Food52 A New Way to Dinner: A Playbook of Recipes and Strategies for the Week Ahead [A Cookbook] (Food52 Works) Hardcover – Illustrated, October 18, 2016

**UPDATE AT BOTTOM**I read about this book on a blog and thought it was an awesome idea. My husband and I have been trying to do more prep on the weekends since the weekdays are so busy and also try to find some new things to make instead of the easy standbys. We tried out one of the winter recipes and went a little nuts and followed everything exactly the first time through figuring we could freeze whatever was leftover. We followed the grocery list (thankfully we had quite a few things on hand already)- some of which is not the easiest to find in all grocery stores. I definitely suggest if you're going to be doing any of the fish recipes, load up at Costco/Sam's otherwise it gets very pricey very quickly.Following the recipes and the weekend cooking itself. Well, this particular menu said it would take 3 hours. Ok, I figured it might be closer to 4 our first time through. No. We are both fairly adept in the kitchen and it took us both working nearly 5.5 hours. That's completely insane. All I can say is it better be good. I tasted some of the stuff (the lime ice cream is to die for) and the pork tastes pretty good. I'm skeptical about some of the other stuff.In summary, some of the things that bugged us:- Much quicker, less effort ways to accomplish the same result. For example, it would have been much easier to crockpot the Garlicky Beans and the pulled pork than just letting them sit on the stove for nearly 3 hours taking up valuable space. Heck, the green rice probably could've been accomplished the same way. Thank goodness I had an ice cream maker because checking on something in the freezer several times an hour for a few hours is just annoying. Or, here's a thought, just buy lime sherbet if neither of those ideas appeal to you.- Prepping. I think this is where a lot of our time went. It would have been really nice if there was a list on one page how everything had to be prepped without digging into the recipes. For instance, we went through a ton of limes but I only zested a squeezed a few for one recipe. When it was time for the next, I had to go back, pull everything back out, etc. (that happened on 3 or 4 separate occasions over the 5+ hours). It would have been nice to just do it all at once. Same thing happened with pretty much all the produce. For the pork, I could've had the butcher cut it and prepare it which probably would've shaved off 20 minutes. Ditto for the fish. Since I didn't feel like carrying around the whole book grocery shopping, we just took a picture of the list and went. Even a sub bullet under each one with how they'd be prepared in each recipe would be helpful and maybe even referencing the recipe. Oh, and make sure you have good kitchen knives and that they're sharp.- Descriptions. I disagree with what some other reviews say that this is good for newer/novice cooks. It most definitely is not. I'd say between the two of us, we're in the solid intermediate range of cooking skills and there were some things in the book that didn't make much sense at all and had us falling back on what we already knew to wing it. Fortunately, we've worked with most of the ingredients that were in this first round of recipes before but if you had never used shallots, serrano peppers, or poblanos then (or even know the difference between those), then this book will be a challenge. I won't even get started on what the heck they were trying to describe with the fish tents or something. If the description is long enough to be a gigantic paragraph that needs to be re-read at least 6 times- please provide a freaking picture. I still have no idea what it was supposed to look like and gave up and did it my own way.- Time. I don't know where the cooking times came from but everything literally took double the time the book called for. Pork stayed on for almost an additional 1.5 hours to reduce down (ahem...a crockpot could've done this). The fish had to cook waaaaaay longer than called for and by this time it was getting super late so I just finished it by lightly broiling to make a nice crust.All in all the recipes look good and have some decent ideas but cooking for 6 hours on the weekend is probably more time than I would've spent cooking prior to this. This was no exaggeration in the least. I'm willing to give it another go now that I know what to expect but sheesh, one more weekend cooking spree like this last one and I'm going to call this a failed attempt.**********UPDATE AFTER FULL WEEK************After going through the full week and adding all the time up, I think we'll just pick and choose which recipes we want and plan on doing only a couple days' worth instead of a full week. I will say, it was a huge relief to have everything planned out for that week and maybe just putting together a few ingredients for a salad (by the way, the watercress salad with the lime dressing was so simple but very fresh, bright, and delicious). I keep remaking this dressing just to have around now.Most of the recipes were good. The fish was a bit of a disaster and the way they had you place the lime slices on them when baking created a super bitter, lime rind taste that was nearly impossible to cover up. So yeah...won't do that again.It was nice to have lunches that I wasn't "meh" about or were the same boring thing. The pork tacos and pickled onions (another staple I will be keeping around) were very, very good.We will definitely keep using this cookbook but given what we learned in the first go-around, we're definitely going to adjust how we do everything and insert our own shortcuts when going the long way around is totally unnecessary.

I love the idea of meal planning: come home to excellent ingredients that can be recombined to make good meals quickly.Unfortunately, I don’t think I’m the only one who doesn’t want to give up hours of a weekend day prepping food that is very specific to a particular menu. And these menus were often overly elaborate and seemed a bit fussy at the dinner end. I do know that some people prefer a strict menu plan so they know in advance what they’re eating every night; I just need a little more room to adapt as circumstances change throughout the week. There are some very nice recipes and — IMO — some real clunkers. I’ll probably go through, scan a few recipes I like, and get rid of it. NOT my usual response to a Food 52 cookbook!I found Brennan’s The Dinner Plan more useful in that there are recipes for several different kinds of meal needs (fast; make ahead;pantry, etc.), and I continue to find good ideas in Pepin’s Fast Food My Way.

I love cooking and reading cook books. I have bought a lot of them and have received several as gifts. What I noticed about myself though, is that I will read these cookbooks mainly just for inspiration, but I don't use them to follow recipes to a T. Also, many of the recipes in those cookbooks are not things that one would usually prepare for a regular meal, but more for a party or a special occasion. Usually, these recipes require ingredients that you normally don't use, and that really discourages me from whipping up the recipes. My husband and I both work and do not really have a lot of time to spend in the kitchen on weeknights.I stumbled upon A New Way to Dinner when I was browsing for something that would help me prepare food more efficiently. I read the reviews and thought to myself, "This is exactly what I need!". I ordered myself a hardbound copy of the book, waited patiently for it to arrive in the mail, then gave myself a few days to read through some of it. It's wintertime when I got my book so I started with the first batch of recipes in the winter section. I still got the bit feeling of discouragement when I was looking at some of the ingredients (e.g. oxtails, which I have never cooked before that weekend) but I told myself I'd stick to them because the recipes call for a week's (and some lunches) worth of meals. My husband also found it easier to help me because he knows what exactly needs to be done, not like when I would usually make a recipe up based on what we have in the fridge/freezer/pantry. Preparing and cooking the meals turned out to be a great quality time for him and me.All the dinners we had were so good! The meals were huge so I was able to take some for lunch at work to share with my coworkers. Even our big boss loved the oxtail! In addition to helping me prepare meals ahead, I also loved that the recipes taught me how to explore and use unfamiliar ingredients in several different ways. I have never heard nor used Farro before, but after having it that week in several ways, I think I can think of other ways to use it. The idea of cooking oxtail was very intimidating to me, but after having the recipe from this cookbook, I want to cook them again! I am looking forward to our next set of meals to prepare! :)

Interesting but a novice cook would struggle. There are sausages you make yourself and that sort of thing and there is an assumption that you have a butcher and greengrocer rather than a supermarket. The ideas are good, but you would need more confidence in the kitchen than I've got to make it work.

This is a fabulous book - you don't have to adhere to the game plans and indeed I do not because I cook like this a bit anyway - however the recipes are wonderful and I just love the whole attitude of the writers and I am really enjoying what they are inspiring me to make already.

Love this book! It has completely changed my life! It makes weekday meal planning simple but most importantly super delicious. I feel like I have stepped it up a level in my cooking since getting this book as the recipes in themselves aren't just perfection, the authors also provide great advice along the way. Lovely lovely cook book!

Great Way to plan for the week's meals

This isn't just a cookbook, it's a collection of weekly meal plans and a step-by-step guide to all the advance prep work that has to be done on the weekend in order to make a specific set of dinner recipes during the week ahead, with ideas for lunches based on using the leftovers. There are some great recipes and helpful hints in this book, for sure, but many people might get turned off by the sometimes obscure ingredients and time-consuming amount of planning and prep work that has to be done, which is likely beyond the reach of the average working mom with a busy schedule and a family to take care of. Many of the recipes and meal plans are not kid-friendly at all and I wouldn't dream of making some of them for my son, who's not even a picky eater. Also, some weeks, the plan requires you to commit several hours of your weekend to cooking and prepping for the upcoming week, but I doubt that most people can put their kids and everything else aside for an entire Saturday afternoon on a regular basis. There are definitely some great-sounding recipes that I'll be trying, but in general I can't afford to devote so much time and effort to follow the full "playbook" plan. I see this book as more of an inspiration to think ahead and be more organized in meal-planning, with a collection of recipes that I'll try when I have the time. There are some great-sounding basic recipes that I'm sure I'll use again and again, but I much preferred another Food52 book called "Genius Recipes", which is amazing.