cover image Valerie’s Home Cooking: More than 100 Delicious Recipes to Share with Friends and Family

Valerie’s Home Cooking: More than 100 Delicious Recipes to Share with Friends and Family

Valerie Bertinelli. Oxmoor House, $30 (272p) ISBN 978-0-8487-5228-6

The television star and host of the Food Network’s Valerie’s Home Cooking brings her cheery personality to this well-rounded cookbook. Her family-inspired everyday-eating repertoire includes semihealthy staples such as smoothies, egg-white frittatas, and avocado toast. Other home-style recipes are hearty and offer creative accents. Slow-cooker beef sandwiches, for example, are dressed up with giardiniera aioli; a Manhattan cocktail gets a smooth finish with butter-infused bourbon; and chocolate “tacos” are filled with vanilla ice cream and strawberries for a Neapolitan spin on the frozen novelty. Whether the recipe is for tuna casserole with potato-chip topping, slow-cooker sloppy joes, or carrot cake, there is no impulse to set trends with this cookbook. Rather, Bertinelli offers a sincere and accessible presentation of recipes. (Oct.)