Presents detailed cooking instructions for braising a variety of meat and vegetable dishes, with advice on shopping for food and choosing ingredients.

Everyone loves potatoes. This book transports cooks beyond the usual side dishes and introduces them to the secrets and specialties of great chefs and cooks the world over. Finamore shows how to prepare spectacularly simple appetizers, including dips, chips, and showstopping cocktail potatoes made from a few ordinary ingredients. He presents dozens of soups and salads, including rich Summer Vichyssoise and Herb Garden Potato Salad. There are more than fifty main-dish possibilities, suchas Sunday Lamb with Proper Roast Potatoes and Chicken Stuffed with Potatoes and Shiitake Mushrooms -- not to mention a sophisticated rendition of Shepherd's Pie. The potato turns up as the hidden ingredient in such breads as Potato Cheddar Bread with Chives and in such desserts as moist Farmhouse Chocolate Cake. Finamore shows how to master crisp steak fries, silky mashes, and sumptuous gratins. A bonus feature of the book is the sweet potato, in dishes from a delightfully nostalgic Baked Sweet Potatoes with Marshmallow to an urbane Semifreddo with Chocolate Sauce.

The Best of the Best from the Last Decade Acclaimed by the critics, The Best American Recipes series has long been the universal choice of home cooks and professional chefs as the one infallible source of the year's most dazzling recipes. Now in The 150 Best American Recipes, two of the food world's most respected professionals pull out all the stops to create the ultimate resource: a can't-live-without-it collection of the most exciting recipes of the last decade. Out of literally tens of thousands of recipes that have appeared in print -- in cookbooks, magazines, newspapers, and even in flyers and on the Internet -- from the deservedly famous to the wonderfully obscure, from top-flight chefs to unknown but gifted cooks -- they chose the most distinctive. Then came the key step: extensive testing in their own kitchens. If the dish wasn't spectacular, it didn't make the cut. Finally, they pitted their favorites against one another and chose the winners: the very best of the best. In The 150 Best American Recipes, you'll find: Scores of brilliantly simple dishes that are sensationally delicious. The best recipes from the great chefs and cooks of the era, including Jamie Oliver, Thomas Keller, Judy Rodgers, and Alice Waters. Miraculously quick, remarkable everyday dishes that you'll want to make countless times and share with your friends. Holiday dishes that are certain to become instant traditions in your family. Valuable tips and techniques to make all your cooking easier.

Enjoy the satisfying flavors of slow-cooked comfort food with this easy-to-use volume brimming with delicious, traditional recipes. Remember those tantalizing smells coming from Grandma’s kitchen as she made her treasured, slow-cooked meals? Braises and Stews brings modern convenience and style to good old-fashioned comfort food. Organized by main ingredient, this handy cookbook dishes up the secrets for making such savory one-pot meals as Classic Pot Roast or Pub Short Ribs. Lighter fare like Coq au Vin prepared with white wine or a Roman-inspired Spring Stew of Favas, Artichokes, and Fresh Peas will appeal to those with smaller appetites. Why stew over dinner when there are so many tasty options to throw in the pot?

The second in a series of highly accessible and instructive single-subject books covering basic to advanced techniques that will make you a better cook. According to James Beard-award winning cookbook author Michael Ruhlman, "Braising is what cooking is truly about -- transformation. You start with a tough, often inexpensive, cut of meat, and through your care and knowledge as a cook, you turn it into something tender and succulent and exquisite. That is true cooking, cooking that engages both mind and soul." Among the recipes featured in this second book in Ruhlmans's new "how-to" series are Moroccan Lamb Tagine, Classic Yankee Pot Roast, Mexican Pork and Posole Stew with Dried Chilis, Braised Fennel, and a Corned Beef and Cabbage Braise. As with the other books in this line, practical information about essential tools and staple pantry items will be outlined, along with straightforward and clearly presented advice and dozens of colorphotographs showcasing both finished dishes and step-by-step cooking techniques.

Building upon Timothy Ferriss's internationally successful "4-hour" franchise, The 4-Hour Chef transforms the way we cook, eat, and learn. Featuring recipes and cooking tricks from world-renowned chefs, and interspersed with the radically counterintuitive advice Ferriss's fans have come to expect, The 4-Hour Chef is a practical but unusual guide to mastering food and cooking, whether you are a seasoned pro or a blank-slate novice.

Like most of us, Molly Stevens has no team of prep cooks, no vast pantry, and no one paid to clean up her home kitchen. What she does have are delicious, time- tested recipes made from easy-to-find ingredients, collected for the first time in All About Dinner. These are the dishes that Stevens loves most, the ones her students clamor for: an Arugula Salad with Peaches, Basil Vinaigrette and Sunflower Seeds; an elegant Creamy Parsnip-Leek Soup; a Butter-Poached Shrimp with Fresh Tomatoes and Garlic; and an Apple and Triple-Ginger Crisp. Building on the foolproof clarity of her previous cookbooks, each recipe is designed to impart solid kitchen skills while encouraging home cooks to expand their personal repertoires by mastering everyday favorites like simple pasta, hearty stew, and tempting savory and sweet snacks. A gorgeous collection of balanced meals, packed with flavor, All About Dinner will entice busy cooks back into their kitchens.