That Sounds So Good: 100 Real-Life Recipes for Every Day of the Week: A Cookbook

James Beard Award–winning chef Lalli Music (Where Cooking Begins) provides “recipes and kitchen encouragement to go with every hunger” in this stellar collection. In her companionable style, she arms readers with the tools to cook efficiently and whenever the inspiration strikes, starting with a helpful tutorial on balancing “inactive” and “active” cooking times (the key is to prep during downtime) and a “waste-reducing strategy for food shopping” that involves relying on a stocked pantry and only going out for perishable things. Recipes are broken down into options for weekdays—where “stovetop suppers” and big salads save the day—and lazy lunches and dinners for the weekend. Weeknight standouts include salt-and-sugar pork rib chops, for which greens are wilted in pork drippings, and a lightning-fast gingery ground beef with lime and herbs. Come Friday night, she leans more luxurious with a cold sliced steak with arugula and parmesan, a spicy seafood stew, and whole grilled fish (pro tip: douse it with oil to avoid sticking). A master planner, she also includes substitutes for every recipe, to avoid “having dinner upended by a single missing ingredient.” Bursting with flavor and potential, these everyday recipes are far from everyday. (Oct.)