Recipes for Busy People

I'm not quite sure what to make of this Kraft Food & Family Simple Shortcuts (2008, 34 pages) recipe magazine that I received in the mail last month. This new magazine was sent instead of the regular Food & Family Spring 2008 issue.

It's for "time-challenged" people who want to get "food on the table fast" (using Kraft brands, of course).

The magazine features "easy directions and pictures."

That may be an understatement.

I have all kinds of cookbooks, recipe pamphlets and cooking magazines around here, both old and new, but this one is a first. It really reminds me of the beginning cookbooks for children. Except this is for adults. That's the scary part.

I'm a little short on time myself, but I'm not sure this dumbed down recipe format is the answer.

The standard ingredient lists found in most recipes are absent here; instead, there are pictures of the ingredients along with little plus signs in case we don't know what to do with the ingredients once we've identified them.

I enjoy pictures accompanying recipes when they're presented in a good way, like over at Pioneer Woman Cooks. Her recipe presentations manage not to insult my intelligence and it's rather interesting to see how someone else does things in the kitchen. (I also share her lack of local access to a real grocery store--to this end, I admire her achievement in making lemonade out of lemons. I usually just develop a stomachache when I have to go into my local stores.)

And then there's the matter of the dishes resulting from the recipes in the magazine -- like this one for Speedy Tuna Casserole.


Will anyone actually prepare and eat this?

This magazine is a keeper, for sure. Only not for cooking purposes. All those little pictures of Kraft products are a great example of consumer branding. I'm happy to add that to my collection.