Amazon.com

'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.

I've always had a love/hate relationship with upscale cookbooks and food magazines. I enjoy flipping through them, ogling the stunning food images and imagining a life where I have the time and energy to create dishes that take 7 pots, 11 hours and 26 ingredients. However, it's that level of intensity that so frustrates me, as while those recipes are nice to look at, reality says that they aren't something I can tackle. It's one of the reasons that the only food magazine that I've consistent subscribed to over the last five years is Everyday Food (the recipes are just so darn accessible).

However, according to an article in today's New York Times, it appears that those more refined and haughty food magazines are changing their ways and including recipes that home cooks can make on a budget and in that window of time that exists between the end of your commute home and the start of the dinner (half) hour.

Gourmet is including a new feature in their monthly publication called "Cook Smart" that tries to help the folks at home with easy, budget-friendly meals that will produce leftovers and keep them from calling out for pizza in desperation. Other publications like Food & Wine and Bon Appétit are choosing similar paths.

As readers and consumers of food media (I'm guessing that at least a few of you still subscribe to some of the glossies), what are you looking for? Do you use the food magazines that land in your mailboxes each month? Would you appreciate it if those glossies started printing more useful recipes?

Looking at this picture makes me realize that I haven't had a single piece of barbecued chicken this summer. Seems I'll have to do something about that before the grilling season is out, possibly with this exact recipe (the volume of Everyday Food from which it comes is currently sitting on a stack next to my bed). This picture comes to us from the guys over at The Bitten Word, who discovered that until this batch of chicken, they'd been making barbecue the wrong way all their lives. However, it seems that they are now converts to this dry rub prior to cooking, saucing at the end of grilling technique.

Thanks Clay and Zach, for adding your image to the Slashfood Flickr pool!

I know that's a rather fattening-sounding name, but this recipe is under the "Light & Healthy" category over at Martha Stewart's Everyday Food. Hmmm...I'm not so sure. Yeah, they're made with unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder and egg whites and light cream cheese, but still. Maybe "lighter" and "healthier" is a better phrase.They sound pretty darn good.

I've been subscribing to Martha Stewart's Reader's Digest-sized Everyday Food since she first started publishing it in 2003. I have every single issue I've ever received (although most of them are currently being used to hold up the end of a wall-mounted cabinet that is falling apart). So the new cookbook, Great Food Fast, which pulls 250 recipes from the pages of those magazines wouldn't necessarily be something I'd need to own. However, even though I've seen most of the recipes before and made more than a few of them, I find this cookbook really appealing. That's because they've done a really lovely job of making it easy to navigate and visually interesting. The pictures, which never get particularly big in the magazine, have been blown up, without any loss of quality, to fill the pages of this book and illustrate their accompanying recipes.

Organized by season (as recipes from a mostly monthly magazine should be) this book makes it fairly easy to find quick dishes for dinner that you know will be fairly tasty and foolproof. Say what you will about Martha Stewart, her recipes are typically reliable. If you haven't been subscribing to the magazine all along like I have, then this is one you should take a peek at next time you're in the bookstore, as it's pretty nice.

I like recipes that are "light" but still manage to get chocolate in them three different ways.

These Light Chocolate Chunk Brownies from Everyday Food have chocolate and cocoa powder inside and chocolate chips outside, so they'll make chocolate lovers happy (the readers at the Everyday Food site say these are more cake than brownie). They also utilize unsweetened applesauce and low fat sour cream, so I'm itching to try these. I've been craving brownies all week for some reason. I hope I'm not pregnant.

I think it's pretty safe to say that we wouldn't have this big crafts/home & garden/cooking industry that we have if it wasn't for Martha Stewart. Sure, there were people doing it before her, but not in such a big way. Her 1982 bestseller Entertaining really paved the way for everything we have today.

Stewart is going to be celebrating those 25 years on her show tomorrow. Besides giving her audience a first edition of the book, she's also going to talk with Alan Mirken, the former Clarkson/Potter president who discovered Stewart) and other execs and employees Stewart has worked with over the years.

In other Martha news, PBS will launch a new show titled Everyday Baking, a spinoff of the Everyday Food show, which is based on the magazine of the same name.

I have been subscribing to Everyday Food, Martha Stewart's squat cooking magazine, since it's inception January 2003. I still have every single issue I've received (although right now I'm using issues 1-34 to hold up the corner of a wall-mounted cabinet in my living room that is falling apart). A couple of weeks ago, Megan at Not Martha posted about her own collection of Everyday Food mags, prompted because a commenter on her site had mentioned that the original issue of the magazine had sold for $50 on eBay. The best part of Megan's post is the list she put together, complete with links, to all the recipes from EF that she likes and uses.

Her post got me thinking about my own collection of EF mags and started me flipping through some of my old issues (the ones that aren't anchoring said piece of furniture, at least). I stumbled across a recipe in the December 2006 issue that I made once last year and remembered loving. It's for Braised Chicken with Shallots and is perfect for these cooler winter days. It's also easy and makes good leftovers. The recipe is after the jump.

Hours before I even heard about the recall of Banquet Frozen Pot Pies, I had decided to post this recipe from Martha Stewart's web site for Lighter Chicken Potpie (I've seen it spelled both ways - "potpie" and "pot pie" - and I'll use Martha's spelling for her recipe and two words for Banquet, because I don't want Martha mad at me). It's a healthier version of the classic chicken potpie recipe, using more veggies, low fat milk, and oil instead of butter. Full recipe after the jump.

This month's Everyday Food magazine has an article about the five essential pots and pans that should be in every kitchen. They definitely picked out the right things, too. If you are missing one of these, or perhaps haven't gotten around to breaking in your kitchen after moving out of the dorms, you will be able to cook most things if you pick up all five items. On the list are:

• 10-inch nonstick skillet - Nonsticks are great because they don't requite much cleanup, but stick to anodized aluminum brands, like Analon and Calphalon, if you want to avoid potentially toxic PFOAs. Use it for scrambling eggs and searing delicate meats, like seafood.
• 12-inch skillet - The best choice for sauteing because you'll have lots of room to work, large skillets will allow for higher surface heat and better searing. Make sure that it balances well on your stove and isn't off balance by a too-heavy handle.
• Large saucepan - A 3 or 4-quart saucepan is the most versatile kitchen pot because it can be used for sauces, small batches of soups or pasta for one for a quick  lunch. Don't get an aluminum one (unless its anodized) because its reactivity with utensils and metal cooking implements can quickly lend an unwelcome taste to your sauces.
• Large pot - Stocks, soups and stews can all be made in a big 8 or 10-quart pot, but the most common use for a pot like this is to make pasta. Lots of pasta.
• Dutch oven - These can work both in the oven and on the stove top. They retain heat better than most other cookware, too, so they're ideal for slow cooking and making soups or chili. Look for enameled cast iron, anodized aluminum or stainless steel with a copper/aluminum base.