Chefs at many fine restaurants offer guests an amuse-bouche, a bite-sized treat that excites the tongue and delights the eye, before the meal is served. Nobody does it better than the celebrated executive chef/partner of Chicago’s Tru, Rick Tramonto. Amuse-bouche are a fa-vorite of diners at Tru, many of whom come expressly to enjoy the “grand amuse"--an assortment of four different taste sensations.Amuse-Bouche offers an array of recipes, from elegant and sophisticated to casual and surprising—but always exquisite—that will inspire home cooks to share these culinary jewels with their guests. From Black Mission Figs with Mascarpone Foam and Prosciutto di Parma to Curried Three-Bean Salad, from Soft Polenta with Forest Mushrooms to Blue Cheese Foam with Port Wine Reduction, Tramonto’s creations will embolden the novice and the experienced cook alike to experiment with unfamiliar ingredients and techniques.Organized by type of amuse and season of the year, the book also includes a directory of sources for specialty products. With more than a hundred recipes and with fifty-two full-page color photographs by James Beard Award--winning photographer Tim Turner, Amuse-Bouche enchants the eyes as much as an amuse pleases the palate.

    Author James Peterson, who wrote the book Sauces, a James Beard Cookbook of the Year winner, and the incomparable Splendid Soups, once again demonstrates his connoisseurship with Fish & Shellfish, a monumental cookbook that will take its rightful place as the first and last word on seafood preparation and cooking.Fish & Shellfish demonstrates every conceivable method for preparing sumptuous meals of fish and shellfish, from baking, braising, deep-frying, grilling and broiling to poaching, panfrying, marinating, curing and smoking, steaming, and microwaving. Whether your taste runs strictly to shellfish or to everything seafood, Fish & Shellfish offers the equivalent of a complete cookbook on each subject. Within the chapters on finfish you'll learn how to prepare enticing recipes remarkable for their ease of preparation, their versatility, and their originality Here Peterson offers such splendid flavors and textures as succulent Stuffed Striped Bass with Spinach, Shrimp, and Mushrooms; crunchy Halibut Fillets with Curry, Herbs, and Almond Crust; delicate Salmon Fillets A la Nage with Julienned Vegetables; savory Braised Tuna with Vegetables; and fiery Thai-Style Swordfish Satay.If it's shellfish you prefer, there are pages and pages of recipes for baking, frying, steaming, or serving raw everything in a shell, including mussels, clams, oysters, scallops, lobster, shrimp, crab, and crayfish. Peterson explains how to judge freshness and how to prepare shellfish delights, including lemony-flavored Steamed Mussels with Thai Green Curry; aromatic Littleneck Clams in Black BeanScented Broth; a simple and comforting Linguine with Clam Sauce; elegant Hot Oysters with Leeks and White Wine Sauce; rich and savory Braised Scallops with Tomatoes and Fresh Basil; Steamed Lobster with Coconut Milk and Thai Spices; Shrimp with Tomato Sauce, Saffron Aioli, and Pesto; hit-the-spot Sautéed Crab Cakes; and Japanese Style Grilled Squid, to name but a few of the brilliant and vast array of wonderful seafood selections.Fish & Shellfishalso offers techniques for preparing raw, marinated, cured, and smoked fish.As you exploreFish & Shellfish, you'll learn not only the essentials of seafood preparation but everything in between, including how to make a curry sauce, which red wines to cook with, how to fry parsley, and how to make Vietnamese dipping sauces. You'll learn the secrets of a variety of coatings, how to blacken fish, add stuffings, and deglaze the pan for sauces, as well as discover the delights of salsas, chutneys, relishes, mayonnaises, and butters.Here is seafood in every incarnation, from soups, stews, and pastas to mousses, soufflés, and salads. Try everything from pureed Marseilles-Style Fish Soup and Moroccan Swordfish Tagine with Olives and Saffron to Homemade Cuttlefish-Ink Linguine, and Crayfish Stew with Tomatoes, Sorrel, and Vegetables.Jim Peterson has traveled the world and brought back the best international seafood flavors, textures, and techniques. Now you can improvise on your own with Thai marinades, Indian spices and condiments, and Japanese grilling methods, all of which play off more familiar ingredients to produce memorable dishes.At the end of Fish & Shellfish you'll find a complete Finfish Dictionary, where you'll learn all you need to know about more than sixty species of saltwater and freshwater fish. There's also a 32-page section of color photographs that pictures many of the mouthwatering recipes in the book. And the step-by-step pictorials in the color section will show you how to prepare fish and shellfish for cooking.James Peterson's books have been hailed as the most companionable and dependable of cooking guides. Replete with tables, timing charts, advice about equipment, safety preparations, a glossary of foreign ingredients, and an exhaustive index, Fish & Shellfish will give you the power of flexibility and spontaneity as it transforms you into an accomplished seafood cook. Here is a fundamental cookbook that you will come to depend on every time you think seafood-and now you'll be thinking seafood all the time.

    Curtis Stone, host of Top Chef Masters and Around the World in 80 Plates, provides a culinary road map of time-saving kitchen solutions and delicious dishes for every day of the week.

    THERE’S ALWAYS SOMETHING TO CELEBRATE IN LIFE, AND THERE’S NO BETTER WAY TO CELEBRATE THAN WITH SOME DECADENT, MOUTHWATERING CAKE!NO MATTER YOUR CONFIDENCE IN BAKING, Mandy Merriman—the Blondie of the popular blog Baking with Blondie—is here to help you think outside the cakebox and create easy, delicious, beautiful cakes that you’ll definitely want to show off.WITH OVER 50 CAKE AND FROSTING RECIPES, you’re sure to find the perfect cake for any summer extravaganza, neighborhood bake-off, or cozy holiday retreat with flavors including• Hot-Fudge Sundae• Maple Cinnamon• Honey-Roasted Peanut Butter• Brown Butter Banana Salted Caramel• Chocolate-Dipped Strawberry• Cotton Candy• Fruity Pebbles• Caramel Apple Cider• Neapolitan• And more!SO DUST OFF YOUR APRON, mixer, and piping bags and get ready to create some buttercream joy!

    Armed with only a saucepan, a cake pan, and a sharp knife (and ingredients!), readers can be well on their way to a gorgeous batch of Jelly Shots.

    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.

    At a time when money worries are front-page news, Britain's most trusted cook, Delia Smith, is once again at hand with a collection of recipes that are cost-cutting and easy to prepare.

    She combed through community cookbooks and searched out long-lost heirloom recipes, sure-handedly reworking every recipe in her own kitchen. THE ALL-AMERICAN COOKIE BOOK celebrates regional gems from every corner of the country: Pennsylvania Dutch Soft Sugar Cookies, New York Black and Whites, New Mexican Biscochitos, Key Lime Frosties from Florida, and Mocha Espresso Wafers from Seattle. A sophisticated hazelnut chocolate sandwich cookie that was the closely guarded secret of an Oregon hostess is here, and so is a delightfully crisp (and easy to roll out) old-fashioned gingerbread cookie recreated from a handwritten 1880 notebook. Homespun classics abound: Chocolate Whoopie Pies, Caramel Apple Crumb Bars, Chocolate Chunk Brownies, and Caramel-Frosted Brown Sugar Drops. The collection also features devastatingly delicious contemporary creations like Chewy Chocolate Chunk Monster Cookies and Cranberry-Cherry Icebox Ribbons. For children and adults alike, one of the most exciting chapters will be the lavishly illustrated “Cookie Decorating and Crafts,” which includes everything from simple projects like Christmas cookies and Chocolate Gingerbread Bears to an elaborate gingerbread house. As Nancy Baggett tells the story of America’s heritage, she slips in fascinating bits of history, showing the evolution of our homegrown baking traditions.

    After a long day on air, Chris would often arrive home hungry and delight at the sight of a big pot of his wife Lorraine's soup on the burner. Lorraine may not be a professional cook, but you wouldn't know it from her soups!In fact, her soups were so good that Chris couldn't help but rave about them on-air. Before long, the show's fans were begging him to share his wife's wonderful recipes. Now, in Mr. Sunday's Soups, Lorraine Wallace shares a wide variety of soups that are sure to please the whole family.Includes 78 recipes and 40 beautiful full-color photosWith recipes such as Tortellini Meatball, Cuban Black Bean, Chicken Garlic Straciatella, and many moreThe perfect cookbook for fans of Fox News Sunday and great soups in generalFeatures a Foreword by Chris WallacePerfect as comfort food at the end of a long day at the office or the studio, these satisfying soups offer simple, wholesome solutions to the dinner doldrums.

    Rick Stein's Seafood brings together his knowledge and expertise, and includes 200 of his tried-and-tested recipes.The book is divided into three separate sections: Techniques; Recipes and, finally, an A to Z of Fish. The techniques section covers all the main preparation methods – including how to fillet, scale and gut fish – as well as the cooking methods for each type of fish (round, flat, shellfish etc), while the A-Z of fish is a comprehensive encyclopedia of fish and seafood including US, Australian and European fish. The recipe section includes all the essential basic recipes, such as stocks, sauces, batters etc. Useful cross references link all sections.Rick Stein's Seafood has been an international bestseller and was awarded the highly coveted James Beard Foundation Cookbook of the Year Award in 2005.

    Taken from Britains top-selling BBC Good Food magazine, these imaginitive and easy recipes are guaranteed to guide you to baking success.From such delicious classics as Authentic Yorkshire Parkin and Shortbread, and the imaginative combinations of Raspberry and Blueberry Lime Drizzle Cake or Cranberry and Poppy Seed Muffins, to spectacular cakes such as Seriously Rich Chocolate Cake, there's plenty to keep your family and friends happy.These quick and easy recipes have been specially chosen to help even the busiest people enjoy delicious, fresh, home-cooked food. Each recipe is written with simple step-by-step instructions and is accompanied by a useful nutritional analysis and a full-colour photograph, so you can cook with complete confidence.

     Each section of My Paleo Patisserie introduces and adapts the fundamental elements and techniques of traditional patisserie baking for the grain-free baker. With dozens of beloved culinary standards and hundreds of potential recipe combinations, My Paleo Patisserie is an indispensable resource of creative confectionery for the grain-free baker.

    In a book with 60 full-color photos the star of the Food Network's Tyler's Ultimate celebrates the pleasures of cooking with wholesome, local, in-season ingredients by discussing how his life influenced his food philosophy and providing delectableTitle: Tyler Florence Family MealAuthor: Florence, TylerPublisher: St Martins PrPublication Date: 2010/10/12Number of Pages: 301Binding Type: HARDCOVERLibrary of Congress: 2010035300

    Renowned children's cooking and nutrition expert Annabel Karmel shares more than 120 healthy, creative recipe ideas as well as time-saving hints and tips that will help you make a complete and nutritious lunch without increasing the chaos of your morning routine. Lunch Boxes and Snacks is packed with mouthwatering recipes that can boost your child's brainpower, increase energy, and strengthen the immune system. You'll find a wide range of delicious and easy lunch ideas, from Oriental Turkey Wraps, Individual Focaccia Pizzas, and Chicken Superfood Salad to Trail Mix Bars and Fruit on a Stick, that guarantee that your child will be the envy of the cafeteria. In Lunch Boxes and Snacks you will find: Inspirations for hot meals that can be packed in a thermos for winter days Quick recipes that can be prepared in advance and kept in the fridge or freezer Tips to get your child involved in the lunch-making process Helpful hints on packing your child's lunch box so that food stays safe to eat With Annabel's help, even the busiest parents can easily pack a healthy and tasty lunch that their child will look forward to eating.

    It's called Seattle. Here you'll find everything from Japanese bento box lunches and Thai satays to steaming bowls of Vietnamese soups and all-American blackberry cobblers. No chef embodies this diversity with more flair and more flavor than chef/author/restaurateur Tom Douglas. And no book does it better than Tom Douglas' Seattle Kitchen.Tom's creativity with local ingredients and his respect for Seattle's ethnic traditions have helped put his three restaurants and Seattle on the national culinary map. Join Tom and celebrate the Emerald City's rich culinary tradition: sweet I Dungeness crabs, razor clams, rich artisan cheeses, and deeply flavored Northwest beers. Share in the delight of sophisticated Washington wines, coffee fresh vegetables, fruits, and the exotic flavors of the Pacific Rim countries.Tom Douglas' style is laid-back sophistication with a dash of humor. You can see it in the names of his chapters, "Starch Stacking," "Slow Dancing," and "Mo' Poke, Dadu" (this last title, courtesy of his daughter, Loretta, means "More Pork, Daddy"). And you can taste it in his signature dishes such as Dungeness Crabcakes with Green Cocktail Sauce, Roast Duck with Huckleberry Sauce and Parsnip-Apple Hash, Udon with Sea Scallops in Miso Broth, and Triple Cream Coconut Pie.Try his hearty Long-Bone Short Ribs with Chinook Merlot Gravy and Rosemary WhiteBeans or spicy Fire-roasted Oysters with Ginger Threads and Wasabi Butter. Relax in the comfort of the comfort foods he prepares for his own family: Loretta's Buttermilk Pancakes with Wild Blackberries, Basic Barbecued Baby Back Ribs, and Five-Spice Angel Food Cake. They're all clear, simple recipes that'll have you cooking like Tom Douglas from the very first page.But this is more than a cookbook; it's a food lover's guide to Seattle. Join Tom on a tour of his city with his list of top ten best things to do -- and eat -- in Seattle, from his favorite ethnic markets and neighborhoods to where to get the best breakfast.Why not turn your kitchen into a Seattle kitchen? All it takes is a little help and inspiration from Tom Douglas.