The Carefree Cook

In The Carefree Cook veteran food writer Rick Rogers confronts the problem of fixing good food fast. He's not alone in this preoccupation, as other, similarly themed cookbooks attest. If The Carefree Cook offers little novel to increase kitchen ease (which may be a tall order indeed), it nonetheless provides 150 tasty, simple enough recipes for everyday meal-making. Some of these, from a broad range of menu options that includes vegetarian main courses, are standouts. Dishes such as Roasted Clams with Peppers and Spicy Sausages, Grilled Chicken Breasts with Orange Jerk Marinade, and Santa Fe Corn Pudding with Year-Round Salsa are real keepers. Desserts, including Pear Pandowdy with Ginger and Five Spices and Peanut Butter and Jelly Pie, are attractively homey and non-taxing. Rogers also provides useful ingredient asides--on the "new" intensely flavored chocolates, for example--and preliminary instructions that will help readers better organize their kitchen lives. Recipes that take 30 minutes or so to prepare are so indicated. With color photos sure to get cooks cooking.