Cookbook Fetish: Relish - Easy Gourmet Cooking For Everyone!

This week's cookbook...isn't an actual book. It is a collection of recipes from the recipe service provided by the fine folks at RelishRelish.com

RelishRelish is a weekly menu service. You pay a small fee, and each Thursday receive an email enticing you to come to the subscriber's-only area of the website and choose from fifteen different meals for the week. You end up with a total of five meals plus one dessert per week.

RelishRelish also offer special menus for seasonal events; one summer party suggestion was "Lobster and Lambrusco" complete with multiple recipes and invitation designs. They currently have a gluten-free service and a new iphone app; the app comes with a free one-month trial of the service. I've also heard tell that an email to customer service might net you a brief guest membership; following them on Twitter might land the same type of benefit.

The recipes scale from 2 to 8. As a household of one, I went with the 2-serving option and always have just enough left over for lunch the next day, but then, I eat like a bird. There are different options each week including vegetarian, kid-friendly, budget-friendy, low calorie, quick preparation, and crockpot recipes. Recipes call for mostly fresh ingredients and thus allow for substitutions and other spur-of-the-moment changes.

Each menu option includes a main dish and side dish. This week I'm cooking through the recipes I selected for the week of November 24, 2008:

Pumpkin Bread
Pork Tenderloin with Sweet Potatoes and Breadcrumb Broccoli
Southwestern White Bean Chili with Jack Quesadillas
Baked Tuna Melt with Cucumber Apple Slaw
Roasted Rosemary Chicken Breasts with Green Beans & Golden Raisins
Breakfast Burritos with Spicy Hash Browns

I started the week by heading to the grocery store, which is really easy with RelishRelish. When you select your week's recipes, you also get an easy to read grocery list. Mine starts out looking like this...

RelishRelish Menu Before Shopping

And ends up looking like this...

RelishRelish.com menu after shopping

Before I head to the store I review the menu items and check my pantry and freezer plus cross out items I already have and add in any substitutions. Then, once in the store, I cross things out as I throw them in the cart. The items in the left column, on the other hand, are basic pantry staples you will need through the week; you may or may not need to pick them up at the store.

And yeah, I can be found Aisle #4, pen in hand, gawking at the canned pumpking trying to find a 15-oz can. I'm probably muttering to myself, "Not a single 15oz can to be found." I got a 28-oz can instead.

I started the week easy with the Baked Tuna Melt and Cucumber Apple Slaw. The recipe for the Tuna Melt recommends baking the prepared sandwich for fifteen minutes - I didn't bother, so there was no melting involved. The Cucumber Apple Slaw was delicious. And as promised on the RelishRelish website, I was able to prepare and serve this in about 30 minutes. Spectacular!