The Complete Make-Ahead Cookbook: From Appetizers to Desserts 500 Recipes You Can Make in Advance (The Complete ATK Cookbook Series) Paperback – Illustrated, July 11, 2017

I love anything from American Test Kitchen. Great recipes. Easy, concise, ingredients readily available. Many great tips. Explanations about the recipes work.

I LOVE this book. Don't know why people gave it low reviews because of lack of freezer meals. Does it say freezer meals on the cover??? When I go to my daughter's house, I like to bring a couple of dinners with me. Or when I get overnight guests, I like to make food ahead so I can relax and enjoy my company. These recipes are perfect because you can do a lot of the prep work, if not the whole dinner, ahead of time, and put it together when you want to serve it. It covers everything from appetizers to desserts, to make days ahead to refrigerate, or weeks in the freezer. The best part is it tells you the best way to reheat the food. That was always a challenge with my make ahead meals. Even my mashed potatoes would melt! So I LOVE this book, and, of course, it's ATK so you know the recipes are good.

Wonderful book! Just not the easiest to pull together for busy moms. I’ve tried many of these recipes hoping to get a leg up on meal prep for the week. Takes me quite a long time to pull together these meals. Mostly because I have to shoo my young kids out of the kitchen, break up fights etc.A little frustrated that many of these recipes have odd ingredients like fresh Tarragon. Also a tad frustrating that the ingredient list is exceedingly long. If you can work around those two things the flavors are good, and also nice to have food in the freezer ready to go (the Beef Tamale Pie was a life saver when my in-laws came).

The recipes included in this 'make ahead' cookbook are easily made and all instructions for handling the food to have it 'ready' when you need it are included. Easy to read, easy to follow, and best of all, the recipes are wonderfully great tasting. A tried and true compliment to any cookbook collection, but this one won't gather dust like the is also a recipe for making your own pizza dough and how to freeze it so you can have it on hand to pull out on those nights when you are short on time!

I like the America's Test Kitchen recipes because they do a great job of discussing what works and what doesn't. Each recipe comes with notes about what portions to make in advance, how to store them before final prep, and how long to expect them to "keep". I have already recommended this book to several friends who have time crunches because of children, careers, or both. I'm a very experienced non-professional cook with a pretty large library of cookbooks, and this book has still enough depth to keep me interested.

This book is written just like most ATK publications with each recipe written to produce the final product from start to finish. But at the end of each recipe (sometimes on the following page) are instructions to modify the recipe "TO MAKE AHEAD". One must therefore adjust the recipe if you intend to make it ahead.Even though a casserole is to be baked 24 hous later, instructions often start:"1. Adjust oven rack to ........... position and heat oven to ....... degrees."WARNING: Make sure you read and incorporate all "TO MAKE AHEAD" instructions when making the recipe. The editors should have made the modifications before publishing. A very serious mistake! These are the same previously-published recipes with "make ahead" recommendations attached!.ATK (America's Test Kitchen, Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country) have been publishing "Make-Ahead" for years (The Best Make-Ahead Recipe, 2007, Make-Ahead Recipes, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, Make-Ahead Dinners, 2014, Make-Ahead Appetizers, 2014, The Make-Ahead Cook, 2014, and All-Time Best Make Ahead Recipes, 2015) in addition to recipes in CI and CC magazines. It would be impossible to include all of these recipes and there are many good ones in this book. But don't call it "complete" when "Anytime Muffins, Anytime Dinner Rolls, Scoop-and-Bake Dinner Rolls and Freezer Biscuits" are not included among with many, many others.. Can't quite understand why some salads, soups, stews, chilis, slow-cooker and desserts are included?I would have given the book two stars but we know from experience the recipes will be good. Each recipe is marked "EASY" or "FREEZE IT" for quick reference. There is an abundance of hints for "make-ahead" and the index is excellent--pp 398-422. Categories such as "casseroles" and "grilling"; even down to recipes with specific ingredients like anchovies. "Classic Caesar Salad" is also listed as "Caesar Salad, Classic" and under anchovies, croutons, lettuce, Parmesan and salads.Just would have liked "To Store" and "To Serve" or "To Prep, To Store, To Serve" as a part of the recipe and not to make as an adjustment. The editor(s) should have known better. This book should have a completely-revised second edition (and send me a complimentary copy)

My daughter and I love to cook and we love cookbooks that are also interesting to read. This is a great cookbook that fills all of our requirements. I know she'll love it and now I think I need to order one for myself!

I've only tried a few recipes in here thus far, but they were good. As always, America's Test Kitchen was very thorough with this cook book! They go through everything from best dishes and accessories to store make-ahead recipes in at the beginning, have tons of super helpful tips throughout the book, and even have sections where you can simply modify one dish to make it something different.