Dinner in One: Exceptional & Easy One-Pan Meals: A Cookbook

Great cookbook
I can’t say the recipes are good but it is a nice cookbook great photos recipes looked easy to follow. I gave as gifts so I am not sure if they tried any of the recipes or not if I hear I will update my review.

So far, somewhat of a disappointment (updated to add tried recipes)
I’ve been waiting for this book to come out ever since it was announced. I have all of Melissa Clark’s previous books and really love her recipes. So far, however, I am not loving this one nearly as much, and I feel terrible saying that. Clark has already raised the home cooking bar so high that it makes me feel bad to say that this one is not quite there, but at least I’m not finding that it is.I have to further preface this review by stating that many of the recipes I adore and very often make from Clark’s insanely great cookbook, “Dinner: Changing the Game,” are already one pot – the most amazing shakshuka I have ever made, or even had, is in that book, and the Chicken with Anchovies, Lemon, and Capers, and the Brussels Sprouts with Halloumi are one-pot constants in my house. There are so many outstanding recipes in that book – one of my personal all-time favorite cookbooks ever – that I think it would be a really hard act to follow. But, I thought, if anyone can do it, Clark can.So perhaps I was expecting too much, but I’m just not loving what this book has so far delivered, with only a few exceptions. Here’s what I have made so far:– Garlicky Pork Chops with Cauliflower and Pomegranate.It was the first recipe I made from the book. I was a little leery about cooking pork chops on a sheet pan in the dry heat of an oven, but I figured if anyone could make it work, Clark would. The result was not great, but it wasn’t really because of the pork, which amazingly came out fairly well (I live in the South and the pork here is usually pretty great). It was because the dish, as a whole, really did not come together. The flavors were just ok. I would not make it again.– Skillet Shrimp Scampi with Orzo and Tomatoes.This turned out better than the pork dish for sure, and I had fantastic shrimp that was caught earlier in the day by the fisherman down the road, so I was hoping for spectacular. It was ok/good, but I would not really make it again.– [Updated] Crispy Chicken Thighs with Puttanesca Green Beans.This was the best of the three, but still just ok/good. I made this with the skinless, boneless thighs called for and the chicken was not crispy nor did it look nice when plating, so I tried it again with skin-on thighs. Having the crispy skin was an improvement, and it plated much more attractively, but there was quite a lot of fat, even though I cut some out to make up for having the skin. This was one recipe that I thought was worth another try – but it still wasn’t as good as I’d hoped.– [Updated] Roasted Mushrooms with PolentaThis has been the winner so far. It was delicious and ridiculously easy for how good it tasted. I used maitake, shiitake and cremini mushrooms (threw in a bit more than the recipes called for) and an organic polenta. The pre-made polenta was better in this dish than I thought it be – creamy on the inside and crispy on the edges. We loved this dish so much that there was not a speck left in the pan. This one is a keeper for sure. It was enough to keep my going through the book.– [Updated] Green Shashuka with Avocado, Chile and FetaThis was not good. The chile in the recipe title made no appearance in the list of ingredients nor in the instructions, so I was left to wonder about the editing of this book. The recipes have been so unlike Clark’s previous books that I have to think that faulty editing might be the reason. IDK if chiles would have made a difference or not but this was a unanimous not good in my house. We ate it, but only because I will not throw away food unless it is entirely inedible.– [Updated] Spicy Stir-fried Pork with Green Beans and TomatoesThis was good enough to make again. I had to adjust some of the seasoning amounts because the jalapeños I bought were on the mild side, but the dish came together very quickly and was tasty. It was successful enough to make me want to try a few more recipes.– [Updated] Roasted Chicken “Tagine” with Dates, Olives and LemonThis, along with the mushroom dish, has been the best thing I’ve made from this book so far. The flavors were had the kind of the complexity and intensity that I love about Melissa Clark’s recipes. I didn’t serve it on couscous, although I agree with the recipe that the pan juices are worth having something to sop them up with. This was so good. My husband thought this was the best thing from this book.– [Updated] Spicy Pearl Couscous with Jammy Eggplant and TomatoesWe love all of the ingredients, so I thought I’d give this a try. I should have stopped when I read the intro paragraph. It mentions the changes that were made to the recipe that inspired Clark to make this one, one of which was the inclusion of cherry tomatoes. The recipe itself, however, lists only canned diced tomatoes and no cherry tomatoes. I made it according to the canned tomatoes in the recipe, but the results weren’t what I was hoping for. It’s possible that it was due to the editing confusion between cherry and canned tomatoes. Perhaps I’ll try this again using the cherry tomatoes but… not for a while.At this point, I am suspecting that there were more errors in editing this book than the obvious one in the last recipe above. And maybe the errors just happened to be in the recipes I chose to make because I’m surprised that, aside from the Roasted Mushrooms and the Chicken “Tagine”, we really haven’t liked them that much. If this was not Melissa Clark, I would have quit after three strikes, but having had more strikes, it will be a while before I venture beyond those two again.I am used to making Melissa Clark recipes that knock everyone socks off, but so far, my socks are still on. I wish I was giving this book a rave review because it would mean that we have been having some amazing dinners in my house this week. Unfortunately, that is not what happened. A lot of cookbook authors do ok/good, but Melissa Clark usually goes way beyond that. I was expecting her usual, amazingly great recipes and I have not yet consistently gotten that from this book.

Everything tastes good
I gave this to my daughter and also have one myself so we can compare and test recipes. Neither of us has ever discovered a bad recipe from the book. In fact we’ve raved about each one. Amazing that they are so simple as well. Love it!

I love Melinda Clarke’s books, the recipes are interesting and doable.

I would highly recommend disregarding negative opinions about this book. They read as they are coming from people who have never cooked or are offended by flavor. If you don’t know what an ingredient is, Google is your friend. Also, the author makes several notes for each recipe on how to change items up.Right off the bat you will notice that this book is of rich quality. The pages are thick and glossy. Much more thicker than the average book. The height of the book is much smaller though than the rest of my collection. It doesn’t feel odd or weird though, despite that. It kind of adds a cozy feel, if that makes sense.The variety of recipes is something that I really enjoyed skimming through. As I went through page after page, I felt like this was a really worthy purchase and knew I’d get my money’s worth. I like to place sticky tabs / notes on recipes I am interested in but there were far too many in this one so I didn’t even bother.There are recipes of all sorts of tastes. Vegetarian, meat, sides, etc. The author uses a varying amount of herbs and spices and if you are a seasoned cook, as you read the ingredients, you will feel the recipe come to life already.This book has Milk Street vibes in the sense that it contains flavors from all over the world, but she uses a lot more seasonings and herbs in her recipes (which I love!).This book is not a simple, plain cookbook though. If you are looking for a quick weeknight meal with a fussy spouse / children, I would not recommend this. This feels like it is more geared towards people that enjoy cooking as a hobby and savoring wonderful flavors and tastes. Maybe you could use some of the recipes for a weekend dinner when dining with friends or family.The only disappointment in this cookbook is that there are not images for every recipe. This does bother me a lot with other books but I think I can overlook that because of the quality of the product itself.Highly recommend if you appreciate flavor, depth, and deliciousness. Do not recommend if you do not like to cook and / or do not like strong, bold flavors.15/10/2022 Update: So far I’ve made 3 recipes from this book. The tofu and roasted veggies were freaking delicious. Loved the way of cutting the potatoes and fresh herbs made a huuuuuge difference.The Kimchi Fried Rice was awesome! I added some sautéed garlic prawns to it and wow! This was sooooo delicious.The Cumin-y Chicken and Rice was also super yummy! I added way more garlic and marinated my chicken for several hours, ignoring the recommended time. If you do this too, make sure to massage the chicken every couple hours or so!

I have always loved Melissa Clark’s NYT Cooking recipes, and had high hopes for this book in helping us find good new weekday meals. The recipes are easy to follow, and not too many ingredients. My family has a lot of allergies, and we were easily able to find a lot of recipes that either worked, or had easy allergy-friendly swaps.