Notes about Recipes in this book

• Cannellini greenie crostini

  • Rutabaga on August 14, 2016

    I set about making this only to discover that I had no cannellini beans on hand, so ended up substituting chickpeas. This made the the spread into more of a non-traditional hummus, which was actually a refreshing change of pace from the usual. Next time, I hope to try it as written with cannellini.

• Smoked salmon tartare on cucumber rounds

  • Rutabaga on January 01, 2017

    Topping cucumber rounds with a refreshing, Asian influenced salmon salad is a welcome break from all the cheese and bread that tends to populate party buffets. One thing that puzzled me was that the recipe did not specify hot or cold smoked salmon, but I think this treat would work with either. I used hot smoked, which was quite tasty, although it probably makes it less of a "tartare".

• Greek jarred salad

  • Rutabaga on September 09, 2019

    This is a good salad idea for a picnic, and packing the ingredients into a quart-sized Mason jar works well for two people. I say "idea", because it's a illustration of how to layer the ingredients in a jar, but no specified amounts or choice of dressing is given. I shook up a quick vinaigrette in the jar before adding the remaining items. It was very fast, portable, and fresh-tasting.

• Shallot shake-up vinaigrette

  • Rutabaga on April 22, 2016

    I used this dressing on a spinach, chicken, and red pepper salad, adding some chopped fresh tarragon to the dressing as well. The flavor combination was perfect, definitely one I would use again with almost any tossed salad. The tarragon was a great addition when paired with chicken.

• Cobb on a stick

  • meggan on July 31, 2017

    Big hit at a birthday party for 3 year olds.

• Grilled broccolini

  • Rutabaga on February 15, 2017

    This makes a satisfying veggie sandwich, although I admit in my version I added a couple of strips of turkey bacon. Instead of grilling the broccolini, I blanched and then sautéed it at high heat to give it a nice sear. Rather than make homemade aioli, I added crushed garlic, lemon juice, pepper, and Tuscan olive oil to jarred mayonnaise - not bad! I can definitely see this being a good picnic option come summer.

• Coronation chicken

  • Rutabaga on April 20, 2016

    We ate this as a sandwich topping for baguettes - on a picnic, no less. I really like using half mayo and half yogurt, which gives the chicken salad a fresher taste. Unfortunately, we left out the mango since no good ones were available, but I can imagine the sweet, silky mango fruit would really round out the flavors and textures. For an easy after-work picnic, I made the chicken salad the night before using a rotisserie chicken from Costco, and packed the cashews and coconut separately to keep them crisp before putting the sandwiches together at the picnic site.

• Blue ribbon tomato pie

  • Rutabaga on June 26, 2016

    My husband loved this pie, this despite the fact that my tomatoes were quite juicy, so the pie didn't set well. But it was very tasty, and the crust was tender with a slight tang from the buttermilk, a good foil for the rich pimento cheese. I cooked mine for only half and hour, but might try 40 minutes next time to further brown the cheese topping. Update: I made this again with firmer tomatoes, and baked it for 40 minutes. This was just about perfect, and the pie slices held their shape pretty well.

  • Rinshin on August 05, 2021

    Excellent taste and very simple to make with a packaged pie sheet. Recipe calls for salted tomato slices placed on double layer of paper towel for at least an hour to remove extra juice from puddling . I did that, but since our garden tomatoes are very juicy, it did puddle a little bit (paper blotting fixed that). Slices held shape. Next time, using a stainless wire rack to remove more juice since double paper towels were soaked. I used pickled piquillo peppers instead of pimento and added 1 tsp of Dijon mustard to the mixture. Also used some Asiago cheese along with Cheddar and Parmesan. The overall taste has some similarity to bar pizza flavor profile ie cheesy. Photo added.

  • chawkins on August 02, 2024

    Still dealing with the produce harvested from the garden after being away for 10 days. I used the recipe from sunset magazine: "https://www.sunset.com/food-wine/blue-ribbon-tomato-pie-from-the-picnic" which seems to be different because it does not called for apple cider vinegar and egg yolks. Anyway, the pie was delicious and there was just a little bit of puddling on the first slice after letting it sat for 45min after baking and i even cut down on the amount of cheese used: I grated a 6 oz block of sharp cheddar instead of using the two and a half cup called for. I also used roasted red pepper instead of the pimento.

• Spicy salted olive oil brownies

  • TippyCanoe on July 09, 2018

    Absolutely delicious! I doubled this recipe because I am in Spain, and I only have a larger pan in my rental cupboard. It worked perfectly and the brownies were a huge hit. I think that this will replace my regular brownie recipe in the future. (Warning: the combination of cocoa and espresso does pack a powerful caffeine punch, especially if your kids go crazy and eat several squares.) I bought the kindle version of this book on a whim when I saw it listed as a sale book on the EYB website, and I can't believe how much I enjoy it. Great ideas on every page.

• Mango-cucumber lassi

  • astarmu on May 22, 2026

    Not too inspired. Cucumber dilutes it so much that the mango loses a lot of sweetness, and the whole thing ends up too thick to drink.

• Joy of Cooking

  The book is absolutely gorgeous. It is beautifully illustrated...definitely beautiful enough to be a lovely gift for someone, and it's not going to look dated in 5 years.

  Full review