Celebrating the midwestern table: real food for real times

To Americans all over the country, the heartland means comfort, tradition, and good home cooking. It is also the source of some of the best produce, cheeses, meats - and even caviar - in the United States. And it is this cornucopia that Abby Mandel celebrates in her new book of approximately two hundred recipes, calling on the best of American home cooking and the best of the country's bounty used in new and innovative ways.
From beef brisket and caramelized onions to corn fritters, from oven "fried" chicken to lemon poppyseed noodles, the dishes in Celebrating the Midwestern Table are reminiscent of families around the table, good talk, and warm memories. But these are also recipes that pay due respect to modern taste and concerns for health, and that use less fat, less meat, and more wonderful vegetables and grains than our grandmothers' versions would have done.
A longtime Chicago resident, Abby Mandel knows better than anyone what goodness the American Midwest has to offer; as a veteran food writer and cooking teacher, she knows how to translate that goodness into recipes designed to tempt home cooks across the country.