Bestselling author Gaby Dalkin is back with What’s Gaby Cooking: Take It Easy, sharing 100 recipes that put ease, flavor, and adaptability first In her new book, Gaby Dalkin returns with her signature approach: Enjoy your life by eating the food you love. But this time around, she also emphasizes a no-fuss attitude. What’s Gaby Cooking: Take It Easy offers 100 new delicious and stress-free recipes, suited for any and all occasions.

Everything we cook right now—whether it’s for a potluck picnic with friends or a solo night in binge-watching reality TV—needs to be crazy simple, easily pulled together from those lasting pantry items, still shockingly delicious at room temperature, and not requiring that one random ingredient you drove 45 minutes to get and will never use again. We want food that tastes like it took hours to prepare but doesn’t actually require anything too exact. Give us the forgiving recipes: Out of shallots? Try an onion. The more fail-proof, the better. If this low-maintenance approach sounds like your kinda thing, Dalkin has got your back. With 100 easy ideas for dishes to serve wherever you go (or don’t go!), make-ahead dressings and sauces for lazy last-minute dinners, and of course—give the people what they want!—big, crunchy, fresh salads and rich, chocolatey, you’re-in-sweatpants-anyway desserts, Take It Easy is Dalkin’s first book bringing her tasty, crowd-pleasing concepts to quicker, simpler meals.

Amazon * B&N * Abrams Books

Review

This is my 5th year as part of the Abrams Dinner Party, and this year is starting off with a bang with the newest cookbook from Gaby Dalkin. I was able to review her first book a few years ago (and for some reason, it didn’t make it onto my blog, go figure!) and found some great recipes that I made multiple times.

This cookbook is filled with beautiful pictures that might make your mouth water. The dishes range from simple to a little more complex, but there aren’t any crazy ingredients, and most can be prepared in a shorter amount of time as long as it doesn’t require time to marinate. But if you plan ahead, you can marinate the night before, and it is ready to go at dinner time.

The book is divided into sections. There are standard sections such as salads, main courses, etc. Then there are a few sections that provide a menu for the entire meal, from appetizers to drinks and everything in between. At the end is a section with various sauces and dressings that you might want to make up ahead of time and have ready in your refrigerator. There are a couple of salad dressing recipes that I am going to try and mix in with my everyday vinaigrette.

I have made a couple of dishes from this book that turned out quite delicious. One I was able to make in one session, but the other required time to marinate. The Al Pastor Inspired Chicken was from a menu section, but I prepared it independently. It has a little bit of a kick to it, but I loved it and plan to make it again. You are supposed to grill the chicken, but I ended up cooking it in my cast iron skillet and thought it came out just fine.

The other dish I made is a throwback to comfort food – Cheesy Hamburger Helper Style Pasta. I made a few minor modifications, including using a little less pasta and adding a little bit more liquid because it seemed like it was too thick, and the pasta wasn’t able to cook without more liquid. This dish does call for a LOT of cheese…but cheese does make everything better, IMHO.

Other bloggers that are a part of the Abrams Dinner Party have raved about the Chicken Parm Meatballs, Crispy Chicken Stir-Fry, Sausage Sheet Pan Supper, Basque Cheesecake, Triple Chocolate Cookies, and Tiramisu Ice Cream. There is a S’Mores Pizookie that I want to try very soon.

If you want a cookbook where all of the recipes are quick to make, this is not it. But if you are looking for simpler recipes with a wide variety of flavors, you might enjoy this cookbook.

And perhaps next time, I’ll remember to take photos of the dishes I create!