The Complete Cooking for Two Cookbook: 650 Recipes for Everything You'll Ever Want to Make (The Complete ATK Cookbook Series)
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The only comprehensive cookbook specially designed for a 2-person household-- with more than 650 foolproof recipes scaled down for two, from America's most trusted test kitchen. From breakfast to dinner, sides to desserts, plus slow cooking, vegetarian and grilling, we include a wide range of cuisines. A perfect gift for newlyweds, small families, or empty-nesters. Read more
Publisher : America's Test Kitchen; Illustrated edition (January 1, 2014)
Language : English
Paperback : 440 pages
ISBN-10 : 1936493837
ISBN-13 : 38
Item Weight : 3.25 pounds
Dimensions : 8.5 x 1.1 x 10 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #41,505 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #2,500 in Cookbooks, Food & Wine (Books)
#2,500 in Cookbooks, Food & Wine (Books):
Customer Reviews: 4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 10,122 ratings
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Top Amazon Reviews
UPDATE*** As of now, I have had this book over a year and is now my go-to! As you can see from the attached picture, I've used it so much pages are coming out! It just amazes me how well these recipes come out (how many times did someone test the glazes and determine what to use to make them perfect??). New favorites include Salmon Fillets with Soy-Mustard Glaze, Skillet Tortellini with Crispy Prosciutto and Spring Vegetables, Lemon Pudding Cake, Ice Box Strawberry Pie, Teriyaki Chicken, Grilled Glazed Pork Chops. Other great recipes are Sesame Noodles with Shredded Chicken, Chicken and Rice, Skillet Pizza (Basic Pizza Dough is so easy), Weeknight Baked Chicken with Lemon and Thyme, Barbecued Dry-Rubbed Chicken. I'm also learning to read the recipes carefully (read the recipe, not the ingredients once you have everything) and why certain procedures are used. I have definitely become more confident in cooking (hello, grill!) and am doing something almost everynight (I try to alternate between heavy and light, easy recipes). Some recipes that I have really enjoyed (like the Skillet Tortellini with Crispy Prosciutto and Spring Vegetables, Icebox Strawberry Pie and Lemon Pudding Cake) I have found the full-sized version to make for a larger group. I have barely touched the sides and vegetarian mains, which will be on my radar next and may be my next update! Original Review*** As of this review, I have tried around 20 of the recipes in the book and pretty much followed the recipe as is (unless there was a reader error, which happened frequently). I get most of my other recipes from Epicurious.com and Food Network and, as with other reviews, I was looking for smaller portions for my boyfriend and I which helps with the waistline and if a recipe is a dud, no major loss and unwanted leftovers (I'm the one who ends up eating them). Overall, the recipes have been good and fun to put together - I have used techniques and dishes I would not normally have known about or considered. My finest achievements were maple glazing a porkchop, serving two delicious lava style cakes (so easy) and preparing sole meuniere - all restaurant quality if directions are followed. One of the major challenges I had, though, is salt. I find most of the dishes do not add enough for me (which might be their intention). In October, I also followed Bon Appetit's 10 week Basically challenge, and they definitely emphasize salt, and I am doing my best to apply that to these recipes especially for red meat and pasta. A flat tasting recipe can really be a downer after so much preparation and fancy moves - I know, I know, just add salt afterwards but it isn't quite the same. I am getting better at taste-testing and seasoning, something I never did before, I just trusted the recipe's measurements. I found getting meat 'not' overcooked a challenge - my boyfriend has a gas oven which I have never used prior and cook times can be all over the place. I try not to check food too much since directions are pretty precise and I don't want to release heat from the oven if it might impact the final result. I usually end up with something overcooked and tough. Which leads to directions - many times I miss small details which can contribute to a recipe's success or missing the mark, such as a recipe calling for 2 tbsps of flour but you need to divide up the portion into 1/2 tbsp and 1 1/2 tbsps - which is hidden in a wordy sentence and you don't see until after you have thrown the whole portion in... I'm sure they can't bullet all of the steps due to book space and length but maybe they can find an innovative way to a better layout. Which leads to my other challenge is finding recipes with ingredients on hand - this book has a great index that is useful but I do miss being able to search by an ingredient (s) as you can on most websites. For me, trying new recipes is usually led by an ingredient I have leftover from a previous dish in order to reduce waste especially of a perishable food. I also miss reviews of a website, maybe a membership to ATK's website can be included with book purchase to provide more interaction. With that said, I am very pleased with the book and look forward to trying more recipes in the New Year (I already have some ideas reading other reviews). It's great having a full-flavored meal without compromises and not overeat. Below are the recipes I have tried, I rated them (1-5) and short comments (yes, I have a spreadsheet keeping track of my attempts, lol). *Warm Chocolate Fudge Cakes (5) -- After having a few recipes not quite hitting the mark, this was an incredible winner. I didn't think it would be sweet enough with 3 tablespoons of brown sugar and bittersweet chocolate but this so delicious - restaurant grade. Don't ever buy the cake in a cup when you can make this. Make sure a glass of milk is on hand. *Skillet-Glazed Pork Chops (5) -- Restaurant quality, boyfriend impressed. I used huge Costco boneless pork chops, I did not brine but did salt and pepper the meat well before cooking. *Sole Meuniere (4.5) -- I have tried a few of these recipes, to include Julia Child's and Ina's, and I would say perhaps using oil instead of strictly butter gave the fish a nice crust without sacrificing the distinct flavor of this classic. Again, a little more salt next time but otherwise a keeper! *Meaty Skillet Lasagna (4.5) -- This was definitely a winner, I should have gotten a proposal out of this one! I did the sausage version. *Wilted Spinach Salad with Radishes, Feta and Pistachios (4) -- I have made this twice, easy to throw together, spinach reduces nicely, great sauce. *Slow Cooker Weeknight Chili (4) -- Tasted like chili should, boyfriend definitely wanted more. *Garlicky Green Beans (4) -- Nice low carb side to just about anything. *Classic Rice Pilaf (pine nuts, basil and lemon) (4) -- Another sleeper, made this for fish, used pine nut and herb version, butter makes it a rice you want to eat. *Spinach Calzone (3.75) -- This was actually good. The pizza dough was a little tough but the filling inside was delicious and we were able to overlook the crust. A little labor intensive but could be made again. *Singapore noodles with shrimp (3.25) -- I have had Singapore noodles, in Singapore and this was good. I would add more curry and salt (or soy sauce), I overcooked the shrimp having to use smaller ones than the recipe calls for. Fun recipe using rice noodles. Portion was also perfect, I thought there would not be enough to fill us up (like the chili) but it definitely made enough for us to go back for seconds but not overstuff. *Crispy Sesame Pork Chops with wilted Napa Cabbage Salad (3.25) -- This was pretty good, I may have overcooked the pork and even though I brined it, I should have salt and peppered the exterior as well. *Sweet and Tangy Coleslaw (3) -- Ok, a nice, quick side to use up previous Napa cabbage and that can be thrown together with something else and not compete *Smothered Pork Chops (3) -- This was labor intense entree (1.5 hours in the oven) that produced overcooked pork chops. This was one instant where my extra salting was too much. I did use boneless pork chops which probably influenced the time and I really need to be better about checking. Plus I am never sure if the cooking time is completely about the sauce or the meat. *Lemon-Herb Cod with Crispy Garlic Potatoes (3) -- Passable, the one good thing about this recipe is I finally had a meat not overcooked. *Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies (3) -- Fine, good to scratch a sweet itch, I would probably just scale down a regular cookie recipe. *Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes (3) -- Looked really good, still lacked salt, I would try again. *Balsamic Chicken (3) -- This was ok, probably more of a taste thing, I ended up using spinach with no swiss chard around and it was not great. Also another recipe that needed a lot of more salt and I ended up eating the leftovers. *Broccoli Salad (2.5) -- I made this quick with an amount of broccoli that needed to be used up (it was already a little wilted) so I didn't have good distribution of the sauce. May try again. *Campanelle with Roasted Garlic, Shrimp and Feta (2) -- My very first recipe, overcooked shrimp, undersalted in general. I almost gave up on the book but glad I didn't.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 3, 2019 by RLS RLS
I got this cookbook for 2 key reasons: 1) so my husband and I could cook together and 2) to learn better, time saving techniques. The benefits I ended up reaping were weight loss and a smaller grocery budget. I have a couple of the other ATK cookbooks including the Slow Cooker one and Cooking School. After making a few of the recipes, I shelved the cookbooks because we just ended up with too much food. Cutting recipes in half wasn't always practical (and still produced too much food) and sometimes they could be more labor intensive than is worth it for 2 people. And forget about baking, the dessert recipes just made too much and the temptation to eat more than I should was too great. I didn't want to give up on ATK because their cookbooks have clear instructions and consistent results. With illustrations and a central reference, my husband, who does not cook, is able to help out in the kitchen. I was so happy to discover Cooking For Two!! Cooking For Two isn't just the regular ATK recipes cut in half or third. They've actually re-engineered their recipes to use smaller cookware and streamlined techniques to minimize appliances and overall number of dirty dishes. There are a number of dishes that start in a skillet and go into the oven, in the skillet, where the larger recipe would require transfer to a baking dish. Probably my number one favorite recipe in this book is the Skillet Pizza. We used to spend about $50 a week on high end takeout pizza. I use store-bought pizza dough and making that recipe actually takes *less* time than ordering takeout. A lot of the recipes using tomato sauce have you make your own by running a can of diced tomatoes in the food processor which is significantly cheaper than buying premium ready-made sauce, and tastes better too. Another one of my favorite recipes uses fresh ravioli or tortellini from the refrigerated section and you cook the pasta in a single skillet with a watery sauce that thickens as the pasta cooks. Again incredibly easy and even faster, and cheaper, than delivery. Every recipe I've tried has taken 15-30 minutes of hands on prep time max and has come out perfectly every time. I'm watching my calories (I don't do "low fat" or "low calorie" because that's an express ticket to a midnight ice cream binge) and my husband is a light eater. The recipes say they serve 2, for us it's usually 3-4 servings. The regular recipes average about 500-600 calories per ATK-size serving, so even if I do eat a full serving, it's not that big of a deal. And when you're cooking a lasagna in a 9"x 4" bread loaf pan, half of that looks pretty huge. Compare that to a 13" x 9" lasagna pan where a 4" x 4" slice would look pretty measly. Desserts are no longer off the menu for me as I can eat a half serving without having to throw away half a cake (thus removing the temptation to eat too big of a serving). Quick breads are baked in mini-loaf pans, miniature layer cakes are 6" in diameter, cookies are by the dozen, and pies are 6". I love the mini bundt cakes. All of the desserts are easily 4 small servings which don't break my daily calorie bank. And if I'm tempted to overdo it, well, there isn't that much to overdo it on. Breakfast options are also scaled down, for instance to 6 total pancakes (3 servings for us). Seriously, Cooking for Two does a lot for your portion size perspective. I've already lost almost 20 lbs and cook almost exclusively from this cookbook. For a household for 2, we used to spend about $1000 a month on food (both groceries and restaurants/takeout). Since using this cookbook, we spend about $500 a month on food including restaurants and takeout. If you're just one or two people, or even 3, and you want to lose weight, save money, cook really good food from scratch with minimal fuss, and/or make cooking a spending quality time together activity, then I highly recommend this cookbook. It's been a real lifesaver for me. UPDATE: I've now lost 65 lbs since I wrote this review! I'm still using this cookbook regularly. It's a great reference for cutting down their other recipes. I am such a fan of their cookbooks, I've managed to pick up a few more. I highly recommend Make Ahead Cook, One Pan Wonders, and Cook It In Cast Iron, all of these are pretty easy to scale down. If I'm not sure the best way to halve something or the recipe seems too labor intensive I just refer to a similar recipe in this one. When scaling down the Dutch Oven recipes, I use a half sized dutch oven (3 qt). I recently purchased a Wolf Gourmet Countertop Oven and switched from non-stick skillets to using Lodge cast iron skillets with loop handles (instead of long handles) so they fit in the smaller oven easily. If you do a lot of smaller scale cooking, I highly recommend this appliance. While it only fits up to a quarter sheet pan, I was already using a quarter sheet pan for most of the recipes in this book. Probably my most made recipe in this book is the "Ravioli with Meat Sauce" recipe. I use Barilla dried cheese tortellini with no other adjustments, and just cover the pan for the recommended cooking time in the recipe. My main complaint is that I run into a recipe here and there that is literally a normal recipe cut in half. Also the serving sizes are a bit all over the map. Some recipes really do serve 2 while others can feed 4. I usually assume I'll get 3-4 servings out of the recipes and just plan on an extra side for the ones I know make less (like the Teriyaki Steak Tips). Another thing I wish they'd have included is scaling down on grilling. I have an 18" Weber Jumbo Joe because for 2 people it makes no sense to use a full size 24" grill. The recipes in the Grilling chapter work great on my smaller grill but the charcoal amounts didn't. Cook's Country only recently published an article discussing this, they suggest scaling the number of briquettes down by 25%. They also recommend putting water in a large (7x5ish) loaf pan instead of the 13x9 pan, and reducing the water by 25% (but keep the amount of wood chips the same). I still use a full sized chimney starter but for 2 people it just makes sense to have a smaller setup and use less briquettes. Hopefully a future version of this cookbook will have a better grilling section!! Finally after using the book so much, it's fallen apart. I wish they made a spiral bound version with waterproof pages!
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Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2016 by Augustina