[.ca] The Foster's Market Cookbook: Favorite Recipes for ... (ISBN 0375505466)

From Amazon.com:
Since 1990, Sara Foster has been delighting the patrons of her two North Carolina gourmet takeout food stores with refined yet unpretentious fare that reflects her Southern upbringing and years as a professional cook on the East Coast. The Foster's Market Cookbook, penned with food writer Sarah Belk King, collects dozens of Foster's most popular recipes, beloved for their use of high-quality seasonal ingredients and rich, imaginative flavor combinations. As with Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa Cookbook and myriad tomes by Martha Stewart (for whom Foster worked in the 1980s), Foster's debut provides both advanced and fledgling home cooks with impeccably tasteful dinner-party menu ideas and creative weekday meals. Starting the book as you might your morning, Foster offers tantalizing breakfast possibilities such as Sticky Orange-Coconut Pinwheels and traditional-with-a-twist brunch dishes such as Mushroom-Risotto Hash with Fried Eggs and Grilled Ham. Next come more than 15 soul-warming soups, stews, and chilies (Corn and Roasted Red Pepper Chowder is just one of many must-make entries); sandwiches and snacks; salads and sides; entrées; and desserts. Main-dish highlights include Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Prosciutto and Sun-Dried Tomatoes (they're so good and so easy to make!), Grilled Eggplant Parmesan with Fresh Mozzarella and Zesty Tomato Sauce, and Pan-Seared Sea Scallops with Tom Thumb Tomatoes and Foster's Pesto (a perfect quick spring meal). The desserts are divine, including chic confections such as Four-Layer Blueberry Gingerbread Cake with Mocha Cream, a collaboration with Durham pastry chef Kathy Edwards, as well as old-fashioned treats like strawberry shortcake and pecan pie (nicely jazzed with bourbon). Throughout, sidebars and tips on techniques give cooks additional opportunity to learn from Foster's fine food sensibility. For connoisseurs of simple yet sophisticated cuisine, The Foster's Market Cookbook truly titillates. --Rebecca Robinson

Needs editing!!:
I tried the recipe for Roast Pork Tenderloin with Dried Cherries and Rosemary. Step One says to preheat the oven, Step Two to mix up a marinade, and Step Three to marinate the pork tenderloin for two to three hours or overnight. So is the oven supposed to preheat "for two to three hours or overnight"? What a stupid, stupid, STUPID mistake to include in a good-looking, pricey, upscale cookbook. There is no excuse for such carelessness and lack of attention to detail. (To add injury to insult, this expensive recipe wasn't even very good.) I will try a few other recipes in an effort to get my money's worth, but my initial favorable impression of the book has been damaged. Was somebody trying to save a few bucks by not hiring an editor? Hmmm?

She ain't no Barefoot Contessa:
This book was very disappointing. The Spicy Gingerbread recipe was EXCELLENT. Everything else I've made out of here was just okay at best. Really not worth the time or money.

Gotta love this book!:
I have seen Sara Foster on FoodTV many times and found her recipes to be very easy and delicious. I was excited to find the entire collection in this book. I even found a muffin recipe that I thought didn't exist!! This cookbook is a definite "must have" and would make a great gift.

Dijon and Basil anyone?:
I didn't think this was a bad book. I just didn't think it was a GREAT cookbook. If you don't like dijon and fresh basil you won't like the majority of the recipes. Which is what I think turned me off on this. However, if you're looking for some new ideas then it has a lot of them. I enjoyed how many variations on sandwiches she had. I also enjoyed many of the desserts and the scone recipe. She has lots of muffin recipes but I'm not big on those either. It's worth a look but I didn't buy it.

A dinner-party star:
I've never been to one of Sara Foster's restaurants, but if this cookbook is any evidence, they must be worthwhile. The recipes in this book represent my idea of good southern American cooking---chicken pot pie with mashed-potato crust, black-eyed pea cakes, roasted veggies. Some are simple, others take a bit more time. What I think is best about this book is how it puts new twists on relatively basic food..that potpie has herbed-mashed potatoes on it, the cakes get interesting ingredients. Some of the dishes require Foster's Market basics-pesto, chive oil-that must be prepared in advance of the main recipe, but nicely enough..you get a page numer reference to lead you straight there. (As dumb as that sounds, I find SO many cookbooks don't do that....) The only caveat: read the recipes carefully...some take longer to prepare than you'd think. And don't miss the risotto cakes..delish!