Farmhouse Cookbook

Nothing evokes comfort, warmth, and mouth-watering hospitality like the dishes prepared by people who actually grow the food. From Susan Herrmann Loomis, author of The French Farmhouse Cookbook, The Italian Farmhouse Cookbook, The Great American Seafood Cookbook, and Clambakes & Fish Fries, Farmhouse Cookbook is the result of a 20,000-mile trek across rural America in search of the soul of the family farm. Passionate in her quest to taste the freshest corn, understand the basics of cattle ranching, and find out just how an artichoke grows, the author contacted legions of farmers who generously shared their time, their knowledge, their homes, and their recipes.

Although Farmhouse Cookbook includes the best pot roast, meat loaf, and stew you're ever likely to encounter, it goes well beyond the expected meat-and-potatoes fare. Here is Chew Chang's Chicken and Mustard Green Soup, Lentil Salad with Smoked Turkey and Tarragon, Pork Loin with Coriander and Garlic Crust, a Basque Fourteen-Hour Leg of Lamb, Lemony Herbed Chicken Wings, Nate Pennell's Mulligan Stew with Blueberry Dumplings, Amish Corn Pudding, and Mary Navarette's Garlicky Enchiladas, from the Christopher Farm in Gilroy, California, the garlic capital of the world. Plus, extraordinary baking-Hot Pepper Corn Bread, Funny Cake, Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies, Rhubarb Crunch, Sour Cherry Crumb Pie, and Best Ever Chocolate Cake.

With profiles of farms and farmers, tips, lore, and an almond to zucchini lexicon, Farmhouse Cookbook is as irresistible as the ring of the dinner bell over the fields.

Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club's HomeStyle Books and Better Homes & Gardens Family Book Service. 197,000 copies in print.

Susan Herrmann Loomis is a European-based food writer whose work appears regularly in The New York Times; she also writes a weekly column for Conde Nast's epicurious.com. Her other books include Italian Farmhouse Cookbook, French Farmhouse Cookbook, Farmhouse Cookbook, and Clam Bakes & Fish Fries.