I think my expectations were a little too high for this one!

First of all, while I appreciate the encouragement to "go with the flow" while cooking dinner, there is a higher-order saying that should be applied here: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Not listing measurements and all the little ingredients before the recipe instructions and then burying the measurements and surprise ingredients in the middle of the instructions isn't working. It's really annoying and anxiety inducing, actually ("wait, do I really have enough stuff to spontaneously make this recipe tonight?? I have soy sauce, but do I have enough??").

The category titles and page-long explanations of what they mean in the author's brain are trying very hard to be Alison Roman cutesy and lawd, that woman is *not* cute. They end up making it harder to understand what exactly is in that category. "The Anti-Marinade" is...... what, exactly? *squints* why is there a stew in the "Cook Fast and Hot" chapter? Any guesses for what kind of food "Let them slouch" encompasses?

Cookbooks are reference books, ideally the amount of time you need to spend looking at them is limited. I'm not a fan of forcing the reader to spend extra time with the book when they could be cooking or eating.

As for the recipes themselves, I tried a few. They were accessible and practical but nothing to write home about. They use ingredients that I keep on hand (perhaps not everyone does, but I do). That part lives up to the book's promise--don't think too hard about making dinner, you can probably find inspiration here.