Thursday, January 15, 2009

Family Table or Salmon Companion

Family Table: Where Great Food, Friends, and Family Gather Together

Author: Christy Rost

Gathering together around the table provides us with the opportunity to celebrate the most important things in life - love, family, good health, and good friends. Christy Rost is passionate about family meals. Besides flexibility, the key to successfully preserving the family meal is an arsenal of family-friendly recipes that emphasize the beauty of simple foods, fresh, wholesome ingredients, and reasonably priced wine selections. In this first cookbook by best-selling chef for Sur La Table, Christy Rost offers 250 mouth-watering recipes, well-balanced and do-able in a reasonable amount of time, and invites readers to gather everyone around the family table on a regular basis. Recipe selections range from all-American favorites to Caribbean, Chinese, French, Italian, Japanese, and Mexican cuisine. "The Family Table" is divided into four sections: Everyday Meals, Weekends, Entertaining at Home, and Holidays. Within each section, recipes are grouped by type (salads, entrees, side dishes, etc.) Also included are wine suggestions with many of the entrée recipes. "EricâЂ™s Wine Notes," written by a wine expert, contain three wine suggestions in order of least to most expensive.

Sample Recipes: Homestyle Meatloaf, Buttermilk Cornbread Muffins, Sunday Best Mashed Potatoes, Tomato Galette, Thick and Creamy Tortilla Soup, Grilled Marinated Pork Chops, Cape Cod Rice Pilaf, Apple Cranberry Muffins, German Apple Pancake, Mango Spinach Salad with Blackberry Vinaigrette, Portabella Mushroom Turnovers, Pink Rum Desire, Berries with Champagne Sabayon, Grilled Lemon Basil Chicken, Rack of Lamb Dijon, Roasted Herbed Pork Loin, Onion Souffle

Shirley Reis - KLIATT

Christy firmly believes in the importance of dining as a family because it strengthens the family unit. This book provides recipes for a wide variety of meals the family can enjoy together. Four main categories celebrate the following family dining opportunities: everyday dining, weekends, entertaining at home, and holidays. Within each of the main categories, the recipes are grouped according to function. Suggested wines are listed in the margin spaces of the recipes, which allows for them to either be ignored or incorporated within the meal if desired. Personal anecdotes accompany each of the recipes, making this cookbook both useful and easy to read. The wide variety of recipes range from simple meat loafs to special-occasion desserts. Some of the delectable recipes: Grilled Fajita Pocket Sandwich, Springtime Orange Cake, Prime Rib of Beef, Martin Yan's Sweet and Sour Chicken, German Apple Pancake, Chocolate Pound Cake, and Gourmet Caramel Apples. Christy Rost has cooked on numerous cooking shows; she has also been the food editor for Park Cities News and teaches cooking classes at Sur La Table. In addition, she has a popular website: www.easyentertain.com. KLIATT Codes: JSA—Recommended for junior and senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2004, Capital Books, 380p. illus. index., Ages 12 to adult.



Interesting book: Oriental Vegetarian Cooking or Purchasing for Foodservice

Salmon Companion

Author: Liz Clark

Healthy salmon recipes, from simple to elegant, in an easy-to-follow format that is the hallmark of the Country Life Series. This is the fourth title in the Country Life Series. Called the Julia Child of the Midwest she lives in Illinois, teaching cooking at the university level and at Baxter's Winery in Nauvoo, Illinois, the state's oldest winery.



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