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Rachael Ray 2, 4, 6, 8: Great Meals for Couples or Crowds (Paperback)
1Feb2008 Filed under: rachael ray Author: ray
Rachael Ray 2, 4, 6, 8: Great Meals for Couples or Crowds (Paperback)
by Rachael Ray (Author)
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Editorial Reviews
Book Description
If you’re like Rachael Ray, mealtime is a time to hang out and reconnect with family and friends. That means you could be making a late dinner for you and your sweetie one night and making brunch for your entire family the next day. No matter how many people join the party, Rachael firmly believes that cooking should be fun, easy–and done in 30 minutes or less.
Transforming recipes for four into recipes for two or eight can be a tricky guessing game. If you use twice the amount of chicken will you have to cook it twice as long? Is it possible to make a satisfying pot of soup for two without having to eat leftovers for a week? What’s the best–and most economical–way to feed a crowd of eight? With Rachael Ray: 2, 4, 6, 8 there’s no need to guess, because Rachael has designed right-sized menus for every occasion, with perfect meals for two, four, six, or eight.
For date night you don’t want tons of food, so Rachael’s Croque Madame sandwich with a Strawberry Balsamic Vinaigrette salad and a killer vodka cocktail strike just the right note. For family dinners, double dates, or those who love leftovers, Rachael whips up classic meals for four like Wingless Buffalo Chicken Pizza or Grilled Shrimp with Chorizo Skewers. For poker night with your buddies, Rachael knows exactly which ingredients stretch into a 30-minute meal for six, like Uptown Sweet and Spicy Sausage Hoagies. Throwing a dinner party is a pleasure when you’re armed with stress-free meals for eight like Italian Chicken Pot Pie and Boozy Berries and Biscuits. With complete menus for family dinners as well as easy and impressive meals for entertaining plus lots of super simple desserts that taste like a million, no matter what the occasion, the perfect meal for your crowd is never more 30 minutes away.
About the Author
Rachael Ray is the host of the popular Food Network shows 30-Minute Meals, $40 a Day, and Tasty Travels, as well as her own syndicated talk show, Rachael Ray. In addition to helming the successful magazine Rachael Ray Everyday, Rachael is the author of 11 previous books, including the New York Times bestsellers 30-Minute Get Real Meals, 365: No Repeats, and Express Lane Meals.
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3 Responses to “Rachael Ray 2, 4, 6, 8: Great Meals for Couples or Crowds (Paperback)”
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ray
02月 1st, 2008 at 7:50 pm
By B. Marold (Bethlehem, PA United States)
`2, 4, 6, 8 Great Meals for Couples or Crowds’ by `name above the title’ Rachael Ray is the latest twist on her probably copyrighted `30-Minute Meal’ cookbook rubric. I rarely use Ms. Ray’s recipes; however, I have an enduring respect for the quality of her presentation to her audience who wants to cook at home, but not make either a hobby or a career of it.
The broad audience for this book, as announced in the title, is couples, small families, and larger families / entertaining occasions. My first impression is that Ms. Ray and her colleagues would have done better to make this into two books; one for couples only and one for large group entertaining. But then, each audience would have been smaller than these two audiences combined.
The very best thing about this book is that it brings back a presentation of recipes which matches the format of her ‘30 Minute Meals’ show, where work on three or more different dishes is interwoven to reach the end of the half hour with a complete meal. The absence of this pattern has been a complaint by many reviewers. Its return clearly adds value to the presentation in this book.
A second important value to this book is that it does not simply do the same 25 or so menus with the four different serving numbers. That is not to say that such a book would not be a good idea. It’s just likely that in many recipes, multiplying quantities could invalidate the 30-minute time limit. Also, the level of detail needed to get all this math straight would likely ruin Ms. Ray’s patently breezy style. Another value to having 100 or so different menus is that each menu has a theme that may strike a chord when you browse the book for entertaining ideas. And, if a two (2) or four (4) person menu appeals to you as the basis for a party, you can always do the math yourself and bump it up to eight or more seats.
The ability to do this math is part and parcel of something I’ve always said about Rachael’s cooking. You will succeed in coming close to her 30 minutes only if you have some basic skills in the kitchen. That is, you need to know how to cook. And, buying one of Rachael’s Santoku knives will not instantly impart good knife skills to your digits. You need to practice and be able to dissect your mirepoix (onions, carrots, and celery) in a few minutes in order to get the full benefit of Miss Rachael’s cooking fast with mostly fresh, basic ingredients instead of using a lot of prepared produce.
One new observation I can make about Rachael’s books is that it simply does not fuss with non-essentials. There is no Martha Stewart or Ina Garten or even `semi-homemade’ Sandra Lee fussing with table settings or decorations or centerpiece ephemera. Rachael is all about the food, and matching the food to the mood.
Rachael as much as says that her recipe write-ups are literally ghost-written for her by scribe, Pam Krauss, from, I suspect, a collection of notes and recordings on a pocket Dictaphone. This professional wordsmithing may account for the fact that these recipes are all very nicely written, with just enough detail to guide a modestly experienced cook. Ms. Krauss does keep all those famous Rayspeak expressions such as EVOO, sammies, stoups, and scrambles. As I detect a slight improvement over the years in Ms. R’s recipe writing, these neologisms have ceased to annoy me, and I suspect her audience would miss them if they went away.
Regarding how much this book overlaps her earlier volumes, I’m sure there is some, but I believe the added value of the complete menu format by size of table makes up for any burger, soup, or salad recipes which may have appeared in earlier books. Another big saving grace is Rachael’s traditional lower than usual list price. How can you argue with 200 well-organized recipes for under $20 list price!
Thank goodness Ms. Rachael’s audience is fairly young, because one irritation I continue to find in her books is the poorly coordinated pastel type on a similarly hued, but darker background, making this text hard to read. Even the excellent index is done in a dark Robin’s egg blue and sans serif font which I simply find harder to read than a solid black Times New Roman font. Rachael, in the next book, please loose the pastel palette!
Otherwise, a proud addition to a worthy line of books for people who want to cook, but not make a career of it!
ray
02月 1st, 2008 at 7:51 pm
By Jay K. “just a thought…”
I rate this as an average cookbook for several reasons.
First, if you own any of her other books or any other good cookbook, then this one may not be your favorite. It doesn’t add too much to the cookbook world that’s not already out there.
Second, and most importantly, most of the recipes, though designed to be quick, 30 minutes or less, have too many ingredients to make it a really easy cooking or buying experience. Many of these dishes would be expensive if you didn’t already have the chipotle sauces or other “specialty” items (that I don’t normally have in my pantry). And, I just don’t know how to get it all done in 30 minutes–I’d have to have a staff helping prepare the ingredients.
Have there just been too many cookbooks too fast for this author?
However, if you don’t own any other cookbooks, and you do like a friendly, fun writing style, then this would be okay, because Rachel’s recipes are good and she is a hoot.
ray
02月 1st, 2008 at 7:51 pm
By Patrick D. Goonan “www.meaningful-life.us” (Pleasanton, CA)
I do not rate this more than an average cookbook. It presents what are supposed to be meals that take under 30 minutes, but this is not actually the reality. Many of the recipes have a lot of ingredients or specialized ingredients that would make it difficult to prepare the meal in a short time.
In addition, most of the recipes here are for what I would classify as “junk food” or “inexpensive appetizers.” This is certainly useful for many people, but I’m not sure having “great MEALS” in the title really captures the essence of the book.
From a publishing standpoint, the book has a nice cover, layout and is well-organized. The fonts and pages are attractive and author is witty and entertaining. If you do a lot of entertaining for teenagers or informal sports gatherings, you might find this book particulary good for inexpensive suggestions and novel ideas using many common ingredients.
If you are looking to cater a formal party or prepare a romantic dinner forget it! Although the book sets out to satisfy people looking to do both, I don’t think it accomplishes either. It would have been better if she wrote two more comprehensive books targeting at these specific groups.
This is not a bad book, just know what you are getting. It is an average cookbook with above average design elements and a nice cover.