Complete Seasons Cookbook (Williams-Sonoma Seasonal Celebration)

Cook with the seasons and you ensure better eating. Or so say the creators of the Complete Seasons Cookbook, a Williams-Sonoma offering. A compilation of more than 200 recipes devised by cookbook author Joanne Weir, the large-scale book provides stylish recipes featuring seasonal ingredients plus color photos of the dishes and the bounty they highlight. While the book's organizing principle seems threadbare, the recipes are worthwhile and would work equally well for entertaining as well as for cooks seeking such prescribed inspiration for year-round meal planning. Each of the four seasonally themed chapters is divided into openers, soups, salads, side dishes, main courses, and desserts. "Spring," for example, offers such dishes as Artichoke and Lemon Fritters, Sorrel Soup, Peppered Salmon with Snow Peas and Ginger, and Rhubarb and Strawberry Crisp. More standouts, from across the seasonal board, include Nut-Crusted Trout with Romesco Sauce, Mushroom and Stilton Galette, Lamb Chops with Prune Chutney, and Pappardelle with Red-Wine Stewed Duck. Desserts such as Chocolate Hazelnut Torte and Cranberry Upside-Down Cake, two "winter" offerings, would be hard to turn down. With illustrated glossaries of the featured fruits and vegetables, and notes that explore their selection, the book should sit happily on coffee tables and in kitchen libraries alike. --Arthur Boehm