Cookbook Review: The Six O'Clock Scramble

 

I love cookbooks.  I love reading through the ingredient lists and looking at the pictures.  Sadly, most cookbooks turn out to be duds, in my opinion.  I always check out cookbooks from the library before buying them now.  I learned my lesson after buying several cookbooks by a Food Network Star at Costco.  Several years later I was finally able to accept defeat and donate them to Goodwill (I couldn't sell them).

If I make one recipe from a new cookbook and the dish stinks, I'm done with that cookbook.  If I try one recipe and it's OK, and I'm in a very good mood, I might give it one more chance.  If I make 5 or 6 recipes and the resulting meals are all from good to delectable, the ingredients are easy to find, and the recipes are fairly simple and fast as well as forgiving of user-error (because I don't really know what I'm doing) --- well, then we have a winner!  And I buy the cookbook.  Needless to say, I don't buy cookbooks too often.

A few of the meals in my regular rotation from The Six O'Clock Scramble.

I can't remember where I first heard about The Six O'Clock Scramble: Quick, Healthy, and Delicious Dinner Recipes for Busy Families by Aviva Goldfarb.  Maybe on the radio. Tons of reviewers loved it.  But I think I simply walked by it in a display case at the library.  After browsing through the entire book and trying several recipes, I was hooked and purchased my own copy.  Now many of The Six O'Clock Scramble's recipes have entered my regular rotation, including:

• One-Pot Chicken and Vegetable Stew
• Asian Pasta Salad with Ginger-Soy Dressing
• Farfalle with Mushrooms and Peas
• Savory Udon Noodle Soup
• Black Bean Burgers
• Fried Rice with Tofu
• Lentil and Cheese Casserole/ Vegetarian Meatloaf -- find the recipe for that one HERE) 

Note that on my meal planning chart these titles are in my own personal shorthand.  I still have not tried all the recipes I want to in the book (I can only handle trying so many new recipes in a month).  All the recipes I have made have been good enough to eat, and most have merited a repeat or regular performance.  I think you can tell that Goldfarb's recipes are tested by real families. In addition to writing cookbooks, Aviva Goldfarb runs a weekly online meal planning service, and her online subscribers regularly provide feedback about the recipes. The only other cookbooks I've had this kind of success with are those by Cook's Illustrated (a.k.a. America's Test Kitchen).

So when I hard that there was a new "Earth-Friendly" SOS! Cookbook, of course I wanted to try it!  Click HERE to read my exciting review of the second Six O'Clock cookbook, SOS! The Six O'Clock Scramble to the Rescue: Earth-Friendly, Kid-Pleasing Dinners for Busy Families.

This post is part of Homemaker Monday.