The beach house cookbook Easy breezy recipes with a Southern accent

Remembering beach-house rentals that magically interrupted otherwise bleak childhood summers with days of freedom and luxury, Andrews has yearned for the escape beachfront property brings. Now that the Atlanta-based women's-fiction author has the means to own her own beach house on the Georgia coast, she uses it generously to entertain friends and family with meals both simple and sumptuous. But, above all, beach-house meals need to be unfussy. What's the point of being at the beach if you're spending unnecessary hours in the kitchen? Bottled salad dressing, premade piecrusts, and pudding mix ease cooking chores. That's not to say fresh ingredients are lacking. Low Country boil brims with plenty of just-caught seafood, corn fritters start from scratch, and fig-onion jam accents whole-beef tenderloin. Lots of cocktails quench summer thirst. Lemon bars and lemon granita both end beach dinners with bracing citrus. A good pick for most library collections; take note where Andrews' novels are popular.--Knoblauch, Mark Copyright 2010 Booklist

Atlanta-based bestselling novelist Andrews (The Weekenders, Deep Dish) collects recipes inspired by casual Southern coastal cuisine and beach house living. Her 16 special-occasion menus "keep it simple, fun, kind of like a day at the beach" and illustrate how to fashion easygoing meals. Andrews's menus are ideal for relaxed gatherings and seaside celebrations, with titles such as Summer Solstice, Low Country Boil, Fourth of July, and Lazy Weekend Brunch. They're inspired by the serious fishermen in her family and include fish tacos, corn fritters, mac and cheese, and key lime popsicles. There are menus for Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, and Easter Sunday, too. Fans of Southern regional fare can count on all the classics. Biscuits, buttermilk fried chicken, shrimp and grits, cornbread, crab cakes, okra fritters, and cherry-cola-laced ribs and cakes make this collection a true primer on Southern cuisine. Recipes are seasoned with plenty of vintage recipe box nostalgia and use jarred sauces, frozen whipped topping, prepared pie crusts, and other convenience foods in tandem with local farm stand produce and seafoods. Andrews invites home cooks to host a beach house bash in their own kitchen with these memory-filled dishes. Agent: Stuart Krichevsky, SKL Agency. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.