Fast, Easy Family Meals

(CBS)  This is a busy time of year for many families getting back into gear with school, after-school activities, and weekend sporting events.

So, the folks at public television's America's Test Kitchen have revised their classic cookbook and aimed it at folks who need quick, easy food that's also delicious.

"The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook Revised Edition" focuses on great family meals, and has more than 1,200 recipes.

Chris Kimball, the book's editor, says the recipes are well-tested and perfect for any night of the week.

As usual, Kimball and his team at America's Test Kitchen have done all the hard work for you. They're relentless about testing recipes. They begin each recipe project with a blind tasting of recipes from other cookbooks, then develop their own approach, and continue tweaking the recipe until they're satisfied with the results.

Then they take an unusual final step: They use the wrong equipment or ingredients to see how much abuse the recipe can take. This is smart, because Kimball and his team understand that home cooks may use substitutes for certain ingredients or may not have the correct-sized pan or baking dish.

Kimball is editor in chief of Cook's Country magazine and Cook's Illustrated, and hosts America's Test Kitchen.

Kimball visited The Early Show Wednesday with three of his favorite recipes and offered tips on, among other things, how to buy shrimp.

According to the cookbook, virtually all shrimp sold today in supermarkets has been previously frozen, either in large blocks of ice or with a method known as "individually quick frozen," or "IQF," for short. Supermarkets simply defrost the shrimp before displaying them on ice at the fish counter, where they look as though they were freshly plucked from the sea.

As a general rule, the folks at America's Test Kitchen highly recommend buying bags of still-frozen, shell-on IQF shrimp and defrosting as needed at home. Since there is no telling how long "fresh" shrimp may have been kept on ice at the market, IQF shrimp also have a better flavor and texture than shrimp frozen in blocks.

But remember: If you're buying frozen shrimp in a bag, shrimp should be the only ingredient listed. Some packages will list some sodium-based preservatives, but the folks at America's Test Kitchen find these shrimp have a strange translucency.

To see Kimball's recipes, go to Page 2.

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