Relaxed Kitchen or Foods of the Maya

Relaxed Kitchen: How to Entertain with Casual Elegance and Never Lose Your Mind, Incinerate the Souffle, or Murder the Guests

Author: Brigit Binns

Did you ever have a dinner party disaster? Yes, I’m afraid so. Have you ever bitten off more than you could chew by cooking a complex main course? Well, yes.  Did you ever find yourself barbecuing a large pig in your swimsuit and sarong when uninvited porn stars show up for dinner? Uh…now wait just a minute…

If any or all of these things happened to you, fear not.  They’ve all happened to Brigit Binns, the globe-trotting expert on relaxed and elegant entertaining, and she’s here to help turn disasters into delight.  Brigit’s not afraid to admit that she’s had plenty of dinner party nightmares because she’s learned from her mistakes.  In The Relaxed Kitchen, she’s here to share some hilarious stories of her failures, her embarrassments and, happily, her triumphs; but, most importantly, she’s here to share her hard-won entertaining secrets. From a precariously balanced Napoleon dripping with deep red berry sauce – served in a pristine, just-decorated, all-white London flat – to frying an almost hallucinatory overabundance of duck breasts and potato cakes on a blisteringly hot terrace in Spain, Brigit’s learned what works beautifully and what doesn’t.  From her years as a cookbook author, she’s developed a surefire plan that insures casually elegant entertaining.  The recipes?  Well, they’re just what you'd expect from someone in love with bold, Mediterranean flavors:

- smoky shrimp escabeche
- fried almonds with turmeric
- Tuscan style artichokes
- roasted pepper andsausage torta rustica
- butterflied leg of lamb with rosemary
- roast chicken strewn with thyme branches
- chimichurri skirt steak
- grilled lobster with smoked paprika mayo

As Brigit says at the opening of the book, “I fell in love with food before I got my first bra.”  Only someone like Brigit, who is passionate about cooking, whose insatiable quest to entertain often and well has led to some questionable decisions and amusing results could persevere and arrive at a fail-safe plan for entertaining with elegance and ease.  So invite Brigit Binns home, and make your own kitchen a Relaxed Kitchen. 

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Foods of the Maya: A Taste of the Yucatan

Author: Nancy Gerlach

Pompano tamales. Shrimp enchiladas. Candied sweet papaya. These are some of the foods whose recipes reside in the pages of Nancy and Jeffrey Gerlach's Foods of the Maya. The authors have spent years traveling throughout Mexico, familiarizing themselves with the cultures and cuisines of the people they have encountered. They created this cookbook to bring the flavors of the Yucatбn to tables north of the border.

In an easy-to-follow format, Foods of the Maya provides handy background and travel information about the region and some of its ruins before dipping into the ninety-one recipes included here, organized according to meal course. There are recipes that will suit most everyone's palate, from sauces and salsas to soups and sausages; from vegetarian and meat appetizers and main dishes to simple drinks and desserts. Each section begins with a brief description of the course and the types of food involved. The recipes are clear and easy to understand—one need not be a trained chef with a vast kitchen to create a tasty Yucatecan meal.

Foods of the Maya incorporates an array of cooking tips and techniques and a brief glossary of terms to help in food preparation—the authors have ensured that ingredients for their recipes are readily available at local food stores. This edition also includes an introduction by historian Jeffrey Pilcher which helps familiarize readers with the history and cultures of the Yucatбn peninsula. So the next time you get a hankering for something different, you might consider cooking up a platter of Yucatбn ribs or preparing a bowl of chayote pudding. Take a short trip to the Yucatбn—without leaving your kitchen.Nancyand Jeffrey Gerlach live in Albuquerque. Jeffrey Pilcher teaches history at The Citadel.