Cover and Bake or Junior League Centennial Cookbook

Cover and Bake

Author: Cooks Illustrated

In addition, this book contains all the relevant tastings and testings conducted in America's Test Kitchen. Learn which baking dish is our hands-down favorite. Are all storage containers created the same? Want to know which slow cooker has the best combination of features? We've done thorough research into each of these topics (and more) and recommend specific kitchen items (yes, we name brands) that deliver superior results. In Cover & Bake, you will learn which brand of chicken broth tastes best, how to buy canned tomatoes that taste almost as good as fresh, and how to choose among myriad brands of rice, pasta, and noodles when you're in the supermarket. Starting with the right ingredients and the best possible equipment makes all the difference, so we have made sure to give you the information you need to be successful in the kitchen. Cover & Bake is packed with more than 200 recipes for onedish meals for everyday cooking. These practical recipes will allow you to get dinner on the table with a minimum of fuss while still serving up a fresh-tasting meal.

New interesting book: Organizational Change for Corporate Sustainability or Industrial Mechanics and Maintenance

Junior League Centennial Cookbook: Over 750 of the Most Treasured Recipes from 200 Junior Leagues

Author: Junior League International

Since the 1950s, Junior Leagues have published collections of their favorite regional recipes to raise funds for local community development. Not only have these down-home, family-style cookbooks defined what we now call "comfort food," they have also raised tens of millions of dollars in charitable contributions and, collectively, sold in excess of 19 million copies. Now, to celebrate volunteerism and the Leagues' approaching 100th birthday, The Association of Junior Leagues International Inc. has collected into a single volume the very best, most popular, and soul-satisfying dishes from over 200 Junior League cookbooks. At one time Junior League cookbooks were better known for convenience-food recipes than for simple, elegant cuisine. No longer. In addition to such authentic American dishes (passed down from one generation to the next) as Josephinas, Country Captain, Shrimp Etouffee, Cornish Pasties, Geoduck Fritters, and Maryland Crabcakes, this collection also offers a healthy sampling of thoroughly modern easy-but-elegant recipes such as Walnut Stilton Torta, Chicken Breast in Phyllo, Bronzed Swordfish with Tropical Fruit Salsa, and Fresh Tomato Tart. And, of course, with families always on the go, literally hundreds of quick-and-easy recipes have been included for such dishes as Baked Potato Soup, Cheesy Italian Supper Pie, Cowboy Cookies, and Baked Steak. With over 750 recipes, The Junior League Centennial Cookbook is sure to become an instant classic and an essential addition to the cookbook shelf.

Publishers Weekly

Since their initial publication in the 1950s, more than 18 million copies of local Junior League cookbooks have been sold, with proceeds supporting programs that further the League's mission of improving social conditions, promoting volunteerism and developing the potential of women. This volume, part of a 100-year celebration of the Junior League (founded in 1901), is the first collection of the "best" recipes culled from books 200 League chapters and includes sidebars about the organization's history. Recipes, credited to place but not date of origin, are conventionally organized (e.g., "Party Food, Appetizers & Beverages," "Vegetables & Side Dishes") and highlight regional American specialties, with none too demanding of the busy home cook. There are plenty of meat dishes (No Peekie Roast Beefie, Austin Fajitas, New Orleans Grillades), seafood recipes (Maine Seafood Bake) and poultry (Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya; Glazed Wild Duck). Other local dishes include Hearts of Palm Swamp Cabbage, Nashville One-Pan Fudge Cake and Chocolate Bourbon Pie. Literary Guild selection. (May)

Delizia or China Bayles Book of Days

Delizia!: The Epic History of the Italians and Their Food

Author: John Dicki

Buon appetito! Everyone loves Italian food. But how did the Italians come to eat so well?

The answer lies amid the vibrant beauty of Italy's historic cities. For a thousand years, they have been magnets for everything that makes for great eating: ingredients, talent, money, and power. Italian food is city food.

From the bustle of medieval Milan's marketplace to the banqueting halls of Renaissance Ferrara; from street stalls in the putrid alleyways of nineteenth-century Naples to the noisy trattorie of postwar Rome: in rich slices of urban life, historian and master storyteller John Dickie shows how taste, creativity, and civic pride blended with princely arrogance, political violence, and dark intrigue to create the world's favorite cuisine. Delizia! is much more than a history of Italian food. It is a history of Italy told through the flavors and character of its cities.

A dynamic chronicle that is full of surprises, Delizia! draws back the curtain on much that was unknown about Italian food and exposes the long-held canards. It interprets the ancient Arabic map that tells of pasta's true origins, and shows that Marco Polo did not introduce spaghetti to the Italians, as is often thought, but did have a big influence on making pasta a part of the American diet. It seeks out the medieval recipes that reveal Italy's long love affair with exotic spices, and introduces the great Renaissance cookery writer who plotted to murder the Pope even as he detailed the aphrodisiac qualities of his ingredients. It moves from the opulent theater of a Renaissance wedding banquet, with its gargantuan ten-course menu comprising hundreds of separate dishes, tothe thin soups and bland polentas that would eventually force millions to emigrate to the New World. It shows how early pizzas were disgusting and why Mussolini championed risotto. Most important, it explains the origins and growth of the world's greatest urban food culture.

With its delectable mix of vivid storytelling, groundbreaking research, and shrewd analysis, Delizia! is as appetizing as the dishes it describes. This passionate account of Italy's civilization of the table will satisfy foodies, history buffs, Italophiles, travelers, students -- and anyone who loves a well-told tale.

Publishers Weekly

In this revelatory history of gourmet Italy from antiquity to today, Dickie (Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia), examines the centuries of religious, political and sociological events that effectively thrust Italian food into today's global limelight. Though it begins with the requisite gnocchi, lasagna, tagliatelle and tortellini, this bittersweet historical narrative quickly dispels the romantic notion that contemporary Italian fare has been the prideful plate of the rural peninsula and peasants throughout the ages. Dickie tracks the country's culinary saga to medieval times, during which the impoverished would have been less likely to eat bistecca alla fiorentinaor risotto alla milanese(had either existed), as they were to subsist on banal fare like turnips and polenta, with little concept of epicurean taste or pride. He notes that it was the urban areas, replete with food markets and money, that enabled foods like Parmigiano-Reggiano and mortadella to become Italian staples. As Dickie shows, the mainstream American concept of "Italian food" is a modern-day notion developed as a mixture of the multiple identities of the country's cities. Boisterous, gluttonous stories-some verging on salacious-are balanced by accounts of paucity in this look into Italian history and its edibles. (Jan.)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

Kirkus Reviews

A rich, robust epicurean feast for those who enjoy history as a main course. Dickie (Italian Studies/University College London; Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia, 2004, etc.) begins his extensive survey of Italian food in 12th-century Palermo and ends in present-day Genoa. He honors the Italian notion of "civilization of the table," which "embraces all the many different aspects of a culture that are expressed through food." Every dish has a story behind it, and the author's subjects range from spaghetti ("one of the great unifying motifs in Italy's constantly shifting gastronomic mosaic") to Parmesan cheese to the meat-dominant cuisine of medieval Milan, where food doubled as medicine. The descriptions of the unique ingredients used in authentic dishes like Palermo's focaccia (stuffed with veal spleen and strips of lung, fried in lard) or Roman pajata (intestines of an unweaned calf, complete with mother's milk) may set inexperienced stomachs churning. Venice in the 1300s brings on a discussion of spices. During the Renaissance, Dickie asserts, Italy's urban food system became more sophisticated due to the conjunction of multicourse meals served to royalty with regal pageantry. The open-air festivals of the early 18th century gave birth to pizza, new technologies in the manufacturing of dried pasta and the further development of tomato sauce, "the lifeblood of Italian food." Describing with good humor what Italians refer to as the "cornucopia of horrors" that constitutes American eating, Dickie moves from Mussolini to Sophia Loren to the modern Slow Food movement. But the "charisma" of Italian food comes across only in certain sections; the author's dense history of earlyItalian cuisine is overly comprehensive, though never entirely inaccessible. A bit of personality and humor interjected into this pastoral lesson might have been the seasoning the author needed to garner more crossover appeal. Agent: Catherine Clarke/Felicity Bryan Literary Agency

Table of Contents:

Tuscany: Don't Tell the Peasants     1
The Medieval Table
Palermo, 1154: Pasta and the Planisphere     13
Milan, 1288: Power, Providence, and Parsnips     29
Venice, 1300s: Chinese Whispers     45
Cooking for Renaissance Popes and Princes
Rome, 1468: Respectable Pleasure     61
Ferrara, 1529: A Dynasty at Table     77
Rome, 1549-50: Bread and Water for Their Eminences     100
Street Food
Bologna, 1600s: The Game of Cockaigne     129
Naples, late 1700s: Maccheroni-Eaters     146
Turin, 1846: Viva l'Italia!     167
Food for the New Nation
Naples, 1884: Pinocchio Hates Pizza     183
Florence, 1891: Pellegrino Artusi     196
Genoa, 1884-1918: Emigrants and Prisoners     216
Fascists in the Kitchen
Rome, 1925-38: Mussolini's Rustic Village     243
Turin, 1931: The Holy Palate Tavern     249
Milan, 1936: Housewives and Epicures     256
The Land of Plenty
Rome, 1954: Miracle Food     269
Bologna, 1974: Mamma's Tortellini     290
Genoa, 2001-2006: Faulty Basil     303
Turin, 2006: Peasants to the Rescue!     311
Acknowledgments     323
Notes on Sources     327
Bibliography     333
Index     355

Books about marketing: System Safety Engineering and Risk Assessment or Financial Crises Liquidity and the International Monetary System

China Bayles' Book of Days: 365 Celebrations of the Mystery, Myth, and Magic of Herbs from the World of Pecan Springs

Author: Susan Wittig Albert

A companion treasury from the author of the national bestselling series.

Readers of the China Bayles mystery novels are familiar with the usefulness and wonder of the many herbs the amateur sleuth sells in her beloved Thyme and Seasons shop. Compiled by national bestselling author Susan Wittig Albert at the request of her fans, China Bayles' Book of Days gathers together tidbits and treasures about plants and reveals ways you can put more green into your daily life.

Featuring 365 days of recipes, crafts, gardening tips, remedies, and more, this special volume is a personal calendar of the legends and lore of herbs and also features brand-new essays from the author, clues from China's mysteries, and some special contributions by the irrepressible members of the Myra Merryweather Herb Guild, Pecan Springs's oldest civic organization.

How to Start a Home Based Catering Business or Suzanne Somers Eat Cheat and Melt the Fat Away

How to Start a Home-Based Catering Business

Author: Denise Vivaldo

Are you passionate about parties? Do you live to cook? Now you can realize your dream of working from home at something you enjoy - a home-based catering business. Author Denise Vivaldo shares her experiences and advice on every aspect of setting up and running a thriving home-based catering business, from estimating your start-up costs and finding clients to outfitting your kitchen and staying profitable. She even offers tips on the latest high-tech help, including CD-ROM recipe books, culinary Web sites, and computer software designed especially for chefs and caterers. Learn all about defining your market niche, selling yourself as a pro, establishing your daily schedule, pricing your services, organizing parties with ease, honing your food presentation skills, avoiding the 10 most common home-based mistakes and much more.

Table of Contents:

	Acknowledgments	ix
1	So You Think You Want to Be a Caterer?	1
	Do You Have What It Takes?	2
	Opportunities in Catering	3
	Hotels	3
	Airlines	4
	Private Parties	4
	Local Markets and Stores	4
	Special Events	5
	Does It Pay to Go to Cooking School?	5
	Apprenticeships: Learning by Doing	6
	Learning from the Mistakes of Others	7
	Learning from Your Own Mistakes	7
	Getting Organized	9
	Leaving the Security of a Job	9
	How This Book Is Organized	11
2	Working out of Your Home	13
	Setting Up and Office	16
	Training Family and Friends to Take You Seriously	19
	Employing Family Members	20
	Complying with City Ordinances	21
	Working with Your Local Health Department	23
	Sharing a Kitchen	23
	Renting a Kitchen on a Per-Day Basis	25
	Outfitting Your Kitchen	25
	Smallwares and Utensils	26
	Finding Used Equipment	28
	What to Look for in a Good Knife	28
	Setting Up Your Pantry	29
	Transportation	30
	Establishing Relationships with Wholesale Purveyors	30
	Your Next Step	31
3	Writing a Business Plan	33
	How to Structure Your Business	34
	Writing a Business Plan	36
Step 1	Writing the Summary Statement	37
Step 2	Defining Your Niche	38
Step 3	Drawing Your Organizational Chart	40
Step 4	Describing Company Management and Operation	41
Step 5	Your Marketing Plan	45
Step 6	Creating a Menu	46
Step 7	Crunching the Numbers	46
Step 8	Projections for the Future	49
	Business Books, Software, and Videos	52
4	The Legal Aspects of Your Catering Business	55
	Why You Need a Good Attorney	55
	Insurance: Can't Live with the Premiums, Can't Live with the Risk	56
	Start-Up Coverage	57
	Product Liability Insurance	57
	Public Liability Insurance	57
	Workers' Compensation Insurance	58
	Written Agreements and Contracts	59
	Working with Subcontractors or Suppliers	60
	Employees	60
	Hiring Versus Leasing Employees	68
	Employees Versus Independent Contractors	68
	Labor Practices	68
	Applications/Job Interviews	69
	Job Descriptions/Policy Manuals	70
	Becoming a Great Manager Boolist	74
5	Setting Prices, Estimating Quantities, and Writing Proposals	77
	How to Price Your First Menus	77
	Calculating Your Kitchen Labor	86
	How to Estimate the Right Food Quantities	87
	The Age-Group of the Guests	87
	The Guests' Lifestyle	87
	The Style of the Party	88
	The Time of the Party	88
	The Nature of the Party	88
	Clients' Concern about Running Out of Food	88
	Quoting Other Party Costs	89
	Estimating Wait Staff	89
	Disposables	91
	Floral, Decor, and Subcontractors' Services	92
	The Art of Bidding and Writing a Proposal	92
	How to Stay Profitable When You're Working with a Fixed Price	96
	Closing the Deal	102
	From Computer Software to the Internet: High-Tech Help for Caterers	103
6	Sales and Marketing	107
	Sell, Sell, Sell	108
	Defining Your Niche	109
	Social Catering	109
	Corporate Catering	111
	Community Affairs	112
	Choosing a Name and Logo	112
	Designing Promotional Pieces	114
	Making Your Menus Part of Your Marketing Program	116
	Standing Out from the Crowd	118
	Keeping a Portfolio	119
	Putting Together a Promotional Kit	121
	Drumming Up Business	124
	Getting Referrals and Repeat Business	125
	Advertising	126
	Tracking Your Success	127
	Inexpensive Pamphlets from the Small Business Administration	128
7	Crunching the Numbers	129
	Making Good Use of Your Accountant	130
	Accounting Systems	136
	Buying Computers and Software	138
	Invoicing	139
	The Artist Versus the Businessperson: Why So Many Caterers Fail	140
8	Setting the Stage for a Successful Party	141
	Before the Party	141
	Organizing Your Time and the Party Setup	143
	The Menu and Start-up	145
	Scheduling Staff and Assistants	150
	Arranging Transportation and Packing Out Your Party	152
	Getting Down to the Wire	158
9	Pulling it off With Ease	161
	The Day of the Party	161
	Getting to the Party	164
	Arriving at the Party Site	165
	Winding Down: Why Your Party Has to End on Time	167
	Report Cards from Staff and Clients	167
	How a Staff Report Works	169
	The Day After	172
	Two Days Later	174
	Three Days Later	175
	Two Weeks Later	176
10	Solving Problems	179
	Appendix	191
	Culinary Schooling/Education	191
	Recommended Reading	194
	Trade Shows	198
	Professional Organizations	199
	Suggested Seminars	201
	Index	204
	About the Author	213

Book review: FINE DINING MADNESS or Backyard Vintner

Suzanne Somers' Eat, Cheat, and Melt the Fat Away

Author: Suzanne Somers

Find out how hundreds of thousands of people all across the country have melted the pounds away without dieting, without deprivation -- the Somersize way!

With her number one New York Times bestsellers Eat Great, Lose Weight and Get Skinny on Fabulous Food, Suzanne Somers spread the word about her revolutionary weight-loss program that's unlike any diet out there. When you Somersize, you can eat your favorite foods until you are full and change your metabolism without skipping meals. Unlike other weight-loss programs, you don't have to eliminate entire food groups or skimp on portions -- instead, you can trim your waistline and boost your energy levels without depriving yourself of healthy, great-tasting foods.

In her new book, Suzanne Somers’ Eat, Cheat, and Melt the Fat Away, Suzanne shows loyal fans and newcomers alike that losing weight and getting fit are easier now than ever before. You'll be amazed at how the pounds just melt away when you eat hearty, rich foods like cheese, butter, meats, creamy sauces, and tempting desserts. The key is eating food in the right combinations to achieve maximum weight loss, while also lowering your cholesterol and blood pressure. Eat, Cheat, and Melt the Fat Away explains Somersizing in detail for those who have come to the plan for the first time. It also offers the latest Somersizing news, including:

* how hormone imbalances affect weight gain and how to maintain your weight throughout every phase in your life, from puberty through your childbearing years to menopause;
* how to Somersize with your children;
* how to incorporate little "cheats" into the plan so younever feel deprived, but still lose weight;
* information about the remarkable new natural sugar that allows you to eat sweets and still stay slim;
* answers to the most frequently asked questions and concerns about Somersizing;
* Somersize success stories that will inspire you to lose weight and get healthy.

And best of all, Eat, Cheat, and Melt the Fat Away also includes more than 100 new Somersize recipes that will tantalize your taste buds, including Pan-Fried Petrale Sole with Lemon, Butter, and Caper Sauce; Deep-Fried Turkey with Fried Onions and Herbs; Roasted Sweet Red Pepper Soup with Creme Fraiche and Crispy Sage Leaves; Portobello Mushrooms with Bubbling Pesto; Molten Chocolate Cakes; Raspberry Souffle; and many more.

Portobello Mushrooms with Bubbling Pesto
PRO/FATS AND VEGGIES -- LEVEL ONE

Serves 4
These mushrooms make a great appetizer or a delicious accompaniment for a summer meal alongside a steak. They work especially well if you are using your outdoor grill, but you can also broil them in the oven.

4 large portobello mushrooms
Olive oil for brushing
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 recipe Basil Pesto (p. 155)
4 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Trim the stems off the mushrooms. Brush mushrooms with olive oil and season lightly. Cook gill side down over medium coals or in the broiler for 5 minutes.

Turn the mushrooms over and spread a spoonful of pesto over the entire surface. Continue to cook for 10 minutes or until the mushrooms are very tender and the pesto is bubbling. Sprinkle the Parmesan on top of the pesto and return to broiler until cheese is melted and golden.


Dawn's Deviled Eggs
PRO/FATS AND VEGGIES -- LEVEL ONE

Makes 10
My good friend Barry Manilow has a wonderful cook named Dawn. These are her delicious deviled eggs. Her original recipe includes avocado, which makes the filling green. Try it that way for Level Two.

5 hard-boiled eggs, halved lengthwise
1 tablespoon minced scallion, white and light green parts
1 large jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
Juice from 1 lime
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste
red chili flakes for garnish

Remove the yolks from the whites. Set the whites aside. Mash the yolks in a bowl with a fork. Add the scallion, jalapeño, lime juice, mayonnaise, and salt. Add more mayonnaise to reach desired consistency. Mash with a fork until blended. Using a teaspoon, carefully stuff whites with yolk mixture, mounding the tops.
For extra heat, garnish with red chili flakes.
For Level Two
Add 1 whole mashed avocado to the egg yolk mixture.

Milk or Holly Cleggs Trim Terrific Freezer Friendly Meals

Milk: The Surprising Story of Milk Through the Ages: With 120 Adventurous Recipes That Explore the Riches of Our First Food

Author: Anne Mendelson

Part cookbook—with more than 120 enticing recipes—part culinary history, part inquiry into the evolution of an industry, Milk is a one-of-a-kind book that will forever change the way we think about dairy products.

Anne Mendelson, author of Stand Facing the Stove, first explores the earliest Old World homes of yogurt and kindred fermented products made primarily from sheep’s and goats’ milk and soured as a natural consequence of climate. Out of this ancient heritage from lands that include Greece, Bosnia, Turkey, Israel, Persia, Afghanistan, and India, she mines a rich source of culinary traditions.

Mendelson then takes us on a journey through the lands that traditionally only consumed milk fresh from the cow—what she calls the Northwestern Cow Belt (northern Europe, Great Britain, North America). She shows us how milk reached such prominence in our diet in the nineteenth century that it led to the current practice of overbreeding cows and overprocessing dairy products. Her lucid explanation of the chemical intricacies of milk and the simple home experiments she encourages us to try are a revelation of how pure milk products should really taste.

The delightfully wide-ranging recipes that follow are grouped according to the main dairy ingredient: fresh milk and cream, yogurt, cultured milk and cream, butter and true buttermilk, fresh cheeses. We learn how to make luscious Clotted Cream, magical Lemon Curd, that beautiful quasi-cheese Mascarpone, as well as homemade yogurt, sour cream, true buttermilk, and homemade butter. She gives us comfort foods such as Milk Toast and Cream of Tomato Soup alongside Panir andChhenna from India. Here, too, are old favorites like Herring with Sour Cream Sauce, Beef Stroganoff, a New Englandish Clam Chowder, and the elegant Russian Easter dessert, Paskha. And there are drinks for every season, from Turkish Ayran and Indian Lassis to Batidos (Latin American milkshakes) and an authentic hot chocolate.

This illuminating book will be an essential part of any food lover’s collection and is bound to win converts determined to restore the purity of flavor to our First Food.

Publishers Weekly

In a recipe book that is part cultural critique and part culinary history, Mendelson (Stand Facing the Stove) reaps nearly 400 fascinating pages from that most elemental of ingredients. Yet the story of dairy is perhaps not quite so surprising as the title suggests-it's more or less the story of all industrialized food production through the last century, in which the flavor and quality of natural foods have been subjugated to dietary concerns, food safety and the sheer volume needed for mass consumption. As a result, Mendelson argues, the product most Americans call milk bears very little resemblance to what initially spurts from the cow's udder. Mendelson exhaustively traces milk production and consumption back to 6000 B.C. and through the Middle East, India and Europe, where milch animals were first herded and bred. The final two-thirds of the book are divided into chapters devoted to fresh milk and cream; yogurt; cultured milk and cream; butter, true buttermilk and fresh cheese, each with traditional recipes from around the world. Aspiring cheese makers will find some basic science, and the eclectic recipes (such as French Vichyssoise, Turkish Ayran and Eastern European Kugel) are reliable and detailed. Mendelson is optimistic that a brighter future for dairying lies in the rise of small farm operations-a future in which more consumers can share her obvious passion for the product. (Oct.)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Go to: Il Viaggio Di Vetri or Williams Sonoma Collection

Holly Clegg's Trim & Terrific Freezer Friendly Meals: Quick and Healthy Recipes You Can Make in Advance

Author: Holly Clegg

Planning delicious, healthy meals for every day of the week can be time-consuming and frustrating. But with Holly Clegg's Trim & Terrific Freezer Friendly Meals, the next installment in the tremendously successful Trim & Terrific series, busy cooks can tackle weekly menus in a day or two, and spend the rest of the week enjoying the tasty rewards of their labor!

In this handy cookbook, home chefs will find more than 200 of Holly's favorite freezable recipes, all of which are designed for real-life cooks who want to prepare healthy and appetizing meals in advance without spending hours in the kitchen. This great resource includes menus for the week and special occasions, pantry stocking tips, advice on cooking light, suggestions for substitutions, and useful kitchen shortcuts. With Holly Clegg's Trim & Terrific Freezer Friendly Meals, busy home chefs have a valuable tool to help them cut out time spent in the kitchen-make-ahead meals!