January 4, 2021

When I was a young bride and mother of young ones, I was often trying to figure out how to cut recipes down from 10-12 servings to 1-2 servings. Every time I cooked, my wish was for a cookbook with recipes for 1-2 people. In those days, the freezer compartment in our refrigerator was tiny. And in an apartment, there was usually never room for a small chest freezer.  So when I made a recipe for 10-12, we were often eating it every day for many days! Years later it would’ve also been helpful to have had a cookbook for 1-2 while I was writing my Scoria Roads book. It was not healthy, eating hot dogs and fast food during those years!

And now there is a cookbook for 2 that I highly recommend!  Its title is Food for 4 Seasons. This book is a keeper and a beauty!

Everything about this cookbook is attractive: each page, the cover, its layout, and the photos. Author Marta Crichton makes meal planning and home cooking easy. It’s the perfect gift for a college-bound student living on his/her own or a newly married couple or a couple with very young children or empty nesters.

Each recipe page holds a photo; then in round-cornered rectangles are lists of its needed ingredients, needed tools, and directions to make it. The heading scripts on each page are very nice looking–simply delights to view.

Marta shares recipes and knowledge she acquired during culinary school in Portland, Oregon, and when living on her own during those school years. Today, married with two young boys, she’s a pastry chef, home cook, and caterer. She also has had experience as an event planner.

In this cookbook, Marta’s table of contents are easy to read, plus she uses the four seasons to help us plan our menus. Recipes are chosen for each week to be made in order. She also suggests a standard cupboard set-up to help us create her host of nutritious and tasty recipes.

For each week’s foods, Marta has an intro page titled “Hodge Podge Grocery List” that helps to plan for recipe foods needed for the week. She also shows us how to use leftovers. And I appreciate her conversion chart page, her pages for notes, and reheating ideas.

Her inspiring recipes run the gamut of healthy and hearty to those with less fuss and skill required. The shrimp linguine and cheater chicken wings have become two of my favorites, and recipes like pork chops and apples will show cash-strapped couples how to get more bang for their buck. And many pages are sprinkled with her wondrous humor.

Marta is my niece, and you can find her cookbook at Barnes and Noble, on eAmazon, and on lulu.com.