Literary Dinner Companions

Cover of Entertaining

Hello, PassYouBy:

I chanced upon this in the NYTimes this past week (or thereabouts):

Dinner Companions

Leann Shapton, the reporter, asked a few of her favorite authors what books they like to take to dinner when they're alone. Interesting stuff! I'm not sure that a book about a slow, inexorable death from syphilis would make my dinner great, but hey, whatever floats your mashed potatoes in gravy.

I love to stand at the kitchen counter alone, while the kids are playing or have gone to bed, and peruse cookbooks. These are some of my all-time favorites:

Image via Wikipedia

Feast by Nigella Lawson
The most erudite and witty of cookbook authors who happen to address feeding children in a most sensible fashion. How to Eat is also on my short list, but it doesn't have pictures thus my ADD isn't quite as stimulated.

Barefoot Contessa
Any cookbook by Ina Garten is on my short list. Gorgeous pictures, ravishing food, and pleasant headnotes.

Cover via Amazon

Screen Doors and Sweet Tea by Margaret Foose
As you know, we vacation in the South every year. This cookbook makes me happily remember vacations past and long for vacations future. Plus every single thing I've made in this book is knock your socks off good.

The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook by Matt Lee and Ted Lee
Another great, informative, offbeat, comprehensive review of Southern food. Many, many fabulous recipes. The banana pudding ice cream recipe alone is worth the price of the book.

Entertaining by Martha Stewart
This oldie but goodie has been a go-to book for decades. I find the recipes uniformly excellent, but it's the way they're grouped which gets me. She sets the book up in party format. It's a great place to go get ideas from which to plan your own fete.

The Silver Palate Cookbook by Julee Russo and Sheila Lukins
I don't have the fancy 25th anniversary edition, but I might have to get it someday when my old, thumbed, stained original paperback falls apart. This book launched my cooking career. The friendly chatter and easy instructions convinced me I could make anything. The whimsical pictures drew me in as well. I love, love, love this book. It's a dear old friend and I will be lost someday when it disintigrates.

Cover via Amazon

The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean by Paula Wolfert and The New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden
Oh, how I love these cookbooks. One of my best vacation memories is with Monsieur Latte in Turkey. I could eat Middle Eastern food morning, noon, and night, pretty much, and that trip we did. I almost didn't get tired of it, although I did want a lot more Diet Coke than was available at the time. These two books are so carefully detailed, lovingly written, and exhaustive in breadth. I feel as though I'm on vacation whenever I read them, on a magic Turkish carpet ride to a world of grilled meat, garlic, and lemon. Ah.