Some Tasty Reading for 1988 Parties

Books on home entertaining have dwindled to a bare handful this year compared with last year’s healthy collection of dazzlers. Still, a few that have been released recently may inspire, if not teach us a few fresh things or two for parties in the New Year.

Yvonne Young Tarr’s “That’s Entertaining: Celebrations for All Seasons” (Simon & Schuster: $29.95, 269 pp., illustrated) is, as the title suggests, a seasonal menu book with good recipes and excellent party ideas for people who really entertain on a large and small scale, for personal or non-personal reasons.

She answers practical questions, such as what is the easiest, most irresistible charity fund-raiser ever? (Guess what? It’s a cheesecake party because cheesecake has a long shelf life and goes a long way, especially when sliced sliver-thin). How to organize a tandem (traveling) party, how to watch weight and still party, how to avoid party humdrums and what to do when wine stains ruin your best tablecloth are other tidbits to be found within Tarr’s pages.

Tarr, by the way, has written 20 cookbooks and writes a syndicated columns called “The Quick Gourmet” and “The Diet Gourmet.” So the woman knows her stuff.

Covers the Gamut

Menus trouble most hosts and Tarr, with her practical yet glamorous hand, covers the gamut of party menus from summer evening and garden party to winter dinner, buffet and elegant sit-down and salad bar suppers. If you need help with menu ideas for all seasons and reasons, plus dealing practically with party problems, this is the book for you.

“The Jill St. John Cookbook” by Jill St. John (Random House: $19.95) is a cookbook, but the focus is actually on parties, so you’ll get plenty of ideas for table settings, color schemes, dishes that work well at parties and ways to present food that’s picture perfect. Maybe too perfect, but that’s OK. Actress-turned-food professional, St. John did a good job with her first cookbook because of its au courant direction. St. John is a food editor for USA Weekend and does regular monthly cooking segments on ABC-TV’s “Good Morning America.”

She presents some charming ideas for entertaining with edible fresh flowers, which have been a rage in California for some time. The chapter on gifts from the kitchen, for instance shows a charming set of jars filled with chevre decorated with fresh flowers. Clever. You’ll get more flowers in a herb vinaigrette salad that’s absolutely gorgeous to look at.

In addition to the regular cookbook categories (salads and appetizers, soups, fish and seafood, poultry, meat, pasta, vegetables and side dishes, bread and desserts), there is a chapter on pizza with some pretty jazzy pizzas (artichoke, asparagus and prosciutto and Jewish Pizza a la Spago); there is also a chapter on eating in bed, which we found novel enough to find out why it, of all things in the world, was added to the book.

Weekend Breakfasts

Well, the chapter actually deals with weekend breakfast, which anyone from hungry horsemen to leisurely weekend guests can enjoy. “But besides a breakfast party, what could be nicer than crawling back into bed with two breakfast trays filled with my Parsi Scrambled Eggs (a glorious Indian concoction), Hot Cinnamon-Vanilla Coffee, the papers and the one you love?” she asks.

So, who’s complaining? If you want to know what hosts in Southern California are really doing for their parties, take a look at “California Heritage Continues” (Doubleday: $22.50, 392 pp., illustrated), the companion volume to the popular California Heritage Cookbook published in 1976, which sold over 160,000 copies. There are more than 300 recipes that spell California, including things such as Confetti Pasta, Breakfast Chimichangas, smoked turkey pita sandwiches, Zucchini Gratin, Thai Fish and Raspberry Zabaglione, reflecting the rich ethnic heritage of the land.

Then, for party hosts, the book provides some lovely special-occasion menus (Oscar Night Buffet, Southwestern, Seafood Luncheon, Black Tie Dinner, A California Thanksgiving Feast, among others). The Junior League of Pasadena, by the way, is an educational and charitable organization that promotes volunteerism. All profits realized from the sale of their cookbooks are used to support community projects in the Pasadena area.