About this product: Amazon Best Books of the Month, November 2009: You don't often see the name Thomas Keller mixed with words like "accessible" or "home cook," but with Ad Hoc at Home, the award-winning chef presents a collection of recipes destined for the center of the table at casual family gatherings. Don't throw away your whole notion of "quick and easy," though, as this is still a casual cookbook filtered through the genius mind of the man behind The French Laundry Cookbook, but the sense of whimsy and the pure joy of Keller doing his version of comfort food proves irresistible. The inspiration for his restaurant Ad Hoc was the simple family meals created and served by the staff at his restaurants. As he says in the introduction, "here is food meant to be served from big bowls and platters passed hand to hand at the table." And with dishes like Buttermilk Fried Chicken and Pineapple Upside-Down Cake, who's going to argue with that? --Brad Thomas Parsons
About this product: Amazon Best of the Month, September 2008: "What does it mean to come home?" In one way or another, every character in Home is searching for that answer. Glory Boughton, now 38 and lovelorn, has returned to Gilead to care for her dying father. Her wayward brother Jack also finds his way back, though his is an uneasy homecoming, reverberating with the scandal that drove him away twenty years earlier. Glory and Jack unravel their stories slowly, speaking to each other more in movements than in words--a careful glance here, a chair pulled out from the table there--against a domestic backdrop so richly imagined you may be fooled into believing their house is your own. Meanwhile, their father, whose ebullient love for his children is a welcome counterpoint to Glory and Jack's conflicted emotions, experiences his own kind of reckoning as he yearns to understand his troubled son. There is a simplicity to this story that belies the complexity of its characters--they are bound together by a profound capacity for love and by an equally powerful sense of private conviction that tries the ties that bind, but never breaks them. It's a delicate sort of tension that you think would resist exposition--and in fact these characters seem to want nothing more than, as Glory says, to treat "one another's deceptions like truth"--but Marilynne Robinson's fine, tender prose imbues this family's secrets with an overwhelming grace. --Anne Bartholomew
2 red onions, peeled and quartered through the stem
2 plum tomatoes, cut into 1-inch pieces
6 sprigs thyme
3/4 cup Marsala (sweet Italian fortified wine)
1 1/4 cups chicken stock, homemade (see page 260) or low-sodium store-bought
Sage Polenta
(Serves four)
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 F. Rinse chicken, pat dry with paper towels, and season both sides with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large, high-sided sauté pan over medium-high. Working in batches, brown chicken on both sides, turning once, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer chicken to a platter; tent loosely with parchment paper, then foil, to keep warm. After all chicken is browned, pour off excess fat.
Add onions, tomatoes, and thyme to the pan. Cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, about 4 minutes. Pour in Marsala; cook until reduced by half, about 5 minutes. Return chicken to pan and pour in stock; bring to a simmer. Transfer to oven; cook until chicken is cooked through and tender, about 35 minutes. Transfer chicken to a platter, and cover to keep warm.
Skim off excess fat from liquid in pan; simmer liquid over medium-high until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. To serve, divide polenta among shallow bowls and arrange chicken on top; spoon pan sauce over each.
About this product: A warm, inspiring, and practical handbook for at-home moms, by a television celebrity and mother of five.
National television personality and mother of five Rachel Campos-Duffy presents a new way of looking at stay at-home motherhood that will transform the way readers view their days, their family, and their home.
With practical advice and candid, engaging stories from her own life and other moms who are making it all work, mothers will learn about:
• Embracing the choice to stay home with joy and confidence • Taking care of yourself, guilt-free • How rekindling your relationship with your husband benefits the whole family • Reveling in the chance to explore new passions and creative outlets • And the 10 things that no mom can live without!
About this product: In this stunning novel, beloved bestselling author Elizabeth Berg weaves a beautifully written and richly resonant story of a mother and daughter in emotional transit. Helen Ames–recently widowed, coping with grief, unable to do the work that has always sustained her–is beginning to depend too much on her twenty-seven-year-old daughter, Tessa, meddling in her life and offering unsolicited advice. Then Helen is shocked to discover that her mild-mannered and seemingly loyal husband was apparently leading a double life. When a phone call from a stranger sets Helen on a surprising path of discovery, both mother and daughter reassess what they thought they knew about each other, themselves, and what really makes a home and a family.
About this product: With the accelerating pace of development and subsequent habitat destruction, the pressures on wildlife populations are greater than ever. But there is a surprisingly important and relatively simple step toward reversing this alarming trend: Everyone with access to a patch of earth can make a significant contribution to sustaining biodiversity.
There is an unbreakable link between native plant species and native wildlife. Most native insects cannot, or will not, eat alien plants. When native plant species disappear, the insects disappear, thus impoverishing the food source for birds and other animals. In many parts of the world, habitat destruction has been so extensive that local wildlife populations are in crisis and may be headed toward extinction. By planting natives, everyone can provide a welcoming environment for wildlife. This doesn't need to entail a drastic overhaul of your yard or garden. The process can be gradual and can reflect both personal preferences and local sensitivities.
Bringing Nature Home has sparked a national conversation about the link between healthy local ecosystems and human well-being, and the new paperback edition -- with an expanded resource section and updated photos -- will help broaden the movement. By acting on Douglas Tallamy’s practical recommendations, everyone can make a difference.
About this product: Got a problem with grout? Open The Complete Photo Guide to Home Repair (to page 98) and watch your tiling worries dissolve before the simple beauty of photography. Black & Decker has anticipated your every question and problem with interior, exterior, and home systems repairs, and detailed the solutions in just over 500 pages. In no other human endeavor is a visual guide so important as home repair (well, maybe brain surgery), so this is a crucial aid to the handyperson. Easy-to-find sections on floors, insulation, roofing, chimneys, water heaters, wall switches, air conditioning, and much more are well-designed, brilliantly illustrated, and carefully outlined with step-by-step instructions from masters. The photos in particular are extremely valuable, offering many different views (sometimes even exploded) of the operation in question, and always showing just enough to communicate without overwhelming the reader with too much detail. These alone would be worth the price of the book, but the written explanations and instructions are also very helpful, offering tools, materials lists, and hints that wouldn't occur to the amateur. The book finishes with a maintenance schedule to help you keep repairs from becoming serious, and the end papers have conversion charts and tables that you'll use time and again. If you can't have Norm the master carpenter over to help you fix your old house, The Complete Photo Guide to Home Repair is the next best thing. --Rob Lightner
About this product: Everyone in Ashley O'Ballivan's life is marrying and starting families—except her. But what date can compare to Jack McCall, the man who broke her heart years ago?
And now he's mysteriously back. But he isn't who she thinks he is.
After a dangerous mission working for the DEA, security expert Jack McCall rents a room in Ashley's bed-and-breakfast. For her sake, he must keep his distance. But his feelings for her are so powerful that only his heart remains off-limits. To protect her—from his enemies and himself—he has to leave…vowing to fight his way home to her and Stone Creek forever.
About this product: A soul-stirring story of two college friends who reconnect after 20 years. One is living life apart from God in comfortable corporate America, while the other is living for Christ under intense persecution in China. This challenging book will convict the heart of readers to live in the light of eternity.
About this product: This comprehensive guide for new parents finding themselves overwhelmed dealing with the reality of parenting provides "parent-tested, pediatrician-approved" advice to allay their fears. Written in a compassionate yet authoritative tone by two moms who are also pediatricians, this guide covers a wealth of topics that often prove daunting in the first eight weeks of a child's life. Starting with "Into the Mouths of Babes" (the trials of breastfeeding) and "What Comes in Must Come Out" (a discussion of "pee and poop") and moving on through "Fever: Trial by Fire" and "Seeing Yellow: Jaundice," this guide offers sound advice that will enable parents to feel confident about their parenting skills. Hints on daily living, sleep patterns, crying, the art and science of diapering, and traveling with a newborn are also provided.
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