{"id":12398,"date":"2009-01-23T02:57:00","date_gmt":"2009-01-23T02:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/production.ou.org\/life\/other\/judy_bart_kancigor_easy_does_it_recipes_for_the_rushed\/"},"modified":"2015-10-30T03:35:17","modified_gmt":"2015-10-30T08:35:17","slug":"judy_bart_kancigor_easy_does_it_recipes_for_the_rushed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/food\/cooking\/judy_bart_kancigor_easy_does_it_recipes_for_the_rushed\/","title":{"rendered":"Easy Does It: Recipes For the Rushed"},"content":{"rendered":"

The bigger they are the harder they fall. True for baked goods (my attempts at Aunt Estelle\u2019s Mile-High Sponge Cake measure more like a block and a half) and true for superstars. But long before Martha Stewart imploded on Implone, the anti-Martha forces were gathering. While America loved watching<\/i> Martha make from-scratch puff pastry for her artful hors d\u2019ouevres, when it came to throwing one\u2019s own party, well, easy does it.<\/p>\n

Wives are working, children are over-scheduled, our lives are hectic, and especially after the cooking frenzy of the holidays, less is certainly more. A number of cookbooks have emerged encouraging us to open that can and feel good about it, most notably Sandra Lee\u2019s \u201cSemi-Homemade Cooking\u201d (Miramax Books). Even the cover tells us: \u201cQuick Marvelous Meals and Nothing is Made from Scratch\u201d and boasts an introduction by Wolfgang Puck, no less. Sandra even has her own show on the Food Network in which she turns convenience food shopping<\/i>, rather than searing and saut\u00e9ing, into an art form.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an appetizer idea the next time you have friends in, Goat Cheese Pizza. Place a fully baked thin store-bought pizza crust on a cookie sheet. Spread with marinara sauce. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese (of course you buy the shredded variety), then with crumbled goat cheese, and bake in a preheated 425-degree oven until bubbly, 12 minutes. (Okay, she does have you chop 2 tablespoons of fresh basil to sprinkle on top. Whew! A woman\u2019s work is never done.)<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the phenomenon known as Rachel Ray, with her immensely popular shows on the Food Network and now even a talk show on CBS. Her cookbooks routinely head the best-sellers list, and what is she doing? Teaching you how to throw together dinner in 30 minutes or less. She is as unMartha as she can be. Everything she does is a no-brainer, and America is eating her up. She fixes dinner in real time. No pre-cut veggies or pre-sliced anything. We even see her walk over to the refrigerator to get out the ingredients, and at the end of the show, poof, there\u2019s dinner.<\/p>\n

If ever there was a Jewish Rachel Ray, it\u2019s got to be Jamie Geller, who calls herself \u201cThe Bride who Knew Nothing\u201d and whose cookbook \u201cQuick and Kosher\u201d (Feldheim) is the busy kosher cook\u2019s answer to a prayer.<\/p>\n

Although Geller\u2019s grandparents were gourmet chef\/owners of a restaurant in the Philadelphia suburbs, her mother worked and rarely stepped into the kitchen. Geller, a former high-powered producer at a major cable network, married \u201cwithout knowing a spatula from a saucepan,\u201d she says. \u201cTo say I had a lot to learn is the understatement of the century.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a little help from her mother-in-law, Geller learned to cook, sticking to her mantra of a 15-minute time limit on preparation for any dish. In the chapter entitled \u201cSecrets of the 15-Minute Chef\u201d Geller reveals her timesaving strategies for serving beautifully presented dishes without breaking a sweat. \u201cBe a cubist,\u201d she instructs, for example. Buy pre-cubed meat and pre-skinned and cubed butternut squash and save time.<\/p>\n

Like Rachel Ray, Geller\u2019s style is homey and conversational. The book contains enough interesting ideas for the experienced homemaker who is just looking for some shortcuts without intimidating the novice cook and with dozens of luscious photographs to whet any palate.<\/p>\n

Lesser known, but no less snappy is the Rush Hour Cook series (Champion Press) by Brook Noel. The book called \u201cWeekly Wonders\u201d even notes on the cover: \u201cShe\u2019s everything that Martha isn\u2019t!\u201d The idea was born over Noel\u2019s need to \u201cfind some sanity in my crazy life\u201d and create a strategy for the family to get together at mealtimes with \u201ca simple and sane dinner hour during which we can connect and enjoy one another.\u201d<\/p>\n

Never know what to make for dinner? The weekly meal plans and shopping lists will remove the guesswork and, more importantly, save you time. Noel, whom a friend once called the \u201cabsolute Queen of Incapable Cooking,\u201d bursts with an \u201cif I can do it, you can do it\u201d attitude and flair. If she can make tasty, wholesome meals with her 12- to 14-hour work schedule, then we can too.<\/p>\n

All the recipes in the book have to meet the following criteria: The ingredients have to be pronounceable and easy to find \u201cwithout engaging in a full-scale scavenger hunt.\u201d The ingredient list can\u2019t be longer than the instructions, and each recipe has to elicit a compliment and be edible, at least in part, to the finicky child.<\/p>\n

Other books in the series – \u201cPresto Pasta,\u201d \u201dOne-Pot Wonders,\u201d \u201cEffortless Entertaining\u201d and \u201dFamily Favorites\u201d – all sport the tag line: \u201cConquer kitchen chaos and create a sane and simple dinner hour with the help of The Rush Hour Cook.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/div>\n

Judy Bart Kancigor<\/b> is the author of \u201cCooking Jewish: 532 Great Recipes from the Rabinowitz Family\u201d and can be found on the web at www.cookingjewish.com. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The bigger they are the harder they fall. True for baked goods (my attempts at Aunt Estelle\u2019s Mile-High Sponge Cake measure more like a block and a half) and true for superstars. But long before Martha Stewart imploded on Implone, the anti-Martha forces were gathering. While America loved watching Martha make from-scratch puff pastry for<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":219,"featured_media":44906,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[101,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-media","category-cooking"],"yoast_head":"\nEasy Does It - Recipes For the Rushed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A number of cookbooks have emerged encouraging us to open that can and feel good about it. 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