One thing I love in a book is great organization, I am a librarian after all, and one thing I love in a cook book is easy, fast recipes. I Dream of Dinner by Ali Slagle meets both of these requirements, getting 5 stars from me!
Maybe I’m just a picky eater, and I suppose I am, but I always feel like you have to go through a whole cookbook to find a handful of good recipes. You may miss one awesome breakfast recipe if you skip that section just because 99% of them have eggs, and ya know I’m allergic to them. That’s what is wonderful about the book I Dream of Dinner. It’s organized in a way that eliminates so much of the flipping through! Egg section -skip!, Beef, Pork, & Lamb section -skip!
While the recipes in those sections may be great for someone, I know I’m never going to make them and the organization of this book makes navigating to the recipes you actually want so simple! It’s absolutely divine~
Ali came up with these easy, fast recipes that anyone can do without a ton of special gadgets in a small kitchen. And from the few I’ve made they actually live up to that and are GOOD too.
The recipe’s I’ve marked as to make from it are:
- 50/50 Buttered Noodles
- Beans with Crunchy vegtables
- Blistered Peppers with Mozzarella & Croutons
- Chicken with So Much Garlic
- Creamy Tomato Soup (No Cream)
- Good Sauce So-So Tomatoes
- Harissa Chickpeas with Feta
- Lemon Black Pepper Shells
- Baked Quesadilla’s
- One-Pot Rice & Beans
- Salad That Never Repeats
- Pasta with Chopped Pesto & Peas
- Sloppy Lennys
- Salumi Butter Rigatoni
- Sorta Refried Beans
I did make the Baked Quesadilla’s and attempted the Chicken with So Much Garlic. The Baked Quesadilla’s were fabulous, my dad actually said “Those where good Danielle, and there wasn’t any meat in them?” While they weren’t as crunchy left over, which is to be expected, they still tasted great. I think next time I’ll just save some to bake in the toaster instead of all of them at once since I’m obviously feeding less mouths than the normal household.
The Chicken with So Much Garlic failed because the chicken I used was freezer burned. It was pretty disgusting and had to be thrown away, but the recipe calls for a fresh chicken which was my bad.