cover image The Seasonal Kitchen: Farm-Fresh Ingredients Enhance 165 Recipes

The Seasonal Kitchen: Farm-Fresh Ingredients Enhance 165 Recipes

Kerry Dunnington. Artichoke, $19.95 trade paper (272p) ISBN 978-0-9904185-6-6

In this solid collection of comfort-food classics, Baltimore caterer Dunnington (This Book Cooks, Tasting the Seasons) offers a practical approach to cooking. Organized by event (happy hour, dinner, etc.) rather than the seasons as implied by the title, Dunnington’s selections are surefire hits for dinner parties as well as weeknight meals. She suggests simple, flavor-packed updates on classics (lemon-rosemary chicken wings, pork tenderloin with roasted coffee and allspice, pineapple upside-down pancakes), as well as more inventive dishes such as wild-rice salad with cherries and feta, fire-roasted seafood chili with shrimp and crawfish, and a clove-spiked red-plum cake. Dunnington brings to the table thoughtful vegetarian options such as quinoa cheeseburgers with curried cucumber yogurt sauce; gingered coconut and celery soup; and almond cookies, which only call for sugar, almond paste, and an egg white. Dunnington’s instructions are simple and direct, and ingredients are pared down to just the essentials without sacrificing flavor. Novice cooks can easily source ingredients, and veterans would also do well to peruse this welcoming title, as they’re sure to pick up a few new ideas. [em](BookLife) [/em]