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Anne Byrn's new cookbook arrives just in time for the busy holiday season when we all need inspiration. She will be in Fairhope, Ala. on Tuesday (Oct.. 28, 2014) to sign copies of her new book. (Submitted photo)
MOBILE, Alabama - If you are like me you have a drawer or file folder stuffed with recipes that you've collected over the years.
But when push comes to shove, when you have to cook something that you know is going to knock the socks off of your friends and family, most of us have just one or two fallback recipes that we rely on with impunity. Your recipe file may bulge with recipes that look good on paper, but on those occasion when you need a recipe you know won't fail you rely on your old standbys.
Well, cookbook author and former food editor Anne Byrn has penned a new book that puts together more than 125 go-to, no-fail recipes that she's collected over the years from her travels around the country. "Anne Byrn Saves The Day! Cookbook (Workman Publishing; $18.95) debuts on Nov. 4, just in time for the busy holidays.
Byrn will be in Fairhope at Page and Palette Bookstore on Tuesday (Oct. 28) to sign copies of her new book. It's the first stop on a nationwide book tour. She will be at the downtown Fairhope bookstore 2:30-4:30 p.m.
It contains a nice cross-section of crowd-pleasing appetizers, comforting soups and salads, reliable and tasty main dishes and finishes up with a serving of one-of-a-kind desserts.
Her motivation for writing the book, she said in a telephone interview last week, was to come up with a collection of "really great go-to recipes that anybody can turn to and love."
It also stems from her many years of writing about food and writing cookbooks and seeing what she called the "proliferation of recipes out there" for just about everything imaginable. "I can be kind of frustrating figuring out what to cook. Nobody has time to research all these recipes and find out if it's going to work," she said.
The other motivation, she said, was getting the chance to tell about the people who are preparing these tasty dishes. "I really love the stories they have to tell," she said.
She collected recipes from every corner of the country by doing something simple and old-fashioned. "I asked people to tell me their best recipe, the one that saves their day. I wanted them to share the one recipe that people go crazy for and ask for," she said.
But she also didn't want a collection of casseroles and familiar comfort-food dishes that everybody already has in their collection. "I sought out recipes that are a little bit different, the ones you don't see everywhere else," she said.
One of those is a recipe from Laurie Bullington of Birmingham. It's an appetizer that Byrn said makes a tasty, make-ahead party dish that is especially popular at Christmas when things really get hectic.
Laurie's Goat Cheese, Pesto and Fig Cheesecake
8 servings
Ingredients:
Vegetable oil spray, for misting the loaf pan
4 ounces goat cheese, at room temperature
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup basil pesto (see note)
1/2 cup fig preserves
Sweet and Spicy Pecans (optional; recipe follows), chopped
Plain unsalted crackers, such as Carr's water crackers, for serving
Instructions:
Lightly mist a 51/2-by-3-inch (mini) loaf pan with vegetable oil spray, line it with waxed or parchment paper, and set it aside.
Place the goat cheese and cream cheese in a medium-size bowl and blend with an electric mixer on low speed until creamy, about 30 seconds. Using a rubber spatula, lightly press the cheese mixture into the prepared loaf pan. Spoon the pesto over the cheese mixture, spreading it out evenly. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate the cheesecake until serving time, at least 1 hour.
Just before serving, remove the cheesecake from the fridge. Remove the plastic wrap and invert the cheesecake onto a serving plate. Spoon the preserves over the top. Top the cheesecake with the Sweet and Spicy Pecans, if desired, and serve with unsalted crackers.
Note: Use a 31/2-ounce jar of prepared pesto found in the supermarket or, better yet, make your own.
Do ahead: After you top the cheesecake with pesto, you can refrigerate it for 3 days before unmolding and topping it with the preserves. If you are garnishing the cheesecake with the pecans, you can prepare these 3 days ahead and keep them in a sealed plastic bag until it's time to garnish.
Sweet and Spicy Pecans
Makes 1 cup
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon salted butter
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 teaspoon hot sauce, such as Tabasco
1 cup pecan halves
Instructions:
Place a large cast-iron skillet over medium heat. Add the butter, brown sugar, and hot sauce and cook, stirring, until the butter melts. Remove the skillet from the heat. Add the pecan halves and stir to coat the pecans with the butter mixture.
Place the skillet over low heat and cook the pecans, stirring, until they are lightly toasted, about 1 minute (be careful not to let the sugar burn).
Remove the skillet from the heat and let the pecans cool completely, about 20 minutes, before using or storing.
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