"THE COMPLETE IDIOT'S GUIDE TO EASY FREEZER MEALS," by Cheri Sicard, Penguin Group, $16.95, 323 pages (nf)
At first glance, "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Easy Freezer Meals" is a book with a long and seemingly boring title. It contains no step-by-step four-color pictures or YouTube instructional clips, and it features just a few simple illustrations, but this simplicity suits this fun freezing guide for home cooks from novice to experienced.
"Easy Freezer Meals" is written by Cheri Sicard, who has an impressive rÉsumÉ as a food writer and an obvious love of food and talent for instruction that is to the point without talking down to the reader. She excels at adding guidance and procedural tidbits while keeping the focus on the recipes and spotlighting the unique flavors and uses of each. Particularly clever are the "cool tips," "cold facts" and "tabletalk" entries that appear at the end of each recipe offering tips, tricks and cooking trivia tied to the recipe or recipe category.
The book is split into 18 chapters, the first four focused on reasons for freezing meals, freezer use and maintenance, and shopping tips to make freezing not only a convenience but a financial benefit. Each of the remaining chapters fits within five larger sections of essentials, breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert, with a short introduction followed by nine to 12 recipes.
The recipes are straightforward and interesting with a lot of room for personalizing for your family's dietary needs and flavor preferences. The instructions include not only directions for freezing but reheating and serving as well. With some stovetop cooking required in many recipes, it's not quite simple enough to turn over to young chefs solo, but with adult guidance teens and preteens can enjoy freezing everything from Ban-Apple French Toast Casserole to decadent homemade Best-Ever Brownies.
A home run in the kitchen for variety and usefulness, save space on your recipe rack for "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Easy Freezer Meals" and in your freezer for delicious foods that allow you to "Cook for a weekend, eat for a month."
Jana Stocks Brown is a writer, wife and mother. She is an excellent cook and avid reader, with many cookbooks weighing down her shelves. She blogs at cornabys.wordpress.com.
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