The Complete Canadian Living Cookbook: 350 Inspired Recipes from Elizabeth Baird and the Kitchen Canadians Trust Most (Hardcover)

Compiled by Elizabeth Baird, food and nutrition editor for Canadian Living magazine, along with her coterie of cooks from the CL test kitchen, this comprehensive soup-to-sweets collection of thrice-“tested-till-perfect” recipes includes step-by-step staff favourites as well as tasty contributions from some of Canada’s pre-eminent food professionals. Whether it’s basic Lentil Soup starring Saskatchewan’s lauded legume or salt-rubbed Beef Tenderloin marinated in Worcestershire and scotch, each recipe is highlighted with informative icons (“Quick,” “Make Ahead,” “Budget-wise,” etc.). The dishes can be both provocative (“Cornish Hens with Tuscan Touches”) and enlightened (even old-school Liver and Onions gets a Continental kick using sage leaves and balsamico), and the pages offer up sidebars full of advice and ideas for substitutions, variations, and presentation. (One suggestion: cut a letter or number into a piece of cardboard; then hold it over a bowl of soup while sprinkling chopped herbs through this stencil). It’s a very handsome volume, though readers may wish the 25 colour photos appeared beside their respective recipes rather than bunched together in two mid-book “galleries.” One wishes, too, that the abbreviation for “tablespoon” used an uppercase “t” to differentiate it from that for “teaspoon.” These are minor cavils with a kitchen-friendly reference. The Salad chapter will have cooks utilizing everything from “the needlessly out-of-fashion iceberg lettuce” to sushi rice; its Dessert pages will take bakers from Panforte to Pandowdy (while teaching them how to “dowdy”). And as one might expect from something called The Complete Canadian Living Cookbook, there’s plenty of good eating in between. --Tony Mason

More than twenty-five years of cooking expertise perfected in the unique Canadian Living Test Kitchen and printed in the food pages of Canadian Living magazine are distilled in this magnificent and completely new cookbook. The Canadian Living Test Kitchen guarantee — “Tested till perfect” — has assured a loyal following among cooks who know that Canadian Living Test Kitchen recipes guarantee success. Beautifully produced with a 2-colour interior and 2 eight-page photo inserts, the book contains more than 350 recipes, including regional specialties, dishes from our heritage communities, and fresh takes on modern classics such as sushi, chocolate fondue and pasta. Experienced cooks will enjoy the challenge of new inspirations such as Thai curries, pot stickers, grilled quail and chocolate confections. With an emphasis on eating for health, as well as nutritional analyses and advice, tips on cookware, food shopping and storage, and much more, The Complete Canadian Living Cookbook has everything any home cook will need. It is a guarantee of good food and an investment in good taste and good health.

• Over 350 Canadian Living “tested till perfect” recipes
• Information on choosing and storing fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry and fish
• Find how to select the right cooking equipment for your kitchen
• Tips on shopping, storage and ingredient substitutions
• Glossary of essential cooking and baking terms
• Advice on how to use slow cookers, bread machines and food processors
• Page-top symbols that pinpoint fast, make-ahead, freezable, budget-wise and Canadian Living classic recipes
• Streamlined recipes for easy preparation and clean-up
• Complete nutritional analysis for each recipe
• Cover the basics and challenges experienced cooks
• Highlights regional specialties and ingredients, dishes from our heritage communities and great cooks across the country

Tested till Perfect — The Canadian Living Test Kitchen
The Canadian Living Test Kitchen is the largest media test kitchen in Canada, testing and/or creating more than 500 recipes per year. Sensory evaluation takes place after each recipe is cooked. The challenge for the tester is not simply whether the dish tastes good but how its taste, appearance, healthfulness and method of preparation can be improved so that it will be the best it can possibly be. The recipe is deemed to be “Tested till Perfect” when it satisfies the high standards of the magazine. Canadians have learned to trust Canadian Living Magazine’s recipes because of the rigorous testing and editing process.

A sampling of delicious recipes:
Curried Lamb Phyllo Triangles
Baked Brie with Strawberry Mint Topping
Baby Spinach and Goat Cheese Salad
Red Barn Corn and Bean Salad
Perfect Roast Chicken
Salmon Cakes
Grilled Portobello Burgers
Old-fashioned Beef Stew
Luscious Mushroom Lasagna
Lemon Sponge Pudding
Chocolate Raspberry Ice-Cream Cake
Saskatoon Berry Pie
Apple Pie Muffins
Country Seed Bread
Pear and Apricot Conserve
Spicy Thai Shrimp and Noodle Soup
Asparagus Miso Soup
Glazed Sea Bass with Red Curry Sauce
Smoky Tex-Mex Rib