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The
Best American Recipes 2001-2002
The Year's Top Picks from Books,
Magazines, Newspapers, and the Internet
by
Fran McCullough, Series Editor (Houghton Mifflin)
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This comprehensive book begins with a "Starters" chapter and then
virtually never stops. After that appetizer section, there are your
standard course chapters (Soups, Salads, Breakfast/Brunch, Main
Dishes, Side Dishes, Breads, Desserts, and Drinks), but it's the
sources of all those recipes that are inexhaustible. If you didn't
have time to pick up every cookbook, magazine, newspaper food section
and surf through every food-related website, series editor of this
book (which has been published annually since 1999) Fran McCullough
has done much of that for you. The seasoned cookbook editor uses
a well-sharpened kitchen knife to cut through the junk food and
whittle down the menu to 150 dishes. She looks for recipes that
are sophisticated and make a splash, yet are simple. She admits
she can't look at absolutely everything and that the collection
is quirky and much to her taste: bravo. This distinctiveness is
what has earned previous editions rave reviews. Some that I think
are among the best of her best: spinach dip with jicama and sweet
white onions from the publication Time Out New York, beef
fillets with stilton-portobello sauce from Southern Living
magazine's holiday contest, buttered sugar snap peas with fresh
mint from The Greenmarket Cookbook by Joel Patraker and Joan
Schwartz, and peppery ginger cookies from www.women.com.
RECIPE:
SPINACH
DIP WITH JICAMA AND SWEET WHITE ONIONS
(Updated: 10/30/08 SB) |
