The result is what Michael Pollan calls the American paradox: The more we worry about nutrition, the less healthy we seem to become.

But if real food -- the sort of food our great grandmothers would recognize as food -- stands in need of defense, from whom does it need defending? From the food industry on one side and nutritional science on the other. Both stand to gain much from widespread confusion about what to eat, a question that for most of human history people have been able to answer without expert help.

So what makes this book so different?  The author Michael Pollan, has developed a good background in this area. His previous book, The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (2006), was named one of the ten best books of 2006 by the New York Times and the Washington Post. He is also the author of The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World (2001); A Place of My Own (1997); and Second Nature (1991). Michael is also a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine. Pollan served for many years as executive editor of Harper's Magazine and is now teaching Science and Environmental Journalism at UC Berkeley.

I have found the book to be very credible, informative and enjoyable. I am sure that anyone whom eats to live will enjoy this fine book also.

It is not something that you buy to set on a coffee table for guests to thumb through pictures for it only has drawings. I have never read a book on cooking that I refer back to as often as this one.

Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking is a kitchen classic. Hailed by Time magazine as "a minor masterpiece" when it first appeared in 1984, On Food and Cooking is the bible to which food lovers; novice and professionals turn for an unmatched understanding of where foods come from, what they're made of, and how the process of cooking transforms them.

McGee prepared a new, fully revised and updated edition of On Food and Cooking for the books 20^th anniversary. McGee has rewritten the text almost completely, expanded it by two-thirds, and added more than 100 new illustrations. The new edition of On Food and Cooking provides countless insights into food, preparation, and enjoyment.

From the publisher:

On Food and Cooking pioneered the translation of technical food science into cook-friendly kitchen science and helped give birth to the inventive culinary movement known as "molecular gastronomy." Though other books have now been written about kitchen science, On Food and Cooking remains unmatched in the accuracy, clarity, and thoroughness of its explanations, and the intriguing way in which it blends science with the historical evolution of foods and cooking techniques.

Among the major themes addressed throughout this new edition are:

    * Traditional and modern methods of food production and their influences on food quality

    * The great diversity of methods by which people in different places and times have prepared the same ingredients

    * Tips for selecting the best ingredients and preparing them successfully

    * The particular substances that give foods their flavors and that give us pleasure

    * Our evolving knowledge of the health benefits and risks of foods

On Food and Cooking is an invaluable and monumental compendium of basic information about ingredients, cooking methods, and the pleasures of eating. It will delight and fascinate anyone who has ever cooked, savored, or wondered about food.

Harold McGee writes a column on science and food for the New York Times called The Curious Cook and has a blog where he files

". . . brief reports from the intersection of food and science. It's a lively neighborhood these days. There's a constant influx of new information in food chemistry and microbiology, agriculture and manufacturing, and in human perception and health. I glean items from current technical publications and scientific meetings, from conversations with cooks and scientists, and from questions that come up in my own kitchen in the San Francisco Bay area." - Harold McGee

You can see the table of contents and read excerpts of the book on his website Curious Cook as well as see links to his New York Times article. The current Times article is titled; The Invisible Ingredient in Every Kitchen but there are many more and hopefully Harold will continue to share is insightful and much needed knowledge for the rest of us just trying to catch up.

Nestle wrote What to Eat with the consumer in mind and hopes the reader will use the information presented to make informed choices when buying food. The book is organized as a supermarket tour, an interesting and helpful format that allows the reader to more easily apply newly acquired knowledge when purchasing foods.

The public is frequently given advice to choose healthy foods, but people have little direction when it comes to navigating the supermarket and actually making these choices. In What to Eat, Nestle has readers envision themselves traveling down grocery store aisles, a technique that helps reinforce the information and makes it easier to remember.

I think that the reader will appreciate how the book points out that eating whole healthy food need not be expensive, if we learn to eat fruits and vegetables in season, substitute beans and grains for meat and of course regularly use GroceryGuide.com.

Read more:

Marion Nestle, Ph.D., M.P.H. - What to Eat

I just got around to reading this book although it has sat on my self for a few months. I have found that I have less reading time once the weather starts to improve. Back to the book.

Speaking of time, a slow-cooker has to be one of the best friends a home cook has. The more you use slow-cookers, the more you will feel comfortable with them and find new uses for them in the kitchen.

I really liked the title of this book and it was the title that caused me to pluck this one of the many slow-cooker books from the local book store shelf.

Unlike other books which only offer recipes, you will find a solid body of information about all things related to slow cooking: What is slow cooking? About the stoneware inserts; different shapes & sizes; slow cooker "smart pots"; temperature settings; breaking in a new pot; high altitude slow cooking; the basic "rules" of slow cooking; cooking times; adapting conventional recipes; useful cooking techniques, and much more.

It really is a great book to give to newly weds, college students and grandma.

I liked this one so much that I bought extras to give as gifts.

With the plethora of cookbooks available it is not often that something really rises above the din, The Taste of Home Cookbook is one of those.

Dubbed the "Cadillac" of cookbooks this 676 page cookbook is certainly one that all new cooks and many experience cooks will reach for again and again.

Yes it has recipes and lots of them with over 1200 unique recipes designed around the grocery ingredients you find on the Grocery Guide website. All recipes have been tested and tasted by Taste of Home.

There are over 300 Practical Kitchen Tips, reference charts, 1,300 full-color photos of finished recipes, common ingredients and more!

The cookbook was designed to be used on the kitchen counter. Its durable ring binder allows the cookbook to lay flat for referencing and its wipe-clean cover and splash guards help it survive the splashes and spills in the kitchen. The five-ring binder-style is organized into 25 different chapters, so it is easy to use. There are 2 handy pockets to store your own recipe clippings or cards. For quick look-up, you can flip to any one of five separate indexes, including major ingredient, food category, alphabetical, cooking method, and tip/reference. Plus, easy-to-follow reference charts are located on the inside front and back covers.

As a bonus, it also has a coupon inside for a free year of Taste of Home Magazine. You can't go wrong with this cookbook!

From the Publisher Hudson Street Press of the Penguin Group (USA) Inc. website:

A pop-science journey into the surprising ingredients found in dozens of common packaged foods, using the Twinkie label as a guide.

Like most Americans, Steve Ettlinger eats processed foods. And, like most consumers, he often reads the ingredients label - without a clue as to what most of it means. So when his young daughter asked, "Daddy, what's polysorbate 60?" he was at a loss - and determined to find out.

From the phosphate mines in Idaho to the corn fields in Iowa, from gypsum mines in Oklahoma to the vanilla harvest in Madagascar, Twinkie, Deconstructed is a fascinating, thoroughly researched romp of a narrative that demystifies some of the most common processed food ingredients - where they come from, how they are made, how they are used - and why. Beginning at the source (hint: they're often more closely linked to rock and petroleum than any of the four food groups), we follow each Twinkie ingredient through the process of being crushed, baked, fermented, refined, and/or reacted into a totally unrecognizable goo or powder with a strange name - all for the sake of creating a simple snack cake.

An insightful exploration into the food industry, if you've ever wondered what you're eating when you consume foods containing mono- and diglycerides or calcium sulfate (the latter, a food -grade equivalent) this book is for you. It will give you insight and meaning every time you read an food label, any label.

Read more: Authors website TWINKIE, DECONSTRUCTED: My Journey to Discover How the Ingredients Found in Processed Foods Are Grown, Mined (Yes, Mined), and Manipulated into What America Eats

This is a book that I have had on the shelf for awhile and continue to pull down and thumb through for ideas. While I am a reasonably experienced cook, there are fresh ideas in this book for the time impacted cook.

Many readers will be familiar with the name Sandra Lee. Sandra Lee is known to audiences nationwide by appearances on the QVC shopping channel and numerous network and cable television programs. Her Semi-Homemade solutions have also been featured in People, Redbook, Better Homes and Gardens, Traditional Home, Country Home and Victoria. She has also appeared on NBC's Today. FOX's Good Day LA, Good Day New York and the Food Network.

Semi-Homemade is based on Sandra's 70/30 philosophy - 70% store-bought/ready-made products accompanied by 30% fresh and creative touches - allows anyone to take 100% of the credit for something that looks, feels or tastes homemade.

As Sandra herself says; " Our days are filled with too much to do, too little time to do it in, and not enough money to make it all happen. Life today requires us all to be super-human. and after getting all your "to-dos" done, you're expected to plan, shop for, and whip up new, fresh, mouth-watering homemade meals from scratch?"

You will love the simple yet elegant recipes and the accompanying photos for each recipe. This book will give you new energy and hope to face the "what's for dinner?" line.

From Amazon.com

Every ingredient that can possibly be branded is labeled as such. Lee's Salad Chinois is made with Swanson premium chunk chicken breast, Kikkoman soy sauce, McCormick ground ginger, Hellman's or Best Foods mayonnaise, La Choy chow mein noodles, Fresh Express prepared green salad, Chun King chow mein vegetables, and Dole mandarin orange segments. Gnocchi Dippers are whipped up with Alessi gnocchi, Bertolli olive oil, and, believe it or not, Kraft Velveeta cheese. The Malibu Rum Cake includes Malibu Rum, Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe yellow cake mix, and Jell-O vanilla instant pudding.

Sandra Lee has written 8 other books dealing with the same Semi-Homemade theme.

Yes it is another kitchen book but it is so much more than a cook book or recipe book. The contents are a distilled collection of the best techniques and shortcuts over 11 years of readers of the Cook's Illustrated magazine.

Many of the tips are so practical that that you will be tempted to sit down and read the book like a novel, all 585 pages.

What's the best way to preserve leftover herbs, peel eggs in record time, or chop chocolate with ease? Ever wondered if it is possible to soundproof your coffee grinder? How can you clean hardened food out of your blender with the push of a button? And exactly how many uses can are there for the humble zipper-lock storage bag?

Each tip, 834 of them, is accompanied by a detailed illustration. I found this both enhanced the readability of the book as well as the understanding of some of the tips.

The book is just fun to read, and a valuable reference that you will refer to again and again. It is a terrific book to give as a gift for someone leaving to college, newly-weds or Grandma, all will benefit from it.

I found it at Amazon.com for only $11.53 (a 32% discount off of the $16.95 cover price) and shipping is free if your order is over $25. Enjoy!