Talented Texas Chef and Food Writer Makes Dinner at Home Easy With New Cookbook — Marcia Smart Keeps It Simple

If you’re like me, you tend to get stuck on dinner ideas for those uneventful mid-week nights. (Never mind that my husband wants to eat out EVERY night.) I like to cook but I tend to get in a rut with some form of chicken thighs or shrimp or the salmon we caught last summer. Yes, some is still in the freezer. That said, imagine my joy when thumbing through Dinner is Done by the talented Houston-based Marcia Smart.

So many yummy ideas. So few nights at home once the social season starts ginning. I’m dreaming of trying the Quick Lamb Ragu; Spatchcocked Chipolte-Lime Chicken; Vegetable Bolognese Rigatoni; Roasted Zucchini with Marcona Almond-Rosemary Crunch; Rotisserie Chicken and Wild Rice Soup; and even the Salmon Salad “Niçoise.”

I’m not the only one taken with Smart’s approach to her no nonsense, delicious yet practical recipes. No CIA degree necessary. Less than a month after its debut, the book sold out and a second printing was ordered. While Smart had mothers with children at home in mind, making their lives a bit easier, the stress-free recipes are for anyone with limited time craving a home-cooked meal with a soupçon of  pizzaz.

“Dinner is Done is a 20-year culmination of the recipes I’ve developed and created for magazines, newspapers, brands and cooking classes,” Smart says. “It’s also my gift to busy and overwhelmed home cooks who need simple dinner ideas that don’t require too many ingredients or too much time to prep and cook.”

Smart, who had planned to write for Travel & Leisure and Food & Wine, launched on her life’s journey attending culinary school and then teaching. The move to Houston with her husband where she continued food writing and teaching and added recipe development that led to her informative website Smart in the Kitchen which includes Smart in the Kitchen Cooking School.

She holds cooking classes online and in personal appearances. Smart also provides cooking classes and country-style dining experiences at her charming Kitchenette Farm in Round Top.

More than just a book of recipes — 94 of her favorites — the compendium includes family dinner tips, a guide to kitchen equipment for the home cook, as well as practical culinary tips from Smart’s cooking classes.

As with a number of Houston-based cookbooks, Dinner is Done was produced and edited by award-winning editor Roni Atnipp, photography by Deborah Smail with book design by Elise DeSilva of Limb Design.