Meals in Heels by Jennifer Joyce
I have had this book since before I even started this Blog, and to me it deserves being put up on here. It is one of the books I pull down time and time again whenever I'm in the mood for something lovely to eat, or even just to get inspired to cook something new and interesting. My personal favourite is the 'Make ahead risotto with sausage, spinach and cherry tomatoes.
Jennifer is a food stylist and recipe writer based in London, so she is exposed to stacks of different dishes, ingredients and cooking styles that have worked their way into this book. The basis of the book are dishes that you would make for a dinner party, but it helps you prepare as much of the food as possible in advance so you actually get to enjoy your dinner party. It gives you prompts in the recipe instructions telling you how long in advance you should ideally be doing each step, but of course you can still make it all in one go to put on the table for a household dinner.
What sets this recipe book out from the rest of them to me is the styling. Along with each recipe there are tips on how to present it and a few other dishes in the book it would go well with. This helps immeasurably when you haven't had the chance to cook any of it before. What sort of platter should I go for? Will it fit in this bowl? Will these two dishes complement each other? They're all taken care of.
Also at the front of the book is the 'getting started' section, of course it's a great place to start with general tips and tricks to ensure your dinner party will run smoothly, with help on how much to serve per person, what will help fill them up, menu plans, and other good advice.
I'd highly recommend this book to anyone looking to break out of a cooking rut and looking to start entertaining guests. Even seasoned dinner party fans are bound to pick up some help on how to make more of their meals ahead of time by adapting some of the tricks to suit their own recipes.
