May 17, 2021
Emmy Award–winning chef Scott (One to Five) puts a fresh spin on family cooking in this feel-good collection. “Whether you need a quick solution to feed last-minute guests or a snack to offer to the preschoolers invading your home for a playdate, I have you covered,” Scott promises. He delivers with reinvented, family-friendly go-tos—such as slow cooker creamy tomato soup with cheesy waffle dippers, pb&j pancakes, and ranch-style “panko and bake” chicken fingers—as well as vegan takes on classics, including double chocolate cookies (subbing in coconut oil for butter) and swiss chard Caesar salad (swapping out eggs for silken tofu and anchovies for capers). He starts each recipe with a comical introduction (“You can only make so many pancakes with overripe bananas before you start to go cross-eyed”) and ends with useful tips, such as how to freeze three-cheese mac and cheese muffins. While some recipes are questionably kid-friendly—kale-and-panko-crusted salmon with edamame pesto, for instance—Scott includes ingredient substitutions to satisfy picky eaters (“If you want this dish to be beefy, by all means, substitute ground beef,” he says of his turkey “Scott family helper”). Home cooks looking to expand their repertoire of crowd-pleasing options will find these recipes irresistible. Agent: Kirsten Neuhaus, Foundry.