New cookbook titles ...

THE ULTIMATE MEDITERRANEAN DIET COOKING FOR ONE COOKBOOK by Kelly Jaggers includes “175 Healthy, Easy, and Delicious Recipes Made Just for You.” Jaggers is clearly passionate about preparing food; she is the author of several cookbooks, a cooking instructor, personal chef, and caterer. And it’s a good thing, too, that the recipes are great because that cover could be so much more appealing, right? This new cookbook is part of a series (others are on Baking for One and Cooking for One) and Jaggers divides it into fairly standard sections such as breakfast, side dishes, seafood, poultry, and desserts. She includes nutritional information for each recipe and also has some beautiful pictures (a sampling of which appears in the look inside feature at amazon). In general, the recipes seem to meet the promise of being healthy and relatively easy. I am excited to try the Frozen Fruity Yogurt Bark (only 4 ingredients).    

SIMPLY TOMATO by Martha Holmberg offers “100 Recipes for Enjoying Your Favorite Ingredient All Year Long.” SIMPLY TOMATO received starred reviews from Booklist (“consider this the tomato Bible”) and Publishers Weekly (“an indispensable resource for tomato lovers”). It is a unique book for the more experienced cook and is filled with mouth-watering choices. Holmberg has been very creative; for example, she includes eight tomato soups, three of which are variations on gazpacho. Numerous salads (like Sungold Cherry Tomato and Summer Corn Salad), pastas (Penne with Blasted Cherry Tomatoes, Fennel, and Salami), and both main and side dishes are featured as well as snacks (like Grilled Cheese with Sun-Dried Tomato and Smoky Red Pepper Mayonnaise), drinks, and tarts or pastries. Nutritional information is not provided and not every recipe has a picture, but tomatoes are so easy for the home gardener to grow that this cookbook will offer many fun ideas for experimenting during harvest season and beyond.