cover image The Beach House Cookbook: Easy Breezy Recipes with a Southern Accent

The Beach House Cookbook: Easy Breezy Recipes with a Southern Accent

Mary Kay Andrews, photos by Mary Britton Senseny. St. Martin’s, $29.99 (224p) ISBN 978-1-250-13045-7

Atlanta-based bestselling novelist Andrews (The Weekenders, Deep Dish) collects recipes inspired by casual Southern coastal cuisine and beach house living. Her 16 special-occasion menus “keep it simple, fun, kind of like a day at the beach” and illustrate how to fashion easygoing meals. Andrews’s menus are ideal for relaxed gatherings and seaside celebrations, with titles such as Summer Solstice, Low Country Boil, Fourth of July, and Lazy Weekend Brunch. They’re inspired by the serious fishermen in her family and include fish tacos, corn fritters, mac and cheese, and key lime popsicles. There are menus for Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, and Easter Sunday, too. Fans of Southern regional fare can count on all the classics. Biscuits, buttermilk fried chicken, shrimp and grits, cornbread, crab cakes, okra fritters, and cherry-cola-laced ribs and cakes make this collection a true primer on Southern cuisine. Recipes are seasoned with plenty of vintage recipe box nostalgia and use jarred sauces, frozen whipped topping, prepared pie crusts, and other convenience foods in tandem with local farm stand produce and seafoods. Andrews invites home cooks to host a beach house bash in their own kitchen with these memory-filled dishes. Agent: Stuart Krichevsky, SKL Agency. (May)