THE COMPLETE 15-MINUTE GOURMET

Creative Cuisine Made Fast and Fresh

By Paulette Mitchell

$24.99 Thomas Nelson

www.thomasnelson.com

Summer is here so it’s time to put long hours in a hot kitchen behind you. Just in time, comes Paulette Mitchell’s latest in her series of cookbooks THE COMPLETE 15 MINUTE GOURMET: Creative Cuisine Made Fast and Fresh.

20 years ago, Paulette Mitchell put forth her first cookbook containing recipes that took less time to prepare than they do to eat and now that our lives have gotten busier than ever it’s comforting to know that we can still prepare healthy, great tasting meals for our family and friends with no muss or fuss. This beautifully written book includes photographs by Nancy Bundt and is divided into six sections: Poultry, Beef and Pork, Seafood, Vegetarian, Basics and Desserts, making it easy to select a menu.

Some of my favorite dishes are Thai Chicken with Basil, which I can’t believe I could achieve with such ease and the Warm Scallop and Avocado Salad is an inviting adventure in taste sensations. Grilled Steak and Vegetable Salad will become a great summer staple for those nights you want to grill out and the Taco Salad with Lime Vinaigrette will have you saying “Ole! Can I have seconds please?”

The Basics section of this must-have cookbook includes great recipes for sauces, like Spicy Peanut Sauce and a variety of marvelous salad dressings as well as a variety of Pestos, Spreads and Salsas. Vegetarian cooking is always a welcome retreat from meat and fish dishes and you’ll find that the Grilled Portobello Mushroom Sandwich is every bit as hearty as a hamburger. The Goat Cheese and Fig Panini is almost a dessert in itself, as it is served with a light dusting of powdered sugar, but believe me, the dessert section of this little tome is also worth it’s weight in calories. Not to be overlooked are recipes for such mouth watering treats as Bananas Foster, Frozen Chocolate Truffles and the unusually delicious Curried Peaches.

From beginning to end, this new offering from Ms. Mitchell provides a wealth of mouth-watering recipes that will keep you and your family coming back for more while giving you more time to spend with them, enjoying the fruits of your labor.

CONFESSIONS OF A POLITICAL HITMAN

My Secret Life of Scandal, Corruption, Hypocrisy and Dirty Attacks That Decide Who Gets Elected (And Who Doesn’t)

By Stephen Marks

$23.95 Source Books

www.sourcebooks.com

In this time of 24-7 news cycles and U-Tube exposes of anyone running for political office there is more mud slinging available for our eyes and ears than ever before. And if you ever wondered where all the mud comes from in the first place you need wonder no longer because after you read CONFESSIONS OF A POLITICAL HITMAN you will know everything.

Opposition research guru, Stephen Marks, tells all in this scathing self-indictment of a man who began his career in 1994 when the Republican party took back control of both houses of congress. Hired by the Republican National Committee, he spent his time combing through hundreds, even thousands of documents such as newspaper and film clippings, deeds and tax records, in order to unearth unsavory facts about Democratic candidates running for office. The final outcome of this research was then spun into such stories as the “Swift boat” campaign, which resulted in John Kerry’s ultimate undoing in his bid for president or the Monica Lewinsky scandal that became President Clinton’s cross to bear.

Mr. Marks, who now sees the arrogant folly of his ways, was utterly consumed by his profession and although he regrets many of his actions, his long and winding tale of intrigue and malevolence is at once abhorrent and fascinating to read. His unwitting aid in the Jack Abramoff scandal will blow your mind, as his actions and the illegal processes he was party to would have landed him in an adjacent cell to Mr. Abramoff’s had it not been for his blissful ignorance of the process at the time. This close call was among the first to make Marks take a closer look at his job, although it wasn’t enough to make him quit. But as the Republican party’s success, based on “Family Values”, began to slip away, so did Mr. Mark’s belief that he was on the right side of the political infighting he’d helped perpetuate. Finally leaving behind the persona of “Oppo Man”, as Marks calls himself throughout this engaging confessional tale, the author decided to pen this true-life spy thriller which will keep you turning the page in order to see what dirty trick he’ll pull out from under his hat next.

THE WORLD IN SIX SONGS

How The Musical Brain Created Human Nature

By Daniel J. Levitin

$25.95 Dutton

www.sixsongs.net

From Daniel J. Levitin, author of the New York Times bestseller This Is Your Brain on Music comes a new and even more in depth study of the human experience as crafted by music THE WORLD IN SIX SONGS.

Mr. Levitin, who runs the laboratory for Musical Perception, Cognition and Expertise at McGill University, has gone into even greater depth in this new book, which explains how important music has been in the arc of human development since the earliest days of our evolution. Dividing music into six categories- Friendship, Joy, Comfort, Knowledge, Religion/Ritual and Love, the author makes the case for our intricate pairing with all things musical. Using examples of songs that are highly familiar to us such as “Zippity Do Dah” to express Joy or “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall” to express knowledge, it is obvious that even the simplest of songs can express deeply felt emotions through their rhythms, melodies and sometimes nonsensical lyrics.

The famed musician Sting weighs in throughout the book and makes Mr. Levitin’s case that even the simplest of words can evoke joy and a shared feeling of oneness with other human beings. When he was performing with his band “The Police”, people joyfully sang along on the refrain of “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” which is simply “Da Do Do Do, De Da Da Da” which he credits as being simple yet powerful in it’s ability to connect everyone in the room. Rodney Crowell is of the opinion that the first songs were about the wind and the rain, the sun and the moon, when our ancestors came together to express the world around them.

As a producer and musician with many gold records to his credit, the author has worked with such artists as Stevie Wonder, KD Lang and Mel Torme and the conclusions he draws in this fascinating book are sometimes funny as well as insightful. Harkening back to Confucius who said “Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without” and to the Greeks who believed that harp music could ease the suffering of people experiencing bouts of mental illness, this well-researched book has a lot to teach us about the way we interact with one another and the enormous role that music plays in our lives. Due out in August of this year, this is a book well worth adding to your library.

THE ORGANIC DOG BISCUIT COOKBOOK

From the Bubba Rose Biscuit Company

$14.95 Cider Mill Press

www.cidermillpress.com

There’s nothing like a tasty treat to make you feel good when you need a little reward for a job well done or because you just feel like having one. And your dog feels the same way you do, which is why it’s so great that THE ORGANIC DOG BISCUIT COOKBOOK is here at last!

This beautifully put together book contains over 100 “Tail Wagging” recipes that are easy to prepare and which will send your four-legged friend into peals of thank you barks and yelps. With the look of an old fashioned cookbook, everything from special treats for the holidays, and I mean every holiday from New Year’s to Valentine’s Day to St. Patty’s and on into Christmas is in this book, as well as frozen treats for those dog days of summer that are sure to produce a wag or two.

Some of my favorites are the Flower Power biscuits, which contain sunflower seeds and Dandy Canes which actually look like the real thing, using tomato paste for the stripes and a bit of peppermint oil for the doggone good flavor of an old fashioned peppermint stick. Each recipe has a section which explains why the particular treat is good for Fido and why some ingredients might be hazardous to his health such as onions, which we might like when eating liver, but which can damage a dog’s red blood cells and can lead to anemia. Oat Bran, however, is as good for your dog as it is for you, lowering cholesterol while supplying a nutty flavor. Add some lox and cream cheese to the mix and you get The Nova Scotia Special: The uptown way to start the day or add some beef and spinach and you get Canine Quiche: Meaty morsels made especially for your pup. 

Every recipe in this marvelous book is wheat, corn and soy free because these ingredients are the most common sources of food allergies and organic ingredients are recommended here in order to produce the healthiest treats possible. And with recipes for biscuits with a name like Because I Carob ‘Bout You your dog will never have to wonder if you do.

A Quick Look At More Great Books

THE SHE SPOT

Why Women Are The Market For The Changing World – And How To Reach Them

By Lisa Witter and Lisa Chen

$24.95 Berrett-Koehler Publishers

www.bkconnection.com

We women are the constant targets of marketing campaigns for products ranging from cars to clothes, from cosmetics to medications. But how often are we challenged by these campaigns and how often are we really respected? Not often enough, according to authors Lisa Witter and Lisa Chen, who explain the reasons for this in their new book THE SHE SPOT, in stores on June 16.

Witter and Chen, with 30 years of marketing experience between them, surmise that not only do women make 83% of all household-purchasing decisions, they also control over half the wealth in America. Since the 1960’s women have turned out in higher numbers at the voting booth and will most likely determine who our next president will be and also give twice as much to non-profits as men do.

The art of tried and true marketing techniques for tapping into this largely untapped source in the political and socioeconomic arenas are explained in this great book, which is reader friendly and very well researched. It’s a must have for any company or group hoping to attract the attention of the “fairer” sex. 

LITTLE MISS SMARTY PANTS

The Hilarious, Offbeat, Poignant Adventures of a Wallflower Turned Wiseass…And The Gay Boyfriend Who Changed Her life Forever

By Suzanne Kopoulos

$14.95 Cold Tree Press

www.coldtreepress.com

If you like to laugh and enjoy a good memoir then LITTLE MISS SMARTYPANTS is a great pick for light summer reading. Author and former wallflower-turned-wiseass takes us on a hilarious romp through her high school and college days when she was just trying to fit in with the general population that encompassed her world. Trying on many styles from jockette to Goth princess, the author didn’t learn to relax and accept herself until her gay boyfriend Jack came into her life.

A soul mate without the sex, Jack escorted Ms. Kopoulos into a world of crazy gay bars and cheap champagne picnics, opening her mind to the possibility that she was perfect just the way she was despite the fact that she didn’t fit the mold of the status quo. Funny, insightful and sad in places, this story has a bittersweet ending. Without giving too much away, I will tell you that she does marry and become a mom as well as a working woman, and the journey she takes to get there is definitely worth the price of admission. This book is a finalist in the 2008 National Indie Excellence Award in the Humor category.