Books about Platters from Amazon.com

Forget about getting back to the land, David Tanis just wants you to get back to the kitchen

For six months a year, David Tanis is the head chef at Chez Panisse, the Berkeley, California, restaurant where he has worked alongside Alice Waters since the 1980s in creating a revolution in sustainable American cuisine. The other six months, Tanis lives in Paris in a seventeenth-century apartment, where he hosts intimate dinners for friends and paying guests, and prepares the food in a small kitchen equipped with nothing more than an old stove, a little counter space, and a handful of wellused pots and pans.

This is the book for anyone who wants to gather and feed friends around a table and nurture their conversation. It’s not about showing off with complicated techniques and obscure ingredients. Worlds away from the showy Food Network personalities, Tanis believes that the most satisfying meals—for both the cook and the guest—are invariably the simplest.

Home cooks can easily re-create any of his 24 seasonal, market-driven menus, from spring’s Supper of the Lamb (Warm Asparagus Vinaigrette; Shoulder of Spring Lamb with Flageolet Beans and Olive Relish; Rum Baba with Cardamom) to winter’s North African Comfort Food (Carrot and Coriander Salad; Chicken Tagine with Pumpkin and Chickpeas). Best of all, Tanis is an engaging guide with a genuine gift for words, whose soulful approach to food will make any kitchen, big or small, a warm and compelling place to spend time..
Price: $18.45 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Anyone who enjoys entertaining is sure to be inspired by these objects of charm and history, which bring elegance and finesse to any table. Among the list of items profiled in the book are numerous types of plates (from country stoneware to fine bone china), stemware (from fine crystal aperitif glasses to hand cut ruby quartz goblets), flatware (knives, spoons and forks of every shape, material and purpose), as well as serving platters, soup tureens, serving trays, chafing dishes, egg cups, napkin holders and more. Inès Heugel delves into the history behind each item. She expounds on detailing and craftsmanship, popular designs and proper uses. All the major historic manufacturers, styles and brands are covered. Also included is a chapter on table ornaments—from centerpieces to candelabra—that round out any well-laid table. Christian Sarramon's atmospheric photographs show each piece in a contemporary setting, and delightful reproductions of vintage engravings and lithographs adorn the margins, giving the book the feel of an old-time almanac. Laying the Elegant Table is the perfect gift and an ideal addition to your own collection..
Price: $25.04 [Notify me when price goes down.]

DOUBLE MURDER, ON THE HOUSE

Far from being the idyllic home Carl Veelund envisioned when he built the grand mansion years ago, Prairie Lodge has become the keeper of many dark and terrible secrets. Now family members are dropping like flies: Two women are dead—and truths long hidden are about to be brought to light.

When restaurant reviewer-cum-sleuth Sophie Greenway stumbles upon an old diary, she has no idea it will toss her like a salad into the center of the tragedies unfolding at Prairie Lodge. It appears that being a dear friend to Carl’s daughter, Elaine, has become dangerous. For in a recipe that calls for murder, deceit, sibling rivalry, and old grudges that die hard, Sophie finds herself the main ingredient. . . ..
Price: $2.74 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Oh, the dilemma of home-entertaining in our hectic world! Sure, formal sit-down dinners may impress our friends, but the hours spent slaving in the kitchen leave us exhausted. And it doesn't seem quite so hospitable to ask guests to throw together a casserole for a potluck supper. What's the alternative to this common predicament?

A great big platter. (Or, if you choose, a table full of them.)

In The Big Platter Cookbook, seasoned hosts and food writers Lou Jane Temple and A. Cort Sinnes serve up more than 100 full-flavored, crowd-pleasing, incredibly convenient recipes-like Cowboy Cassoulet, Bourbon and Coke Short Ribs, and Butternut Squash Risotto-that reflect the comfortable, casual approach to entertaining we prefer today. This cookbook is organized by the seasons, and includes chapters on starters and desserts to round out the meal. Each entree is paired with a recommended wine, and the book closes with suggestions for pots and pans that will make preparing these dishes a breeze. AUTHOR BIO: LOU JANE TEMPLE, the former owner of Cafe Lulu in Kansas City, continues to develop menus for new restaurants. She writes about food and entertaining for Kansas City Magazine, and is the author of the Heaven Lee Mysteries, a series of culinary thrillers.

A. CORT SINNES is the author of three popular cookbooks on grilling, including The Grilling Encyclopedia, which was nominated for a James Beard Award, and The Gas Grill Gourmet, which has sold more than 150,000 copies. He lives in Napa Valley.

STEVEN ROTHFELD's photographs have appeared in numerous magazines and books..
Price: $9.88 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Learn how to make colorful stained glass mosaic mirrors, platters, stepping stones, bird baths, trivets and table tops. This book includes instructions for 14 mosaic projects All include detailed instructions and pictures of the completed project. Lots of step-by-step photos and instructions guide you through construction of mosaic mirrors and platters. Included is information on selecting glass, cutting glass mosaics, adhesives, how to make glass cullet, grouting, cleaning and polishing..
Price: $17.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Rocks on a Platter began as an attempt to write about the making of a poem and in so doing, establishes a literary approach other than the essay form, with the rocks of the title being offered for the poem's construction The resulting long poem is a meditation on the difficulty of assemblage and seeks to express and reflect on the poetic process. Barbara Guest's densely but deftly allusive poetry reveals the range and depth of her cultural knowledge, bespeaking a major poet at the peak of her powers.

Guest's work is saturated in the visual arts and music, and extends the formal experiments of modernism, playing abstract qualities of language against its sensuousness and materiality, and switching effortlessly from the real to the imagined. Innovative, intimate, erudite, her poems articulate a feminist aesthetic that seeks not to dispel mystery but to elaborate and perpetuate it..
Price: $7.97 [Notify me when price goes down.]