How to Enjoy Bon Appetit Magazine

A major player in the stable of food magazines, "Bon Appetit" delights foodies and dilettantes alike. The following are some tips to fully enjoying this quintessential food resource, including how to take advantage of its newly designed online component.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• "Bon Appetit" subscription
• Internet access

1. Get a subscription. A subscription to "Bon Appetit" offers substantial savings (74% off the cover price for a year's subscription). A free cookbook is included in your order.
2. Take advantage of the new website. As of May 13, 2008, "Bon Appetit"'s website will include a compendium of 100 hot, current recipes (these will change on a regular basis). Each recipe will contain significant information on the dish, from links to blogs and articles about it to "how-to" videos. The "Bon Appetit" team believes this library will serve as a significant resource to readers.
3. Minimize self-expectations. Unless you are a professional chef, you probably don't have the time or inclination to prepare every dish in the magazine. Allow yourself the pleasure of simply reading the magazine, enjoying the pictures and imagining a different sort of life (the kind where you are a pastry chef or a world traveler).
4. Start small. "Bon Appetit"'s beautiful food photography could compel you to run to the store and buy the ingredients for seven dishes at once. Withstand the temptation. You probably can't cook that much food at once anyway. Instead, pick one or two dishes you actually want to eat (and could theoretically serve to someone) and feature those in your meals for the week.
5. Save the magazine and keep it as reference. Although the recipes are seasonal to an extent, there is no reason you can't refer to and use them for months and years to come. The handy recipe index in the back of each issue makes it particularly easy to use your old issues as mini-cookbooks.