Simple Soirees: Seasonal Menus for Sensational Dinner Parties

I love this cookbook. I was looking for a new seasonal cookbook with relatively simple recipes. The Alice B. Toklas Chicken with the roasted sage potatoes was wonderful and easy, the sauce with the ruby port and orange zest was superb. The photographs made unfamiliar recipes to me like the Tartiflette look really intriguing and approachable. If you're looking for fresh inspiration, you'll find it here.

Although I have never done an entire menu from this book, every recipe I've tried from here has been delicious, super-easy and perfect, and I've tried several for my dinner parties. The desserts, especially, are delicious, impressive and simple. I love how the menus are all arranged seasonally, taking advantage of appropriate ingredients and cooking methods. Stick to the season you're in, and you can't go wrong. The author's suggestions for making a party special are fun to read, too. Admittedly, I am from San Francisco, and so is she, so she mentions foods and places that are near and dear to my heart. Her food sensibilities are right up my alley. If you're a Saveur reader, a couple of these menus will look familiar, as they are from articles she's written for them (the Gnafrons and the Old Stoves Dinner).

Simple Soirees is my new favorite cookbook. In December I lugged it to New Zealand to bring as gift to our hostess. After she opened it; I snuck it off to my room to read at night. It distinguishes itself by being the first cookbook that I have read cover to cover. It read like a novel. We spent the rest of our stay making many of the dishes. Our favorite was the whole fish wrapped in herbs for Christmas Eve...it was extraordinary. My daughter and I have made several of the sweet things together like the heavenly fragrant geranium ice cream and the lavander and cardamom cookies. Everything we have made has turned out delicious. I think Peggy Knickerbocker is a genuis. It is not only my favorite cookbook, but it is my favorite gift to give as well.

I like to have people over for dinner but I'm never sure what makes a good menu. This book takes the worry out of entertaining. The tone is accessible and reassuring, the recipes are great and not hard to follow. Now I feel confident enough to mix and match some of the menus and I know everything will come out alright. The photos and design are gorgeous so it's a good gift book, too.

Peggy Knickerbocker certainly knows how to plan the perfect seasonal menu. The breathtaking photographs caught my attention when I was looking for a new book with entertaining ideas. The menus are elegant and simple and show how to use fresh, seasonal ingredients when planning what to serve to friends for a dinner party. A simple Parisian dinner, a romantic dinner for two, and a Fall Harvest dinner were the first three menus that I used. You can even mix and match the different menus to create your own extraordinary evening at home. Even a roasted chicken and simple green beans become culinary delights with the recipes from Simple Soirees. I plan to use this book for ideas for my Thanksgiving dinner this year and for my annual holiday party. Thank you, Peggy, for this terrific book of entertaining inspiration!