The Complete I Hate to Cook Book

Anyone who has mixed feelings about being in the kitchen will appreciate this appealing and humorous collection of clever cooking shortcuts, time-saving tips, and more than 440 simple, easy-to-prepare recipes.

Some people are born to bake, boil, and lovingly tend to food, and they do it willingly. Then there are those among us who are born to burn, break, and destroy food--and would rather pull out our own wisdom teeth than have to cook a meal. For these anti-cooks, Peg Bracken has been offering advice, and dare it be said, creating recipes since the 1970s. The Compleat I Hate to Cook Book combines Bracken's earlier work, the infamous I Hate to Cook Book along with its two successors. The emphasis is on cheap, simple, "cut as many corners and spend as little time in the kitchen as humanly possible" foods. With such lovely names (Shuttemup Cookies, Fat Man's Shrimp, A Puffy Prune Whip), even naysayers will be curious. Fancy ingredients are replaced by cans of condensed soup, baked beans, and crushed corn flakes. Three-page recipes are traded for short, snappy, and simple instructions. Bracken hasn't forgotten these health-conscious times either: in a chapter entitled "Some of My Best Friends Are Fat," she concocts easy recipes for Skinny Meatloaf and a rather tasty 22 Calorie Banana Whip, which coincidentally contains just 22 calories! This book comes highly recommended for kitchen phobics the world over. --Naomi Gesinger