Julia Aitkens Easy Entertaining Cookbook

Everyone wants to host the perfect dinner party. All too often, that means days of planning, hours of shopping for exotic ingredients, and a frenzy of last-minute preparation in the kitchen. Afterwards, the exhausted cook often ends up slumped in a chair surveying piles of dirty dishes and wondering how and where the evening went.

In Easy Entertaining Cookbook, Julia Aitken offers a welcome word of advice to nervous home chefs everywhere, "Relax!" The most important thing about entertaining is that everybody - including the cooking hostess or host enjoy themselves. Here are 125 recipes especially designed to deliver maximum flavor with minimum effort. Start your guests with a platter full of succulent Thai-Roasted Shrimp (a few minutes to prepare, then 5 minutes in the oven), followed by a bowl of visually stunning Neon Beet Soup you can make the day before and reheat a few minutes before serving. Choose from a wide range of delicious-but-easy main dishes such as Seafood Pot Pie with Resti Topping or Braised Chicken and Apples with Grainy Mustard Sauce or Pot Roast of Beef with Wild Mushrooms, as well as sides and salads that include North African Glazed Carrots and Best-Ever Caesar Salad. For dessert, Julia Aitken says buy something nice. If you really want to make your own, try the sensational Chocolate Terrine with Drunken Pineapple.

With helpful tips and kitchen wisdom throughout, she also provides refreshingly frank advice on how to ensure a successful dinner party. Rule #1 is "only invite people you like." Put that together with flavorful dishes that you prepare using everyday ingredients, and you've got the perfect recipe for years of relaxed, enjoyable entertaining. Julia Aitken is a leading food writer and cookbook author with more than 20 years of experience.