Nathalie Dupree's Comfortable Entertaining: At Home with Ease & Grace

In entertaining at home, Dupree tells her readers, ""perfection isn't the goal... the goal is your comfort and the comfort of your guests."" This new collection from the TV cooking show host and prolific author (Nathalie Dupree Cooks Quick Meals for Busy Days, etc.), a companion volume to an upcoming 28-part series on PBS, gives home hosts the culinary and organizational techniques needed to entertain successfully. After outlining planning, preparation, presentation and participation strategies in the first, long and helpful chapter, she offers 26 menus with more than 250 recipes featuring Sit Down Meals, Fork Meals, Finger Meals (think Tortilla Party), Holidays and Core Recipes. With her usual mix of warmth, practicality and flexibility, Dupree suggests a range of ideas from a simple Fruit Plate to multistep Moroccan Chicken B'stilla made in advance with many ingredients. With suggestions from Shrimp and Fennel Risotto to Semisweet Chocolate Pie, Dupree comforts and informs, helping readers carve a melon basket, get the lumps out of gelatin and pull a dinner party out of the hat with two hours' notice. Laced with bits of cooking lore, anecdotes and brimming with cheerful encouragement, Dupree's latest advances the welcoming traditions of Southern hospitality. Author tour. (Sept.)