Dinner in One: Exceptional & Easy One-Pan Meals: A Cookbook

I would highly recommend disregarding negative opinions about this book. They read as they are coming from people who have never cooked or are offended by flavor. If you don't know what an ingredient is, Google is your friend. Also, the author makes several notes for each recipe on how to change items up.Right off the bat you will notice that this book is of rich quality. The pages are thick and glossy. Much more thicker than the average book. The height of the book is much smaller though than the rest of my collection. It doesn't feel odd or weird though, despite that. It kind of adds a cozy feel, if that makes sense.The variety of recipes is something that I really enjoyed skimming through. As I went through page after page, I felt like this was a really worthy purchase and knew I'd get my money's worth. I like to place sticky tabs / notes on recipes I am interested in but there were far too many in this one so I didn't even bother.There are recipes of all sorts of tastes. Vegetarian, meat, sides, etc. The author uses a varying amount of herbs and spices and if you are a seasoned cook, as you read the ingredients, you will feel the recipe come to life already.This book has Milk Street vibes in the sense that it contains flavors from all over the world, but she uses a lot more seasonings and herbs in her recipes (which I love!).This book is not a simple, plain cookbook though. If you are looking for a quick weeknight meal with a fussy spouse / children, I would not recommend this. This feels like it is more geared towards people that enjoy cooking as a hobby and savoring wonderful flavors and tastes. Maybe you could use some of the recipes for a weekend dinner when dining with friends or family.The only disappointment in this cookbook is that there are not images for every recipe. This does bother me a lot with other books but I think I can overlook that because of the quality of the product itself.Highly recommend if you appreciate flavor, depth, and deliciousness. Do not recommend if you do not like to cook and / or do not like strong, bold flavors.15/10/2022 Update: So far I've made 3 recipes from this book. The tofu and roasted veggies were freaking delicious. Loved the way of cutting the potatoes and fresh herbs made a huuuuuge difference.The Kimchi Fried Rice was awesome! I added some sautéed garlic prawns to it and wow! This was sooooo delicious.The Cumin-y Chicken and Rice was also super yummy! I added way more garlic and marinated my chicken for several hours, ignoring the recommended time. If you do this too, make sure to massage the chicken every couple hours or so!

Excelente livro de Melissa Clark, que une a praticidade da execução com a sofisticação da receita, que é a marca registrada da autora.Melissa Clark publica regularmente na sessão de gastronomia do NY Times. Tem uma pegada francesa, associada a sua origem judaica, que vem das suas inúmeras viagens à França, na companhia dos pais. Recomendo este livro, muito útil na agitação da vida moderna para quem não abre mão de preparar "algo especial" em casa.

I've been waiting for this book to come out ever since it was announced. I have all of Melissa Clark's previous books and really love her recipes. So far, however, I am not loving this one nearly as much, and I feel terrible saying that. Clark has already raised the home cooking bar so high that it makes me feel bad to say that this one is not quite there, but at least I'm not finding that it is.I have to further preface this review by stating that many of the recipes I adore and very often make from Clark's insanely great cookbook, "Dinner: Changing the Game," are already one pot - the most amazing shakshuka I have ever made, or even had, is in that book, and the Chicken with Anchovies, Lemon, and Capers, and the Brussels Sprouts with Halloumi are one-pot constants in my house. There are so many outstanding recipes in that book - one of my personal all-time favorite cookbooks ever - that I think it would be a really hard act to follow. But, I thought, if anyone can do it, Clark can.So perhaps I was expecting too much, but I'm just not loving what this book has so far delivered.Here's what I have made so far:-- Garlicky Pork Chops with Cauliflower and Pomegranate.It was the first recipe I made from the book. I was a little leery about cooking pork chops on a sheet pan in the dry heat of an oven, but I figured if anyone could make it work, Clark would. The result was not great, but it wasn't really because of the pork, which amazingly came out fairly well (I live in the South and the pork here is usually pretty great). It was because the dish, as a whole, really did not come together. The flavors were just ok. I would not make it again.-- Skillet Shrimp Scampi with Orzo and Tomatoes.This turned out better than the pork dish for sure, and I had fantastic shrimp that was caught earlier in the day by the fisherman down the road, so I was hoping for spectacular. It was ok/good, but I would not really make it again.-- Crispy Chicken Thighs with Puttanesca Green Beans.This was the best of the three, but still just ok/good. Between the chicken skin, and tablespoons of olive oil in the recipe, and the olive oil drizzle, there was really quite a lot of fat. I would cut back next time. If I would make any of the recipes again, it would be this one, but with modifications.-- [Updated] Roasted Mushrooms with PolentaThis has been the winner so far. It was delicious and ridiculously easy for how good it tasted. I used maitake, shiitake and cremini mushrooms (threw in a bit more than the recipes called for) and an organic polenta. The pre-made polenta was better in this dish than I thought it be - creamy on the inside and crispy on the edges. We loved this dish so much that there was not a speck left in the pan. This one is a keeper for sure. It was enough to keep my going through the book.-- [Updated] Green Shashuka with Avocado, Chile and FetaThis was not good. The chile in the recipe title made no appearance in the list of ingredients nor in the instructions, so I was left to wonder about the editing of this book. The recipes have been so unlike Clark's previous books that I have to think that faulty editing might be the reason. IDK if chiles would have made a difference or not but this was a unanimous not good in my house. We ate it, but only because I will not throw away food unless it is entirely inedible.-- [Updated] Spicy Stir-fried Pork with Green Beans and TomatoesThis was good enough to make again. I had to adjust some of the seasoning amounts because the jalapeños I bought were on the mild side, but the dish came together very quickly and was tasty. It was successful enough to make me want to try a few more recipes.At this point, I am suspecting that there were errors in editing this book. And maybe the errors just happened to be in the recipes I chose to make because I'm surprised that, aside from the Roasted Mushrooms, we really haven't liked them that much. If this was not Melissa Clark, I would have quit after three strikes, but having had more strikes, it will be a while before I make another one.. save for those mushrooms.I am used to making Melissa Clark recipes that knock everyone socks off, but so far, my socks are still on. I wish I was giving this book a rave review because it would mean that we have been having some amazing dinners in my house this week. Unfortunately, that is not what happened. A lot of people do ok/good, but from Melissa Clark, I was expecting her usual, amazingly great recipes and I have not yet consistently seen that from this book.

14 ingredients in kimchi rice dish. Most no one will have on hand and need to go shopping for. Except the day old rice. Will take forever to put these dishes together in that one pan. Book is a joke. All recipes have a ton of ingredients. What is fish sauce? I wasted my money so you do not have to waste yours. I get good recipes from my Six Ingredients or Less book .

Both Melissa Clark's "Dinner" and "Dinner in French" helped get our family through the pandemic with inventive, delicious meals that were uncomplicated and yielded fantastic results.I have yet to start cooking from "Dinner in One" but I can already tell Crispy Lemon Chicken will be in heavy rotation and I can't wait to try Caramelized Carrots and Roasted Cauliflower and Potatoes (a riff on her Harissa Chicken that in our home we simply call The Chicken Dish because it's so original and so moreish!!!!). I haven't yet worked my way through reading this book, as it was just delivered about an hour ago, but I want to say that the ingredients in this cookbook are easily attainable to anyone with access to a grocery store. The steps are simple and I believe that once again Ms. Clark is going to help our family mix it up in the kitchen, only with fewer pots to clean. :-)