Once-A-Month Cooking

In this homemaker's equivalent to The One-Minute Manager, the authors set out a system whereby a month's worth of family dinners can be cooked and frozen in one day, ready to microwave or reheat in a conventional oven whenever needed. Their step-by-step advice on assembling a shopping list, consolidating tasks such as chopping vegetables, grating cheese, browning meat, etc., undoubtedly saves time in making the stews, casseroles, chili and ham loaves with which they illustrate their points. But then the reader has side dishes to consider, as well as the inconvenience of flipping back and forth between what are essentially ho-hum recipes. All in all, this is an unimaginative parry at kitchen efficiency. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club alternate selections. (December)