Product Description

For dinner parties, people today want to sit down with friends without extensive preparation. That's the cry culinary booksellers Ellen Rose and Jessica Strand heard from customers at Cook's Library--so they wrote the book themselves. Arranged by season, their elegant menus for entertaining use fresh, flavorful ingredients and include helpful make-ahead tips. 24 color photos.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1412409 in Books
• Published on: 1998-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 132 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The first effort by bookseller Rose (founder of Cook's Library in L.A.) and journalist Strand partially succeeds as it offers a dozen menus (three per season, one each for parties of two, four and six people). Although the authors promise that the cook "won't be a slave" to the kitchen and provide a "menu manager" to organize each meal's prep time, some menus give the chef little chance to relax with guests. If one starts preparing Antonia's Cioppino an hour before serving, as is recommended in the instructions, that time will be spent in the kitchen. A few touches may be considered precious: Barbecued Mussels in the Shell, an appetizer on the summer menu for two, calls for squirting white wine on each grilling mollusk with a turkey baster. Plating some of the meals can be quirky, as in two butterflied chickens in Our Favorite Tuscan Grilled Chicken for six. But many of the dishes are elegantly simple and relatively easy to prepare, notably Grilled Shrimp with Garlic Aioli, offering fare that would fully honor the friends of an attentive cook. Among the best: Oven-Roasted Asparagus with Parmesan; Lamb Marinated in Lemon and Garlic with Mint Pesto; and a toothsomely crunchy Autumn Mixed Nut Tart.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
Many of the dishes are elegantly simple and relatively easy to prepare, notably Grill Shrimp with Garlic Aioli, offering fare that would fully honor the friends of an attentive cook Publishers Weekly

About the Author
Ellen Rose founded Cook's Library, a bookstore in Los Angeles. She has judged the Julia Child Awards for the past four years.

Jessica Strand has written food and restaurant columns for the Los Angeles Times and contributes to numerous publications, including Wine & Spirits , In Style , and Australian Vogue Entertaining & Travel . She is the author of several books, including Holi

Maura McEvoy is a photographer and mother who lives in New York City.

Customer Reviews

Great menu ideas, easy recipes, delicious!
The recipes in this book are very easy to follow and very delicious (slightly heavy on the garlic, though). Most of the recipes can be made without scouring your city for exotic ingredients. The recipes that I have made have worked well (unlike in some other entertaining based cookbooks). The best thing about the book is the menu ideas for dinner parties of different sizes. While I have yet to make a dinner as suggested by this book, I have composed a dinner party based on many of the recipes represented in this book. Excellent choice for people who want ideas for menu construction.

deliciously different
I recieved this book as a gift two summers ago, and it's long since been a favorite. The mixed berry cobbler is to die for, and most of the other recipes are just as simple and wonderful to prepare and devour. A few suggestions, though. The authors never inform us when to remove the shells for the barbequed shrimp, and we are asked to baste the grilled chicken with bricks sitting on top of them! Nothing a more meticulous editor couldn't have caught. I really do like books that mention a little something about the recipes before simply listing the ingredients and method. I don't know about anyone else, but you really get a feel for the authors's passion for good food. Yummy.

Inaccurate and incomplete recipes
I was initially very excited about this cookbook until I began to acually put it to use. On two different occasions I have found receipes where there have been incomplete or confusing directions. The Parmesean Crips for example list a 1/2 tsp of butter in the ingredient listing but do not tell you when or where to add in the receipe! I have also found that in the Pork Tenderloin with Fruit and Port Sauce they instruct you to preheat an oven but do not tell you when and for how long to bake the dish. Friends that own the cookbook were equally confused. This is disasterous particually when entertaining-which is what this book is all about.