Touted as the “three-ring circus” of cookbooks, How to Cook Everything is a whopping tome of 900 pages and 1,500 basic recipes. While sous chefs won’t find anything new in this book, the beginning or intermediate cook will consider this a treasure trove. For instance, there are eight different recipes for Black Bean Soup.

Besides containing nearly every type of Western recipe, you’ll also find recipes for a variety of international cooking (Japanese, Thai, India, etc.). This book isn’t just about recipes, though. You’ll find plenty of instruction on how to store prepare, and shop for different food. The only drawback mentioned is the lack of pictures.

Reading the reviews makes me want to buy this book for Matthew for his birthday. Published by Williams-Sonoma, this cookbook is very easy to read without being childish. Some of the recipes included are:

Banana Pancakes
Country Coated Chicken
Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches

Both my kids would be thrilled to make the last recipe, as they love ice cream sandwiches. I’ll have to see if I can find this at my local Barnes&Noble.

This is another recipe I’ve perfected over the years. Like my chili, I rely on the sight-measurement instead of measuring utensils. Because of this the recipe below is an approximate adaptation.

I taught Matthew how to make this last night. He was excited about until he stuck his fingers into the mixture. It took all of thirty seconds before he pulled away and said, “Mom, this is too cold.”

I finished the mixing and and placed the meat into my loaf pan. Then I had him top it with the barbecue sauce. Forty minutes later, we had a moist and tasty meatloaf, served with steamed vegetables.

Ingredients

1 lb. lean ground beef
1 1/2 cups Italian bread crumbs
1 cup catsup
2 eggs
1 tsp. Basil
1 tsp. Oregano
1/2 cup chopped onion
Your favorite barbecue sauce

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 425-degrees
2. Knead all the ingredients together until thoroughly mixed. If the mixture is too moist, add more breadcrumbs. If it is too dry, add more catsup.
3. Fit into a loaf pan.
4. Top with barbecue sauce.
5. Bake for 30-45 minutes.

Variation:

Place meat into a pie plate and mold into a dome, leaving about an inch of space betweent the meat and the edges of the plate. Line the edges with sliced potatoes and carrots. Bake for the same amount of time.