cover image Dinner's Ready: Fresh, Delectable, No-Fuss Meals to Prepare Ahead for Cooking and Serving to One

Dinner's Ready: Fresh, Delectable, No-Fuss Meals to Prepare Ahead for Cooking and Serving to One

Daphne Metaxas Hartwig. MacMillan Publishing Company, $19.95 (230pp) ISBN 978-0-02-548531-0

Hartwig (Classic Greek Cooking, Make Your Own Groceries, etc.) offers here detailed advance-preparation cooking techniques and freezing and storage instructions for a variety of tasty, preassembled meals: casseroles; marinated, stir-fried and room-temperature dishes; hot-supper sandwiches and the like. The hearty, eclectic fare (Greek salad, Tuscan white-bean soup with chicken and orzo, Michigan steak and potatoes, enchilada casseroles and kulebiaka pastries) utilizes convenience foods but provides no microwave instructions. The short cooking times can be misleading because preparation times are omitted. Many dishes, such as ""instant'' roast beef stew and ``quick-broil'' curried lamb shanks, call for only five to 15 minutes of final cooking before serving, yet require more than an hour for assembling and precooking. Better Homes and Gardens Book Clubs exclusive. (April 22)