I’m doing my part to help keep Martha in new furniture; I subscribe to Living, Blueprint, and Everyday Food. This is not a new habit for me (though, in my defense, all my subscriptions are gifts.) While I enjoy all the magazines, Everyday Food is the only one I really use on a regular basis. The recipes are simple and issues focus on foods that are both in season and easily found in a regular grocery store. While I have made a few things that I wouldn’t make again, for the most part I’ve been happy with my results when using EF recipes. The photography is appealing and the directions are clear. I now have about three years’ worth of the magazines and frequently flip through my back issues for inspiration when I’m making our weekly menus and I’ve even used several recipes from the holiday issues when preparing Thanksgiving dinner.
You don’t have to subscribe to the magazine to test out some of the recipes. Many are available through the Everyday Food website (though I wish the links were more user-friendly. Those links are hideous!) There’s also an Everyday Food cookbook called Great Food Fast (find in a library). Though I haven’t looked at the book myself, according to the reviews on amazon.com the recipes are arranged seasonally. This preserves one of the great things about the magazine, the fact that each issue’s highlighted ingredients and methods of preparation are geared to the season in which it arrives.
I know Martha doesn’t need my help, but if you’re trying to plan weekly menus Everyday Food is worth your time. If you’re looking for other menu planning & budgeting tools you might be interested in my “Tools I use” post too.
