Cocktail Parties Straight Up or Cape Cod Table

Cocktail Parties, Straight Up!: Easy Hors D'oeuvres, Delicious Drinks, and Inspired Ideas for Entertaining With Style

Author: Anne Purcell Grissinger

Cocktail Parties, Straight Up! is the ideal book for hosts and hostesses who have full-time jobs, not full-time help and who want to entertain stylishly without hocking the family heirlooms or having a nervous breakdown. Sister team Lauren Purcell and Anne Purcell Grissinger’s sophisticated yet down-to-earth style, reassuring tone, and truly practical advice reflect their 12 years of entertaining together in New York City, where they’ve thrown countless cocktail parties—without caterers, decorators, or a big budget.

Cocktail Parties, Straight Up! features 12 of the authors’successful, gently themed parties, each with delicious signature cocktails, a suggested menu with hors d’oeuvre recipes that can be made ahead, and foolproof ways to make sure your guests get into the swing of things.

Plus, each chapter is full of helpful tips and tidbits that will help you navigate the finer points of throwing a successful cocktail party, from before the first guest arrives (there’s a foolproof party timeline) until the last one leaves (you’ll find tips for how to end a party gracefully). Cocktail Parties, Straight Up! is the ultimate blueprint for creating parties infused with satisfying conversation, genuine laughter, and a relaxed elegance—and guaranteeing that hosts collect compliments at the door.

Books about: Heal Your Knees or Comfortably Numb

Cape Cod Table

Author: Lora Brody

Now available in paperback, Lora Brody's The Cape Cod Table is a collection of dishes that are as evocative of Cape Cod as the salty tang of a sea breeze and the soft sand of the beach. Fragrant fish chowder and pumpkin bisque, rich oyster stew and salt cod, and sweet beach-plum jam and lobster rolls are just a few of the many beloved regional recipes included, along with color photographs of luscious food and vivid scenery that will transport readers to this simple stretch of paradise with every turn of the page.

Publishers Weekly

Brody's love of Cape Cod is used to great effect in her latest book, painting a loving portrait of the Massachusetts peninsula so beloved by vacationers and residents alike. In the wonderful introduction she provides almost a travel guide to the Cape just by focusing on the food found there. Concentrating on the wealth of local fresh ingredients, some obvious, like the abundant seafood, others less so, like the blueberries used with great effect in The Best Blueberry Muffins, Brody (The Kitchen Survival Guide; Basic Baking) produces a wonderful array of dishes. Each chapter opens with commentary about the people and places encountered, and each recipe has descriptions where relevant along with helpful tips. Ranging from breakfast through the customary appetizers and main courses to condiments, the recipes have a clean, fresh feel in both appearance and finished results in eye-catching photographs. From the simplicity of the Scrambled Eggs with Lox, Onions, and Peppers, where the vegetables give the dish a new twist, and the almost Mediterranean feel of the Cod Baked with Oven-Roasted Tomatoes, the recipes are redolent of lazy summer days that can carry over and add summer sunshine to the rest of the year. These carefully considered recipes, coupled with the beautiful layout and food photos, make the book suitable for coffee table and kitchen alike. (June) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.