Fresh Tastes from A Well-Seasoned Kitchen by Lee Clayton Roper

Author

Fresh Tastes from A Well-Seasoned Kitchen

Award-winning cookbook author Lee Clayton Roper presents Fresh Tastes, the follow-up to her critically acclaimed A Well-Seasoned Kitchen. Lee has gathered a unique collection of recipes that showcase how fresh ingredients and new ideas can be combined to deliver extraordinarily flavorful dishes guaranteed to please all palates. Fans of A Well-Seasoned Kitchen will recall that Lee’s first cookbook was inspired by her mother Sally Clayton’s love of cooking and entertaining. Her second volume, Fresh Tastes, was born from creating dishes with a new and “fresh” perspective. These 173 recipes are a combination of her own spin on dishes shared with her by friends and family as well as flavorful creations direct from her own kitchen. Lee takes the “complicated” out of timeless classics, simplifying the process while ramping up flavors, using fresh ingredients when and where possible. She shares personal reflections on lessons she has learned in the kitchen from those who have inspired her, along with 65 beautiful color photographs of the finished dishes and 18 process shots of key preparation steps (such as peeling a butternut squash or putting a foil collar on a soufflé dish). Indispensable cooking tips are included throughout, as are serving suggestions and a helpful menu section. From updated classics to new, contemporary fare, each recipe was chosen for its flavor, reliability, accessible ingredients, ease of preparation and sophisticated presentation. Fresh Tastes inspires readers to create fresh, delicious dishes for weekday meals or formal entertaining, empowering creativity in the kitchen everyday. Fresh Tastes epitomizes Lee’s culinary tastes, balancing an innovative approach with uncomplicated preparation techniques. Sophisticated in flavor and beautiful to present, the recipes in Fresh Tastes are prepared with the best quality, readily available ingredients designed to maximize flavor. Drawing from her decades of experience, Lee delivers helpful advice on what is best for the dish, the flavor and the cook, taking into account such essential variables as seasonality and availability. Sometimes a can of organic tomatoes adds more flavor than an out-of-season fresh one. Recipes in Fresh Tastes were evaluated by a team of volunteer testers across the country. Only the best, most flavorful, eye catching dishes made the cut. Fresh, flavorful and inspired, this collection of hand-selected recipes in Fresh Tastes transcends the kitchen, reminding us all that every meal can and should be a simple yet sophisticated celebration of life.

Reviews

Roper's follow-up to A Well-Seasoned Kitchen expands on the approachable favorites that made her first effort such a hit, this time with a "fresh" take on classics that lend themselves to parties and get-togethers. The titular logic is a little awkward, but her recipes are graceful: smoked salmon eggs Benedict with mustard-dill sauce, cucumber leek vichyssoise, and Thai peanut shrimp over linguine live up to her theme without requiring a culinary degree. Even readers with little cooking or baking experience will be able to assemble impressive offerings such as tomato shortbread with olive tapenade, lemon-rosemary swordfish en papillote, or corn and prosciutto salad. The collection of over 170 dishes favors dinners and parties (sample menus for events that range from picnics to Thanksgiving are included) but there are also plenty of comfort food hits such as Cajun meatloaf and banana caramel baked French toast. Though it might not make the year-end lists of culinarians, Roper's fans will love it. This is a solid effort with practical dishes readers will likely find themselves returning to. (BookLife)

5280 Magazine

“Save your culinarily inclined friends and family members from dud Internet recipes and give them local author Lee Clayton Roper’s second cookbook, Fresh Tastes from a Well Seasoned Kitchen. Not only will they get over 170 perfect-for-entertaining recipes like tomato shortbread with olive tapenade, rolled turkey breast with roasted red pepper stuffing, and individual plum tarts, but they’ll also enjoy Roper’s touching stories and priceless cooking tips. As additional quality assurance, 5280 food editor Amanda Faison even helped recipe test, so you know that these recipes are winners. You can buy the book online, or at the Bookies, the Lark, Compleat Lifestyles, Eccentricity, and Mariel Boutique.”

- Callie Sumlin, 5280 Magazine

Denver Life Magazine

“RECIPE, PLEASE: The time has come for all those delicious smells of holiday cooking. And though we wait all year for Grandma’s famous cookies (you know the ones) and Uncle Phil’s standing rib roast, it’s also fun to add a few fresh dishes to our repertoire. We dug into a slew of new cookbooks - [including] “Fresh Tastes from A Well-Seasoned Kitchen” by Lee Clayton Roper - to bring you the latest reads for gifting to friends (or yourself) in the weeks to come. And should you find yourself with leftovers? Feel free to send them our way.”

- Annette Slade, Denver Life Magazine

Denver Post

Suzanne S. Brown reviews Fresh Tastes “Denver cookbook author shares holiday appetizer recipes.” She shares recipes for Tomato Shortbread with Olive Tapenade, Prosciutto, Fig and Goat Cheese Tarts, Smoked Salmon Mousse, and Poppy Seed Puffs.

http://www.denverpost.com/food/ci_29254110/denver-cookbook-author-shares-holiday-appetizer-recipes

Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/food/ci_29254110/denver-cookbook-author-shares-holiday-appetizer-recipes

Knoxville Mercury

“Roper wrote the first Well Seasoned Kitchen in 2010 to save memories with her aging mother, a powerhouse entertainer, and this is another wonderful peek into her family’s foods. Recipes arrive from all corners—her mom’s bouillabaisse, her Kentuckian maternal grandmother’s buttermilk biscuits, chilled minted pea soup from the Gordon Ranch in Wyoming, or huevos rancheros she first tasted on a girl’s weekend in Cabo San Lucas. Each has easy to follow instructions, and lots of tips that help with ingredients from split peas and country ham to shellfish. These are foods served to friends from the country club and book club, with lots of everyday and Whole Foods store-type ingredients—bacon and brussels sprouts, portobellos and sundried tomatoes and capers—and lots of cream cheese. Each recipe, lunch to brunch to snack, seems to say, “since we’re eating together, let’s celebrate, shall we?”

http://www.knoxmercury.com/2015/12/02/best-cookbooks-2015-family-recipes-from-all-over-for-everyone/

Tastebook

“For the entertainer who might have fallen into a rut, Lee Clayton Roper has the solution. Fresh Tastes, her latest title, is a collection of more than 170 recipes combined with personal stories to reignite that kitchen inspiration. Gorgeous photos are paired with practical advice for prepping dishes in advance for a truly well rounded book. Recipes like Hot Onion Soufflé; Proscuitto, Fig and Goat Cheese Tarts; and Cheese Blintz Soufflés with Blueberry Balsamic Sauce provide something to please everyone. Give this book to your friend or family member who is ready to take their parties to the next level.”

- Jenny Hartin, Tastebook

http://www.tastebook.com/blog/holiday-gift-guide-entertaining-cookbooks/

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