Don’t overlook 101 One Dish Dinners | Cookbook review

Want some new ways to use your old pans? Then this book, 101 One Dish Dinners by Andrea Chessman is for you.

Picture this scenario: Your day is hectic. You want to cook something up with good fresh ingredients but you don’t want to make a mess in the kitchen—multiple pots and pans and more. You are perhaps also on a tight budget and do not want to run out and purchase the latest and greatest in equipment. You might have time for an oven-cooked meal and then again, you might just prefer eating something cold or room temperature, like a salad or something you can whip up quickly on the stovetop in your fave skillet. For all of these reasons and with ingredients that you can mostly get fresh or frozen in all seasons, this cookbook will fill the bill.

Chessman is no novice to the world of recipes and cookbooks. This is her 20th contribution to culinary literature. Don’t be deceived by the simple approach of this book—there are some dishes here that are company worthy! All of them look tasty. In fact , I have marked several, the soup sections, New England Fish chowder, trout asparagus and new potato salad, warm German potato salad with sausage, a plain potato and fish sauté that all sound (and when pictured, look) amazing. The recipes are presented in four chapters by type o food—soups and stews, skillet suppers, oven –baked suppers and salad suppers. The recipes range from standard North American fare, including seafood, Mexican, Italian, German and a variety of Asian fare.

Chessman does her due diligence in case you are gifting this book to a new cook—the author explains the uses of the knives, skillets and pantry products that will be the tools to be used. The book would make a super gift, along with a cast iron skillet or Dutch oven or casserole dish/pan (or all three!). Chessman gives a great explanation of how to season a cast iron pan.

This is one of those small paperbound books that could get overlooked in a sea of specialty books and hardback beauties developed to sell for the holidays. 101 One Dish Dinners makes a nice addition to anyone’s recipe collection, no matter what your level of cooking expertise. Don’t overlook it.

This story was originally published October 10, 2016 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Don’t overlook 101 One Dish Dinners | Cookbook review."