7/11/2006 05:48:00 PM|||Jodie Chase|||

Several weeks ago, I discovered a secret about cookbooks that I feel compelled to share. This is it: There really are no bad cookbooks. Nor are there good cookbooks. Rather, the value of any cookbook is basically the relationship between the cook and the book.

To be of any value at all, a cookbook must mesh with your cooking personality. That's all there is to it. If a book is packed with recipes for lamb and beef and expensive fish that I cannot afford to buy, it's just not going to get used in my kitchen. If the recipes call for ingredients that are not, for whatever reason, kept in stock in my pantry or freezer, forget it. The book is rendered useless most of the time.

This brings me to those few books that happen to A) Mesh with my pantry, B) Fit my personal tastes and C) Match my culinary personality. One such book is ``Keep it Seasonal'' (William Morrow, $30) by Annie Wayte. This particular book arrived months ago. The first time I opened it, I fell in love. I cooked up a nice springtime dish, using a recipe from the book as inspiration.

Over the next weeks, the book landed here and there, both at the office and at home, but unlike so many of the books sent to me for review, I find myself perusing the pages of this one over and over. Every time I sit with the book, I find ideas and recipes I can't wait to try. There's a recipe for squash soup that involves cooking up summer squash and stirring it with some cream and herbs. I can't wait to try the asparagus and egg sandwich. That is a classic flavor combo, yet whoever thought of serving it as a sandwich? More appealing recipes are the chickpea and eggplant soup with chile flavored creme fraiche. And how about a sausage, mushroom and melted cheese sandwich? All of these recipes are, as the Naked Chef would say, wickedly simple, yet packed with flavor.

I've only tried one recipe from this large, beautiful picture book of recipes, but I expect that ``Keep it Seasonal'' and I will have a long, tasty relationship. We were, as it turns out, made for each other.

_Jolene Thym

|||115266547507490145|||Made For Each Other