Food Editors' Favorites: Treasured Recipes

This 160-page hardbound cook book was originally produced by the Newspaper Food Editors' and Writers' Association, although my edition was reproduced with their permission by the Mothers Against Drunk Driving. In any case, the book is divided by meal courses, beginning with appetizers and running through soups, salads, main courses, vegetables, breads and desserts, none of them run of the mill. In the salad section, for example, one finds Mrs. Poole's Fresh Cauliflower Salad, contributed by Susan Katzman in St. Louis, Mo., in tribute to a friend named Pebble Poole. The ingredients include cauliflower, of course, but also Parmesan cheese, lemon, romaine lettuce, and garlic. It's delicious. Then there is sweet and sour pineapple chicken, no-noodle spaghetti ( made with spaghetti squash onion, tomatoes and olive oil), a delightful chicken casserole and spinach lasagna. There is a wide variety of food types here, all of them delicious, economic and healthy. Try it.

My wife & I cook at home a lot, and have dozens of cookbooks, plus magazine subscriptions to titles like "Cooking Light". This is easily the best cookbook we own, with recipes that the food editors seem to place in a special class. These are recipes their mothers taught them, or some friend back home sent them, or ... My discoveries (so far) include: "Low Country Boil" from the Atlantic Coast, shrimp, potatoes, sausage and corn on the cob boiled in a spicy mix. "Skillet Cabbage" with stewed tomatoes, green pepper, celery, etc. (my wife hates cabbage but loves this). Charra beans (a TexMex favorite - "Frijoles a la Charra" from the San Antonio editor), and on and on ...