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" It&amp;#039;s not every day that you find a cookbook on the front page of The New York Times, but that is where I first read about Phyllis Pellman Good&amp;#039;s wildly successful (7 million copies sold) Fix-it and Forget-it! series. I tracked down a copy of her new Fix-it and Enjoy-it! and looked for something to make for dinner. The Times and Mrs. Good are pretty clear about this being the polar opposite of gourmet cooking. These recipes come from (mostly) women all over the U.S., women who put dinner on the table for their families most nights. I have enormous admiration for anyone who actually cooks dinner for her family night after night, but way too many of Mrs. Good&amp;#039;s recipes are just plain unhealthy in an alarming way. Why would anyone want to cook a sirloin steak with a can of soup, a can of mushrooms, and a half cup of sherry? The amount of flour, sugar, bacon, and canned food recommended floored me. In the vegetable chapter, nothing is green, but drenched in crumbs and cheese. Easy Fruit Salad requires opening five cans. Can it really be that hard to find a piece of ripe fruit? That said, the battle to feed our families is fought nightly, and I turned to Debra Ponzek&amp;#039;s The Family Kitchen in an attempt to regain my equilibrium. I&amp;#039;ve never had the patience for the kinds of messiness that cooking with kids involves. I admire the way Ponzek includes hers in the dinner process, mainly to prolong the dinner hour, which is in reality often only a few minutes together at the table. Her recipes are not astonishing, but they are inviting and encouraging and the ones I tried worked well. The Family Kitchen by Debra Ponzek (Clarkson Potter, $25) See Debra Ponzek&amp;#039;s recipes for Fresh Berry Bismarck and Ginger Shortcakes with Nectarines and Blueberries "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.delish.com/kitchen-tools/cookbooks/a539/debra-ponzek-family-kitchen/>