Lee Bailey's Long Weekends: Recipes for Good Food and Easy Living

Easy Weekend Entertaining is an American tradition that Lee Bailey has been defining ever since Country Weekends, his award-winning and best-selling first book. Now, Lee Bailey's Long Weekends celebrates those one or two days wrapped around the weekend. They're the perfect amount of time for visiting with pals, soaking up a bit of local color, and rediscovering the pleasures of the grill and the stew pot.

In this book Lee's dropped in on friends across the country, visiting weekend haunts in Washington and California, Massachusetts and Vermont, with stops in Rhode Island, South Carolina, Mississippi, Texas, and New Mexico. He stops to see the sights, sure, and he shares bits of information about local history. But mostly he's there to catch up with friends and cook with them in their vacation retreats.

The recipes are Lee at his best -- food that puts local bounty to the fore. So look for meals built around salmon in the Northwest, around chiles in New Mexico, and quail in Texas. But this is also food to enjoy anywhere, anytime. There are the good old-fashioned classics like buttermilk chicken, Yankee meat-loaf and best beef stew, and monkey bread. Lee's simple and tasty uncooked tomato soup and grilled veal chop is an ideal menu for a laid-back Saturday supper. For a hearty Sunday brunch, there's beefsteak hash with an avocado and onion salad. And for an afternoon cookout, picture grilled sausages, wilted summer greens, and a meltingly smooth custard cake with fig preserves tucked away inside.

Lee's done it again! Long Weekends is filled with the food we want to cook and eat and Lee's classic ideas for good easy living. It's the companion book we'll want for every weekend all year round.

Lee Bailey is the author of many books on food and entertaining, including Country Weekends, winner of the Tastemaker Award for Cookbook of the Year. He contributes articles to Gourmet, Food & Wine, Mirabella, Australian Vogue, and other major magazines. He lives in New York City and Miami.