Entertaining in the Country

An indispensable guide to casual home entertaining filled with imaginative ideas, practical tips, and delicious recipes from well-known chefs, restaurateurs, and tastemakers. Following the success of Love Where You Live: At Home in the Country, Joan Osofsky and Abby Adams serve up an array of inspiring seasonal parties hosted by food professionals and home cooks. These gatherings range from an intimate houseguest breakfast to a large harvest party. Carefully selected for their flair when it comes to entertaining, the hosts welcome the reader into their homes in New York's bucolic Hudson Valley and New England. Featured are food star Julia Turshen and Grace Bonney of Design*Sponge, who give a neighborly supper; Dana Cowin of Food & Wine fame, who throws a garden cocktail party; and Erin French, the James Beard-nominated chef/owner of The Lost Kitchen in Freedom, Maine, who prepares a lunch in the orchard from her vintage Airstream. The book includes menus with sixty easy-to-prepare dishes and drinks, such as a tantalizing rhubarb spritzer, falafel with dipping sauces, a savory chicken potpie, and ginger cookies. Throughout are ideas for setting festive tables, floral choices, and decorative touches, as well as how to create a functional kitchen and well-stocked pantry. A list of sources of regional markets carrying local products rounds out this go-to entertaining guide.Entertaining in the Country is a perfect reflection of Joan Osofsky's life and work, and revives all of my fondest memories of Hammertown Barn and the magnificent countryside of the Hudson Valley and beyond. This book captures the exact intersection between casual country living and sophisticated design. Joan's effortless entertaining style, along with many of the local chefs, restauranteurs, and tastemakers she admires, will delight you, as will these delicious recipes, which keep the food simple-a mantra I've stuck to for years.-Mario Battali, chef, author, and philanthropistFor anyone who loves to entertain, or even for someone who might be a bit hesitant, this is the perfect book. Filled with beautiful images and fabulous recipes, it shares tips from real people on entertaining simply, but with great style. After reading Entertaining in the Country, you will be sending out invitations immediately.-Bunny Williams, interior designer and author