The Recipe Girl Cookbook: Dishing Out the Best Recipes for Entertaining and Every Day

660 Pages·2013·7.71 MB·English

by  Lori Lange

Copyright © 2013 by Lori Lange. All rights reserved.
Cover and interior photography copyright © 2013 by Matt Armendariz
Food Styling by Adam Pearson
Prop Styling by Dani Fisher
Cover Design by Suzanne Sunwoo
Interior Design by Waterbury Publications, Inc., Des Moines, IA
Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, New York, New York For information
about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt Publishing Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003.
www.hmhbooks.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: Lange, Lori.
The Recipe girl cookbook : dishing out the best recipes for entertaining and every day / Lori Lange
; photography by Matt Armendariz.
pages cm
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-118-28239-7 (pbk.); 978-0-544-18848-8 (ebk)
1. Cooking, American. I. Title.
TX715.L2773 2013
641.5973–dc23
2012017213
v1.0413
Dedication
For the two most supportive and wonderful taste testers
and loves of my life: my husband Brian and my son
Brooks. I couldn’t have done this without you.
And for my Mom, who introduced me to the joys of being
in the kitchen without even realizing it.

Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
The Story of Recipe Girl
Stocking Your Kitchen: The Basics
Food, Tools and Other Stuff
Hungry Mornings
Let’s Do Lunch
Seriously decadent pancakes, cinnamon rolls, egg dishes and other treats
Soups, salads and small bites to get you past the noon hour
Happy Hour
Salads & Sides
With or without cocktails, everyone needs a bite to eat at 5 o’clock
Delightful dinner accompaniments that shouldn’t be overlooked
Dinner at 6
Sweet Treats
Dinner ideas for every day, family-friendly cooking and entertaining
The best part—cookies, cakes, pies and more. I love it all!
Let’s Party
Top 10 Tips for Easy and Successful Entertaining
20 Themed Menus for Entertaining
acknowledgments
First of all, a major thank you needs to go to all of my food blog friends
out there on the Internet. Without bloggers and blog readers, I wouldn’t
have a blog, and I thank my lucky stars on a daily basis that I’ve become
connected with you in such a wonderful way!
To Dee Drummond and Elise Bauer—I have so much respect for what
you’ve been able to accomplish with your blogs, and I consider you both
to be my greatest mentors and sources of inspiration. XOXO
Thanks to Steve Krengel of Kitchens.com for putting the idea of a Web
site into my head in the first place. Your guidance and mentoring helped
turn RecipeGirl.com into what it is today!
This book is a whole lot better because of the numerous friends and
family who tested recipes for me and gave me honest and helpful
feedback. I’m so appreciative of the time you took to help a Recipe Girl
out!
Big thanks to my agent Stacey Glick for seeking me out and
encouraging me to take the big leap and write a cookbook, and to my
editor Justin Schwartz for his brilliant guidance and patience throughout
the project.
A huge thank you to the photography and styling team of Matt
Armendariz, Adam Pearson and Dani Fisher for taking on the project and
making my recipes look so delicious!
David Wesley, thanks for lending us your photography skills and
capturing some great family photos for the book.
To my fabulous group of gourmet dinner friends in “The Luz”: You girls
and guys have been such a fun part of my life for so many years now,
and I appreciate how you’ve always cheered me on. It means a lot.
Thanks to Mom and my in-laws Ann and Roy for being my biggest