In this exquisite and very personal book, Martha Stewart welcomes you into her world, where she entertains in the expressive and beautiful style that she has made so famous. Whether a simple blueberry breakfast on a Sunday morning in Maine or a more lavish holiday dinner at Bedford, each of the gatherings is equally memorable, for what Martha cherishes above all is spending time and sharing delicious food with her family and friends.
 
“A meal of substantial finger foods with ingenious cocktails, a sit-down formal dinner, a buffet supper, or something more relaxed such as a backyard barbecue—each is a welcome and inviting way to entertain,” writes Martha. Featuring elegant and casual affairs held throughout the year and a diverse collection of enticing recipes, Martha’s Entertaining shows us—in the broadest and most lovely fashion—what it really means to entertain and host today. From an afternoon Easter egg hunt for children to a festive Halloween dinner held inside her horse stable; from a sophisticated cocktail party on a friend’s yacht in New York Harbor to a spring garden fête amid the most glorious beds of peonies, Martha’s parties offer a glimpse inside her beautiful homes. Each is unforgettable and endlessly inspiring.
 
All of the events feature menus and stories for dreaming and planning, as well as delicious yet approachable recipes: Tomato and Gruyère Toasts, Mini Crab Cakes with Tarragon Tartar Sauce, Tiny Tuna Burgers, Leek and Porcini Risotto, Wild-Mushroom Lasagna, Braised Short Ribs, Roast Turkey Breast with Sage Butter, Rhubarb Crumbles, Blueberry Jam Tartlets, and Chocolate Honey Ice Cream with Butterscotch Sauce, plus some of Martha’s favorite drinks, including Pomegranate Cosmopolitans and Honeydew Mojitos. Mix and match the recipes to create your own distinctive occasion.
 
Set among Martha’s dining rooms, kitchens, gardens, and patios, this is her most intimate book yet, a new classic for hosts and home cooks of every generation.

Girl in the Kitchenby Stephanie Izard with Heather ShousePhotographs by Dan Goldberg Published by Chronicle BooksHardcover256 pages

With more than 19 million copies in print worldwide, the best-selling phenomenon continues with fabulous all new recipes for healthy, delicious

South Beach Diet-friendly entertaining

The famed Miami Beach cardiologist who has helped millions of people worldwide to lose weight and eat healthier with his best-selling South Beach Diet books now addresses the special challenge that can undermine anyone’s willpower—the irresistible lure of diet-busting dishes at festive occasions.

As the more than 20 menus and 150 easy, all-new recipes in this cookbook prove, there’s no need to give up favorite holiday and party dishes to stay on the South Beach Diet. Dr. Agatston explains that healthy entertaining is not a matter of deprivation, but of "simply making as many good choices as possible." His new book provides those choices, putting a healthy twist on favorite entertaining meals for every occasion, whether it’s a family Christimas Eve dinner, a Thanksgiving feast, a Passover seder, a football fest in front of the TV, or a backyard barbeque with the neighbors. Readers will also find:

• practical tips and helpful (and healthful) hints throughout—including make-ahead suggestions, ideas for nonalcoholic cocktails (mocktails), ways to use leftovers, and more

• 55 full-page color photographs that illustrate the finished dishes along with ideas for stylish table settings and centerpieces

Whether it's Roman Punch for The Age of Innocence, or Sabzi Challow (spinach and rice) with Lamb for The Kite Runner, or Swedish Meatballs and Glögg for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, nothing spices up a book club meeting like great eats. Featuring recipes and discussion ideas from bestselling authors and book clubs across the country, this fully revised and updated edition of the classic book guides readers in selecting and preparing culinary masterpieces that blend perfectly with the literary masterpieces their club is reading. This edition features new contributions from a host of today's bestselling authors including:

• Kathryn Stockett, The Help (Demetrie's Chocolate Pie and Caramel Cake)
• Sara Gruen, Water for Elephants (Oyster Brie Soup)
• Jodi Picoult, My Sister's Keeper (Brian Fitzgerald's Firehouse Marinara Sauce)
• Abraham Verghese, Cutting for Stone (Almaz's Ethiopian Doro Wot and Sister Mary Joseph Praise's Cari de Dal)
• Annie Barrows, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Annie Barrows's Potato Peel Pie and Non-Occupied Potato Peel Pie)
• Lisa See, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (Lisa See's Deep-Fried Sugared Taro)

  The Book Club Cookbook will add real flavor to your book club meetings! (20120110)

Elegant summer meals for any day of the year

In The Fire Island Cookbook, food, wine, and travel writers Mike DeSimone and Jeff Jenssen have put together a mouthwatering collection of meals using seasonal produce, one for each weekend from Memorial Day through Labor Day. Each of the fourteen menus is influenced by the authors’ travels in Italy, France, Spain, Greece, Mexico, and Hungary, and includes course-by-course wine pairings. Every chapter features recipes for a full menu from appetizer to dessert, with wines to match. While some dishes are designed to be prepped in the morning, ignored all day while the cooks are at the beach, and then grilled and arranged as guests arrive, others are a little more elaborate, perfect for the weekend that would otherwise be ruined by rain. Meals can be prepared by one or two dedicated chefs, or divided up among everyone, with each person contributing a course.

Wherever your dream vacation house, occasional weekend destination, or home, and whatever time of year, you are sure to enjoy this fantastic collection of recipes. So slip away, feel the cool spray against your skin, taste the salt in the air, and dream of a delicious, beautiful, and relaxing dinner with friends and family.

The Diet Rebel s Cookbook reveals the benefits of eating whole, natural foods as a regular part of your diet and includes traditional recipes and time-tested preparation tips that will help your body get the most out of what you eat. Learn how to use whole grains, natural sweeteners, fresh produce, and healthy meats on a daily basis, and you will impress your friends and family with recipes that are both delicious and healthy.

Sisters Megan and Jill Carle know all about leaving Mom's well-stocked kitchen to face an empty apartment fridge with little time to cook and very little money. From cheap eats to midnight sweets, the Carles teach starving students everything they need to know to cook and feed themselves well--and have fun while they're at it. Filled with mouthwatering home-style dishes and easy-to-make study-break snacks, COLLEGE COOKING shows how to impress a date, plan parties, and feed a household of roommates, making it the only textbook no student should be without.

A Maine breakfast is more than just blueberries. Dana Moos of the Maine Innkeeping Academy shows you how to whip up a delicious and beautiful breakfast, whether you're cooking for your out-of-state in-laws or running your own B&B. Maine is a travel destination, and its B&Bs are some of the most visited places in the state. Dana Moos, the former innkeeper of the Kingsleigh Inn in Southwest Harbor, has great advice on serving a breakfast that not only tastes great but looks good too. Perfect for B&B owners, but also great for folks with out-of-town guests, this book makes creating an artful and tasty breakfast easy.

How do you throw a party without stressing out? Plan ahead and do-ahead. This entertaining guide from Diane Phillips, the Diva of Do-Ahead, with help you get out of the kitchen and into your own party. She presents nearly 500 recipes that can all be made ahead of time--some days and even weeks--that taste delicious, and are designed to be served buffet style. Handy icons show which recipes are just right for a backyard barbecue, an elegant cocktail party, or an all-night blow-out bash. Dozens of menu suggestions, templates for figuring out the menu range and quantities, easy decorating tips, and guidelines for stocking a bar complete this essential guide to entertaining.

Food has a nostalgic power. Just like hearing a favorite song, cooking and eating can transport us to a moment in time: Sunday family suppers or brunch with friends, a Fourth of July barbecue or a Chrismukkah feast. Katie Lee grew up in a small West Virginia town where her grandmother's kitchen was not far away, and her warmest memories are of being around the table with loved ones. In The Comfort Table: Recipes for Everyday Occasions, she brings her roots in southern hospitality to the table with year-round menus for occasions big and small.

Whether she's throwing a Super Bowl party for friends or putting a pot roast in the oven for the first snowfall of the year, Katie shares her favorite home-cooked menus for making holiday feasts delicious and ordinary meals special. With more than 100 mouthwatering, easy-to-prepare seasonal recipes, she provides sumptuous soup-to-nuts menus, along with practical tips for effortless entertaining, including suggested wine pairings, playlists, hostess gifts, and general cooking tips.

Welcome autumn with the rustic elegance of a home-baked apple pie. Roast an irresistible turkey rubbed in herb butter for Thanksgiving (and stir up a spicy gumbo with the leftovers). Host a relaxing day for your friends with a healthy vegetarian spread and spa recipes for postprandial pampering. From the decadent -- Nutella French toast sandwiches and juicy lamb burgers -- to the sublime -- creamy curried chicken salad and crispy zucchini chips -- Katie serves up a rich assortment of seasonal recipes for the home cook for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

A guide to enjoying great food with good friends around the Comfort Table, Katie Lee's simple recipes for cooking and entertaining guarantee the best kind of meals -- ones prepared with love that turn every occasion into a celebration.

An insider’s view—an invitation to imaginative private parties at the elegant homes of New York’s most celebrated hosts. Seasoned experts share entertaining secrets. Join Jamee Gregory as a guest at some of New York’s most exclusive private parties. Visit the homes of savvy tastemakers from the worlds of fashion, finance, and design, including Michael Kors, Evelyn and Leonard Lauder, Tory Burch, and Jamie Drake. Observe them behind-the-scenes, shopping at farmer’s markets, arranging flowers, decorating tables, choosing menus, dressing up dining and living rooms, terraces and gardens, and themselves, with great style, ready to receive friends. Follow the Manhattan sociable set’s gatherings throughout the year from SoHo cocktails and Fifth Avenue splendor to a Bridgehampton tented dinner and a Millbrook hunt breakfast, revealing how they entertain with flair. From Porthault linens to plastic glasses, in jeans or evening dress, at elegant holiday celebrations, imaginative birthdays, or an intimate brunch, this book features innumerable inspirational events. Sophisticated party givers discuss what makes a celebration a success—from memorable invitations and cocktail recipes to seating, and special welcoming touches. Dazzling portraits of unique rooms full of glamorous guests show parties unfold. Informative close-up photographs capture details of carefully orchestrated get-togethers, offering the reader myriad ideas.

Sometimes the easiest way to cook something is also the best. From the hundreds of effortless dishes published in Gourmet over the years, the editors selected the best loved, the most memorably simple, and the riotously tasty—the ones that have entered their personal repertoires. They include vegetarian mains like Black Bean Burgers; seafood dishes that are ready in minutes, such as Seared Scallops with Tarragon-Butter Sauce; quick-cooking favorites like Deviled Chicken Drumsticks; and for dessert, Chocolate Fallen Soufflé Cake.
   All of the recipes come with cooking times, and menus are included.

Having your friends over is no big deal when you have the perfect recipe, one that's not only foolproof but simple and that fits into your hectic schedule. In her new cookbook, Pam Anderson shares nearly 200 perfectly convenient dishes, including* Lacy Cheddar Crisps -- An irresistible one-ingredient hors d'oeuvre, ready in 10 minutes.* Oven-Barbecued Pork -- Slow-cooked for 10 to 12 hours. You literally make this one in your sleep.* Creamy Baked Macaroni and Cheese -- When kids are coming, why not serve the best version of their favorite?* Shish Kebabs -- Satisfy every guest, from vegetarians to carnivores, in the same meal. Six exciting flavoring pastes offer all the variety you need.* Easy Baked Risotto -- Elegant and effortless, with many sumptuous variations, including seafood and vegetarian. You socialize while it cooks.* Orange-Glazed Asparagus -- One of the most versatile side dishes imaginable. Ready in 8 relaxed minutes.* Molten Chocolate Cakes -- 15 minutes to oozy decadence.Every recipe comes with helpful suggestions on what to serve with the dish, how to vary it, how to take shortcuts, and how to make it ahead.

When Daniel Duane became a father, this San Francisco surfer and climber found himself trapped at home with no clue how to contribute. Inept at so many domestic tasks, and less than eager to change diapers, he took on dinner duty. Duane had a few tricks: pasta, stir-fry … well, actually, those were his only two tricks. But he had a biographical anomaly: Chef Alice Waters had been his preschool teacher. So he cracked one of her Chez Panisse cookbooks and cooked his way through it. And so it went with all seven of her other cookbooks, then on to those of other famous chefs—thousands of recipes in all, amounting to an epic eight-year cooking journey.

Butchering whole lambs at home, teaching himself to make classic veal stock, even hunting pigs in Maui and fishing for salmon in Alaska, Duane so thoroughly immersed himself in the modern food world that he met and cooked with a striking number of his heroes: writing a book with Alice Waters; learning offal cookery hands-on from the great Fergus Henderson; even finagling seven straight hours of one-on-one private lessons from the chef he admires above all others, Thomas Keller.

Duane’s inimitable voice carries us through, with humor and panache, even through a pair of personal tragedies. Here is a writer who can make chopping an onion sound fun and fascinating. But there is more at stake in his wonderful memoir: In the end, Duane learns not just how to cook like a man, but how to be one.

As a nation, we are in love with Italian food. Over the years, Gourmet helped shape our tastes, expanding our repertoire from pizza and spaghetti with red sauce to risotto, osso buco, and panna cotta. For this sterling collection, the editors chose their best from the hundreds of Italian recipes published over the years.
   There are vegetarian classics, including Pasta with Lentil and Kale and a sumptuous rendition of Manicotti. From Calamari Salad to Quick Chicken Ragu to Lasagna Bolognese, most of these recipes are perfect for easy entertaining. Whether itâ??s Three-Cheese Pizza or luscious Tiramisu, these dishes will prove irresistible to kids. Each recipe comes with cooking times and kitchen tips.