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'Everyday Food: Great Food Fast'
From the Kitchens of Martha Stewart Living
Clarkson Potter -- 2007
Buy it on Amazon

Launched in 2003, "Everyday Food" was designed for home cooks who didn't have a lot of time on their hands to make elaborate weeknight dinners but did have a desire to make high-quality, satisfying meals.

The diminutive magazine, which was put out by Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, gained a devoted following thanks to its practical recipes, approachable ingredient lists and low-fuss food that yielded great flavor.

"Everyday Food," the cookbook, offers these same qualities, with 250 recipes that put both the seasons of the year and multiple variations on favorite foods front and center.

See what we tested and whether the book's worth buying after the jump.
Takeaway tips: The book's recipes are divided by seasons, with each seasonal section further divided into Soups and Salads, Main Courses, Pastas, Sides and Desserts. There's also a section at the back devoted to recipes for basic preparations like vinaigrettes, rubs and herb sauces.

Quality of pictures: Lick-the-page good.

We tested: Curried Zucchini Soup, Indian-Spiced Chicken Burgers.

This zucchini soup is ideal for a night when you want something that's healthy, delicious and easy to prepare. It's basically just zucchini, a potato, some curry powder, garlic and olive oil, simmered and then puréed in a blender. It's also versatile -- you can add or subtract as much curry flavoring as you desire and still get results with bountiful flavor.

The lack of heavy cream, which is so commonly used in this kind of soup, means that the zucchini gets star billing, as it should -- and that you won't feel weighed down after eating it. It tastes like summer in a bowl, and works well both as an appetizer and a meal on its own, accompanied by a chunk or two of crusty bread.

Similarly, the Indian-spiced burgers are very user-friendly; although the recipe calls for a list of spices, most of them -- cumin, paprika, cayenne pepper -- are easy to find, and the ingredients list is otherwise brief. Like the zucchini soup, the spices in the burgers can be adapted to different tastes without losing much of the dish's character.

While the recipe calls for cooking the burgers on a real grill, they cooked up marvelously on a George Foreman, making them ideal for even the smallest kitchen. Served in whole-wheat pita alongside sprigs of cilantro and a simple yogurt sauce, they were a big hit with kids and adults alike.

Worth the investment: While we would have appreciated more summertime recipes that didn't call for grilling, we were impressed by the thoughtfulness and creativity that went into even the smallest of details -- this is one cookbook that's truly interested in broadening the horizons of the home cook without condescending to him or her.

If you're already an "Everyday Food" fan, then this one's a no-brainer. If you're looking for ways to cook at home more often but have limited time and energy, then this is also an invaluable reference.