Tasty: Get Great Food on the Table Every Day
by Roy Finamore
Houghton Mifflin, 2006

List Price: $30.00
Amazon Price: $20.70

Review by Kathleen Daelemans with Rita Daelemans

Since I haven't finished reading a cookbook start to finish lately, I called up my Mom to see if she'd read anything recently that we could review for the website. "Of course I have dear. And who do you think you're kidding by the way? The only cookbook you've ever read cover to cover is your own and that's because you wrote it." Ouch!

My Mom has more time than I do to read cookbooks. Or at least that's what I tell myself so I don't feel so guilty for not keeping up with her. After all this is my profession. She's as passionate about food and cooking as I am and she's a better cook. Sure, I can run a restaurant and hold my own on the hotline, but she's been cooking for over 50 years and for the last 35 she's never repeated a meal.

We love to talk about cookbooks, recipes, food fads and cooking gadgets. If she calls me up after her and my father have finished their supper to tell me she's won the jammy race (a big deal on freezing cold Midwest winter nights) it means she loved the recipe she picked out and prepared for supper and wants to tell me about it. She describes it to me in great detail and sometimes even saves me a portion which means I'd better get over to her house within 12 hours to pick it up or I'll be on her "list." As far as I know I've been on her list since 1963.

I digress. On Mom's nightstand this week: Tasty by Roy Finamore, Houghton Mifflin, 2006.

The Scene: My mom's office. My father retired last month after 50 years of 9 am to 9 pm days and lots of travel. The week before he dragged home his coffee cups and file boxes my Mom made him an office downstairs in the farthest corner of the house and laid down the rules.

She told him he could come upstairs for lunch and dinner. "Lunch is at noon and it's over when I'm through eating. Dinner is when I'm done making it." So far they haven't killed each other. "It's only been a month, Kathleen. Ask me how it's going next week." Despite the militant sounding arrangement they're truly in love, the old fashioned kind of love. "Stop it, Kathleen. You make it sound like I have a choice. I said "I do" under duress and now I'm stuck with him."

What used to be My Dad's old office upstairs became my Mom's new office which is really a sunny reading room filled with her cookbooks, a giant comfy chair and an ottoman and a small desk with a computer.

Mom's stretched out on her chair with her feet up and her book on her lap. The sun crosses the sky, crosses the room and lands on her. I'm poised at the keyboard ready to type whatever it is she feels like saying.

KD: What did you like about the book Mom?

Mom: The writing style is casual and fun. The book isn't written for chefs. It's written for regular people. The recipes are the kind you can get on the table in half a life time and they all sound like something I'd want to eat.

There are lots of great vegetable recipes. Listen to this one, Orange Seethed Carrots, page 263.

KD: Seethed?

Mom: According to the author, "When you seethe you combine a liquid with butter or oil and you cook it until the liquid disappears." In this recipe he tells you to combine orange juice and butter. Who doesn't love vegetables with a little butter? I'm tabbing this one. Your father likes anything with butter.

(My Mom gets up and walks out of the room. I assume she's coming right back and take advantage of the break to spell check everything. After ten minutes I get up to find her. She's repotting one of her African Violets.)

KD: Mom, what are you doing?

Mom: What does it look like I'm doing?

KD: What about the interview?

Mom: If I don't re-pot this now I'll never remember to do it.

KD: You'll never remember to re-pot the asphyxiated looking African violet that sits in your bathroom on the counter next to your toothbrush that you use every morning and every night?

Mom: There's a chapter called Week Night Meals and one called Weekend Cooking which is kind of a nice differentiation because sometimes recipes are just too ambitious for a night you're babysitting your neighbors kids whose furnace blew out on the day you're the carpool Mom and your kid has Catechism and forgot her math book at school. She's referring to my sister Carol who strives to make her life more complicated than everyone else's.

There's a recipe for Peperonata, page 283 that looks easy. Peperonata is something everyone really ought to know how to make. Write that down, Kathleen.

KD: Are you sure you don't want to sit down, Mom? It's a whole lot easier to interview you when I can use the computer.

Mom: Easier? (she says to the Miracle Grow.) You kids weren't easy on me. Nothing is easy, Kathleen. This is GOD's way of letting mothers get back at their adult children.

KD: Forcing me to talk to your backside and write with a pencil while you re-pot violets?

Mom: Do you want to tell people what Peperonata is or not, Kathleen?

KD: Of course, Mom.

Mom: It's a combination of sautéed roasted peppers and onions cooked down with a little olive oil until they're caramel-y delicious. Peperonata can make a boring chicken sandwich really great. It's an excellent pizza topping and is good leftover and tossed with pasta if you can't think of anything else to make for dinner.

After re-potting her bathroom plants, she went into the kitchen to fix dinner. The interview was officially over. A few days later I got her to tell me which recipes she loved from the book and which ones she couldn't wait to try.

Mom love, loved, loved...

Broiled Chicken with Ginger and Lime, page 124. I can't remember if I really loved it because it's been awhile but it still sounds good to me and I'll try it again and be surprised.

Chicken Milanese, page 118. A fancy way of saying flat breaded chicken served over a salad. You put the chicken over a salad of arugula and tomatoes and it looks like you're in a restaurant. It was quite good and very easy to make.

Fennel Slaw, Page 322: The slaw had apples and cabbage and fennel and ginger. The dressing has mayonnaise and sour cream in it which is why your father liked it too. You can slim down the dressing if you're really religious about your calories but consider what you'd be eating instead. "Mark this one really, really, really good," she told me over the phone,

Zucchini Cheddar Soup, page 92: I got your father to eat zucchini and he asked for seconds. The soup gets really thick because you use a blender. The recipe yields a super rich soup without having to use any heavy cream. The amount of cheddar cheese is reasonable, about 2 ounces per person. It beats eating French fries and if the soup is your main course and you serve it with a salad you have dinner taken care of.

Can't Wait to Try...

Rhubarb Sour Cherry Crisp, Page 422: The reason I can't wait to try this is that it will be spring. And I won't be looking out my kitchen window at four feet of snow anymore. I love crisps and this is a combination I've not yet tried.

Lemon Potatoes, page 290: You pulse lemons in a food processors and coat fingerling potatoes with the lemon, olive oil, garlic, thyme, oregano, salt and pepper and roast them. I'm going to serve them with fish. Your father won't eat fish if the side dish is boring. He'll make an excuse to go out.

Pasta and Beans, page 164: Any recipe that sounds quick and gets dinner over is a recipe worth trying. This one calls for canned Cannellini beans and a can of tomatoes. The author suggest canned cherry tomatoes, I'd like to go to his market one day. I'll use canned plum tomatoes. It's also got onions, carrot, celery and dried oregano. I think I can get your father to go for it.

Company Mashed Potatoes, page 286.
Mom: I won't have you over when I serve them. The author states that "for a trimmer version use four tablespoons of butter and replace the cream with heated half and half". When I read that it made me really wonder about the original version. It calls for 1 cup of heavy cream and 6 tablespoons of butter and serves 4-6.

KD: A whole day's worth of calories in a side of mashed potatoes, nice.

Mom: Your father has lost 10 pounds since he retired.

KD: Did he tell you that?

Mom: No. His pants are falling off. He can't go to the vending machine all day and I don't serve donuts at breakfast. Anyway, his doctor is happy and I am too so I was relieved to find the author included "An even trimmer version" of the Company Mashed Potatoes because they sounded really good. The trimmest version has only 3 tablespoons of butter and a cup of buttermilk. Better.

ROY FINAMORE has worked as a cookbook editor for thirty years, most recently at Clarkson Potter. Among the authors he has published are Martha Stewart, Ina Garten, Tom Colicchio, Diana Kennedy, Anne Willan, Gale Gand, and Lee Bailey. A cooking teacher, as well as a sought-after cookbook collaborator and food and prop stylist, he is the coauthor of One Potato, Two Potato.