Gourmet's Weekends: Seasonal Menus and Recipes for Casual Gatherings

There's nothing like a special weekend when you can set aside your worries and gather friends for a few precious days. And what better way is there to enhance good times than with good food. Gourmet's Weekends is here to help you plan your next get-together with an incredible collection of casual menus to take you from Friday-night welcoming dinners through Sunday-afternoon send-offs. Now even the host can relax.
This exquisite cookbook, filled with over 50 full-color photographs, offers 20 menus for four marvelous weekends -- a Spring Garden Weekend, a Summer Beach House Weekend, a Fall Foliage Weekend, and a Winter Ski Weekend -- each packed with seasonal specialties. Plus, six additional chapters provide even more recipes, so you can make menu substitutions, try single dishes, or create your own meals. You'll find 225 recipes in all. Many can be made ahead, and others can be prepared in forty-five minutes or less.
Whatever the season, you'll be ready. Celebrate the blossoms of spring with a colorful garden luncheon that sparkles with Orange and Lime Spritzers. Bask in the summer sun with a Picnic on the Beach that boasts Provencale sandwiches bursting with the flavors of tuna, basil, and tomato. Get cozy on a nippy fall day with a soup-and-salad lunch, followed by delicious Apple and Pecan Crisp Pie. And, as the winter snow falls, warm up by the fire with a comforting buffet that includes robust Beef Stew with Olives and Rum.
So why wait a minute longer? All the plans are made. Simply choose a weekend and call your closest friends. You are all in for a treat.