Excerpts

Introduction Oh. My. Word. How did our lives become so busy? If your calendar looks anything like mine, then you know how those hours, days, and weeks seem to have become shorter and shorter. Because we have so many work, family, and other obligations, we need to make choices about how we want to spend these precious moments. As you know from our twice-weekly visits on In the Kitchen with David on QVC, I love to cook. I love to eat. (Cue my happy dance!) I love everything about cooking except dicing piles of onions, carrots, and celery and measuring spices to make the perfect seasoning blend. If there are ways to take the "work" out of prep work, count me in. Well, there's good news, foodie friends. Half Homemade, Fully Delicious is loaded with creative ideas for getting great comfort food on the table while spending far less time in the kitchen. All of the 110 recipes in my newest collection use ten ingredients or fewer. Most of them take advantage of "supermarket shortcuts," those handy, ready-to-use products from every aisle in the grocery store that will streamline your cooking. By using these culinary quick tricks to your advantage, you'll reach your destination--the dining table--in a fraction of the time it traditionally takes to prepare meals, all without sacrificing the flavors and texture of your favorite dishes. Before supermarket shortcuts, making dishes like Butternut Squash Hummus (page 13) would have meant peeling, seeding, and cutting up the squash; soaking and cooking dried chickpeas; and toasting and puréeing sesame seeds. Now, all I have to do is roast some already prepped squash pieces, then combine them with a can of chickpeas and some jarred tahini. On every grocery run, I pick up a rotisserie chicken or two knowing that over the course of the week, I will use them along with other readily available ingredients. For the Barbecue Chicken Salad (page 72), the meat is tossed with bottled barbecue sauce and ranch dressing, then combined with lettuce and canned black beans and corn. Shredded chicken from one bird goes into a pot along with cubed vegetables, boxed chicken stock, frozen peas and carrots, and canned cream of chicken soup for a warming Creamy Chicken Pot Pie Soup with Dippers (page 46). Oh, and it's ready to be ladled into bowls in less than thirty minutes. Now, that's quick and easy. Having these ready-to-use ingredients at my fingertips inspires me to recreate new versions of memorable, comforting dishes from my childhood, travels, restaurants I've eaten in, and meals I've enjoyed at the homes of friends. The time needed to make D-I-Y Deviled Eggs (page 18), a must- have at every Southern gathering, is minimal when you use already hard-boiled-and-peeled eggs. Buying the cooked eggs allows you to spend more time on inventive toppings. The Reuben "Sandwich" Skillet Bake (page 159) is a variation on my favorite deli sandwich and takes advantage of frozen hash browns, canned sauerkraut, corned beef from the deli, and Thousand Island dressing. (Think about the time you would have to spend to make just one of those ingredients from scratch.) Trips to our fiftieth state sparked me to combine canned pineapple, already-cooked ham steak, and Original Hawaiian Sweet Rolls in the Hawaiian Breakfast Bake (page 26). When I first started out on local television, I relied on inexpensive and filling ramen noodle packets. Those packets gave me the idea for my Beef Ramen Bowls (page 96), a dish much improved with skirt steak, mushrooms, and General Tso's sauce. Turtle Brookies (page 169) use a box of brownie mix and a bag of chocolate chip cookie mix for a best-of-both-worlds dessert. The beauty of these recipes is how much room they give you to make them your own. If you like more heat, add some extra chopped jalapeño to Creamy Corn off the Cob (page 179). For additional tang, use a tad more vinegar in the Greek Salad (page 63). You'll love how much time you can save by mixing and matching ingredients from the store's many aisles and departments. Southwestern Skillet Scampi (page 127) uses fresh tomato salsa from the refrigerator section, shrimp from the freezer section, and black beans and diced green chiles from the canned goods aisle. I love the Chicken, Broccoli, and Rice Casserole (page 142), a dish of my mom's that I fondly remember. Just use a rotisserie chicken, a box of broth, frozen broccoli florets, a can of cream of broccoli soup, and a package of precooked rice. These dishes come together in no time with supermarket shortcuts. To make things even easier, many of these recipes not only can be made ahead, but they can also be frozen. Just heat and serve when you need it. Talk about food fast with a wow factor! With supermarket shortcuts and my new collection of comfort recipes in Half Homemade, Fully Delicious, you'll rediscover the pleasures of sharing meals and good times. No matter how busy you get, you can always find the time to make food that'll get you "oohs" and "aaahs." Only you will know how quickly you got it done. Let's get started. Excerpted from Half Homemade, Fully Delicious: an in the Kitchen with David Cookbook from QVC's Resident Foodie by David Venable All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.