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American Cuisine Book Reviews

Kitchen Life: Real Food for Real Families--Even Yours!
by Art Smith

The indispensable new cookbook for today's busy families from the New York Times bestselling author of Back to the Table and Oprah's personal chef. From James Beard Award–winning chef Art Smith comes a book that gives readers more than 150 simple and delicious ways to feed -- and enrich -- their families.

 


 

 

 

The Bounty of Central Florida
by Valerie Hart

The Bounty Of Central Florida by central Florida resident and kitchen cook Valerie Hart showcases almost 300 regional recipes highlighting the bounty that would grace any table and make any dining occasion a special event. From Muscadine Jam with Marsala; Jalapeno Corn Bread; Apple-Cranberry-Pecan Bread; and Crab Filled Artichokes; to Baked Wood Duck with Tangelos and Bananas; Fried Turkey Breast Blackman; Chet Blackman's Bodacious Barbecued Venison; and Beer Battered Fried Catfish, The Bounty Of Central Florida is a completely "kitchen friendly" compendium of wonderful recipes showing off the best of what central Florida has to offer the rest of the country.


 

 

the girl & the fig cookbook: More than 100 Recipes from the Acclaimed California Wine Country Restaurant
by Sondra Bernstein

Bernstein offers an inspired collection of simple, yet sophisticated recipes from the restaurant, featuring the finest, freshest ingredients. These are restaurant-quality recipes adapted for the home kitchen, with dishes for beginners as well as experienced cooks. Bernstein brings the culinary traditions of France to the California wine country. With gorgeous photographs throughout, the girl & the fig Cookbook also offers tips on wine pairings, highlighting California wines inspired by the Rhône Valley; imaginative ideas for aperitifs, charcuterie platters, and cheese plates; detailed sidebars on ingredients (including Bernstein's favorite food -- the fig!); and brief glimpses of the author's favorite artisan food purveyors.

 


 

 

 

Patrick O'Connell's Refined American Cuisine : The Inn at Little Washington
by Patrick O'Connell

Owner and chef of the award-winning Inn at Little Washington, O'Connell defines a new way of American cooking — homegrown in the United States, approachable for the home cook, yet as delicious and refined as the finest French and Italian cuisine. 230 color photos

 

 

 

 

Sandwich
by Isreal Aharoni

Break through the boredom of uninspired lunches with Sandwich, a tasty collection of more than 50 sandwich recipes from across the globe. With just a little extra effort, its possible to transform two slices of bread into a gourmet lunch, a romantic dish for two, or a lively alternative to serve guests. Sandwich features vegetarian options, bread desserts, and beautiful full-colour photographs of each recipe.

 

 

 

 

 

The Black Dog Summer on the Vineyard Cookbook
by Joseph Hall, Elaine Sullivan

The first cookbook ever from The Black Dog will enable you to take home a delectable piece of Martha's Vineyard. Here are the best recipes from the summertime, menu of a true American institution.

The Black Dog's story began in 1971 on the beach in Vineyard Haven Harbor when Captain Bob Douglas opened an eighty-eight-seat restaurant named for the Captain's beloved Labrador retriever. It was called a tavern despite the fact that Vineyard Haven is a "dry" town. Over the past thirty years, The Black Dog Tavern has grown from a small island haunt to a nationally renowned restaurant. Today no trip to the Vineyard by presidents, movie stars, or the rest of us is complete without a meal at The Black Dog.

 

 

 

 

Back to the Table: The Reunion of Food and Family
by Art Smith

From Art Smith, Oprah Winfrey's personal chef, comes a unique cookbook with more than 150 recipes to strengthen bonds between loved ones. Back to the Table is illustrated throughout with stunning four-color and black-and-white photographs of the food and of people sharing their tables, and their lives.

 

 

 

 

75 Years of All-Time Favorites
by Better Homes and Gardens

This is a treasure chest of the best recipes published in Better Homes and Gardens magazine since its debut in 1922 as Fruit, Garden and Home. More than 230 recipes--classic and new--have been included to celebrate the magazine's 75th birthday. Interesting historical anecdotes about food, appliances and cooking, original artwork from past issues of the magazine, and winning recipes from reader contests all contribute to the uniqueness of this work. You're sure to recognize some of the much publicized winning recipes from past years, such as Nutty Blue Cheese Rolls, Round Steak Sauerbraten, 15-Minute Beef Stroganoff and many others. Get ready for a bit of nostalgia as you page through this updated blast from the past.



America's Best-Loved Community Recipes
by Better Homes and Gardens

This weighty (461 page) cookbook supplies more than 200 recipes, from tantalizing appetizers to sinful desserts, urging readers to taste the best America has to offer. At family gatherings and neighborhood potlucks, these are the dishes that delight everyone and disappear quickly--winning recipes that seem to turn up in community cookbooks around the country. They are a testament to the drive and commitment of the local communities where the cookbook support libraries, service organizations, hospitals, symphonies and more. Included is a full-color photograph of each finished dish, plus one or more instructional photos. The rich heritage of each recipe is also given.



America's Kitchen
by Anthony Dias Blue

Mr. Blue knows wine, and in this book he shows us that he knows, and loves, food, too. American food, in this case. We are taken on a culinary tour of nine distinctive regional cuisines. Over 220 recipes are offered on this journey, along with the history of each cuisine and the talented chefs across the land who make them special. Mark Militello and Jeremiah Tower are along for the ride and, yes, you will get a few pointers on wine.


Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book
By Better Homes and Gardens

This is the latest in BH&G's red plaid cookbooks produced since 1930. More than 32 million copies have been sold. In this edition over 50 all-time favorite recipes dating from 1930 and selected from all 10 previous editions are featured. It contains over 500 full-color photographs, including step-by-step photographs depicting intricate techniques and over 1,000 recipes. In keeping with the times, recipes are marked for being fast or low-fat. This must-have cookbook includes microwave hints, weights and measures, and emergency substitutions. We are told that this edition is available for a limited time only.


 

Butter Beans to Blackberries: Recipes from the Southern Garden
by Ronnie Lundy

Ronnie Lundy draws on her Kentucky mountain roots to put you on the front porch, sapping beans, sipping iced tea, and waiting for your peach cobbler to come out of the oven. Lundy cooks her way through the bounty of the Southern garden, from succulent purple speckled butter beans and lady cream peas to corn and greens, muscadines, Georgia peaches, figs, mayhaws, and watermelon. She visits farm markets and festivals, finds heirloom-seed growers and provides mail-order sources for everything from sweet-potato chips and old-fashioned whole heart grits to fiery-orange Honey Bells. Recipes include Crawfish Corn Cakes with Smoked Tomato Sauce, Warm Green Bean and Tommy-Toe Salad, Watermelon Salsa, Blackberry Cobbler and Bourbon-Apricot-Cherry Stack Cake.


 

Clambakes and Fish Fries
by Susan Herrmann Loomis

Susan Herrmann Loomis has proven herself to be a journalist and seafood expert who goes directly to the source. Her first book, The Great American Seafood Cookbook is still one of the best fish books I've ever read. Her second book, The Farmhouse Cookbook further enhanced her reputation as a reporter. Her latest venture, Clambakes and Fish Fries is a look at 23 seafood celebrations across the country with complete menus. It's an intriguing concept and a great read as we meet people all over our land who share a love of the bounty of the seas, lakes and rivers, as well as a good excuse to throw a party. From Maine to California, Loomis traveled 15,000 miles and ate with people as they celebrated everything from Halloween to Christmas Eve to, well, no reason at all except they do it every year. A must for your fish cookbook collection.

 

Classical Southern Cooking
by Damon Lee Fowler

Snicker, if you will, but Damon Lee Fowler makes no apologies for Southern cooking. What this architect-turned-food historian raves about in Classical Southern Cooking has nothing to do with the overcooked greens and hog grease that folks who don't know better point to as evidence of the cuisine's inferiority. Fowler's culinary repertoire consists of such dishes as trout steaks poached in a bath of wine, rosemary and ginger; a classic fricassee, its sumptuous, egg-thickened sauce piquant with lemon and herbs; a moist fruitcake, rich with plump fruit, spices and almonds. He makes the case -- implicitly more often than overtly -- for the sophistication and uniqueness of his ancestral cuisine over and over again throughout Classical Southern Cooking. Consider the confluence of native American ingredients, English cooking methods and the talents of the black cooks who brought it to its zenith in the first half of the 19th century. Then the special properties of the open hearth for cooking and the brick ovens for baking; and finally, the proof that's in the squash pudding -- more than 200 recipes largely based on four cookbooks from southern cooking's golden age. There's a broad array of foods to choose from, including unusual items such as venison, a once common, if not indispensable component of the diet, now considered something close to exotic. In his recipes Fowler goes beyond rote instruction to provide his readers with a short gastronomical lesson on how a certain dish has evolved in terms of ingredients and method of preparation. He offers suggestions on serving and further seasoning as well. Fowler's one major failing in this cookbook is his refusal to adapt the recipes to the modern American diet and cut back on the liberal use of butter and other fats in the sauces that are so characteristic of southern cooking. "For those who have already gone into a cholesterol fit, remember that, needless to say, these rich, gossamer sauces are celebration food, and not something that people would eat every day," he contends. It's a stance of arrogance, but you quickly forgive the author as you peruse the recipes for such delicacies as Savannah Shrimp-Stuffed Peppers, Roast Quail with Oysters, Onion Custard and Apple Meringue Pie. Perhaps you'd decide that when it comes to real southern cooking there's nothing to apologize for after all.


 

Cooking Fearlessly: Recipes and Other Adventures from Hudson's on the Bend
by Jeff Blank, Jay Moore, with Deborah Harter

Owners and chefs of highly acclaimed Hudson's on the Bend Restaurant in Austin, Texas, Blank and Moore have created an exciting feast for the eyes which is, happily, also a lot of fun to read. Doesn't everyone need a recipe for Rattlesnake Cakes and Wild Boar Schnitzel?! The authors are indeed fearless offering the reader these and other delectable recipes for obscure wild game, along with a list of places to purchase the hard to find ingredients. But we mustn't overlook the less esoteric Sour Cherry Carrot Cake or Bourbon Vanilla Praline Sweet Potatoes--very doable recipes. Every recipe includes a gorgeous photo, so don't read this book if you're hungry.



 

Cooking with Caprial: American Bistro Fare
by Caprial Pence

Cooking with Caprial: American Bistro Fare by Caprial Pence isn't a terrific cookbook just because her west coast-style, Asian-influenced recipes are so delicious and easy to prepare. An uncommon confluence of thoughtfulness, invention and warmth, Cooking with Caprial satisfies the brain as well as the palate. You'll admire the author's ability to teach you something new about cookery in terms or technique or ingredients with almost any recipe you try -- sometimes without your even being aware of it. From Pence's excellent Spicy Beef Noodles, for example, I discovered zesty attributes of Asian chile paste, which compelled comparisons to the chile sauce (an oilier, less refreshing condiment) sold on the same shelf at my favorite Chinese grocery store. Her use of orange juice concentrate as a sweetener in savory dishes is another tip worth committing to culinary memory. In addition to the informative style of this cookbook by the gifted chef and co-owner of the Westmoreland Bistro in Portland, Oregon, you'll also enjoy the intelligent eclecticism prominently featured in her nearly 200 recipes. Fortunately, Pence has yet to succumb to the lure of strained creativity that so plagues the celebrity chef cookbook genre. Thus, dishes such as Mushroom Cheesecake, Seafood Lasagne and Peach Gratin make sense in their blending of cooking styles, ingredients and technique.


 

Cooking with Patrick Clark: a Tribute to the Man and His Cuisine
Conceived and coordinated by Charlie Trotter

Patrick Clark was one of the first "celebrity" chefs in American, a pioneer in the regional cuisine movement and a role model for other African-Americans interested in the culinary arts. He was also famous for his charm and legendary smile. His untimely death at age 41 while awaiting a heart transplant was a devastating loss for American cuisine. Resplendent with many color photographs, this book includes 60 of Clark's signature recipes, such as Fried Oysters with Spinach and Basil Sauce, Crab-Crusted Halibut with Spinach and Crispy Potatoes, Rack of Lamb with White Bean Ravioli, and Banana Upside-Down Cake. In the second half of this cookbook, Trotter and an all-star line-up of contributing chefs and colleagues salute Patrick with recipes and memories of good times spent eating, cooking and talking about food.


 

Cooking with the 60-Minute Gourmet
by Pierre Franey and Bryan Miller

Franey's philosophy "Don't spend all evening in the kitchen" resulted in his developing thousands of dishes that can be made in only minutes to bring them to a state of absolute perfection. Franey spent over two decades sharing these with his public in his New York Times column. This, his third 60-Minute book, is the first time these 300 particular recipes have been bound and his public given a second chance to use them. Cooking with the 60-Minute Gourmet demonstrates the importance of stocking your pantry and even lists the essentials that you should have in your kitchen at all times. In this new book Franey offers personal stories, tips on choosing produce, cleaning seafood, peeling vegetables, and cooking methods such as how to deglaze a pan, devein a shrimp and poach garlic. Invariably unpretentious, Franey also encourages substituting and experimenting to
create your very own variations. These straight-forward, fast and easy recipes share none of the book's 322 pages with glossy photographs. Consistent with his philosophy: who has time for a cookbook because it's pretty to look at. This book is to cook by--functional and unpretentious.


 

Cooking With David Burke
by David Burke

David Burke, chef and co-owner of the Park Ave. Cafe in New York, is one of the most talented and creative chefs in the country right now. With the publication of his first book, Cooking With David Burke, he proves he can write a good cookbook as well. Co-writer Carmel Berman Reingold, who casts herself as Burke's Boswell, begins the book with the fascinating history of Burke's career, which could be entitled, "The Making of a Chef," and should be required reading by first year cooking students everywhere. Cooking With David Burke is a beautiful book , filled with innovative and do-able recipes, unlike many cookbooks written by chefs where the food is daunting for most home cooks. Burke reveals the secrets of many of his signature dishes and explains in detail his philosophy surrounding "building a dish." Anyone who has ever eaten Burke's food knows that his dishes are little works of art, or more accurately, exquisite little packages to be slowly unwrapped and savored at the table. He boldly combines flavors, textures and even props to enhance his singular style. Burke also offers many tips on uses of ingredients and on technique, advice that can only come from countless hours in a restaurant kitchen and a devotion to one's craft.


 

The Cook's Bible,
The Best of American Home Cooking,

by Christopher Kimball

With the severe, no-nonsense style of a magazine which aims to teach every basic skill, from carving a turkey to heating a perfect bearnaise sauce, this book may offer the only viable alternative to The Joy of Cooking or Better Homes and Gardens' classic tomes for basic how-to in the kitchen. Using similar page and ink coloring, this book is no-frills when it comes to design, but it is thoroughly and utterly useful. Kudos to Harry Davis whose clear, artful, three-dimensional line drawings add so much to making sense of recipes in the one-dimensional concept of reading. If you love Cook's Illustrated Magazine, you will love this book!


 

Coyote Cafe
by Mark Miller

Mark Miller is the high priest of Southwestern cuisine and never met a chile he didn't like. Get ready! Over 150 recipes to enchant you -- everything from zingy salsas to tamales and wonderful seafood. The resulting flavors are exuberant. This book is as colorful (literally) as the New-Mexico based chef.

audio coming soon!

 

Coyote's Pantry
by Mark Miller and Mark Kiffin

With this book you can create the pantry of your dreams, albeit with a Southwestern flair. Nothing wrong with that. Chef Mark Miller lets us in on a secret of Southwestern cuisine: have the key ingredients ready beforehand. Learn to make homemade chips, salsas, flavored oils and dressings -- even ketchup and mustard! The color photos will have you achin' for Santa Fe.

audio coming soon!

 

The Cuisine of California
by Diane Rossen Worthington

One of the best all-purpose cookbooks ever written, The Cuisine of California is practical, sophisticated, informally elegant, and a joy to cook from. The recipes embrace the broad spectrum of ethnic cooking that is a critical part of California cuisine. From tantalizing Carpaccio, California style to bold Mexican Chicken with Raisins and Almonds, these are recipes that cant be beat. The overall experience of cooking from this book is that cooking, preparing, and serving these recipes is surprisingly easy. And that is precisely her point: the recipes do not intimidate, yet they do instruct. The recipes are organized by course in the order in which they are customarily served. Advanced prep time is provided when possible for the cooks convenience. Worthington also includes wine recommendations for most dishes, and gives additional serving suggestions and provides substitutions when necessary for many of the dishes, which all make the cooks life simpler. This is a book that any home cook will turn to time and time again, and that they swear by.


 

Desperation Dinners!
by Beverly Mills and Alicia Ross

"Home-cooked meals for frantic families in 20 minutes" is what the book claims to teach and, in fact, it does. This cookbook has over 250 delicious, well-flavored recipes you would never guess take so little time and effort to make. Help with an organized pantry is one of the book's highlights. Desperation Dinners! is "part cookbook, part survival guide and and part culinary revolution." Desperation Dinners! comes with certain promises: "these recipes are not hard, our recipes can be made without expensive equipment, the recipes don't lie, the book can transform you into a 20 minute cook, and these recipes taste good."


 

Eating Your Way Across the USA
by Jane & Michael Stern

Here's a book that makes me hungry! Armed with roadmaps, interstate highways and the conviction that eating is an artform, the Sterns have put together the ultimate user-friendly tour of the best of the best, spanning all 50 states. Eating Your Way Across the USA is your gastronomic Bible -- categorized by regions and broken down by state and city. The book also lists the name, addresses, phone numbers and price points, as well as simple locator maps for your convenience and easy referencing. More than just a catalogue of fine dining, this is a celebratoin of the American Spirit, an exploration of our nation's diversity through its food. Trace the evolution of BBQ from South Carolina's pork to Texan red hot beef. Learn where to find Navajo tacos in Arizona, and proper etiquette for drinking the tequila you'll need to wash them down. From the blintzes of New York to the Funnel Cake of the Pennsylvania Dutch, this book covers both familiar cuisines and lesser-known regional favorites. This is the most comprehensive, good-grubbinest guide to eating in America -- and it would be a great addition to any vacation planning you're considering.


Foie Gras: A Passion
by Michael A. Ginor

The ultimate luxury food, and now a staple item at every top restaurant in the country, foie gras (“fat liver” in French) was all but unknown here only a decade ago. Michael Ginor wrote the book, both literally and figuratively, as he is co-owner and co-founder of Hudson Valley Foie Gras, the company that preached the gospel of duck liver to American chefs and restaurateurs. The oversized book covers the history of this delicacy, tracing it back 5000 years, and gives 75 recipes with stunning color photos from top chefs. Call it porno for foodies.


 

Food and Culture in America
by Pamela Goyan Kittler and Kathryn P. Sucher

This second edition nutritional handbook comes in soft back with black and white photos throughout. The authors explain what, why and how we eat in the United States or "What exactly is American food?" Their book explores the contributions of ethnic, regional and religious foods from both a culinary and a nutritional perspective. Of particular interest is a glossary of ethnic ingredients.


The French Laundry Cookbook
by Thomas Keller

Widely regarded as America’s finest chef, Thomas Keller now imparts, in his cookbook debut, some of his secrets in this coffee table-sized tome. Two hundred photographs complement the 150 recipes, all of which, Keller promises, are exactly how he prepares them at his Yountville, CA, restaurant. While more than a few are intimidatingly complex and labor-intensive, others are surprisingly simple.


The Great Chile Book
by Mark Miller

Mark Miller shares his love of the hot stuff with the rest of us in this A-to-Z primer on chiles. He guides us to over 90 of the world's most popular chiles, from the simple green bell pepper to the more exotic pasilla de Oaxaca. You also get a life-size color photo of your new friend (the chiles, not Miller), a heat rating and some hints on preparation and cooking.

audio coming soon!

 

The Great Salsa Book
by Mark Miller

Mark Miller dances his way through a hundred of his favorite salsas. Fruit salsas, corn salsas, ocean salsas, exotic salsas -- hey, I thought these were all exotic salsas. In the hands of chef Miller, they truly are. Great photos and a handy-dandy temperature scale to keep you alive and kickin'.

audio coming soon!

 

The Habanero Cookbook
by Dave DeWitt and Nancy Gerlach

Call me unhip, say I'm pedestrian or just write me off as a gustatory wimp. I'm probably all those things, and much worse. But I'll never understand the point of eating food that tastes more of extreme heat than anything else. After years of reading about the "Cult of the Capsicum," I can't help but notice a striking similarity between chili pepper connoisseurship and the social scene in an all-American high school: in both cases, you're either in or you're out. If you happen to be among the elect, you'd do well to adopt The Habanero Cookbook by Dave DeWitt and Nancy Gerlach as your bible of incendiary fare. The Habanero Cookbook celebrates the hottest of the hot peppers: its culinary history, tortuous evolutionary path and commercial success in the United States. The first quarter of this cookbook, devoted to the habenero story, is written in a chatty, travelogue style that does little to entice the uninitiated or utterly bewildered. ("While exploring the multifaceted cuisines of Trinidad and Tobago...Dave and his wife, Mary Jane, had the opportunity to experience Congo pepper fever on those two Islands." And a gaping yawn to you, too.) The good stuff really starts on page 39 with the cooking notes that preface more than 100 recipes. This is what cooking with habaneros is all about: When pulverizing dried habaneros in a spice mill, wear a painter's mask to minimize inhalation of the airborne powder. The mask will not prevent some sneezing, however, so sneeze away from the powdered habanero! Perusing the artful mix of easily prepared recipes calling for ingredients that are, for the most part, readily available, you gain an appreciation for the sophistication, depth and beauty of hot pepper cooking. (Mail order sources for habanero products are provided as well.) With choices such as Island Sherry Sauce featuring lime and tamarind pods, Habanero-Dusted Calamari Rings with Ginger Sauce, and Gulf Stream Swordfish Ceviche, even a tepid-tongued cook such as I could be tempted to make a go of habanero-style cooking using calmer Capsicum varieties. The authors, purists that they are, don't think much of this approach to their recipes, however. "Why bother?" they sniff.


 

Inside the Pike Place Market: Exploring America's Favorite Farmers' Market
by Braiden Rex-Johnson

Consider this a portable, soft cover Pike Place Market, for its spirit has been captured as this book chronicles a day in the life of the Market. Itbegins before dawn as the first fishmonger, Harry Calvo, stacks Dungeness crabs--and continues nonstop right around the clock until custodian Jeff Jarvis power-washes the streets to shining perfection. About one-third of its 128 pages are scintillating color photographs of the market, its vendors, the farmer who supply the produce, and its visitors, 20 recipes and a lot of history. If you've ever been to Seattle, Washington's Pike Place Market, you'll enjoy Rex-Johnson's interpretation of this exciting piece of America.


 

 

Kitchen Suppers: Good Food to Share with Good Friends
By Alison Becker Hurt

Alison Becker Hurt owns and runs three of the most respected and popular restaurants in the New York area, but restaurant food is not what Kitchen Suppers is all about. In this book she shares not only the recipes for but
also the stories behind meals that are uncomplicated in spirit, if not always in creation. In these 308 pages you will find sizzling roasts--from chicken to lamb to duck to beef, cooked with everything from figs to fennel to baby artichokes; and aromatic one-pot meals, like Lamb Shepherd's Pie, Braised Short Ribs with Acorn Squash Puree and Duck Stew with Prunes and Apricots. Don't look for color photographs in this book--for these recipes are not for putting on a show or impressing anyone with their beauty, but to express love through a blending of flavors which creates something equally important: nostalgia.


 

Mark Miller's Indian Market Cookbook
by Mark Miller

Every August, Santa Fe plays host to Indian Market Week, a celebration of Native American art and folklore. Mark Miller and his Coyote Cafe always get in on the fun. Here the chef brings you over 100 recipes created especially for this annual celebration. You'll also be treated to tales of the region's culture, landscape, people and culinary traditions. The Ibarra Chocolate Flan is witness to the fact that this must be some party.



The Northern California Best Places Cookbook
by Cynthia C. Nims and Carolyn Dille

In a clean and easy format, Nims and Dille present recipes they've collected from the "Outstanding Restaurants and Inns of Northern California," those places which are included in the acclaimed Northern California Best Places Travel Guide. The 125 delectable recipes from Monterey Bay to the North Coast range from appetizers through desserts. The book is seasoned with sparkling articles on food lore, ingredients and culinary traditions. Northern California's favorite ingredients, salmon, olives, local vegetables and seafood, are included in abundance throughout this 275 page soft cover cookbook.



 

 

The Northwest Essentials Cookbook: Cooking with the Ingredients That Define a Regional Cuisine
by Greg Atkinson

Without crisp apples, wild salmon, sweet hazelnuts, fresh herbs, and Dungeness crab, there would be no such thing as Northwest cuisine. In his new cookbook, full of heart and taste, Greg Atkinson celebrates these and
other regional treasures with a cook's knowledge and a local's love of place. This 260-page soft cover contains over 150 recipes which fall into 12 chapters--each under the heading of a food ingredient (such as apples or
salmon) which is essential and indigenous to the Northwest. Atkinson also educates the reader, explaining what types of apples and what species of salmon one would find in the Northwest. If one has access to the bounty of
the Northwest, this cookbook provides simple and tantalizing recipes that make the very most of that harvest.


 

Portable Food
by Lee Bailey

Summer picnics lend themselves to festive languor. It's a virtual art form in the South, where folks endure withering heat a big chunk of the year. But rather than resisting the swelter, they regard it as something sensuous, uplifting and fun to be enjoyed in exceedingly slow motion. Lee Bailey stays true to the Southern picnic's spirit of super-relaxed revelry in his new cookbook, Portable Food: Great Tasting Food for Entertaining Away from Home. Bailey, a Dixieland native, gets the picnicker on track from the get-go, for the first of his more than 80 simple recipes is Southern-Fried Pecan Chicken. The book includes eight kinds of breads, four different kinds of meat loaf and four all-meat casseroles (consider the Chicken Enchiladas with Andouille Sausage.) The chapter on savory pies offers a choice of three pastries and eight fillings -- mostly of the meat variety. Let's just say there will be no starving at a spread that Bailey's consulted. Given the abundance of the selections, the inclusion of four soups as picnic fare is puzzling -- Not that the recipes themselves are lacking. The vivid Beet, Carrot and Sweet Potato Soup may end up being the most beautiful and tantalizing starter you've ever had. But why would you choose to take along something so wet and potentially messy? What's more, Bailey intended for them to be served at least warm (although he allows for room temperature in a pinch.) Soup aside, however, there's plenty to go around from the movable feast of Portable Food.


 

USA Cookbook
by Sheila Lukins

Sheila Lukins, co-author of The Silver Palate Cookbook, The New Basic Cookbook and author of the Around the World Cookbook has discovered the best in American cooking by traveling extensively throughout the US. Lukins over 600 recipes include Grilled Aloha Club to Santa Fe Lamb Stew and Ya Ya Gumbo to Peachy Keen Pie.


 

What's Cooking America
by Linda Stradley & Andra Cook

Over 800 family-tested recipes from American cooks of today and yesterday. Includes regional favorites from all over the US. Eye-pleasing illustrations and handy sidebar tips are informative, instructive and entertaining. Chapters include appetizers, breads, cookies, desserts, meatless meals, meats, poultry, salads, seafood, soups, vegetables and cooking basics.




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