{"id":11544,"date":"2021-10-07T13:19:58","date_gmt":"2021-10-07T13:19:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/?p=11544"},"modified":"2021-10-25T16:04:09","modified_gmt":"2021-10-25T16:04:09","slug":"and-the-living-is-easy-for-fall-cooking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/fall-2021\/and-the-living-is-easy-for-fall-cooking\/","title":{"rendered":"And The Living is Easy for Fall Cooking"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Carolyn Worthington <\/p>\nR<\/span>emember the lyrics sung by American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, “Summertime, and the living is easy?” It’s too bad she didn’t sing a sequel for fall because that’s our tune for fall 2021.<\/p>\n

Embrace fall with simple yet creative recipes from the pros and make “the living easy.”<\/p>\n

What’s New in Cookbooks for Fall?<\/h3>\n

As a reader of Healthy Aging\u00ae, you are no doubt, not a culinary newbie! By now, you probably rotate your favorite recipes into weekly menus and, maybe, so much so you get stuck in a rut.<\/p>\n

To jazz things up while keeping it simple, you might want to take a look at some of the new cookbook releases from fabulous chefs and writers.<\/p>\n

Here are three we recently discovered and now recommend.<\/p>\n

\"\"

(Clockwise from top left): THE NO-FUSS FAMILY COOKBOOK Simple Recipes for Everyday Life; Apple, Butternut Squash, and Quinoa Salad; Follow-Me-Everywhere Butterscotch Pudding; Ryan\u2019s All-In-One Savory Breakfast Bake<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Streamlining Meal Preparation<\/h3>\n

Ryan Scott’s “THE NO-FUSS FAMILY COOKBOOK Simple Recipes for Everyday Life”<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Some cookbooks are not only for recipes but are fun to curl up with and enjoy the photography and stories behind the recipes. Ryan Scott’s “The No-Fuss Family Cookbook” is one such book. Scott achieves both the mix of recipes you will want to try with anecdotes of life experiences you will enjoy.<\/p>\n

If you don’t know Scott, he is a cookbook author, chef, caterer, and Emmy-award-winning celebrity chef appearing on morning and daytime programs such as the TODAY<\/strong> show and Good Morning America<\/strong>. Scott launched his nationwide popularity appearing on Top Chef, season 4 in 2008. He describes himself on his website as “Culinary ringmaster of life’s simple, and delicious pleasures.”<\/p>\n

“From recipes for protein-loving omnivores to ones for my very Zen vegans and test-of-time vegetarians, this cookbook,” Scott said, “dips its toe into every culinary pool.”<\/p>\n

THE NO-FUSS FAMILY COOKBOOK<\/em> offers 288 pages of recipes, beautiful photography, tips, hacks, and family anecdotes. You’ll find new ideas to weave into your rotation along with numerous twists on old favorites.<\/p>\n

Best of all, the recipes live up to the book’s title, from prep to clean-up. Below are three to try. In addition to these, I have personally tried all three of his amazing salmon recipes. Cooking the salmon at 275 degrees F. for 40 minutes, for example, results in a beautiful texture.<\/p>\n

Ryan’s All in One Savory Breakfast Bake<\/a> is perfect for weekend guests. The one-dish recipe is a combo of turkey breakfast sausage, spinach, corn, mushrooms flavored with onion, celery, scallions, basil, topped with a custardy combo of eggs, half-and-half mixed with (of all things) torn up King’s Hawaiian rolls. Baked in about an hour, easy-to-prepare Breakfast Bake also can be served with a side salad for lunch, brunch, or dinner.<\/p>\n

We also love his Apple, Butternut, Squash, Quinoa Salad<\/a>. Here’s what Scott says about this salad:<\/p>\n

“This is one of my most popular seasonal salads, both at my home and at my catering company, where I have been serving this for the last decade and a half. I love the versatility of this quinoa-based salad! It is a dish that lends itself well to changes in the ingredients to reflect the season: asparagus in spring, corn in the summer . . . you get the point. Instead of apples, try grapes, pears, or strawberries. This fun, light salad will be the perfect sidekick to a grilled chicken breast or roasted salmon. It can also stand alone as an incredible, healthy lunch. Using miso in this vinaigrette is clutch, and I promise that this dressing will become a staple in your house, so go out and stock up on some red or white miso (either will work just fine).”<\/p>\n

For the grand finale? Scott’s Follow-Me-Everywhere Butterscotch Pudding<\/a> which he describes as “Other than Olive, this recipe is my baby! I learned a surprising fact about myself while I was in culinary school: I\u2019m not a chocolate lover. I thought that someday I would be, but nope. In 2001, while working toward my pastry chef degree, I learned about all the differences between bittersweet, milk, and dark chocolates, and the differences between various kinds of dark chocolate (60% cacao versus 40%, etc.). Even after trying every kind of chocolate you could imagine, I never felt those sparks. Butterscotch, on the other hand, will always have my heart. This pudding was a best seller in all four of my restaurants over the years and has been on every menu. You can serve this no matter the season, and at any holiday or gathering\u2014it will blow people\u2019s socks off!”<\/p>\n

Recipe notes like all of these make this a charming read as well as an inspirational new book for your collection.<\/p>\n

Excerpted from THE NO-FUSS FAMILY COOKBOOK<\/em>: Simple Recipes for Everyday Life<\/a> \u00a9 2021 by Ryan Scott. Photography \u00a9 2021 by Chris Andre. Reproduced by permission of Mariner Books, an imprint of HarperCollins publishers. All rights reserved.<\/h5>\n
\"\"

(Clockwise from top left): No Recipe? No Problem! How to Pull Together Tasty Meals without a Recipe; <\/em>No Recipe? No Problem! How to Pull Together Tasty Meals without a Recipe; Freestyle Tomato Sauce; “What Grows Together Goes Together\u201d Bowl.<\/p><\/div>\n

Winging It with “Freestyle Cooking”<\/h3>\n

Another excellent cookbook read and guide is No Recipe? No Problem! How to Pull Together Tasty Meals without a Recipe<\/em> <\/a>by Phyllis Good.<\/p>\n

An author, editor, teacher, and television personality, Good loves to connect writers and readers. And that she did to compile this book. She organized “The Cooking Circle,” as she calls it, a virtual cooking group of 14 cooks from around the country to contribute. The experienced cooks shared their ideas, tips, hints, and stories.<\/p>\n

Good added the icing on the cake with ideas of her own drawn from many decades in the culinary field. She is a New York Times<\/em> bestselling author whose cookbooks have sold more than 14,000,000 copies. Good is best known for her Fix-It and Forget-It<\/em> series of slow cooker cookbooks. She has appeared on QVC more than 40 times with great success selling the series. Good served as a writer and editor for 35 years of Good Books, where she oversaw the acquisitions and editing of more than 1000 books. She is currently the Executive Editor of Walnut Street Books.<\/p>\n

Despite all of those accomplishments, Good has resisted becoming a celebrity. She prefers being a teacher and an encourager. “I’m not a celebrity,” she says. “The cookbooks are the celebrities.”<\/p>\n

The new book is not a beginner’s how-to tome. Instead, it promotes \u201cfreestyle\u201d cooking and improvisation. Much like jazz musicians who start with a theme, “They try it out. They add a few riffs. Something new floats up, and they weave it in,” Good said. “With this style of cooking, you bring the theme \u2013 the ingredients. They help suggest what happens next.”<\/p>\n

Three questions provide the recipe creation: What are you hungry for, what do you have on hand, and how much time do you have?<\/p>\n

Discover tips and techniques for vegetables, pasta and grains, popular proteins, salads, soups, and more. Endless variations of sheet-pan meals, eggs, toast toppers, flatbreads, and sandwiches with mix and match charts will peak your creativity.<\/p>\n

Unpack essential stir-frying techniques<\/a> with Goods step-by-step preparation tips and recommendations for the best vegetables to choose.<\/p>\n

Freestyle Tomato Sauce<\/a> is a breeze to make by following Goods’ suggestions for ingredients and preparation order.<\/p>\n

Fans of bowls will appreciate the \u201cWhat Grows Together Goes Together\u201d<\/a> Bowl guide to making them quickly from what vegetables to choose, seasonings to add, and dressing for flavoring.<\/p>\n

Excerpted from No Recipe? No Problem!<\/em> <\/a>(c) by Phyllis Good, photography (c) by Keller + Keller Photography, used with permission from Storey Publishing.<\/h5>\n
\"\"

(Clockwise from top left): Great Book of Grilled Cheese. 100+ Recipes for the Ultimate Comfort Food, Soups, Salads, and Sides; <\/em>Crab Rangoon Grilled Cheese; <\/em>Deviled Bacon Grilled Cheese; Slim Shady Supreme Grilled Cheese.<\/p><\/div>\n

What Would Fall Be Without Grilled Cheese?<\/h3>\n

And now, there is a new cookbook that celebrates the iconic sandwich that you probably have made for years with American cheese and white bread. The Great Book of Grilled Cheese. 100+ Recipes for the Ultimate Comfort Food, Soups, Salads, and Side<\/a>s\u00a0<\/em>is all you need for inspiration.<\/p>\n

The unique and delicious grilled cheese recipes come from the small caf\u00e9, It’s All So Yummy, located west of Knoxville, Tennessee. From this cozy caf\u00e9 located in an unassuming, ordinary strip mall come recipes for comfort food, from soups to sandwiches to desserts.<\/p>\n

The book is unique, according to It’s All Yummy owner and author Kim Wilcox. Unlike other sandwich cookbooks, \u201cit presents a vast variety of tried and true grilled cheese recipes \u2013 more than 50 of our 90+ grilled cheese sandwiches that we’ve served over the past six years. The book includes recipes for delicious sides, desserts, and custom condiments so you can make exquisitely tasty grilled cheese meals.”<\/p>\n

There are also some unique creations in the book from contributing top chefs. Wilcox covers the long history of grilled cheese. Did you know the American concept of grilled cheese began in the early 1900s? They were known by other names like cheese boxes, toasted cheese, and cheese dreams. Once pre-sliced bread appeared on the scene in 1928, Wilcox reports, and paired with processed cheese, the grilled cheese began to take off.<\/p>\n

Kitchen gadget enthusiasts will enjoy Wilcox’s review of cooking vessels for the infamous sandwich. She advises that whichever one you choose should be preheated, or you will have a soggy sandwich. Who knew?<\/p>\n

“This cookbook shares our caf\u00e9’s specialties, helping cooks across America put together creative and delicious meals for their families and friends,” Wilcox said. “It\u2019s not just a cookbook; it\u2019s a collection of memories, moments, smiles, and nostalgia, all coming to life on a plate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here are three grilled cheese sandwich recipes we love from the book. Crab Rangoon Grilled Cheese<\/a> is one the restaurant’s all-time best sellers.<\/p>\n

Slim Shady Supreme Grilled Cheese<\/a> is described by Wilcox this way: “When people read this item on our menu, they ask, \u201cIs it good?\u201d Is it good? It is a carb-loaded best seller. You may want to have a knife, fork, and bib handy for this one\u2014you don\u2019t want to end up with spaghetti on your sweater!”<\/p>\n

Deviled Bacon Grilled Cheese<\/a> is another of Wilcox’s best sellers. “You\u2019d be surprised how many people turn their noses up at the concept only to discover just how delicious it really is,” Wilcox said. “Trust me!”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Images courtesy of Fox Chapel Publishing. Excerpted from Great Book of Grilled Cheese: 100+ Recipes for the Ultimate Comfort Food, Soups, Salads<\/em>, and Sides<\/em> <\/a>by Kim Wilcox.<\/h5>\n
[vc_text_separator title=”View Recipes In This Issue” title_align=”separator_align_center” border=”no” el_class=”in-this-issue-headline”]\n
\n