And a bite of brown sugar pie was all it took."I shamelessly wangled supper invitations from my playmates," Anderson admits. "But I was on a voyage of discovery, and back then iron-skillet corn bread seemed more exotic than my mom's Boston brown bread and yellow squash pudding more appealing than mashed parsnips."After college up north, Anderson worked in rural North Carolina as an assistant home demonstration agent, scarfing good country cooking seven days a week: crispy "battered" chicken, salt-rising bread, wild persimmon pudding, Jerusalem artichoke pickles, Japanese fruitcake. Later, as a New York City magazine editor, then a freelancer, Anderson covered the South, interviewing cooks and chefs, sampling local specialties, and scribbling notebooks full of recipes.Now, at long last, Anderson shares her lifelong exploration of the South's culinary heritage and not only introduces the characters she met en route but also those men and women who helped shape America's most distinctive regional cuisine—people like Thomas Jefferson, Mary Randolph, George Washington Carver, Eugenia Duke, and Colonel Harlan Sanders.Anderson gives us the backstories on such beloved Southern brands as Pepsi-Cola, Jack Daniel's, Krispy Kreme doughnuts, MoonPies, Maxwell House coffee, White Lily flour, and Tabasco sauce. She builds a time line of important southern food firsts—from Ponce de León's reconnaissance in the "Island of Florida" (1513) to the reactivation of George Washington's still at Mount Vernon (2007). For those who don't know a Chincoteague from a chinquapin, she adds a glossary of southern food terms and in a handy address book lists the best sources for stone-ground grits, country ham, sweet sorghum, boiled peanuts, and other hard-to-find southern foods.Recipes? There are two hundred classic and contemporary, plain and fancy, familiar and unfamiliar, many appearing here for the first time. Each recipe carries a headnote—to introduce the cook whence it came, occasionally to share snippets of lore or back-stairs gossip, and often to explain such colorful recipe names as Pine Bark Stew, Chicken Bog, and Surry County Sonker.Add them all up and what have you got? One lip-smackin' southern feast!A Love Affair with Southern Cooking is the winner of the 2008 James Beard Foundation Book Award, in the Americana category.

    Not only is its fare local, seasonal, organic, and sustainable, but also so flavorful and satisfying that customers—vegan and omnivore alike—are constantly asking for recipes to cook at home. This collection answers that call, with simple yet impressive recipes for Chickpea Crepes, Ginger-Seitan Dumplings, Live Lasagna, Chocolate Mousse Towers, Cucumber-Basil Martinis, and more. Expanding the horizons of vegan fare with appetizers, soups, salads, mains, brunches, desserts, cocktails, and wine pairings, Candle 79 Cookbook invites every home cook to make truly green cuisine.

    Her one-of-a-kind cakes and cookies are not only served with ice cream, they get crumbled on top and incorporated into the ice cream base itself.Sundae combinations dazzle with bold and inspired sauces, such as Whiskey Caramel and Honey Spiked with Chilies. And Jeni’s crunchy “gravels” (crumbly sundae toppings)—such as Salty Graham Gravel and Everything Bagel Gravel—are unlike toppings anyone has ever seen before.Store-bought ice cream can be used for all the desserts in the book, but it will be hard to resist Jeni’s breakthrough recipes for dairy-free ice cream, frozen custard, and soft-serve. Thirty brand-new flavors, including Cumin & Honey Butterscotch and Extra-Strength Root Beer Ice Cream, attest to the magic of this unique and alluring collection.

    In Blissful Bites: Vegan Meals That Nourish Mind, Body, and Planet, Christy Morgan shows readers how to make healthy, delicious, animal-product free meals without a lot of effort. It’s been long-accepted that giving up animal products also means giving up easy and enjoyable cooking, but that’s just not true. Blissful Bites is a refreshing introduction to the idea that switching to a plant-based diet that uses locally grown and organic products can be easy and rewarding—for both body and mind.Blissful Bites includes more than 150 recipes that make eating every meal healthier and exciting. Morgan, known to her online audience as "The Blissful Chef,” also delivers recipes that are easy for the typical home cook to follow, making a plant-based diet seem simpler and more delicious to implement than ever before.Blissful Bites is filled with unique recipes and plenty of tips on how to live a healthier, more environmentally friendly life, without sacrificing an ounce of taste.

    Now this book serves up Magpie's seasonal menu for home bakers everywhere: the fruity, creamy, and nutty pies; hand pies, pot pies, and quiches; and even pie shakes and pie "fries," all fine-tuned to exacting standards and with lots of step-by-step instruction for that all-important crust. Baker-owner Holly Ricciardi's upbringing deep in the Central Pennsylvania countryside provided the basis for Magpie's perfect synthesis of classic favorites and new twists-alongside down-home favorites like Sweet Crumb Pie and Shoofly Pie you'll find Holly's bourbon-infused update of her great-grandmother's special butterscotch pie as well as the ingenious (and instant-sellout) Cookie Dough Hand Pies. More than 90 recipes also include sweets like:Cranberry Curd Mini Meringue PiesBlueberry Rhuby Rose PieChocolate Blackout PieAnd savories like:Summer Squash PieHam-Leek-Dijon PotpiesQuiche LorraineFrom crusts to crumbles and sumptuous savories to sweet confections, there's a Magpie pie for every occasion.

    In Sinfully Vegan, author Lois Dieterly has "veganized" all the traditional favorites -- including chocolate cake, fudge, cheesecake, apple pie, and strawberry shortcake -- without sacrificing the great flavor, and offers many brand-new recipes for cooks to add to their dessert repertoire. Sinfully Vegan's 140 recipes cover the full spectrum of desserts -- from cakes, candies, cookies, and brownies to pies, tarts, puddings, and breads -- all of which are dairy- and eggfree, and even includes a section with wheat-free alternatives. Complete with helpful pantry-stocking tips and nutritional breakdowns for each recipe, Sinfully Vegan offers a sumptuous array of dessert choices and is perfect for all those vegans out there yearning for something sweet to satisfy their cravings.

     If, sooner or later, we all face the prospect of eating alone, then Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant provides the perfect set of instructions. In this unique collection, twenty-six writers and foodies invite readers into their kitchens to reflect on the secret meals they make for themselves when no one else is looking: the indulgent truffled egg sandwich, the comforting bowl of black beans, the bracing anchovy fillet on buttered toast. From Italy to New York to Cape Cod to Thailand, from M. F. K. Fisher to Steve Almond to Nora Ephron, the experiences collected in this book are as diverse, moving, hilarious, and uplifting as the meals they describe. Haruki Murakami finds solace in spaghetti. Ephron mends a broken heart with mashed potatoes in bed. Ann Patchett trades the gourmet food she cooks for others for endless snacks involving saltines. Marcella Hazan, responsible for bringing sophisticated Italian cuisine into American homes, craves a simple grilled ham-and-cheese sandwich. Courtney Eldridge, divorced from a fancy chef, reconnects with the salsa she learned to cook from her cash-strapped mother. Rosa Jurjevics reflects on the influence of her mother, Laurie Colwin, as she stocks her home with salty treats. Almost all of the essays include recipes, making this book the perfect companion for a happy, lonely-or just hungry-evening home alone. Part solace, part celebration, part handbook, Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant offers a wealth of company, inspiration, and humor-and, finally, recipes that require no division or subtraction.

    Now anyone with too many tasks and not enough time can use her technique to get dinner on the table in an hour or less, with no more than twenty minutes of hands-on prep work—and just one pot to clean. All it takes is a Dutch oven and a few basic fresh or even frozen ingredients layered--never stirred. Glorious One-Pot Meals provides the most convenient method yet of serving highly nutritious, satisfying suppers every night of the week.

    The daughter of a respected cookbook editor and a Chinese cooking enthusiast, Alex developed a passion for food at a young age, sealing her professional fate. Old-School Comfort Food shares her journey from waist-high taste-tester to trained chef who now adores spending time in the kitchen with her daughter, along with the 100 recipes for how she learned to cook—and the way she still loves to eat.Here are Alex’s secrets to great home cooking, where humble ingredients and familiar preparations combine with excellent technique and care to create memorable meals. Alex brings her recipes to life with reminiscences of everything from stealing tomatoes from her aunt’s garden and her first bite of her mother’s pâté to being one of the few women in the kitchen of a renowned Parisian restaurant and serving celebrity clientele in her own successful New York City establishments. With 75 color photographs and ephemera, Old-School Comfort Food is Alex’s love letter to deliciousness.

    In this delectable cookbook, Krystina Castella offers more than 150 irresistible cake recipes from around the world, accompanied by mouthwatering photographs and insights into unique cultural traditions. Discover exciting new flavors and innovative twists on your favorite desserts as you explore the sweet delights of a variety of chiffons, fruitcakes, meringues, and more.

    Home bakers will recognize classic treats such as profiteroles, peach cobbler, and spiced Bundt cake, and be delighted by the ways they are reinvented with chocolate stout, almond liqueur, and even Järmeister. Featuring more than 30 full-color photographs, the book also includes sidebars throughout with instructions for preparing funky cocktails that add a punchy compliment to many of the recipes. Whether you are a pastry perfectionist or a one-bowl beginner, a bonafide mixologist or just looking for a way to polish off a few dusty bottles, this cookbook is sure to become a favorite, its pages splattered with chocolate, sprinkled with sugar, and garnished with a twist.

    Go beyond the pale of iceberg lettuce with recipes for indulgent salads of plant-based proteins, vibrant veggies, and zesty dressings.

    Now you want to know, “What can I cook that’s good for me, but doesn’t taste like crap?” Well, lucky for you, the Bitches are on the case. Self-proclaimed pigs, Rory and Kim understand all too well: Life without lasagna isn’t a life worth living; chocolate cake is vital to our survival; and no one can live without mac ‘n cheese-no one. So can you keep to your SB standards and eat like a whale? Shit yeah, bitches. To prove it, Rory and Kim came up with some kick-ass recipes for every craving there is: Bitchin’ Breakfasts PMS (Pissy Mood Snacks) Sassy Soups and Stews Grown-up Appetizers Comfort Cookin’ Hearty Ass Sandwiches Happy Endings (Desserts) And a ton more! They are all so good (and easy to make) you’re gonna freak out. Seriously. What are you waiting for? Get your skinny ass in the kitchen!

    Furthermore it presents recipes from the Palestinian home, rather than those traditionally found in restaurants.The recipes found in Palestine on a Plate, although less fatty, less fussy and less time-consuming to prepare than their original incarnations, are largely unchanged since the author's grandmothers' days. The book has many photographs.

    But don't be fooled by its unassuming location—stumbling across the Bakery, as countless visitors have done on their way up and down the Pacific Coast, will make you feel as if you've discovered a secret: a gem of a restaurant where the food, people, and atmosphere meld together in a perfect embodiment of the spirit of Big Sur.The three restaurant owners, chef Philip Wojtowicz, baker Michelle Wojtowicz, and host Michael Gilson, escaped the Los Angeles food scene to create their version of the ideal restaurant, nestled in the heart of some of the most beautiful country in the world. This is simple, wood-fired American cooking at its best, executed in a way that lets the ingredients—seasonal and often locally produced—shine. Weekend brunches feature thick, nine-grain pancakes and savory breakfast pizza topped with crisp bacon, fresh herbs, and pasture-raised eggs. At night, Phil offers classics like Grilled Prime Rib Steak with Red Wine Sauce along with twists on traditional favorites like Venison Osso Buco or Rockfish Scampi. And every meal should end with one of Michelle's great desserts, whether it's a homemade Peppermint Ice Cream Sundae or Hazelnut Flan with Roasted Cherries.But this is more than a cookbook; it's a yearlong glimpse into what it's really like to live in Big Sur, introducing the people and places that make the restaurant's renowned food possible, including Wayne Hyland, hunter and forager, Jamie Collins, organic row cropper, and Gary Pisoni, the eccentric vintner who supplies some of the restaurant's most beloved wine. With its outstanding photography, lively profiles, and dozens of must-make recipes, this book helps bring the experience of Big Sur home.