My kids hate the meals.

I actually LOVE Six O'Clock Scramble. I find it much more accessible and kid-friendly than Bittman. It's my favorite cookbook.

You can get the cookbook from the library and try it out. I like it myself when I did that, but probably not enough to buy.

BIttman has smaller versions of his How to Cook Everything tomes -- I think they are called "the Basics"? They are wonderful.

OP here. Thanks, PP for the responses. I think I'll stick with 'how to cook everything.'

I was hoping for something a little more concise for meals in a pinch (the Bittman book is enormous so sometimes difficult to narrow in on a recipe).

Oh wel, I guess if it ain't broke don't fix it.

I'm the hit or miss PP. I will say that a big hit in our family has been the three cheese spinach orzo bake. We made it even before we got the cookbook, because the Post published the recipe. Unfortunately, not many other recipes in the cookbook have lived up to the high standard the orzo bake set.

No. Basic recipes my family liked I already had recipes for. The others were just too odd. And we aren't picky eaters.

No. I know how to make spaghetti and meatballs without a cookbook!

For the other recipes, there wasn't a single one my kids liked. I really really wanted to like this cookbook and to use all the recipes but as I said, either they wer obvious, or not at all a hit in my house.

I have the first cookbook and have liked about half of the recipies I've tried.

I find the recipes to be hit or miss.

Yes, but I have to double the herbs & spices to get most recipe's to my family's liking.

Yes

Is it useful? I don't want to subscribe to the site -- I'm a book person.