Food News: Fine Cooking's August-September Issue Is A Summer Prize

Just out and it's outstanding -- the August/September issue of Fine Cooking. It's full of fresh inspiration for summer cooking and it's right on time as our farmers markets get to maximum output.

The cover photo had me fast flipping to page 74 to read "Anatomy of a Grain Bowl." There you'll learn the easy method and architecture of these satisfying meals in a bowl, plus four versions to get you started -- The Sushi Bowl, The Tuscan Bowl (shown on the magazine's cover), The Parisian Bowl, and The Peruvian Bowl. You'll never go to Chipotle again.

I've been a Fine Cooking subscriber for years and usually end up tearing out pages, but once in a while I save the whole issue as I will with this one. Besides the grain bowls, there is "Galettes: Sweet or Savory," which starts with an all-purpose galette dough, followed by excellent photos that show the making and assembly plus four recipes -- two sweet and two savory: "Plum, Ginger, and Poppyseed," "Corn, Swiss Chard, and Ricotta," "Tomato, Melted Leek, and Blue Cheese" (sign me up!), and "Cardamom-Peach with Toasted Hazelnuts."

If every August you have office mates that swamp you with their summer garden zucchini overflows, you'll appreciate "Summer Squash in 10" (10 recipes in 10 minutes). The magazine also has a primer on preserving summer fruits and vegetables using an easy Italian agridolce (sweet and sour) brine, plus an inspiring reminder of how to make a classic French Salade Niçoise, perfect for those nights when it's essentially too hot to cook.

Of all the food magazines, Fine Cooking is my hands-down favorite. For anyone who is not a regular reader, this bi-monthly is published by Taunton Press, a media company known for content-rich magazines about our domestic lives, like Fine Woodworking and Fine Gardening. Fine Cooking has no celebrity chefs or glamorous name-dropping (thank goodness) but it is stylish and very engaging in the way that Gourmet's recipe pages used to be. Every issue is packed with useful information and eminently cook-able food -- much of it seasonal -- that you'll want to serve your family and guests and also eat yourself.

The August-September issue is on newsstands through September and you can visit Fine Cooking at their (free) website.