Florida Bounty

As the title suggests, this cookbook focuses on the bounty of food grown and produced in the Sunshine State. However, you don’t have to live in Florida to enjoy these delicious meals. The recipes are straightforward and easy to follow, making it possible for even beginners to create gourmet meals. The authors even created complete regional Florida menus, including “A Florida Thanksgiving,” “Boating Picnic,” “Football Tailgate Party,” “Miami High Life,” and “Key West Fiesta.”

A chapter on Florida ingredients introduces readers to items that appear throughout the book. The authors also provide handy tips in recipes that require working with possibly unfamiliar ingredients (learn how to peel and seed a mango, for example, or safely handle habanero peppers). The book is divided into sections on drinks, appetizers, salads, soups, sandwiches, entrées, sides, breakfast specialties, sweet things, and condiments, making it easy to find your favorites in no time. And the recipes yield out-of-this-world results. Some hard-to-resist examples include jubilant orange creams; crabby stuffed mushrooms; papaya, tomato, and cilantro salad; oyster stew; Key West pork tenderloin; fried green tomatoes; fancy blue crab quiche; and Southern-style pecan pralines. Enjoy the Florida bounty!