America’s Test Kitchen

America's Test Kitchen

Books: Cooking | Baking | Bread

The Complete Cooking For Two Cookbook (2014), The Complete America's Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook 2001-2016 (2016), Bread Illustrated (2016), The Perfect Cookie (2017), All-Time Best Dinners for Two (2018), The New Essentials Cookbook (2018)

The Complete Cooking For Two Cookbook (2014)

In the past couple years I started to take cooking more seriously. I've always loved baking, but cooking? Not so much.

On a whim I picked up a couple of cooking for two books, to see if not having to eat the same meal for an entire week would make me more likely to cook.

The answer is a resounding yes.

America's Test Kitchen is a well-known and well-regarded institution that extensively tests their recipes and explains why things work (or don't).

I usually skip the explanations, because I just want to make something yummy, but it is useful to know they why if you want to branch out in your own. For example, I love the White Chicken Chili Recipe in The Science of Good Cooking by Cook's Illustrated but I don't want to eat chili every day for an entire week. So I combined that recipe with the White Chicken Chili recipe here to get dinner and lunch for the next day.

I've made several recipes from this book, including the following:

Chicken Pot Pie. I love chicken pot pie, but it's not so great the third day. This recipe serves two, and although it's a little time consuming, it wasn't unreasonable for a week-day night, and it was very very delicious.

Maple-Glazed Acorn Squash. I've been trying to branch out at the Farmers' Market, and this year it was acorn squash. This recipe (aside from cutting the acorn squash, which seems like an opportunity for me to visit the emergency room) is incredibly easy, and very delicious. It's listed as a side, but even a small acorn squash is more than enough for two people for dinner.

But most useful are the baking recipes. It's relatively easy to scale down a recipe for dinner. Baking on the other hand, is far less easy, since the leavening can't simply be halved or quartered, so someone else having done all the testing is lovely.

Blueberry Muffins. This recipe is simple, quick, and makes four muffins, which is a perfect amount for two people. I don't make the topping (I almost never add toppings to breads and muffins), but I don't think the muffins needed the topping.

Skillet Apple Crisp. This is another relatively easy recipe, although a little more fussy than I tend to like my apple crisp, it's still good, and delicious. It is not, however, two servings. It's definitely three or four servings. Just so you know.

For us, this cookbook was a good investment, and we're still trying new recipes.

Publisher: America's Test Kitchen

Rating: 8.5/10

Bread Illustrated (2016)

Bread Illustrated