Anne Byrn Saves the Day! Cookbook

June 16, 2014
Veteran cookbook author Byrn (Cake Mix Doctor series) broadens her scope here to include can’t-miss classics that are fairly easy to prepare. Drawing from her own vault of recipes as well as from friends and followers, Byrn offers up 125 reliable if unremarkable everyday dishes. Assuming readers have their larders stocked with staples, such as canned beans and tomatoes, and spices and basic proteins, such as ground turkey and nuts, Byrn provides clear instructions for dishes like stuffed mushrooms, classic Greek salad, spaghetti carbonara, and sour cream coffee cake from scratch. Home cooks will find plenty of suggestions for appetizers (artichoke dip, spiced peanuts) and mains (lasagna, a low-country shrimp boil)—most of which are accompanied by make-ahead tips as well as suggestions for jazzing the recipes up with additional ingredients.

October 15, 2014

Byrn, well known for her best-selling Cake Mix Doctor and Dinner Doctor cookbooks, returns with a collection that extends her brand to even more courses and types of foods. Seeking to save home cooks from common culinary "emergencies"--recipe ruts, last-minute potluck requests, and unexpected dinner guests, for example--she offers 125 recipes grouped by course and tagged with catchy categories (e.g., Company's Coming, Too Hot To Cook, What To Serve at Book Club, Very Vegetarian). Many recipes, including Beth's autumn salad with maple vinaigrette and Marian's fish and potato pie, were contributed by Byrn's fans, and most include helpful notes and serving suggestions. Sidebars provide additional tips, including how to cook risotto in a microwave in 22 minutes. VERDICT This solid set of weeknight-friendly crowd-pleasers presents smart shortcuts but not too many processed or brand-name ingredients.

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