I love this cookbook. The recipes are practical and delicious, and the ingredients can be purchased at most grocery stores. I’ve made the Clams with Couscous and Cherry Tomatoes several times, it’s a keeper! I liked this book so much I bought a hard copy.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley, I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Cooking in real life is the perfect name for this book. These recipes are amazing and easy to whip up. The ingredients are easily accessible. The recipes well written and easy to follow.

This is a great cookbook! The recipes I'm most excited to try are Banana Cake with Chocolate Frosting and Sea Salt and the Blueberry Muffin Sugar Cookies. The photos are beautiful and the recipes are well written and easy to follow. I would recommend this! Special Thank You to Lidey Heuck, Simon Entertainment and NetGalley for allowing me to read a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

A lovely collection of recipes that walk the line between simple and special. I made the Chicken Avgolemono-ish soup on a recent snowy day and the result was delicious. The clean aesthetic and inviting pictures are aspirational and a clear example of the Ina Garten vibe that runs through the book. I’m excited to continue cooking from this book for years to come.

This is a delightful cookbook full of recipes I’m excited to try! They are an accessible, interesting, and perfect for family meals or dinner parties.

Here are some of the recipes that caught my attention:

Baked crab dip- Sounds delicious!

Kale salad with Gouda, honeycrisp, and walnuts- simple and fresh

Date night rib eye with wild mushrooms- for a very special meal

Roast Chicken with Cipolinni onions, white beans, and lemon- Great variation on a classic by making a quick side dish of white beans and onions in the same skillet you roasted the chicken in.

Salmon with honey and chili crunch- easy addition to some of our other favorite salmon recipes.

Slow roasted salmon with lemony leeks and asparagus. Sounds perfect for spring!

A section of veggie mains including red curry lentil with sweet potato and spinach or crispy cauliflower and chickpea cakes with Moroccan spices

There is a great section of easy, interesting sides such as green beans with garlic and crispy capers, crunchy cucumber salad with peanuts and chili flakes, roasted cauliflower with fried sage and hazelnuts, grilled zucchini with charred lemon vinaigrette and feta

The book ends with some lovely desserts and a great breakfast chapter with some great brunch recipes.

My favorite section is a list of menu ideas for a variety of gatherings using recipes in the book!

I have to eat gluten free, so I always consider how many of the recipes are actually something I can eat. In this book (though not specifically marked gluten free), I found the majority of the recipes could be easily adapted by a knowledgeable gluten-free home cook. And there are several gluten free dessert and breakfast recipes in those sections as well!

I highly recommend this book!

Thank you to Simon Element Publishing for the opportunity to review this book!

Thank you for the ARC of Cooking in Real Life by Lidey Heck. I enjoyed reading through this elegant collection of recipes with a seasonal and holiday rhythm. The aesthetics of the book feel light, breezy, and evoke the Hamptons. I love the concept of Ina Garten disciples coming in to their own, presenting some of the same cooking "values" but with a younger feel and fresh perspective. (Will always love Ina though - there's just room to expand on her aesthetic!)

COOKING IN REAL LIFE by Lidey Heuck (pub March 11, 2024) is one of the best and most useful cookbooks I’ve read in several years. It’s a cookbook meant for everyone – delicious recipes built on ingredients you can probably get at your local supermarket or farmer’s market. I’m a big fan of cookbooks, both for inclusion in my high school library and at home on the farm. Nothing brings people together quite like great food, and being able to easily cook good food should, in my opinion, be a fundamental human right (which is why I include cookbooks in my library book talks with high schoolers).

Hueck came to cooking in a roundabout way, but one most foodies would envy . She got a job out of college working as a social media assistant for Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa – who wrote the foreword to this book. After nearly a decade working with Garten, including shopping for ingredients and testing recipes side by side with the Barefoot Contessa, Hueck offers her first cookbook: Cooking in Real LIfe.

The recipes are accessible and nearly all ingredients are probably already in your pantry at home, or generally easily purchased. To test this, I had the advance copy of the book with me on an iPad at my go-to grocery store in the midwest, and there were only two ingredients from random recipes I couldn’t source on my first stop: Littleneck clams and Harbison, a Vermont cheese, neither of these are midwestern staples.

The recipes are listed in the progression you would expect: appetizers through desserts, with an end section on dressings and sauces. One highlight is vegetable main dishes in addition to recipes for meat and fish. Heuck includes recipes for breakfast options as well, and if you’re really strapped for time to meal plan, she offers a variety of weeknight menus using recipes from the book. Notes in many recipes include tips, swaps, and ways to prep recipes in advance to save time.

I marked a few of the recipes to make as soon as possible for my family, for research and review purposes, of course: Baked Harbison Fondue; Arugula and Romaine Salad with Radish, Shaved Parm, Pistachios, & Mint; One-pan Chicken Meatballs with Red Sauce & Spinach; Spiced Sweet Potatoes with Pecans & Pomegranate Seeds; Banana Cake with Dark Chocolate Frosting & Sea Salt; Hummingbird Pancakes with Caramelized Pineapple & Pecans.

All of these look tasty and easy to make – easily fulfilling the promise of the book's title, Cooking in Real Life. I’ve already purchased a copy for my school library, and plan to get one for my farm kitchen as well.

This is a wonderful book full of recipes you want to make. While reading it, I was bookmarking so many and it was hard to pick just one.
Crunchy cucumber salad with peanuts and chili flakes, green beans with crispy capers and garlic, grilled zucchini with charred lemon dressing and so many more. The ingredients are readily available, the way she mixes the flavors is what sets this book apart.

I was not surprised to hear that Lidey Heuck got her start in the culinary world working for Ina Garten -- her recipes and her outlook have that same fresh, creative, no-fuss elegance, but with her own new ideas and recipes. This is a great cookbook by an author who understands how people cook and eat today. Loved this!

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a wonderful cookbook. The recipes are simple, yet elegant.

This cookbook contains basic recipes with slight twists. You can find recipes that could make you full a meal on a weekday or weekend to entertaining dishes (note the brunch entries). The author provides a very short how to section in the front which is more than adequate.

Some of the flavors and ingredients are not what one would expect; it’s nice to encounter a salad that uses a different type of lettuce or other vegetable, but note that some ingredients might not be widely available (especially in the winter months).

What’s nice is that the author supplies at the bottom of some recipes how to make something into a meal or gluten free. What might be nice is if time saving notes could be added throughout.

I cooked a selection of recipes from each chapter. The savory recipes that I tried were delicious and not difficult (e.g. the red curry lentils or the crispy cauliflower and chickpea cakes). Most of the recipes are not difficult but may have multiple components. Some recipes had small problems. (The hummingbird pancakes really didn’t have the combination of flavors in the pancakes and the caramelized topping needed a bit more maple syrup and longer cooking time. The overnight oats have way too much jam. Maybe jam to taste or a far smaller amount to begin would be better.) Overall, these recipes are fine for a beginner who is interested in using different ingredients in familiar recipes.

Cooking in Real Life is a casual "everyday" cookbook with appealing recipes by Lidey Heuck. Released 12th March 2024 by Simon & Schuster on their Simon Element imprint, it's 288 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook formats.

This is a graphically appealing, well written, and accessible cookbook with an array of everyday recipes to appeal to most tastes. The author has included an abbreviated pantry and ingredients list, but the recipes take up the bulk of the content. They're arranged thematically: Snacks & Drinks, Salads & a Few Soups, Chicken Beef & Pork, Fish & Shellfish, Veggie Mains, On the Side, Desserts, Breakfast & Brunch, and Dressings Sauces & Extras.

Ingredient measurements are supplied in imperial (American) standard units with some metric measurements in parentheses. The nutritional information is not included. Each recipe includes a header with a short description of the recipe and approximate servings. Extra tips or recipe alternatives are listed in the recipes. The recipes themselves are fairly straightforward and are made for the most part with easily sourced ingredients. The photography is abundant and clear and the recipes are illustrated simply and clearly.

This is a large collection of recipes and even allowing for the fact that some of them are very similar to others in the same category, this will keep readers going for ages. There are many simple and healthy "everyday" recipes.

This would be an excellent choice for public library acquisition, home use, gift giving, and a great "care package" moving out gift (bundled with cooking supplies and housewares) to newly fledged young adults living on their own for the first time.

Five stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

I've followed Lidey Heuck's career as she's worked for Ina Garten, Erin French, and the NY Times. Cooking in Real Life is just the type of cookbook I would reach for on a regular basis. The recipes are accessible enough for weeknight cooking and special enough for entertaining. Bonus points for recipes that are contained on one page and accompanied by a beautiful photograph. I've already ordered a copy and can't wait to add it to my cookbook collection.

Thank you to Simon Element and NetGalley for this ARC.

Elegant but do-able.

I really relished this book, especially the veg heavy sections.
Fresh and light, elegant and refined presentations.
Beautifully photographed but in a lived in, yet, aspirational way.
Recommend.

The book reminds me of the look and feel of an Ina Garten cookbook, likely because the author worked for Ina, and Ina provided the foreward. Recipes are in chapters on Snacks & Drinks; Salads & A Few Soups; Chicken, Beef, and Pork; Fish & Shellfish; Veggie Mains; On the Side; Desserts; Breakfast & Brunch; and Dressings, Sauces, & Extras.
The recipes all have a beautiful color photo, and they feature lots of fresh ingredients. I especially liked that at the end of the book there were menu suggestions, and even more unique was a "Sources" page that listed where to get the serving pieces shown in photos (at least those that were not vintage).
These are recipes that work for real life but still manage to feel special.

COOKING IN REAL LIFE by Lidey Heuck offers "Delicious & Doable Recipes for Every Day" and the Library Journal review says "Heuck's excellent debut cookbook is recommended." I concur. Heuck, who worked for Ina Garten (she writes the foreword to this cookbook) and Erin French offers relatively easy recipes with a bit of flair. Examples include Baked Crab Dip with Sweet Corn & Old Bay, Kale Salad with Gouda, Honey Crisp & Walnuts, or One-Pan Chicken Meatballs with Red Sauce & Spinach. Each is accompanied by a colorful, attractive photo. Although nutritional information is not provided, she doesn't ignore vegetables, either; it's easy to imagine happily serving guests dishes like Green Beans with Crispy Capers & Garlic or Crispy Smashed Potatoes with Salsa Verde. Heuck offers a short introduction to each recipe and further suggestions ("make it a meal" or "cooking for a crowd") on several. COOKING IN REAL LIFE was named among the top cookbooks of spring 2024 by Food & Wine and by Epicurious. Pick this up and start experimenting – it is filled with practical advice and is sure to be a winner.

Thank you Simon Element, S&S/Simon Element, and NetGalley for the advanced electronic review copy of this wonderful book. Great, easy to follow recipes with clear directions and beautiful pictures of finished dishes made for a delightful read. Am looking forward to trying some of the recipes and am recommending this book to anyone who would like to create simple, yet elegant dishes.

Thanks to the publisher, Simon Element, I had the privilege of reading an advance copy of
"Cooking in Real Life" by Lidey Heuck.
Whenever I open a new cookbook, I always keep a notebook handy to jot down the page numbers and names of recipes that catch my eye. The first page filled up quickly, indicating that this was a book I would truly cook from!
One immediate standout was the accessibility of each recipe. They utilized common ingredients but transformed them into elevated everyday dishes.
Additionally, the stunning photography, while not necessarily showcasing what I would consider traditionally photogenic dishes, added an extra bonus.
What truly impressed me was the well-rounded selection of starters, main dishes, snacks, desserts and tips. It felt like a cookbook tailor-made for practical use.
Just yesterday, with the perfect grilling weather outside, I realized I had all the necessary ingredients for the Grilled Chicken with Yogurt & Shawarma Spices, the tahini-yogurt sauce and Taverna Salad. Needless to say, it was a hit with the entire family!
Today's lunch featured the leftover taverna salad and chicken atop a bed of arugula. Though not pictured, I drizzled some of the tahini-yogurt sauce over it.
Delicious!
With its beautiful presentation and a foreword penned by none other than Ina Garten, this cookbook is set to hit shelves on March 11, 2024, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone looking to elevate their culinary repertoire.

It’s always nice to find a new cookbook that includes recipes for dishes people actually want to eat. One cookbook that has unique, but mouthwatering recipes is Lidey Heuck’s Cooking in Real Life: Delicious & Doable Recipes for Every Day . This nice cookbook has new, innovative recipes that aren’t the same-old same-old dishes we are sick of eating. To further validate it, it includes an introduction from famous television star, Ina Garten, who most of us love and trust.

The recipes are written in the traditional manner with the ingredients listed first, followed by step-by-step instructions. They are user friendly and easy to follow for both beginning and advanced cooks. Every recipe also includes notes, tips, and vignettes from the author, which makes cooks more able to relate.

Another plus is that there are beautiful, professional photographs of most of the recipes, which make this a fun cookbook to peruse and enjoy reading before the difficult task of deciding just what to make next. The number of new salads is a highlight, but there are yummy other recipes for soups, main dishes, desserts, appetizers and anything else someone might be in the mood to cook.

All told, this is an excellent cookbook with fun food ideas for almost everyone. It will make a good addition to any cookbook collection.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

Food recipes that look and sound way too good to eat but definitely worth trying! Love the photography and original recipes.