Serving Up the Harvest: Celebrating the Goodness of Fresh Vegetables [Paperback]

Andrea Chesman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 30, 2007

When height-of-the-season farmers' market offerings are irresistible; when backyard gardens are exploding with what appear to be hundreds of perfect tomatoes; or when the same old methods for cooking green beans or corn don't offer enough flavor, Andrea Chesman is ready with a bounty of creative recipes that bring out the best in fresh produce.

Chesman knows what it's like to be facing pounds of perishable vegetables, and as she developed 175 recipes that place garden freshness center stage, she followed these guidelines: Simple. Delicious. Harmonized with the growing seasons.

The vegetables are organized by crop-readiness, with many recipes following the wisdom that vegetables that ripen together taste good together. Popular techniques such as roasting and grilling bring out the flavor in recipes such as Grilled Chicken and Asparagus Salad, Roasted Leek Tart, Soy-Sesame Grilled Eggplant, and Maple Roasted Carrots. Main-dish and side salads abound: Beet and New Potato Salad, Warm Mushroom Salad, Spinach Salad with Feta and Pecans, Everyday Tomato-Cucumber Salad. And the deep flavors of autumn are celebrated in Braised Belgian Endives, Holiday Brussels Sprouts with Pecans and Cranberries, and Chocolate Chip Carrot Cake.

Serving Up the Harvest is an inspirational collection for everyone who wants to enjoy fresh, local, seasonal vegetables with every meal.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“No matter where you find your vegetables, their fresh-from-the-earth goodness demands inspired preparation.  Andrea Chesman shares more than 175 recipes designed to bring out the very best in produce.  Serving up the harvest has never been so delicious!” – Mother Earth News

 

Review

"An edible tour of the growing seasons with dozens of tempting recipes."
—Molly Stevens, author of All About Braising

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC (April 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580176631
• ISBN-13: 978-1580176637
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #302,855 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Andrea Chesman is a food writer and the author of many cookbooks, including The New Vegetarian Grill (Harvard Common Press, 2008) and Serving Up the Harvest (Storey Publishing, 2007). Her book, The Vegetarian Grill (Harvard Common Press, 1998) was nominated for a James Beard Foundation Book Award and received a 1999 National Barbecue Association Award of Excellence. She is also the author of The Roasted Vegetable (Harvard Common Press, 2002) and 366 Delicious Ways to Cook Rice, Beans and Grains (Plume-Penguin, 1998), Summer in a Jar (Williamson Publishing, 1985), and Pickles and Relishes (Garden Way Publishing, 1983), Mom's Best One-Dish Suppers (Storey Publishing, 2005), Mom's Best Crowd-Pleasers (Storey Publishing, 2006) and co-author of Mom's Best Desserts (Storey Books, 2002) and The Classic Zucchini Cookbook (Storey Books, 2002). She was editor of Yankee Magazine Church Supper and Potluck Cookbook (Villard, 1996) and editor of and contributor to the Family Circle Good Cook's Book (Simon & Schuster, 1993). She has also edited numerous gardening books, including The Big Book of Gardening Skills (Storey Communications, 1993). Her work has appeared in Cooking Light, Vegetarian Times, Organic Gardening, Fine Cooking, Food & Wine, The New York Times, Natural Health, and several other magazines and newspapers. She was a contributing editor for Vermont Life for 12 years and is currently contributing editor for Edible Green Mountains.
Andrea Chesman lives in an historic farmhouse in Ripton, Vermont, where the poet Robert Frost boarded. She lives with her husband and two sons. When she is not at work on a writing project, she edits and indexes cookbooks for numerous publishers.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How to cook what you've grown - a must-have, September 21, 2007

By 

Avalon Daughter (I wish I was in Glastonbury) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Serving Up the Harvest: Celebrating the Goodness of Fresh Vegetables (Paperback)

If you're like me you love the idea of growing vegetables and herbs and promptly went out and created a backyard garden. However, whereas you decided to grow a few tomatoes and they were great for awhile, you found yourself with a dozen tomatoes, loads of zucchini and herbs that grew taller than you thought they would - and you don't know what to do with them.

Fortunately, this book is the solution to those of you who don't know what to do with all of your home grown vegetables; It is specifically designed for that purpose.

A friend of mine gave me this book and after glancing through it I was completely blown away at the contents. By subject, it starts with the vegetable that matures first in a normal harvest year and gives information on it, maybe a bit of history and then several recipes. Don't know what to do with all your tomatoes? This will give you some ideas rather than letting them rot in the compost.

Not only that it also talks about basic sauces, herbs and mixtures that you could pay a fortune for but you could make with everything in your yard! Pesto is a good start as basil grows like a wonderful weed and I was able to create four pints with all of my remaining basil of the season. Or, the very expensive Herbes de Provence is actually a mix of 8 herbs that you can mix yourself, store and even give to friends. Helps you save a buck! Or try making herbed croűtons from scratch. It's easier than you think.

This goes over every vegetable you can think of and is simply loaded with easy recipes and even seemingly complicated gourmet dishes. A few examples: colcannon, lamb-stuffed eggplant, cheese and vegetable crepes, ratatouille, creamed spinach, latkes, hummus, kung pao chicken, snapper on a bed of leeks, baked tomatoes with goat cheese... the list is endless. It even tells you what to do with celery outside of spreading peanut butter on them.

If you grow your own vegetables this is a must-have! I believe every summer I'll be perusing this on a weekly basis. Five stars - hands down.

PS. The cheesy zucchini puffs are a MUST! Great way to get rid of too much zucchini, kids gobble them up and I've had nothing but rave reviews of this recipe and four requests for it already.

Again, a great buy!

45 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An old book in a new cover...really!, August 24, 2007

By 

Olive - See all my reviews

This review is from: Serving Up the Harvest: Celebrating the Goodness of Fresh Vegetables (Paperback)

I bought this book thinking it was a new book by Andrea Chesman. I was sorry to find out it is merely The Garden-Fresh Vegetable re-published in paperback with a new design on the cover. It does not say that on this page anywhere. I am not saying this book is only really like the Garden-Fresh Vegetable, it actually is the same book with a different cover. Softcover or hardcover, it is a great book.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great cookbook, well organized with a wealth of information, October 4, 2008

By 

M. Bouchard (Trumansburg, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Serving Up the Harvest: Celebrating the Goodness of Fresh Vegetables (Paperback)

Somebody gave me this cookbook as a retirement gift, after I told her about my experience with buying a CSA (community-supported agriculture) share. The share meant I had tons of kale, more peppers than I knew what to do with, beets which I never really liked much, and tatsoi, which I knew nothing about -- a lot of veggies, in other words. This cookbook has given me lots of ideas on how to cook unusual things, fennel for instance, things I don't normally eat, like swiss chard. Things that I get every week in my CSA share. Sprinkled throughout are little stories about gardening, tips on how to select and prepare vegetables. Why, I even like beets now (roasted beets sauteed with butter and orange juice concentrate -- yummy!) So if you have a CSA share and don't know what to do with all that strange stuff, get this book for lots of tasty suggestions.