By Siobhan Adcock It’s been a while since a cookbook came across my desk that contained so much food I wanted to make and eat immediately. What’s For Dinner? Delicious Recipes for a Busy Life, the new cookbook by Curtis Stone of Top Chef Masters fame, is full of practical, creative dishes for the lifestyles of the hardworking non-rich and non-famous. (Full disclosure: I am the last person in North America who still doesn’t watch any of the Top Chef shows, so I am not just saying this because Chef Stone has a nice accent or something.) Broken into chapters by day of the week, the book is full of dreamy Quentin Bacon photographs of the Stone family (and their produce and silverware) doing impossibly gorgeous things, all while offering recipes for a real person’s decidedly un-dreamy life. “Motivating Mondays” is a collection of healthy, energizing recipes to start the week. “Time-Saving Tuesdays” is 17 variations on quick-fix tastiness. “One-Pot Wednesdays” acknowledges midweek dishwashing fatigue. “Thrifty Thursdays” offers fresh ideas for inexpensive cuts of meat and vegetarian mains. “Five-Ingredient Fridays” suggests relaxing, basic recipes to end the week. And “Dinner Party Saturdays” and “Family Supper Sundays” feature menu ideas for meals worth a bit of extra time. We talked with Chef Stone about his tips for busy cooks, including what to do to save time later in the week, and the “secret weapon” he’d suggest for anybody looking to save time in the kitchen. Read on for our exclusive Q&A, plus three make-it-tonight recipes. EPI: This cookbook is great for busy working parents who love to cook and eat but find themselves strapped for time (not that I’m speaking from personal experience or anything…). What advance prep steps can you recommend doing on a Sunday night to help a family get a jump on the week ahead? Curtis Stone: Make extra! One of the best ways to save time in the kitchen is to turn leftovers into a quick meal. Just think: roasted vegetables can become an amazing soup, vegetable gratins transform effortlessly into a frittata and pot roast makes the most delicious open-faced sandwiches. EPI: We’re big fans of having a ritual Sunday night family meal together, and the chapter in your cookbook devoted to Family Meal Sundays contains plenty of good ideas for what to put on the table. But a family meal tradition is also about more than the food: What else goes into the Family Meal Sunday tradition in your house? Inviting friends? Particular topics of conversation? A special table-setting? Curtis Stone: I love how long and leisurely Sunday dinners are. I like to start cooking early in the day, which fills the house with delicious aromas, and sit down to eat a little earlier so everyone can linger around the table. When it comes to Sunday dinner, the more the merrier, so we love to invite family and friends around. EPI: What “secret weapon” ingredient or timesaving kitchen tip do you wish more busy home cooks knew about?…<div

From: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/epicurious/epiblog/~3/MU4D03XgpHU/recipes-and-family-dinner-ideas-from-curtis-stones-whats-for-dinner.html