Dana's Top Ten Table

Fresher, faster, easier, yummier! New takes on our favourite dinners, from one of North America’s most trusted cooks and culinary trend watchers.

When it comes to making dinner, we are creatures of habit. Research proves what we’ve known all along—Canadians love to eat the same 10 things for dinner as often as they can. We love our chicken, pasta, sandwiches, pork, casseroles, pizza, fish, burgers, steak and soup. But as any home chef who’s been on the receiving end of “Not chicken breasts again!” will tell you, this list can become, well, boring. Enter Dana McCauley, bestselling cookbook author, culinary journalist and food industry consultant. She’s taken our top 10 favourites and come up with more than 200 recipes that make your mainstays magnificent. These are favourites made new and now, like Moroccan Lamb Burgers. Or, they’re faster, tastier versions of standards like chicken pot pie, now reimagined as Springtime Chicken & Asparagus Pot Pie. And they’re the classics taken to the ultimate—the very best recipe for Macaroni and Cheese.

Keeping in mind that today’s home cooks have little time for prep and clean-up, and prefer to use as few appliances and gadgets as possible, each recipe gives preparation and cooking times, as well as storage and freezing options so you can make your own ready-to-eat entrées. Plus, there are cooking tips and pantry substitutions, along with variations for the slow cooker, cooking-for-two and batch cooking for many of the recipes. Packed with gorgeous full-colour photos, with clear and detailed professionally tested recipes, Dana’s Top Ten Table is destined to become a sauce-spattered, well-thumbed addition to every home cook’s library.