The Ultimate Cooking with 4 Ingredients

Nearly foolproof, very accessible to any reader. A great blessing for the following cooking-challenged people: busy parents, students, can't boil water types, no-time, no-patience, no-talent, no well-stocked kitchen, low-budget cooks. Very simple cooking methods and instructions. No snooty cooking jargon. A really great gift, a cookbook that will actually get lots of use. The low number of ingredients saves money - no long shopping list for obscure spices you'll never use again. The ingredients are very common, easy to find in any grocery store, many canned items that do some of the work for you. A nice big section on tasty appetizers provides plenty of easy ideas for Super Bowl munchies, study-session snacks, or contributions at those potlucks/family suppers where no one can tell you what to bring - "we've got it all covered" - but you can't show up empty-handed. Many interesting dips, served cold with crackers or chips, travel and keep well. Also, plenty of main dishes, great fruit and vegetable salads, breakfast bakes and muffins, easy cookies, and much more. To be fair, these dishes are aimed toward diners with simple tastes as well. Much flavor comes from cheeses, various salad dressing, canned soups, Jello, cool whip, etc. It's delicious food, but without "subtle nuances." You are not going to get Iron Chef judgments about the "clever layered flavors of the abalone immersed in camembert with a saffron bouquet garni." Just forget about that stuff, and indulge in great, fast, crowd- and family-pleasing finished dishes.

This has been a great help for my grandson, a student with little time and money.

In "The Ultimate Cooking with 4 Ingredients" author Jean Coates treats the reader to a plethora of simple, yet tasty, recipes. This is a particularly great cookbook for those with little cooking experience or for someone who wants to put together a balanced, healthy, home cooked meal without a lot of fuss. The instructions for preparation of each dish could not be easier. If you are used to the books with three or four paragraphs of preparation instructions you will be pleasantly surprised to find that these recipes can all be completed with only three to four simple steps. I tried a few recipes and found that among my favorites were Potatoes Supreme, Hawaiian Pork, and Cola Chicken. Based on the ingredients list the Cola Chicken sounded so unlikely to taste good that I just had to try it and it turned out great. I also liked the way that Coates broke down the main dishes into the categories of chicken, beef, pork, and seafood instead of lumping them all together under the "Main Dishes" category like most cookbooks do.The recipes often take advantage of mixes like a box cake mix or stuffing mix in order to keep the ingredients list down to four. But for the new cook or one who does not have a lot of time or want a lot of fuss making dinner it meets all the important requirements - quick and easy to prepare, goof-proof, minimal cleanup, and tasty. This is a highly recommended read and especially so for the novice cook or the hurried family cook or the college bound student.