Feasts for All Seasons

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A unique cookbook that uses the seasons as a guide to variety, adventure, and excellence in day-to-day family eating.

This book is different because it is based on a new and original plan. Roy de Groot divides his text into four sections--winter, spring, summer, and fall. In each he first reviews for the prospective cook the special pleasures at that time of the year. He then tells how best to shop for ingredients that the recipes that follow require. These range from the adventurous to the practical and simple.

In the de Groot household every meal is a delight whether it be hearty peasant fare for a blustery night, a leisurely Sunday breakfast, or a summer supper of fresh crayfish. While the family celebrates some of the principal feast days of different countries with authentic national dishes , for the most part the recipes are planned for day-to-day family meals: appetizers and soups; main dishes of meat, birds, game, fish, and shellfish; a surprising variety of vegetables, of substitutes for the usual potato, of salads both cultivated and wild; and desserts with an emphasis on the marriage of seasonal fruits to suitable cheeses. Mr. de Groot includes economical recipes that make good use of leftovers, and at the end of each quarter he supplies notes on wines appropriate to the season.