Fresh & Fast: Inspired Cooking for Every Season and Every Day

by Marie Simmons

Overview

The James Beard and IACP Award-winning author of Sur La Table shares more than 200 recipes that make fresh food deliciously convenient.
 
Regularly featured in Bon Appétit, Woman's Day and Ladies' Home Journal, Marie Simmons is dedicated to dispelling the myth that eating fresh food is difficult and time consuming. In Fresh & Fast, she provides more than 200 recipes that show how fresh ingredients can be more convenient than packaged foods.
 
Whether it's Warm Egg Salad on Whole Wheat Toast or Lemon Basil Chicken, each recipe is surprisingly simple, yet freshly conceived and imaginative. Simmons shows how to vary your menu according to the season with dishes like Crisp-Fried Soft-Shell Crabs in spring, Roasted Tomato and Fresh Corn Soup in summer and Orange Baked Squash in fall. 
 
Each recipe tells exactly how long it will take to prepare and alerts you in advance about any steps that require a little extra time. Most can be made in less than 45 minutes, including: Lemon Basil Chicken, Warm New Potato Salad with Scallions, Penne with Roasted Vegetables, Pork Tenderloin Marinated in Soy and Orange, Sesame Brown Rice Pilaf, Spicy Marinated Shrimp, Easy Oven-Roasted Red Bell Peppers, Black Bean and Vegetable Burrito, Stir-Fry of Cabbages with Asian Flavors, Grandpa's Peaches in Red Wine, and Apple and Ginger Crisp.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780547347196
Publisher:	Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication date:	07/10/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	362,404
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

MARIE SIMMONS, a popular cooking teacher and author who has won both a James Beard Award and a Julia Child Award, is the culinary director of Copia, a food and wine cultural center in Napa, California. She is a frequent contributor to Cooking Light, Prevention, Cottage Living, and Eating Well. Her books include Fresh & Fast, The Light Touch Cookbook, Rice: The Amazing Grain, Lighter Quicker Better, and 365 Ways to Cook Pasta.

Table of Contents

	Introduction	8
	Appetizers	11
	Soups	42
	Sandwiches	66
	Pasta	91
	Poultry and Other Meats	112
	Seafood	138
	Grains and Beans	164
	Salads	192
	Vegetables	232
	Desserts	298
	Index	345

Editorial Reviews

Life is too short to waste on a bad meal, suggests Simmons, coauthor (with Richard Sax) of Lighter, Quicker, Better. Drawing from her syndicated weekly newspaper column, she sets about to liberate home cooks from the processed tastes of convenience foods. Some 250 recipes showcase fresh ingredients in such uncomplicated dishes as Quick-Chilled Cumin-Scented Fresh Tomato and Corn Soup, Oven-Roasted Halibut with Herb Citrus Vinaigrette and Crystallized Ginger Ice Cream wtih Red Plum Sauce. Cooking times can run to close to an hour (as in Honey-Glazed Orange and Rosemary Chicken or Sesame Brown Rice Pilaf with Garlic and Vegetables), but preparation times are generally 10 to 15 minutes. The pasta recipes feature streamlined, tried and true combinations (e.g., Penne Rigate with Asparagus, Prosciutto and Mushrooms). The chapter devoted to sandwiches proves that a little attention and ingenuity can lift this common luncheon fare to full dinner status: Pan-Grilled Smoked Turkey, Fontina, Bacon and Avocado; Sliced Pork Loin Sandwich with Fennel, Garlic and Roasted Pepper. Side boxes review basic techniques and suggest recipe variations. Straightforward directions, generally short, affordable ingredient lists and suggestions for staples make this a valuable collection for novice and veteran cooks who want to prepare tasty, preservative-free meals. The Good Cook/BOMC and Better Homes & Gardens Cook Book Club main selection. (July)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Simmons, a cookbook author and food writer whose syndicated newspaper column is called "Fresh and Fast," asserts that "life is too short to waste on a bad meal," and the 250 easy recipes presented here should allow any busy cook to avoid such a fatewithout spending much time in the kitchen. Many recipes took fewer than 30 minutes from start to finish; a few that call for marinating or slower cooking, for example, are for "When You Have More Time," but even many of these require little hands-on preparation time. The recipes are simple but full of flavor: Brushcetta with Braised Escarole and Garlic, Pork Loin with Fennel and Garlic, Melon and Berries with Lime Syrup. Simmons also offers many suggestions for variations and alternatives and other tips to make life easier. In short, this is real food for real people. Highly recommended.

Library Journal

"I cannot think of a more encouraging and rewarding first cookbook for those just starting out in the kitchen." Cooks Illustrated

From the Publisher