In this weekly series, home cook Bruce Watson works his way through a decades-old family cookbook, adapting the best recipes exclusively for Slashfood.

When I have access to fresh produce, cucumber season becomes one of my favorite times of the year. Although it runs from May to August, the wonderful green beauties won't reach their full flourish until later in the summer. Still, it's hard to resist the cool, summery flavor of the first cukes of the season. With that in mind, I decided to flip through my family cookbook in search of some great cucumber recipes.

My Aunt Renie's cucumber salad manages to halve the distance between sharp and smooth, sweet and sour, creamy and intense. In my adjusted version, I cut back on the onions, switched in Greek yogurt and tossed in some fresh dill.

The final version had the soothing coolness of a traditional cucumber salad, but also retained a nice vinegar tang that keeps me on my toes. This is great by itself, or as an accompaniment to barbecue or any other strongly seasoned dish.

Get the cucumber salad recipe after the jump!

In this weekly series, home cook Bruce Watson works his way through a decades-old family cookbook, adapting the best recipes exclusively for Slashfood.

Beets are funny: while they are among the hardiest of winter root vegetables, their gorgeous color brings to mind the energy and exuberance of early summer.

In our family cookbook, my Aunt Evie tipped her hat to this weird dual nature with her recipe for pickled beet dip. Filled with the earthy flavors of winter vegetables, the dip's brilliant pink color suggests the joy of Easter eggs, cotton candy and sunsets. Pairing the coarseness of winter with the energy of summer, it's the perfect spring food!

While most dips tend toward blandness, this one has a nice kick. It goes well with crackers, but really shines as the centerpiece on a tray of crudite. Although the ingredients may sound odd, they blend nicely and the finished product is one of those rare beet dishes that even avowed enemies of the dark red vegetables will love. One warning, though: be sure to let everyone know that it's beet dip. Given the color, some people will assume that it is a cherry or raspberry dish!

Get the pickled beet dip recipe after the jump.

In this weekly series, home cook Bruce Watson works his way through a decades-old family cookbook, adapting the best recipes exclusively for Slashfood.

In my family cookbook, there is a recipe for "Mabel's Spinach Spread," a gelatin-thickened dip that was developed by one of my Aunt Evie's foodie friends. Although the original concoction contains a startling quantity of mayonnaise and a lot of added salt, the basic idea of a molded-gelatin dip was somewhat compelling. Gelatin, after all, is basically a fat-free, sugar-free protein that is, allegedly, great for hair and fingernails. Best of all, it can help a dip to stiffen up without the introduction of cream cheese or some other dense fat.

This recipe combines a basic spinach spread with some Greek flavor notes. The yogurt base is creamy, yet fat free, and the feta greatly reduces the need for added salt. Best of all, the fresh flavors of this dip make it a great, easy-to-prepare snack for long summer afternoons. The recipe after the jump.

'Williams-Sonoma New Flavors for Appetizers'
Edited by Chuck Williams
Recipes by Amy Sherman
Photos by Tucker + Hossler
Oxmoor House -- 2009 (hardback)
Buy it at Amazon

Ready to move beyond dips and carrot sticks for your soirees, but not ready to face the Full Martha? This is the guide for you. The book is divvied into sections highlighting each season's freshest ingredients and simple, elegant ways to show 'em off. Bonus -- a goodly bit of space is devoted to party planning tips, basic recipes (mayo, risotto, pizza dough), a glossary, techniques for handling veggies and a guide to what is freshest when.

Takeaway tips: Freshness is your best ingredient. Using seasonal ingredients means you'll need to do little to adorn them -- just make sure to use cooking methods, seasonings and pairings that show them off to their best advantage, and add flavor in layers. Specific methodologies are generously shared throughout the book.

Quality of pictures: Appetizing -- if a little washed out by the matte paper. Not step-by-step instructive, but oriented toward the finished product.

We tested: Pan-Seared Spring Lamb Chops with Mint-Pistachio Pesto and Olives and Feta Marinated with Lemon and Ouzo
Recipes were incredibly easy to follow, accessible, thorough and aided by sidebars offering further explanations of ingredients' flavor profiles and best methods for use. Lovely balance of veggie-friendly dishes and slightly heartier fare.

Worth the investment: Would make a great hostess or shower gift, or smart inspiration for anyone who's ready to bump their parties' sophistication level up a notch or two.

Is it just us, or does this look like a canapé Snow White might serve at a party for an assortment of her big-eyed woodland friends and dwarfs? Those mushrooms are practically leaping off the screen, they look so freshly plucked. I bet Disney's tough guys would have scoffed at this chi-chi wasabi-ricotta concoction and gone for burgers and beer instead, though. Not Eating Out In New York (a culinary blog for anyone anywhere) attempted a pretty bold take on a classic appetizer, so let us know if you give it a shot in your kitchen and how it turns out.

We all saw Sideways -- heck, to some of us, it's not just a movie, it's a manifesto. So we know that we're supposed to admire Pinot Noir and barely tolerate Merlot (it's not the demon grape it's made out to be).

The folks at Castle Rock winery are contributing to the dialog on Pinot Noir, and they put their answer in bottles.

Castle Rock currently bottles juice from seven species of grape, each chosen by informed vintner magic from its own West Coast microclimate with the appellation noted on the bottle.

Thus Castle Rock Chardonnay drinkers are choosing bottles from either the Russian River Valley or the Central Coast, Syrah drinkers choosing between Columbia Valley and Sonoma, and so forth.

In the wine as in the geography, the star grape is Pinot Noir, which for the 2007 vintage offers bottles from eight appellations. Some are easy to come by and some are selling out, and I can't pretend to have tried all eight (though I'm working my way through the list).

But I can pass along a few notes on those I have tried, which perhaps will inspire you to consider these sturdy, poetic Pinots the next time you're looking for a bottle to open with dinner.

My suggestions after the jump.

Some Web sites just appeal to you, and it's not because of the buzz, the pictures or one little thing specifically -- it's the whole package. This is why I fell for Sugarlaws. For the first time, I not only loved the site and recipes I saw (like so many other excellent blogs out there), but I found myself putting aside all my other plans and looking through the entire site, page by page.

And now Katy, who runs Sugarlaws, has put up a recipe that not only looks good, it's structurally and texturally smart -- Sage and Caramelized Onion Risotto Cups. These little finger foods meld flavors and textures in what looks to be the perfect package -- the flaky texture of puff pastry with the rich flavor of onion, the creaminess of risotto, and the crispy bite of fried sage.

I know this is something I have to start paying more attention to in my cooking. Melding flavors is one thing, but it's a whole other level of taste and experience to think out textures. Now I just need to have a party so that I have an excuse to make these!

Recently, as I was dipping through a copy of my family cookbook in search of one of my mother's favorite recipes, I took a good, long look at the book itself. In addition to being a nice resource, it is also something of an heirloom: in the early 1980's, flush with the joy of culinary experimentation, my mother and my aunts compiled their favorite recipes into the slim volume. Titling it Beyond Rice Krispie Treats, they dedicated it to my grandmother Ida, who famously "couldn't cook, but loved to eat."

The cookbook is heavily influenced by Seventies-era foodways. The recipes are full of fat, sugar, and sodium, and their seasonings tend to be a little mild for contemporary tastes. On the other hand, they also reflect those days immediately after the release of Julia Child's The Art of French Cooking, when average housewives began to explore the wonders of gourmet cookery. In some ways timid, in other ways bold, Beyond Rice Krispie Treats is a hell of a lot of fun.

Flipping through the book, I decided to do my own version of Julie and Julia, trying out some of the Carter-era cooking that my mom's family compiled. When I ran the idea by my Aunt Evie, she was immediately helpful, sending me almost 30 years worth of notes and updates. With Evie's advice, and my own experimentation, I'm hoping to resurrect some seventies classics.

Never one to let a minor entertaining opportunity slink by un-feted, The Martha has thrown together a list of 55 snack foods for your Academy Award's party this Sunday (you ARE having an Academy Awards party, right?). Highlights include Baked Artichoke Dip with Winter Crudites, Chicken Liver Pate with Sauteed Maple Syrup Apples (mmmm!), Toasted Brioche Rounds with Creme Fraiche and Caviar, Endive Boats with Marinated Vegetables, Mushroom Polenta Diamonds, and Ham and Gruyere Thumbprints.

Oh yes, and then there are eleven different popcorn and snack recipes, from chili-lime popcorn to olive oil Chex mix, and nine different couch-friendly desserts.

The distinctive smell of barbecued provolone topped with chili and oregano will forever remind me of a barbecue I went to in Buenos Aires. Before being served a series of different meats in a typical Argentinian asado, grilled provolone is often eaten with a savory chimichurri sauce that's made with parsley, cilantro, garlic, salt, pepper, onion, and paprika with olive oil, lemon juice and vinegar.

In supermarkets thoughout Buenos Aires, you can find frozen provoleta that you can simply heat up in the oven or microwave. Sometimes you can even find it stuffed with ham, bacon, red peppers, and tomatoes. This incredibly rich and crispy treat makes me think of the salty Greek appetizer Saganaki - fried Greek cheese. I'm wondering if one can find these frozen provoletas in supermarkets in the United States. Although it's easy to make, the frozen ones I purchased in Argentina were absolutely delicious!

Below are a couple of Provoleta recipes:

1. Grilled Provoleta
2. Provoleta with Crushed Red Pepper

While both recipes seem identical, the first one also offers an excellent recipe for chimichurri sauce. When entertaining, I highly suggest you make this dish as an appetizer. It's sure to be a crowd pleaser.

Quick: what field crop comes to mind of when you think of the Napa Valley? If you immediately thought "mustard," you're not wrong, and you're not alone. In the right circles, the Napa Valley is as well known for its mustard as it is for that other crop which does well there. Those fields of endless yellow are celebrated in festivals, are a staple of local cuisines both formal and informal, and are a welcome sight in the great client-relations tradition of the Napa Valley gift basket.

It was in one such that I recently received a jar of Napa Valley Mustard Company mustard. I received the gift basket around the holidays but what with getting blotto on New Year's Eve and a more recent mishap involving a brace of oysters on the half shell, I just got around to tasting it. Wow. This jar was Whole Grain with Chilis and Garlic.

Leave it to The Martha to have not 10, not 20, not 50, but SEVENTY-FIVE separate recipes to keep your guests happy no matter who wins Super Bowl 43. Her Super Bowl Party foodstuffs are helpfully categorized as "Dips, Wings, Nachos," "Pizza, Chili, Sandwiches, Tacos, Ribs and Burgers," or "Brownies, Sundaes, Cheesecake and Cookies." I reckon that should about cover it.

Highlights, which seem equally suited to a gallery opening or a wedding reception as a Super Bowl party, include a tarted-up Chex mix with olive oil and Parmesan cheese, herbed shrimp dip, panko-crusted chicken bites with apricot-mustard sauce, beef tacos with radish and avocado salsa, espresso double-chocolate chunk cookies, and ice cream with homemade butterscotch sauce. There's also a special section on game day ideas and make-ahead menus. All recipes come with yummy photos, of course.

I don't know why, but I'm a visual appetizer-aholic. Show me a picture of a tasty-looking meal and I'll salivate, but show me an amazing appetizer or finger food and I'm a goner. I'm not sure why. It's not like I subsist on finger foods. In fact, I rarely eat them. Maybe it's just the allure of entertaining -- of not only tantalizing your guest's taste buds, but also opening them up to new food possibilities. Or maybe it's just how delicious food looks in tiny, bite-sized packages.

You can be sure that the above will be entering my party foods recipe list. Jaden at Steamy Kitchen just posted the above Cannellini Spread, from Chef Kurtis Jantz of Trump International Beach Resort in Miami. It looks super easy, which makes it all the more desirable for entertaining. The recipe just involves simmering some garlic, cannellini beans, and tomatoes, throwing in some parsley, salt, and pepper, and pureeing before lathering it on the bread/cracker of your choice.

Added bonus: It's animal-free, so you won't have to worry about catering your menu to the meat mongers and the lettuce lovers.

With New Years Eve right around the corner, it's the perfect time to whip up some homemade appetizers. Habit always leads us to the frozen food aisle, but it isn't hard to whip up some quick phyllo delights, or even some delicious, deep-fried spring rolls like above.

I will never forget the first time I had spring rolls. It was soon after I moved out of my Thai-free hometown and to the big city. I saw the "mini egg rolls" at a Halloween party and soon had to stop myself from devouring the entire delicious pile. Since then, they've become one of my favorite appetizers, and they're not that hard to make.

With a helper, you could have these whipped up in no time. Better yet, they can be prepared and frozen raw, then deep-fried right before you serve them. Even if you're not throwing a New Years shindig, these are perfect as a quick appetizer for any tasty dinner.