The Complete Cooking for Two Cookbook: 650 Recipes for Everything You'll Ever Want to Make (The Complete ATK Cookbook Series) Paperback – April 1, 2014

I have been a home cook for YEARS. I have often cooked full Thanksgiving and Christmas meals for family and friends. I bake several times a week (breads, cookies, muffins, pies) and I consider myself a pretty decent cook, baker, and at the grill as well. Love this cookbook for several reasons. They recognize that cooking for two is very common these days- as there many types of families beyond the nuclear (like it or not, it is a fact). Young couples who live without children, single parents, empty nesters, divorcees, or even those who live alone. Cutting a recipe in half isn't always as easy as it sounds. Buying in bulk isn't always the best option, especially when it leads to waste. ATK has made this book with exactly all that in mind. They included everything for small portions (see pic of index attached).I have cooked at least a dozen things from this book including main, sides, and desserts. Most have been wonderful recipes, only one did I think "I could improve that". This book would benefit both the novice and be enjoyed by a seasoned chef.How it helps the novice, includes: How to store leftovers/extra unprepared food, food/emergency substitutions, how to put leftover ingredients into other meals, essential kitchen tools, ingredient prep. Actually, I learned a lot from these sections, as well.Recipes are easy to follow and taste great. Since its just me (and I will often cook for a friend or my boyfriend), I will have leftovers for one or two meals, and that is perfect, instead of having the same leftovers for days, or having a freezer full of leftovers I forget about. This has become my absolute favorite cookbook... dare I say even more so than my Ina Garten cookbook!! 😁 I often look forward to cooking recipes from this book. The only cookbook I have ever enjoyed sitting down and reading was Ina's. And then I bought THIS. LOVE IT!!!Update Feb 2018:Still using the book, still cooking for two. That boyfriend in my initial review has since become my husband. I guess he must have liked all my cooking enough to put a ring on it ;) The reference charts in this book especially continue to be helpful.

This is my 8th America's Test Kitchen/Cook's Country cookbook, I couldn't wait to open it. The first thing I did, was to familiarize myself with the small cake pan sizes required. There's a really nice yellow layer cake recipe with chocolate frosting, and a chocolate layer cake you can frost with chocolate or vanilla frosting, they require a set of 2 - 6" cake pans. I bought two of the following pans on Amazon, they look good quality.Fat Daddio's Anodized Aluminum Round Cake Pan, 6-Inch x 2-InchI also bought a couple of small loaf pans to make the banana bread and the zucchini bread, which I made yesterday. They were very easy to make and tasted really delicious. I lined the bottoms, they stuck a bit at the sides, but soon cleaned up after a good soak.Fat Daddio's Anodized Aluminum Bread Pan, 5.5 Inch x 3.125 Inch x 2.375 InchI bought these quiche/tart pans, they are just the right size for a hungry adult. I made two 'Zucchini, Tomato and Ricotta Tarts'. The pastry (made with butter) was really delicious, they looked so colorful. I ate them both, because I just couldn't help myself! I had to diet the next day.Wilton Perfect Results 4.75 Inch Round Tart/Quiche Pan, Set of 6This book is larger and has more pages than my America's Test Kitchen/Cook's Country books, with the exception of the really huge 'Complete America's Test kitchen TV Show Cookbook. I'm a vegetarian, and occasionally like to eat fish and seafood, there are so many tempting recipes to choose from, that are sure to please vegetarians and non vegetarians. There's not a picture for every recipe, but the ones it has, are very good, I'll definitely be using this book a lot.Apart from the tasty looking recipes, it also has a lot of helpful information, I like the hint for how to cut acorn squash, I never buy it because it's too tough to cut, they use a mallet and a knife. There are also quite a few diagrams explaining how to prepare the food.The recipes look healthy. There are some nice recipes with lentils, I made Dal today and it came out good. There are also recipes using quinoa, which I'm interested in at the moment, I was amazed to find a recipe with soy crumbles. It's not often I see a recipe with meat substitute. I'm not fond of tofu though, it is so bland, but there are some really nice looking pictures of recipes with tofu, which I may try.It's packed with tempting recipes. The fruit tarts look delicious. This is the first recipe book for two I've ever bought. I'm really looking forward to not having so many leftovers, less ingredients is also good. I'm so glad I purchased this book.