Mark Bitterman is the foremost salt expert and one of the largest importers and retail distributors of Himalayan salt blocks. The precious pink mineral mined from ancient hills in Pakistan’s Punjab province has arrived on the American cooking scene as an exciting and enticing new form of cooking. Himalayan salt blocks are available at specialty retail stores around the world and the market is growing.A precious mineral mined from ancient hills deep in Asia has stormed the American cooking scene. With crystals of rose, garnet, and ice, Himalayan salt blocks offer a vessel for preparing food as stunningly visual as it is staggeringly tasty.Everyone who loves the excitement and pleasure of discovering new cooking techniques will enjoy this guide to cooking and entertaining with salt blocks. The introduction is your salt block owner’s manual, with everything you need to know to purchase, use, and maintain salt blocks with confidence. The chapters that follow divide seventy recipes into six techniques: serving, warming, curing, cooking, chilling, and of course, drinking. You’ll find recipes ranging from a minty watermelon and feta salad to salt-tinged walnut scones, beef fajitas served table-side, salt-cured candied strawberries, and salt-frozen Parmesan ice cream!  “Mark Bitterman knows more about salt than anyone else on the planet. If you’ve ever wondered what to do with those handsome slabs of Himalayan salt you see at cookware shops, Salt Block Cooking will inspire you with wildly innovative uses you’ve never dreamed of, from cocktails to candy, from curing to grilling, and from ceviche to pizza. Along the way, you’ll learn the half-billion-year history of the only food that starts as a rock.” ––Steven Raichlen, author of the Barbecue! Bible series and host of Primal Grill on PBS“Cooking on salt blocks will blow your mind, jump-start your creative process, make your food taste better, delight your friends, and cut down on the time you spend cleaning pots and pans. And what better guide for your new experience than Mark Bitterman, a man who has forgotten more about salt cookery than I will ever learn.” ––Andrew Zimmern, host of Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern on the Travel Channel“Salt Block Cooking is an essential guide to working with salt blocks. It opens readers’ eyes to possibilities never imagined before and gives a unique perspective on a completely new and interactive way to cook. Mr. Bitterman has changed the way I cook every day. He made me understand that salt is the most essential part of the seasoning process and is just as important as the ingredient itself. I encourage you to follow Mr. Bitterman’s lead and I promise you will never think about salt in the same way again.” ––Vitaly Paley, chef/owner of Paley's Place Bistro and Bar, Imperial, and Portland Penny Diner; co-author of The Paley's Place Cookbook

    So, in this groundbreaking cookbook, his first in five years, he tackles all four. Broken down into seven techniques of one-pot cooking--including braising, wokking, sauteing, high-temperature cooking, roasting, tossing, and soups--SIMPLY MING ONE-POT MEALS offers 80 recipes with Ming's well-known East-West approach. Every recipe minds its fat intakes and allergens (keeping it healthful); every dish costs roughly $20 for four servings (keeping it economical); and, for most of the recipes, you'll only have to use one vessel in which to cook (keeping it simple).Toss a Miso-Shallot Grilled Chicken Frisee Salad, braise Pork Belly and Pineapple, wok up some Black Bean Scallops and Zucchini, flash-fry Turkey Scallopini with a warm Mango-Cranberry Vinaigrette, roast a Moroccan Lamb Shoulder with Couscous, saute some Gingered Beef and Leeks, and stew a Three-Bean Chili. Yes, you can make Sweet Potato Raviolis in Thai Basil Brown Butter, Potato-Crusted Halibut with a Shaved Fennel Salad, and Asian Sloppy Joes all in one pot! Every dish is accompanied with a beverage suggestion and a full-color photograph to make your preparation even easier.Whether you're aiming to feed a family of four on a weeknight, entertaining a dinner party on a weekend, or cooking for one or two for the week ahead, you'll find inspiration in these quick and simple yet utterly delicious--one-pot meals.--front flap

    Including almost 250 recipes, Marcella's Italian Kitchen brings home cooks the authentic tastes of Italy. Here are Fettuccine with Clams and Zucchini and Veal Scaloppini with Hazelnuts and Balsamic Vinegar, Cauliflower Salad with Red Pepper, Olives, and Anchovies and Amaretti and Custard Cream Semifreddo. Drawing on her experiences growing up in Italy, Hazan has crafted the ultimate guide to Italian food.

    Chef-owner Cindy Pawlcyn, founding chef of San Francisco's original Fog City Diner, put down her roots in Napa over 15 years ago, bringing her midwestern sensibility and flair for reinventing American food to the valley. Ever since then, Mustards has been affectionately known as the fancy rib joint with way, way too many wines. Gorgeous full-color food photography from Saveur photographer Laurie Smith.      Awards2002 James Beard Award WinnerReviews"Take home some hearty American fare." —The San Jose Mercury News "Accurate views of the restaurant, its food, and its sense of fun . . . it's a feast for the eyes and the imagination." —Omaha World Herald "The recipes in MUSTARDS GRILL represent a wonderful marriage between common American foods, California produce and influences from Latin American and Asian immigrants."—New Orleans Times Picayune "The book is a perfect reflection of its author's eclectic style that melds sophistication and global inspirations with an earthy American quality."—San Francisco Chronicle "Like its namesake, the cookbook is bright and bountiful, with a touch of tongue-in-cheek flippancy." —Charleston Post & Courier"A feast for the eyes with no muss and fuss." —The Los Angeles Daily News "The book is as honest as the chef" and the "dreamy desserts . . . are the epitome of comfort."—Santa Rosa Press Democrat"Pawlcyn's casual writing style gives the reader a feel for her restaurant, and her easy-to-follow recipes are accompanied by chatty—and helpful—notes." —Minneapolis Star Tribune"[MUSTARDS GRILL is] a place that's sophisticated without being pretentious. The recipes in this cookbook are no different." —American Way"Mustards is universally loved by local residents and tourists alike for its smoky, tender, spicy baby back ribs; cornmeal-coated fried green tomatoes; tasty Asian-marinated flank steak; Chinese chicken noodle salad; and, of course, Mustards' always-crisp tangle of deep-fried onion threads. The enduring vitality of this place comes from the fact [that Cindy Pawlcyn] put all the dishes she loved on the menu: country dishes transformed by her sprightly offbeat style and sparkle." —FOOD LOVER'S GUIDE TO SAN FRANCISCO"As the first (some would say the best) in a string of successful, precedent-breaking restaurants originated by chef Cindy Pawlcyn. It changed Napa Valley and took the stuffiness out of dining by showing that Americans could be as serious about food and wine as the French, but have more fun." —Gourmet

    Adam's new techniques, from roughing up meat and vegetables ("scruffing") to cooking directly on hot coals ("clinching") to constantly turning and moving the meat while cooking ("hot potato"), produce crust formation and layers of flavor, while his board dressings and finishing salts build upon delicious meat juices, and his "fork finishers"—like cranberry, hatch chile, and mango "spackles"—provide an intensely flavorful, concentrated end note. Meanwhile, side dishes such as Creamed Spinach with Steeped and Smoked Garlic Confit, Scruffed Carbonara Potatoes, and Charred Radicchio with Sweet-and-Sticky Balsamic and Bacon, far from afterthoughts, provide exciting contrast and synergy with the "mains."

    In Mastering Cheese, he shares the wealth of his expertise to help cheese lovers on their path to connoisseurship. After years of teaching courses for amateurs at the Artisanal Premium Cheese Center, where he is Dean of Curriculum, McCalman has developed a compelling set of classes for understanding and ex-periencing cheese. A full master's course in a book, Mastering Cheese covers the world of cheese in twenty-two distinct lessons, featuring tasting plates that deliciously demonstrate key topics. For example, a chapter titled "Stunning Stinkers" explains why some of the strongest-smelling cheeses can be among the best tasting and then recommends several stars of this category. Learn about the issues facing real raw-milk cheeses and then go out and taste the differences between these cheeses and those made with pasteurized milk.  For the first time in any of his books, McCalman includes extensive information on the modern artisanal cheese revolution in the United States and prominently features these artisans and their products alongside the famous cheeses of Italy, France, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Complete with helpful charts and an invaluable index of more than 300 cheeses, Mastering Cheese is the definitive course that you can use in your own home to pursue your passion for cheese.

    From Pear Bellinis to Carrot and Chickpea Dip, from Campanelle with Fennel and Shrimp to Berry Tiramisu--these are dishes your guests will love, no matter the occasion. Here, too, are Lidia's suggestions for hosting a BBQ, making pizza for a group, choosing the perfect wine, setting an inviting table, and much more. Beautifully illustrated throughout with full-color photographs and filled with her trademark warmth and enthusiasm, this is Lidia's most festive book. Whether you're planning a romantic picnic for two, a child's birthday party, a holiday gathering, or a simple weeknight family dinner, Lidia's flavorful, easy-to-follow recipes and advice will have you calling to your guests: "Tutti a tavola a mangiare!"

    THE AMISH COOK, a full-color cookbook based on Elizabeth's columns, compiles more than 75 traditional Amish recipes, photographs of the Coblentz farm, practical gardening tips, cherished family tales, and firsthand accounts of traditional Amish events like corn-husking bees and barn raisings. A truly unique collaboration between a simple Amish grandmother and a modern-day newspaperman, THE AMISH COOK is a poignant and authentic look at a disappearing way of life.‚Ä¢ ‚ÄúThe Amish Cook‚Äù column is syndicated in more than 100 newspapers nationwide.‚Ä¢ Elizabeth wrote THE AMISH COOK in longhand by the light of a kerosene lamp.‚Ä¢ Elizabeth has been a writer for the Amish newspaper, The Budget, for 40 years.

    Now imagine the same fruit distilled and carbonated for a refreshing soda, slow-roasted for a reinvented strawberry shortcake, made into a creamy strawberry ice cream and a chewy strawberry leather, and combined with coconut cream and crisp chocolate pastry. Alone, each dessert is a taste of paradise, but together this “fourplay,” or tasting, created by Johnny Iuzzini, superstar pastry chef of the celebrated four-star restaurant Jean Georges in New York, is a sophisticated explosion of a familiar flavor that begins with the taste of strawberry rich on your tongue and ends with an effervescent tingle in your nose. Far from the conventional slice of cake at the end of a meal, Johnny’s seasonal creations—four mini desserts in a quartet of complementary flavors and textures—are a culinary adventure. In Dessert FourPlay, he shares his secrets and inspirations, delivering standout recipes for incredible desserts that can be served alone or combined into his signature fourplay groupings, creating the perfect sweet finale for any meal.With the home cook in mind, Johnny offers tips on simplifying professional recipes and provides basic recipes for transcendent cakes, cookies, tuiles, ice creams, sorbets, granités, and more. These building blocks can be used to create magnificent multifaceted desserts, or they can be perfect desserts by themselves. Some recipes have surprising versatility: the shiny smooth chocolate glaze Johnny uses to ice cakes doubles as the ultimate hot fudge sauce; a lemony madeleine batter becomes a layer in a cake.Iuzzini pairs cool with hot, crispy with creamy, sweet with spicy, and the expected—chocolate, strawberries, and cinnamon—with the unexpected—chiles, beets, and chocolatey puffs. The result: desserts that refresh, inspire, and satisfy beyond expectations. Dessert FourPlay invigorates all the senses and inspires home cooks to create innovative desserts of their own.

    So in March 2001 he opened a new restaurant, Craft, that offered diners simple, soulful dishes centered around single ingredients that went on to shake up many people's ideas of what "restaurant food" should be like.Craft of Cooking leads you through Colicchio's thought process in choosing raw materials--like what to look for in fresh fish, or how to choose the perfect mushroom--to show that good food is available to anyone with access to a good supermarket, farm stand, or gourmet grocery. The book also features "Day-in-the-Life-of-Craft" portraits, which offer a fascinating, behind-the-scenes glimpse at areas of the restaurant beyond the dining room. These segments allow you to peer into the fast-paced prep kitchen, to witness the high drama of reservations, and to get a taste of the humor and empathy necessary to serve New York's colorful visitors and foodies.Using Tom's straightforward and friendly voice, Craft of Cooking offers recipes suited to any purpose--from a quick family meal to a festive dinner party for twelve.

    Patricia Wells' Trattoria now feeds America's passion for Italian food with 150 authentic recipes. Savor a Fresh Artichoke Omelet, succulent Lamb Braised in White Wine, Garlic, and Hot Peppers, a hearty portion of Lasagne with Basil, Garlic, and Tomato Sauce, or a luscious Fragrant Orange and Lemon Cake, and much more. This essential cookbook of Italian trattorias presents a full range of homemade recipes for antipasti, soups, dried and fresh pastas, polenta, seafood, poultry, and meat, with special chapters on breads, pizzas, and desserts. Come explore the heart and soul of Italian cooking in Patricia Wells' Trattoria.

    The 140 easy-to-make recipes provide a mouthwatering way to eat great, lose weight, lower blood pressure and prevent diabetes without feeling deprived.QUICK AND HEARTY BREAKFASTS• Berry Banana Green Smoothie• Veggie Frittata with Caramelized OnionsENERGY-BOOSTING LUNCHES• Mexican Summer Salad• Chicken Fajita WrapsFAST AND FABULOUS SNACKS• Roasted Zucchini Crostini Dip• Grilled Sweet Potato Steak FriesSATISFYINGLY DELICIOUS DINNERS• Turkey Meatballs in Marinara Sauce• Ginger-Apricot Chicken SkewersTASTY AND WHOLESOME DESSERTS• Grilled Peaches with Ricotta Stuffing and Balsamic Glaze• Mini Cheesecakes with Vanilla Wafer Almond CrustNamed the number-one diet in terms of weight loss, nutrition and prevention of diabetes and heart disease, DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) is the best diet for a fit lifestyle. Including a 28-day meal plan, easy-to-follow exercise advice and tips for keeping to the diet when on the go, this cookbook is the ultimate guide to living healthy.

    But how? Karrie Truman, creator of the much-beloved blog Happy Money Saver, is going to let you in on a secret: the answer is freezer meals.When she was an exhausted young mom, Karrie found herself serving processed or fast food at the end of a busy day even though she knew it wasn't what she wanted her family to be eating. Then she discovered freezer meals. Immediately, she had home-cooked, easy and delicious food at her fingertips and more time to spend with loved ones.In Seriously Good Freezer Meals, Karrie shares 150 recipes photos that will change the way you think about freezer cooking. You won't find your mother or grandmother's freezer meals here (except lasagna, of course). Her recipes include Morning Energy Bars, Empanada Hand Pies, Coconut Cashew Basil Curry Soup, Smoky Grilled Louisiana Turkey Legs, and Layered Chocolate Mousse Cake with tons of vegetarian, gluten-free and vegan options, too. Plus, she adds a bulk-batch chart for ease in making large quantities of each freezer-meal recipe.Karrie gives you all the tools you need to become a freezer-meal genius: information on shopping, cooking, freezing, thawing and everything in between. The book includes beginner, intermediate and advanced meal plan programs to guide you in cooking 7 to 50 meals in a day. You read that right: 50 meals in a day. No more excuses: it's time to start cooking delicious meals that will have you feeling anything but left out in the cold!

    I've spent my life developing my voice and my recipes, and to tell you the truth, I'm hard pressed to say where I'm happiest--in concert or in the kitchen, making music or making meals." For Patti, cooking is about love. Taught by the great Southern cooks in her family--her mother, father, and aunts Hattie Mae and Joshia Mae--Patti LaBelle has kept these family heirlooms close to her heart. But now, she invites you into her kitchen and serves up more than 100 of her favorite recipes, from treasured down-home favorites--Say-My-Name Smothered Chicken and Gravy, Fierce Fried Corn, and Aunt Hattie's Scrumptious Sweet Tater Bread--to good-enough-for-dinner-parties dishes--Shrimp Etouffee, Roast Leg of Lamb with Rosemary-Lemon Rub, and Aunt Mary's Philadelphia Buttercake. Wherever Patti goes, so do her electric frying pans and bottles of hot sauce. After her raise-the-roof shows, she often goes back to her hotel room and whips up a meal for her band or celebrity visitors. When she's home--at holiday time and at family gatherings--or just after one of her sold-out concert tours, Patti likes nothing more than to head for her kitchen and cook her Geechee Geechee Ya Ya Gumbo, Pass-It-On Pot Roast, or Burnin' Babyback Ribs. And like her bestselling memoir, Don't Block the Blessings, her accompanying personal reminiscences will fill your heart just as her recipes will fill your stomach. Patti LaBelle's LaBelle Cuisine has the recipes you'll want to cook, eat, and share with friends. Filled with the legendary diva's favorite dishes and step-by-step instructions on how to prepare them, LaBelle Cuisine makes you feel like Patti's in the kitchen with you, demonstrating the recipes and techniques that can turn anybody into a fabulous cook.

    Though the subject is so familiar to us all, her approach is totally original, just as it was in her award-winning Roasting: A Simple Art and Microwave Gourmet. In a wonderfully diverse collection of nearly three hundred recipes from all over the world--some traditional, some newly minted, many so simple they require no cooking at all, each of them very much a part of our spiritual and emotional lives--she offers up a lifetime worth of pleasure:icy soups for steamy days (ceviche soup with ginger) and hot soups for cold days (winter duck soup)rustic potages (great green soup) and elegant consommes (beef madrilene)simple soups to start (Moroccan tomato) and complex soups that make a meal (beef short ribs in a pot)fifteen-minute specials (mussels and tomato soup) and those that simmer all day (pot-au-feu)a magical garlic broth, among other vegetable broths and bases, gives vegetarians hundreds of recipes to enjoy As always, Barbara's intelligence and talent for innovation have resulted in a vast body of ideas to make your life in the kitchen easy and interesting. Nearly thirty stocks are offered, as well as dozens of ways to use seasonal produce to cook and freeze soup bases for year-round fresh taste. You'll find cooking times for everything from dumplings and piroshki to noodles and pasta, simmering times for every possible cut of meat, and yields and blanching times for dozens of vegetables. There are easy-to-follow charts to answer every cooking question.And then there's Barbara's "memory pieces." Woven through the recipes, they form a book within a book, one family's personal and culinary history. They're fascinating and warming and enriching on their own. They also remind us why soup is a vital part of our lives. And why Barbara Kafka is a vital part of our cooking experience.