Going Solo in the Kitchen: A Practical and Persuasive Cookbook for Anyone Living Alone-with More Than 350 Easy, Delicious Recipes and Strategies for Food Shopping, Storing, and Recycling

Just because you are your household, don't assume eating solo limits you to having pizza, pancakes, or meat loaf in restaurants; buying them already prepared; or having to file extra portions in the freezer or the dustbin. As Jane Doerfer proves in Going Solo in the Kitchen, with no more effort than when cooking for two or more, one person can eat well and dine beautifully.

Doerfer's main strategies are to use fresh ingredients and to make friends with supermarket staff who can accommodate her needs in the land of large families. She gives detailed advice on storing foods--cooked chicken, for example, tastes better and has better texture when stored in liquid (like a sauce or broth), while potato salads and other prepared dishes keep better longer when left unsalted until just before serving.

Solo cooks do have advantages: you can eat what you want, as often as you want it, and the cost of a steak or lobster dinner is only for one.

Doerfer offers variations for recycling in case of leftovers. Her description of how to cut up a whole chicken is graphically clear (see "Chicken Management") and will save you money.

The recipes and techniques Doerfer offers will brighten the lives of solitary diners who love variety, good food, and home cooking. She provides recipes for everything you might want, from Chicken Noodle Soup to elegant Halibut with Asparagus, Cream Scones, perfectly cooked rice, and fresh, hot berry pie, made in just the right way for one. --Dana Jacobi