45 Forkfuls of Christmas

Forkful #8: Drive Through? Don’t Think So!

Let’s face it, there are about a billion cookbooks out there. But honestly, how often do you feel the need to buy a cookbook? And of the ones you have (which you probably were given as gifts), how often do you crack one open to get a recipe? We cook a lot, and of the dozen or so cookbooks we have in our kitchen, we open The Joy of Cooking or How to Cook Everything every once in a while to get a basic recipe, and The Perfect Scoop when we make ice cream, but other than that they pretty much sit untouched.

A big exception is Jacques Pepin’s Fast Food My Way – we’ve watched his show on PBS for a while now, and have always liked the way he turns fancy French cuisine into simple, approachable dishes. His book is the same way – the recipes take his decades of experience with French cuisine and strip away all the pomp, leaving amazing delicious yet amazingly simple recipes. You really get the sense that after all his years as a chef he’s boiled his art down to the simple essence; what he cooks on his show and in his book is how he cooks for himself at home.

Our hands-down favorite from Fast Food My Way is his 30-Minute Cassoulet, it’s just flat-out delicious, and while 30 minutes is maybe a bit faster than the average home cook can make it, 45 minutes is certainly enough time.

This is one cookbook that’s guaranteed not to sit unused on your shelf!

© 2009 The Foodie Forkful.