If You Love Good Food, You're Going to Love Southern Living Off the Eaten Path

One of my many, many dreams for the near future is to have a Southern food counter or truck or restaurant.

Though I've never even been to the South, I am enamoured by the food, ingredients and people. I can think of nothing more comforting than shrimp n' grits, a muffaletta sandwich (a specialty of New Orleans), fried chicken, collard greens and cornbread.

So when I heard about the brand new, just released Southern Living Off the Eaten Path by Morgan Murphy, I knew it would have to find a place amongst my very carefully selected cookbooks.

It's the subtitle after the colon that really got me - Favourite Southern Dives and 150 Recipes That Made Them Famous - and the fact that award-winning travel writer Murphy drove 15,000 miles in his 1959 Cadillac last summer and picked 75 places to include.

It is so jam-packed with photos, recipes and backstory, that it's more of an intimate scrapbook or personalized tour of the South than a mere cookbook. If I could somehow manage it, I'd like to do what Murphy did, and visit every single one of these places in one fell swoop. Now that's what I call a vacation!

And what is so surprising is that the recipes are not your average "dive" dishes. Krazy Kat's in Delaware for instance offers Vanilla-Cognac Brined Pork Tenderloin with a Gingersnap Jus! You'd better believe that's joining my regular rotation of dinners. And Lobster and Brie Mac and Cheese from Cabana in Nashville and Red Wine-Braised Short Ribs from The Local in Virginia? Ooh la la. I think I just found my dinner party menu items. And I've got to make the  PCP Pie (Pineapple-Coconut-Pecan) from Ed & Kay's in Arkansas at the next do or potluck. Can you imagine the kinds of  hoots and hollers that will get?

Of course the book is teaming with the kind of comfort food dishes that are famous in the South - Hush Puppies, Crawfish Pie, Beignets, Shrimp and Crab Etoufee, Sweet Potato Casserole, Chicken-Fried Steak with Country Gravy, Southern Fried Catfish, Pecan Pie, Cornbread, Candied Yams, Chiles Rellenos, Buttermilk Biscuits  - and a heckuva lot more (My mouth filled with saliva as I wrote these. I'm heading into the kitchen to make some of these treasures as soon as I'm done here).

Go ahead and check out the preview here.

Thank you, Mr. Murphy, for bringing the South up here to me in the North via Southern Living Off the Beaten Path. I am so grateful to be surrounded by all of this great food  made by great folks from these great places. 

I hope you don't mind, I've gone ahead and doggeared the whole darn book.

Cocktails, Anyone? Ultimate Bar Book Has Got You Covered!

Because our summers are so short here, I think we tend to take them pretty seriously. So on the first warmish day, you'll see us outside on patios, imbibing in a cocktail or two. Sure we'll still have our coats on, but there's nothing more summery than taking a few minutes out to enjoy a good drink.

The problem happens when you get home and realize that all you know how to make are lame cocktails from the 90s. How are you supposed to entertain your friends serving Long Island Iced Teas and Rum & Cokes?

That's why you've got to get yourself a copy of Ultimate Bar Book. It has the classic drinks you've known and loved with an introduction to the newest drink recipes that will impress the crowd - and having them come back for more, no doubt!

You won't have to worry about running out because there are more than 1,000 recipes (that oughta get you through at least the summer!) and that's not just regular drinks - there's garnishes, rims, infusions, and syrups; punches, gelatin shooters, hot drinks, and non-alcoholic beverages here too.

And in case you've never really set up a home bar before, author Mittie Hellmich tells you everything you need to get started.

If you start now, you'll be ready to be the first to host a cool cocktails fete celebrating the season. Buy your copy of Ultimate Bar Book now and always be prepared to host a little soiree or a big blowout.

p.s. And in case you've celebrated a little too much, there are some hangover tips included in the book as well. It really does have everything!

You'll Never Run Out of Dinner Ideas with One Big Table

Author Molly O'Neill writes: 

"One Big Table is the nation’s community cookbook, the result of my journey of more than 500,000 miles across the U.S.—during which I conducted over 5,000 oral history–style interviews and consumed untold calories—to discover why we eat what we eat."

This is no mere cookbook - this is a nation's autobiography with recipes.   

With over 800 pages offering  personal stories, recipes and photos, it is one of the most moving cookbooks you'll ever own. Just think - you'll begin to tell these people's stories as you make and serve their dishes. And then your guests will tell those stories and so on...

Because this is a book focused on the U.S., it is a veritable bible of different cultures and the way they eat. 

It includes recipes from home cooks, farmers, fishermen, pit-masters and even famous chefs that you may know. I know I  saw Daniel Boulud in there somewhere...

And the recipes, my God, the recipes - Mavis Lowe's West Indian Pumpkin Soup, Jamie Pagana's Rich & Herby Cornbread, Sicoutris Family's Greek Orzo Salad, Rachele's Haitian Shad in Green Peppercorn Sauce, Thomas Jefferson's Chicken Fricassee, Mill Pond Plantation's Beer and Bacon Quail and well, there's 600 recipes in the book, so I can't list them all (but I'd like to).

I think aside from being introduced to so many amazing people, ingredients and dishes, the part that gets me the most is that I have been handed down hundreds of people's tried-and-true family recipes.

And for a girl that doesn't have an extended family, it makes me feel like I've just found  the very best one of all time.

Buy your copy of One Big Table: A Portrait of America Cooking now.

Meat Lovers Unite: John Torode's Beef and Other Bovine Matters Satisfies on Every Level

As a food lover, home cook, restaurant reviewer and food writer, I cannot get enough red meat. 

So much so that sometimes I'll even have it for breakfast.

Then lunch.

And often times, at dinner too.

So when my eyes fell upon Beef and Other Bovine Matters by John Torode, I knew that it had the potential to be one of my go-to books that I use throughout the week to comprise my menus. 

But you can't judge it by name alone. After all, how many times have I had to tell people that the restaurant that they've deemed "great," simply based on the menu and look of the place, does not live up to the hype.

So I took some time and read it from front to back. I adore the size and the simple layout. I love that nothing has a gazillion ingredients and that the instructions are straight ahead and easy to follow, but friendly and personable as well.  The line drawings and short descriptions of various breeds near the beginning is a great introduction to these remarkable creatures. And there are some "basics" that John wants you to know, such as the difference between a bull, steer, heifer, cow and veal. Actually, I think I'll pose this question at my next dinner party and see how many answer correctly. It's not as easy as you might think...

But here's where it gets good - the recipes.  John's got a 100 of 'em and covers everything from stocks, soups and gravy to pies, stews and braises. There are chapters for the hardcore lovers like Offal and Sweets, but I think that no matter where you are in your culinary adventure, you are bound to find some gems that you can't help but make time and again.

Recently I took my 4 food book clubs to a French restaurant where people debated over the French Onion soup. Theirs was way better. It was the best they'd ever had. Well, I vote that John's French Onion Soup with Gruyere Croute would please all of their palates. It's rich, but not heavy and extremely satisfying. Especially in this cooler weather we're experiencing still.

I love Beef Carpaccio and John offers 8 different ways to prepare it. I also love the recipe here for Steak Tartate. You'd better believe that these are making their way into my dinner party menu rotation! 

I've only made Corned Beef from scratch once, so this is a good opportunity to try it again. The simplicity of the ingredients and instructions helps keep this from being an overwhelming task. And if you've found the idea of making Sweetbreads too intimidating in the past, John walks you through it with great ease. You'll wonder why you waited so long, and you'll be presenting platters of Fried Sweetbreads, Peas & Pancetta and Sweetbread Wellingtons in no time!

If you're looking for lunch or dinner options that you can whip up quickly, there are plenty here - Quick & Easy Thai Beef Salad, Cevapcici (Yugoslavian Sausage), Cornish Pasties and of course Steak can be done in a jiff too (just take a sec to read  John's "How to Cook a Great Steak," p. 126-127 and you'll be all set!).

Beef is one of my staples - both in the fridge, and now thanks to John Torode, on the shelf.

Buy your copy now.

Spring Menus are a Cinch With Fine Cooking Annual Cookbooks

I am a huge fan of Fine Cooking Magazine. There are always exciting items to try and I've centered more than one dinner party around their dishes - to rave reviews, I might add!

So discovering that there are Fine Cooking Annual Cookbooks is like having a personal chef and menu/party planner right in the comfort of your own home!

There are 3 volumes to choose from, which you can purchase individually or as a set. Each volume contains a year of great recipes, tips and techniques. And I think that's what sets these cookbooks, as well as the magazine, apart. They offer up intriguing recipes, while showing you the techniques involved with instructive photos along the way. So it's not as oblique as Gourmet could be and not as textbook-y as America Test Kitchen's mag.

Volume 1 has lovely, fresh recipes that are perfect for spring (vibrant salads, fresh seafood) and some of the best tips. Did you know that for even onion slices, you should use a radial cut? I didn't know what that was either until I saw it (page 50). I will use the tip on page 69 of warming the vinaigrette before drizzling it over my warm salad from now on. And miso keeps for a year if sealed well and refrigerated? If only I'd known! It's these kinds of small tips that actually change the way you cook, the way you eat for the rest of your life. And of course the recipes are fabulous: Wild Rice & Mushroom Soup with Almonds, Creamy Tomato & Fennel Chicken, Dry Brined Roasted Turkey, Bourbon & Brown Sugar Marinated Steak, Argentine-Style Burger, Farmhouse Ragout with Pesto and Mexican-Style Pecan-Chocolate Squares.

In Volume 2 (a signed edition is also available), we go international and learn to make Pork Shiu Mai, Pan-Fried Halloumi with Fennel, Olive and Mint Compote, Fregola with Grill-Marinated Red Peppers & Zucchini, Smoked Paprika & Fennel Seed Roast Turkey with Onion Gravy, Carrots with Curry-Yogurt Sauce and Kahlua Truffle Triangle. I love the tips on how to do a tapas buffet at home, stock your Spanish pantry, preserve lemons, what Treviso is (I didn't know either!), 7 different types of basil and various kinds of steak.

Good luck not drooling over the recipes and photos in Volume 3!  Here are just a few delicacies to whet your appetite: Bacon-Wrapped Stuffed Apricots, Carrot Salad with Walnut Oil and Honey, Pan-Fried Gnocchi with Bacon & Onions & Peas,Salmon Braised in Pinot Noir, Lime Chicken with Poblano Sour Cream, Rack of Lamb with Ancho-Honey Glaze, Ham Bone Collards and Earl Grey Creme Brulee. And thanks to this volume, I know how to turn a salmon steak into a medallion, make my own gravlax and calibrate my instant-read thermometer.

Mealtime just got a whole lot more exciting.

Buy the whole collection now.

Need a Gift for the Foodie in Your Life? Eat Me: The Journal From Chronicle Books is Perfect!

Do you take pictures of what you're cooking and/or eating and then post them?

Do you flip through cooking magazines and cookbooks looking for new ideas for dinner?

Is your idea of a fun night out going out to restaurant?

Do you consider shopping for ingredients fun?

Or do you know someone that does?

Then you'll want to get your hands on the incredibly awesome Eat Me: The Journal from Chronicle Books.

Answer questions about your favourite childhood foods, take note of memorable meals, record family recipes, write down your own faves and explore your guilty pleasures in these fun and colourful easy-to-fill-out boxes.

Of course one of my favourite - and most used sections is the Restaurant Diary pages. I love the detail here:

- Date

- Dining Companions

- Restaurant Name

- Cuisine

- Address and Phone 

- Hours and Closed on (Brilliant feature!)

- Delivery & Delivery Free

- Overall Star Rating circle 1-5

- Price Range circle $ - $$$$

- Must-Order Items

- What to Avoid

- Comments

There are fun sections to fill out: food books that you're reading, dining disasters, rated cheap eats, a desserts section (oh my!), a cookbook wish list (you can photocopy the pages and give out to friends and family at holiday gift-giving time), food websites and blogs to follow, tracking your wine, favourite cocktail recipes and a kitchen wish list.

The lists of suggestions are fantastic too - 50 Cocktails Not be Be Missed, Checklist of the 100 foods you must try before you die, The top 10 pieces of cookware every kitchen needs and The top 10 tools every kitchen needs.

The fun modern-retro cover has a plastic cover, so whether you're reviewing a new resto or trying out a new recipe, you can keep it clean with a simple wipe.

There are few "foodie" gifts out there that I think food-lovers and cooks will actually use.

This is most definitely one of the one that will have food stains and wine rings on its pages.

But it now.

Celebrate With Quady's Incredible Essensia Dessert Wine

Being a restaurant reviewer, I have had the luxury of being able to eat way beyond my means.

I have also been able to compare the good with the bad, the mediocre with the sublime.

Though I am in no way a sommelier or wine afficiendo, I have learned through many a tasting how to identify a well-crafted dessert wine.

A bad dessert wine is bracing, acidic and achingly sweet.

A great dessert wine is warm and slightly sweet.  Quady Winery has been making wine since 1975 and their Essensia (2007 World Wine Championship) is one of the best I've ever had.

I like the unexpected aroma of orange blossom and apricots. Made with 100% Orange Muscat grape from California, it is fruity, but subtle.  There is no sickly sweetness or stickiness that I've found with lesser wines, and the finish is just as exquisite as when it first reached your taste buds.

Aged in 3 months in French Oak, there is a richness that I haven't experienced before in dessert wine. So pair it with chocolate, fruit, dessert or serve it on its own after dinner.

If I could choose only one dessert wine, I would choose Essensia.

And with Thanksgiving,Christmas coming up and all of the dinners and gathering in between, don't you want a wine you can absolutely count on?

Make it an Occasion to Remember with the Bon Appetit Celebrations Deck

From now on, I'm throwing as many dinner parties and occasions to get together as I can.

I've realized that the two things I want most is:

1. To spend time with friends and family
2. To cook and feed people simple, but wonderful food.

And one of the best ways I've found to do that is with Bon Appetit Celebrations Deck: 50 Recipes for Special Parties and Happy Holidays All Year Long.

There is much to love about this little box o' cards.

First of all, it's really easy to plan out your party course by course - you simply lay out the cards!

You can turn them face down so that the rich photography tempts your tastebuds, or leave them with the recipe facing up. Will it be Super-Simple Pumpkin Tiramisu or Lemon Raspberry Cupcakes tonight?

The cards are colour-coded for your convenience, so you can mix and match easily and efficiently. And they are also designated with occasions and themes, so you can choose Linguine with Leeks, Radicchio, and Walnut Pesto for your Bridal Shower Lunch and know that it will be bang on for the event you're hosting.

I love how quickly a menu comes together this way. And it's so much fun - and darn easy - using cards instead of having a pile of heavy cookbooks to sift through!

You certainly don't have to throw a Celebration Dinner or "Just Moved" Open House Buffet and follow the cards exactly. Change it up and make it your own.

But when you're stuck and looking for ideas, the Labour Day Barbecue Feta Burgers with Grilled Red Onions and Plum-Almond Crumble with Vanilla-Bean Whipped Cream sure makes for a wonderful menu, doesn't it? And who says you have to wait for Halloween to make Sweet Potato and Sausage Soup and Ginger-Squash Cake with White Chocolate Frosting?!

Throwing an event or dinner party is fun, but a lot of work. The Bon Appetit Celebrations Deck: 50 Recipes for Special Parties and Happy Holidays All Year Long makes it easy to create a wonderful, memorable meal with great ease.

Which means, you'll have more time with your guests, which is why you invited them in the first place!

Shop at Ten Thousand Villages and Make a Real Difference!

Ten Thousand Villages is a non-profit Fair Trade organizations that sells stylish, ethnically-inspired and ethically sources products in stores and online.

They provide vital, fair income to Third World people by marketing their handicrafts and telling their stories in North America.

By shopping at Ten Thousand Villages, you can buy gifts with meaning, green gifts and shop ethically for you and your home all in one convenient location. Just imagine how meaningful a graduation, wedding or anniversary gift when it's been handcrafted with such love, care and dedication. And they have a gift registry, which is wonderful.

You can choose from personal accessories, home furnishing, textiles, books and stationery, plant and garden, jewelry, skin care, food items, toys and musical instruments, some of which are made from reused, reclaimed, sustainable or organic materials.

Here are some of my recent favourites:

The Cotton Ikat Tablecloth w/ Gingham shows off the season's biggest trend and is just in time for patio season. Your backyard barbecue never looked better. On second thought, you'd better get the matching napkinsfor a truly complete look.

We use a Bamboo Folding Table as our coffee table so that our living room can work in a number of different ways.

I think the Natural & Lime Kaisa Basket is the perfect accent piece for my breakfast bar. And the Reverse Painted Serving Tray (pictured above) is a wonderful time saver when entertaining.

For no-fail gift giving, Portraits is a stellar choice, as is The BitterSweet World of Chocolate. Bookends are always useful and what about a wine rack that folds up? Perfect for taking up to the cottage for the week! And who doesn't love jewelry as a gift?

Being an avid cook, I love how fresh the food and ingredients are, as well as the fact it is all fairly-traded and much of it is organic - all at completely and affordable prices! I get my spices here (like their wonderful curry and za'atar) and I pay LESS for them than at my local grocery store!

Last year, I bought over half of my Christmas presents at Ten Thousand Villages and for once, I felt good about shopping. My purchases really meant something.

You can visit them online via the US or Canada or go in person to one of their many store locations.

Party in Style with Hendrick's Gin & Vinturi Red Wine Aerator!

Today is my fella's birthday and last night I threw him a surprise party with the help of the neighbours.

I took him out for dinner while our lovely friends and neighbours let friends into our place. I had left my keys and provisions so that our guests could enjoy themselves until our arrival.

We entered into a place filled with decorations, cards and rooms full of people.

We couldn't have done it without our good friends. And a few other things really made the night:

**Hendrick's Gin**

This is possibly the best gin you'll ever have. Fragrant, flowery with a hint of fresh greens, it is almost refreshing.

Handcrafted in incredibly small batches in Scotland, with an infusion of rose petal and cucumber, Hendrick's Gin is sophisticated as well as incredibly flavourful.

It truly is one-of-a-kind.

And isn't that exactly what you've been searching for?

And because it's so tasty, you'll be tempted to just drink it on its own, something I wouldn't do with other gins, I assure you.

But do mix it up. You won't believe the wonderful and different flavour profiles that release themselves throughout the night - one minute it's woodsy, the next, floral.

A Gin & Tonic with Hendrick's takes on a whole new light. A Negroni or Martini is simply divine when you've got the gin of all gin's at the ready.

In other words, this ain't no regular alcohol.

This right here, is extraordinary.

**Vinturi Red Wine Aerator**

After our arrival, the drinks really started to flow. That's when I pulled out the Vinturi Red Wine Aerator.

First of all, you should know that it is beautiful to look at. It has a plastic arm that looks like a crystal award (I called it Scott's Emmy for the night, as he's a TV writer). It has been carefully designed and engineered:

Bernoulli's Principle states that as the speed of a moving fluid increases, the pressure within the fluid decreases. This is dictated by the law of conservation of energy.

When wine is poured in the Vinturi, its "internal design creates an increase in the wine's velocity and a decrease in its pressure. This pressure difference creates a vacuum that draws in air which is mixed with wine for perfect aeration."

And I think most of us have learned that opening a bottle early and allowing it to breathe, makes for a way better glass of wine. That's why most of us have decanters. But it's a hassle to have to wait for it to open up and release its aromas and flavours.

That's what I love about the Vinturi - you pour the wine into your glass through the Vinturi (with no drips, I might add!) and you get a glass of wine that tastes like it's been decanted for hours - but it only took a few seconds!

To illustrate the difference, I poured a glass straight from the bottle and one through the Vinturi. Then I took both around to our guests so that they could at least smell the difference.

And oh, what a difference!

The perfectly aerated glass had a beautiful bouquet, enhanced flavours and an incredibly smooth finish.

Once you've used the Vinturi Red Wine Aerator , you'll see that you can never have a glass just out of the bottle again. The is like having a sommelier at the ready whenever you need it.

And not only is it now a mainstay in our house, I'm adding it to my permanent gift list.

After all, isn't a delicious bottle of wine just about the nicest gift you can give?