'Summer Cooking' Elizabeth David Foreword by Molly O'Neill New York Review of Books -- 1995, reprinted in 2002 Buy it on Amazon
Sometimes you want a cookbook author to give it to you straight.
None of this "You can whip this up in 10 minutes!" when you are certain, as you possess merely mortal chopping skills, it will take you 20 with that pile of onions.
The well-traveled cookbook author Elizabeth David, who many think brought "real food" to the English in the 1950s, is of this no-nonsense school. She saw it among her duties to bring picnic food and something called "seasonal shopping" to her countrymen and women, as they were stuck in an out-of-season loop. On one page she gripes about the mortification of seeing ratatouille on a February menu comprised of tomatoes and (ugh) cabbage.
On another she writes of the English approach to the "dread" salad season that is summertime: "What makes a cook think that the beetroot spreading its hideous purple dye over a sardine and a spoonful of tinned baked beans constitutes an hors d'oeuvre?"
Tell us how you really feel, Elizabeth.
What we tested and whether the book's worth buying, after the jump.
'The Beach House Cookbook' Recipes by Barbara Scott-Goodman Photos by Rita Maas Chronicle Books -- 2005 Buy it on Amazon
Summer is a time for relaxing. It's also -- for those lucky enough to live on the beach or near enough one to be within arm's reach of it -- an opportunity to cook up some fresh seafood. But what to do with it once you have it?
Barbara Scott-Goodman has made a substantial mark in the flooded market of seafood cookbooks with her show-stopping "Beach House Cookbook," packed with delectable sounding recipes like Tomato-Basil Soup with Mussels, Lobster Rolls and Cornmeal-Crusted Soft-Shell Crabs. Using fruits and vegetables at peak freshness, Scott-Goodman offers up simple yet flavor-packed meals well-suited to the seaside. What we tested and whether the book's worth buying after the jump.
Summer's nearly here, and you know what that means: Potlucks.
Everyone needs at least one dish they can nail at a moment's notice. A dish everyone will love, from vegans to carnivores. Something that's cheap, easy, quick, yet delicious. Something that dresses to impress. Something that even bad home cooks can manage.
All across the country, zucchini and other summer squashes are taking over garden patches. They double in size overnight, leaving home cooks pondering new ways to use them up so that their families don't say to them, "You mean we're having squash? Again?"
The following recipe has captured my attention as a terrific way to use a lot of your zucchini. It fancies up your basic grilled squash, and, coupled with a protein and a grain salad, would make a terrific meal. The grilling of the squash could be done outside, on a stove-top grill pan or even on a large George Foreman.
I have not been on what anyone would call a "picnic" in approximately 22 years. No joke. But it's June and that means many people will be heading out to parks and lawns and other places where they can spread out a blanket and eat various foods, so I'll start doing some posts on picnic-friendly recipes.
Today is Picnic Oven-Fried Chicken, over at AOL Food. It's from EatingWell, so you know it's not really fried, it's baked. The hot sauce, sesame seeds, and Dijon mustard in the recipe guarantee lots of flavor and kick.
'The Beach House Cookbook'
Yes, 
Summer's nearly here, and you know what that means: Potlucks. 
I have not been on what anyone would call a "picnic" in approximately 22 years. No joke. But it's June and that means many people will be heading out to parks and lawns and other places where they can spread out a blanket and eat various foods, so I'll start doing some posts on picnic-friendly recipes.
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