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. InThe 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 and sausage 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 aRelaxed Kitchen.

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

Cookbooks, Food & Wine

Binns, Brigit

Entertaining & Holidays

St.Martin's Press

Sunset Magazine and cookbook author and Road Foodie blogger Brigit Binns team up to take readers on a mouthwatering tour along scenic highways and picturesque back roads of the Pacific coast. Brigit and her trusty canine companion, Stella, make their way up the region in four bites--Southern California, Northern California, Oregon, and Washington--discovering local eateries, dives, and cafes that showcase the true flavors of each region. More than 125 delicious and authentic recipes fill the pages of this part cookbook, part delicious journey, along with tales from owners, patrons, and employees that bring each restaurant's and region's personality to light. Impeccable full color photography also graces the pages, taking readers both inside these landmark gems and outside to the surrounding scenery. Sunset's Eating Up the West Coast is a discovery guide for anyone who loves to eat great local food and venture off the beaten path.

Sunset Eating Up the West Coast: The best road trips, restaurants, and recipes from California to Washington

Regional & International

TI Inc. Books

From a barbeque sauce that imbuse pork ribs with smoky flavor to a creamy hollandaise contrasting with crisp asparagus or refreshing pineapple salsa that sets off a single grilled fish, a delicious sauce can improve every dish. This is specially true when it comes to desserts—think of an almond pound cake drizzled with orange sauce, or a banana split topped with hot fudge. William-Sonoma Collection Sauce offers more than 40 terrific recipes from familiar favorites to fresh ideas. Each versatile sauce is presented as a part of an inspired dish, and you will find tempting fare to suit every course and every occasion. This beautifully photographed, full-color receipe collection is certain to become an essential addition to your kitchen library. “Just as the clothes make the man, the sauce can most certainly make a dish.”

Williams-Sonoma Collection: Sauce

Main Courses & Side Dishes

Free Press

Over the past fifteen years, Jody Maroni's sausage stand in Venice Beach, California has become legendary for high-quality, reduced-fat, gourmet sausages created by a man who genuinely loves to feed people. Jody offers haute cuisine in a casing and passionately strives to prove that sausage is gourmet food for the common man. Every creation from this book, whether it's a simple grilled "haut dog" or an elegant Salad Niçoise with All-Chicken Bistro Sausage, is irresistible, emphasizing freshness, flavor, and above all a healthier approach to cooking. His sausages are long on flavor and short on fat-- and so are the recipes. The results, as confirmed by the book's mouth-watering photographs, are fantastic. Jody Maroni's Sausage Kingdom Cookbook is filled with instructions on preparing such sausage accompaniments as salsa, relish, and potato and grain dishes, as well as pasta, pizza, salads, and light main dishes such as paella-- not to mention information on camping and Fourth of July picnics. There is also a guide to the latest microbrew beers to pair with your sausages, written by one of the world's leading authorities on beer, Michael Jackson. The book even expertly guides readers through the process of making sausages at home. This is a truly indispensable book for the backyard grillmeister and the gourmet cook alike.

Jody Maroni Sausage Cookbook

Cooking by Ingredient

Universe

A collection of illustrated cookbooks for the busy home cook utilizes a straightforward approach to preparing tasty, healthful, and time-saving dishes for every night of the week, with easy-to-follow recipes and tips on keeping a well-stocked pantry, planning ahead, and using fresh ingredients.

Williams-Sonoma: Salad: Food Made Fast

Oxmoor House

If you love pizza, consider the delicious satisfaction of making it at home using fresh, wholesome ingredients and according to your own exacting specifications. Thick, chewy crust or thin, crackery crust. Tomato sauce or sliced fresh tomatoes. Generous with the cheese or light on the toppings. With this book in your kitchen, you can bake up Italian classics like Pizza Margherita; American favorites like Classic Pepperoni; inspired appetizers like Pizzette with Garlic, Mushrooms, and Goat Cheese; and even pizza cousins like calzone and stromboli. Fire up the oven and invite your friends and family over for an array of delectable homemade and handcrafted pizzas.

Pizza: And other savory pies

Baking

Atria Books

Move over Napa, here is the only up-to-date, stunningly photographed gift book available on California’s hottest, fastest-growing wine country, the Central Coast, with 120 wine-friendly and wine-inclusive recipes. “The New Wine Country Cookbook provides an evocative view of the dynamic food and wine culture of California’s fastest growing wine region. The Central Coast should be on every food and wine lover’s radar.” —Rajat Parr, wine director of the michael mina group and author of the James Beard award–winning Secrets of the Sommeliers “Paso Robles . . . is becoming a hot destination, worthy of the most discerning wine and food travelers.” —Wine spectator Even if you can’t visit (and believe me, after paging through this gorgeous book, you’ll want to), this book will help you create a convivial, wine-country feast in your own home.“Paso Robles is a region full of mavericks and innovators…French wine nobility cultivate vineyards next to fourth-generation cowboys, and for every sleek new wine bar, there's a cowboy saloon with moose heads hung on the walls.” —Justluxe.com “This is an incredible and beautiful collection of recipes, stories about Central Coast vineyards, and photos. It makes you feel like you are a native of this beautiful, down-to-earth wine region of California. Brigit knows this world and describes it in ways not many can do. I’m completely jazzed to try these recipes.” —Susan Feniger, chef and owner of Border Grill Restaurants and Susan Feniger’s Street California’s Central Coast wine country is on everyone’s lips. Running roughly from Monterey to Santa Barbara, the Central Coast is the fastest-growing American Viticultural Area (AVA) in the state. Here, great minds conceive and create great wines—many of them blends of Rhône grape varieties. Complement these wines with the lush resources of unspoiled land, sea, and barnyard and you have the recipe for a fresh and alluring wine country lifestyle. For nearly two centuries, people have gravitated to the Golden State. But it’s the center of the state that remains pristine, far enough from the crowded cities but close enough for a long weekend trip. The land of rolling, golden hills; lush agricultural produce; and simple values still remains. You could call it “Tuscany, with cowboys.” In this lushly photographed tome, best-selling cookbook author Brigit Binns writes a vivid, delicious love letter to her home state. 120 Wine-friendly and wine-inclusive dishes showcase California’s glorious bounty, such as Shaved Artichoke and Pancetta Salad with Lavender; Fennel- and Garlic-Crusted Roast Chicken; Petrale Sole with Pinot Noir Butter Sauce; and Fresh Fig Tart with Honey, Goat Cheese, and Pistachios. Each recipe has a wine pairing suggestion from the region as well as from afar. Plus, 25 get-to-know-them profiles bring the reader inside the hearts and minds of the region’s passionate winemakers and food artisans. We all dream of the wine country lifestyle. With The New Wine Country Cookbook, you can now savor the romance, bold honest flavors, and rustic outdoor sensibility of California’s sublimely unpretentious new wine country in your own home.

The New Wine Country Cookbook: Recipes from California's Central Coast

Beverages & Wine

Andrews McMeel Publishing

From Hollywood to South Beach, the latest craze in the diet world is low-carbohydrate, high-protein meals. However, until now, low-carb cookbooks have been decidedly lowbrow, more concerned with prepared ingredients and overly simplistic recipes than with flavor or presentation. THE LOW-CARB GOURMET takes low-carb eating beyond the hamburger sans bun and explains how to maintain a healthy, gourmet lifestyle that will leave you looking and feeling great. Complex enough to impress foodies and discerning guests yet simple enough for everyday family meals at home, THE LOW-CARB GOURMET raises the concept of ‚Äúdiet food‚Äù to new culinary heights. An upscale low-carb cookbook featuring 70 recipes that emphasize vegetables, heart-healthy fats, lean protein, and eggs. Low-carb diets are rapidly gaining acceptance as safe and effective ways to shed pounds. According to market research, 17 percent of the U.S. population has tried the Atkins diet. Nearly two-thirds of Americans are considered overweight.

The Low-Carb Gourmet: Recipes for the New Lifestyle

Special Diet

Ten Speed Press+

Awaken your tastebuds with a whole new approach to slow cooking. The more than 100 succulent, comforting dishes found in this book are bursting with bright fresh flavors. A fresh twist on slow-cooked comfort. Layered with bright flavors and crunchy textures, classic slow-cooked recipes are updated for today's cook, with delicious results. Dishes that satisfy the whole family. From succulent beef to melt-in-your-mouth chicken to hearty legumes, this book contains an irresistible array of easy-to-prepare recipes your family will love. From simple ingredients to mouthwatering meals. Whether preparing a weeknight meal or an elegant dinner, this book will show you how to transform wholesome, easy-to-find ingredients into tantalizing dishes. In this book, you will discover a whole new way to use your slow cooker to make more than 100 succulent dishes by enhancing them with bright fresh flavors: Tender short ribs in a sweet and spicy sauce are elevated with a crunchy daikon, carrot, and fresh herb salad; zesty chicken-tortilla soup is layered with sweet corn, creamy avocado, and earthy cilantro; and sliced brisket is perked up with a verdant, herb-laden chimichurri strewn with sweet cherry tomatoes. The slow cooker has become one of the most popular kitchen appliances for today’s busy home cook, and it is easy to see why: comfort has met convenience, with delicious results. The best slow cooking, however, is an art that is only achieved with a little finesse. This book reimagines what the slow cooker is capable of, bringing freshness, color, and texture to the flavorful stews and braises of slow cooking and creating a road map for the modern cook. Rounding out the book, the lush, tempting photography is not only mouthwatering but also inspirational, with visual ideas for textural and flavorful garnishes. Welcome to a whole new way with slow cooking.

The New Slow Cooker: Comfort Classics Reinvented

Kitchen Appliances

Weldon Owen

Geared towards meat-loving home cooks looking for expert advice and inspiration, here are 100 delicious recipes for using the most popular cuts of meat, plus loads of practice tips from America's favorite butchers.
This friendly and accessible cookbook offers over 100 recipes for delicious meals using a wide range of popular beef, pork, lamb, and veal cuts and aims to help the home cook get the most out of meat for dinner. Each chapter begins with quick-cooking cuts and easy methods, like stir-frying, and progresses from there, offering recipes for grilling and pan-frying, and ending with recipes for more time-consuming cooking methods, such as roasting and braising. The recipes use a range of meat cuts that are easy to find at the butcher counter, and the flavors of the dishes, though varied and modern, are crowd-pleasing and familiar. The text is informative and comprehensive, but not too daunting or technical. Most of the recipes are accompanied by useful tips written by more than twenty butchers from across America.
 In this innovative look at a favorite subject, author Brigit Binns draws on tips and tricks learned from renowned butchers and expert steak-house chefs to show you the best—and most delicious—ways to cook beef, pork, lamb, and veal at home. Meat is the star in this collection of over 100 modern recipes, which use fresh, seasonal ingredients and a wide range of cooking methods—stir-frying, sautéing, panfrying, grilling, roasting, braising, smoking—to create irresistible dishes. Binns introduces us to such flavor-boosting cooking practices as residual-heat roasting, which slowly cooks large cuts to perfection in the lingering heat of a turned-off oven; double-searing steaks and chops on both ends of a long resting period to develop a tempting crust and melt-in-your-mouth texture; and seasoning meat before and during cooking. She also demystifies both the everyday and the novel techniques you’ve always wondered about, like how to make jerky; how to grind meat at home for sausages and burgers; how to butterfly, stuff, and tie meat; and how to pound, bread, and cook various cuts for the best results.
 In a FAQ column that opens each chapter, “rock-star butcher” Tom Mylan, owner of The Meat Hook in Brooklyn, New York, answers many of the most common questions asked by his customers. Plus, more than twenty butchers from across the country chime in with both practical and offbeat “Notes from the Butcher” for the many of the recipes, offering everything from savvy shortcuts and suggestions for alternative cuts to tips on how to talk to your local butcher. Among the other practical tools you’ll find are chalk-drawn meat charts that illustrate where specific cuts are found on each animal and easy-to-reference guides to doneness temperatures and cues. 
 Packed with flavor, personality, and inspiring full-color photographs, this book promises to turn any home cook and meat aficionado into a seasoned professional.
 Sample tips from butchers:
 "Meat on the bone yields the juiciest results when cooking steaks, not to mention the best value. The closer to the bone, the sweeter the meat! — Dave Zier, Zier’s Prime Meats
 "If your preferred cooking method is quick, hot, and dry, choose a cut with generous marbling for moist and flavorful results."— Ryan Farr, 4505 Meats
 "Here’s a tip to always keep in mind: Cook it slow and soft or fast and rare. Whether you choose pork shoulder to braise, or flap meat or skirt steak to grill, let this be your guide for mouthwatering dishes."— Tia Harrison, Avedano’s
 Featured Butchers:
 4505 Meats (San Francisco, CA)
 Alexander’s Prime Meats and Catering (San Gabriel, CA)
 Avedano’s Holly Park Market (San Francisco, CA)
 Belmont Butchery (Richmond, VA)
 Bryan’s Fine Foods (Corte Madera, CA) 
 Clancey’s Meats and Fish (Minneapolis, MN)
 Don and Joe’s Meats (Seattle, WA) 
 Fleisher’s Grass-fed &amp; Organic Meats (Kingston, NY)
 Gep

The Cook & the Butcher (Williams-Sonoma): Juicy Recipes, Butcher's Wisdom, and Expert Tips

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Binns, Brigit. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Binns, Brigit