If anyone out there has a household where they cook for 1 or 2 or even 3 people, you should buy this book immediately: Cook’s Illustrated Cooking for Two 2009. I bought it on a whim in the whole foods checkout several months ago. Since then Dallas and I have made several recipes from the book and every one has turned out fabulous. As the name of the book implies, ever recipe is chopped down to serve two people. At first Dallas wanted to double every recipe so he could have seconds or leftovers, but we soon found out that if we make the recipes with the ingredient amounts as called for, it’s plenty for two people with him having seconds and even having leftovers sometimes.

The book includes chapters on soups, meat, poultry, fish and seafood, pasta and noodles, eggs and cheese, side dishes and desserts. For each recipe there are very detailled instructions. Dallas doesn’t care about this because he’s more of a natural cook, but I like that it tells me exactly what to do. Each recipe has a photo and includes a lot of notes about how the people at Cook’s Illustrated experimented and came up with the recipe. I like reading this background information before making the recipe.

Here are some of the things we’ve made so far:

Glazed Pork Chops With Sweet Potatoes

Chicken With Israeli Couscous, Spinach, & Feta (Twice!)

Seafood Risotto

Lasagna

Lighter Pasta With Garden Vegetable Sauce