Entertaining with Friends [antikvár]

piriorities. That's what Jeni Wright has bothered about, and that is why she has written such a worthwhile book. You see, successful entertaining at home has nothing to do with an avalanche of courses, or garnishes which take longer to prepare than the dishes. Entertaining is enjoying the company of friends, and sharing a meal with them is the oldest and most sincere form of hospitality. Naturally, providing the best you can, and presenting it as attractively as possible is part of the pleasure. But it is your guests who must be the stars ofthe evening, not the food. If it is, you have gone over the top ofthe culinary mountain, or you have invited the wrong people. Or both.In Entertaining With Friends]e.m has this important balance, the priorities, just right. Mercifully free of fashionable posturing, it eschews the sudden cliches of scattered chives and no-fat fats and concentrates on the single worthwhile basic - good flavour honestly achieved. I much admire the way her fascinating menus turn out to be a well-planned balance of dishes which won't take forever to make. Neither must you trudge to Trin-comalee for the ingredients. Thank goodness for food writers who know you can't taste time or effort, and who concentrate on food which is for eating rather than for admiring.An original touch to some of Jeni's recipes is the addition of a dash of Southern Comfort - under-pinning existing flavours and creating new and exciting ones. Southern Comfort is the liquid embodiment of the hospitable traditions of America's south - a form of warm and genuine hospitality that special guests deserve to receive and which, with Jeni's help, you'll delight in giving.Even the illustrations in Entertaining With Friends encourage me immediately to make lists of people I want to see at my table. You can see at a glance they are of real food planned to be made and enjoyed by home cooks who like giving pleasure to their friends. But most of all Jeni Wright's book offers you fun. And if you don't have fun entertaining you definitely do have your priorities in a muddle. Trust Jeni's menus to do it right.Be assured, you'll make friends with this book, for it is the very paradigm for entertainers. I hope Jeni has my telephone number