Toast: 60 Ways to Butter Your Bread and Then Some

In this stylish cookbook, Cool (who owns California cafes and has authored several cookbooks, including one dedicated to the tomato) proves that with fresh ingredients and an active imagination, the most mundane of breakfast sides can be transformed into delicious appetizers, entrees and desserts. Bread's popularity may be declining during the current reign of Atkins, but for those who still love their carbohydrates, Cool offers sumptuous (and beautifully photographed) recipes. These range from the traditional (Toast with Lox and Caper-Dill Cream Cheese), to the fanciful (Nasturtium-Goat Cheese Toast with Raspberry-Beet Salad), to the gentle (Grandma's Healing Toast, a sort of bread soup, ""serves 1 sick child of any age""). Cool omits the recipes for bread itself, choosing instead to focus on what goes with it; she does, though, offer suggestions for what varieties might work with what dishes (e.g., try challah with the elegant Egg and Fennel Salad on Toast with Caviar). Generally simple and all-around pleasing, these recipes take an old standby to new heights.