Cooking for Comfort: More Than 100 Wonderful Recipes That Are as Satisfying to Cook as They Are to Eat

We live in""a time of enormous uncertainty,"" writes Burros (The New Elegant But Easy Cookbook; Eating Well Is the Best Revenge) in the introduction to her latest cookbook, but""dinner can help us forget about that."" After September 11, Burros says, people reevaluated the pleasures of homey comforts, and they longed for old-time favorite foods like Sloppy Joes, Chicken Cacciatore, Twice-Baked Potatoes and Lemon Meringue Pie. The veteran chef and New York Times columnist polled family, friends and foodies to offer recipes for cozy carb-filled foods to remind us of simpler days. Even finicky cooks will delight in dishes long on the Grandma-factor with a dash of nouvelle cuisine for good measure--chives instead of onions in the Matzo Balls; portobellos or shiitake in Mushroom Barley Soup, phyllo crust for the Chicken Pot Pie. The slim volume is packed with stick-to-your-ribs dishes, and while Burros does take care to include ways to lighten some of the recipes (""streamlined versions,"" she calls them) this is not a book for dieters. It's too bad the book has no pictures, but blithe prose detailing each recipe largely makes up for the lack. (In addition to dishes for which she provides actual recipes, she also gives directions sans ingredients lists--for Toasted Cheese Sandwiches, Cheese Omelet, the Perfect BLT, etc.) A giddy collection of appetizers, entrees and desserts, this book includes dishes destined to cheer up chefs or armchair culinary enthusiasts, no matter how world-weary. Wine suggestions and a sources list round out the offerings. First serial in Family Circle.