Renee's Garden Cookbook – A Terrific Collection of Unique Recipes

by Toni Leland

This is one of the nicest cookbooks I've seen in a long time. Beautifully illustrated with images that make your mouth water, the recipes are new and innovative, many using not-so-common garden ingredients. In my opinion, one of the best features of the book is that with each garden ingredient, the authors include a little sidebar with tips for growing and harvesting.

Recipes for well-known vegetables include things like "Roasted Green Beans with Thyme, Sweet Peppers and Orange" or "Lindsay's Winter Squash Curry Coconut Soup." Yummy. 
For the adventurous, try "Fennel, Golden Beet, and Mango Salad with Citrus Dressing", "Meringues with Lavender Custard, Berries and Mangoes", or "North Beach Stuffed Summer Squash."

The book is a nice size – 7x10 – with crisp, readable text over 155 pages. A comprehensive index and excellent table of contents makes the book very easy to use. Renee's Garden Cookbook would make a fabulous gift for any cook or gardener.