Edible gifts that are dressed to impress December 13, 2011

At B&N Rockville, cookbook author Dinah Corley helps you give your next foodie present in style

ROCKVILLE, MD – There’s nothing like giving someone a thoughtful, handmade gift. Especially when it came from your oven or mixing bowl: A batch of Sugar Pumpkin Chutney, or perhaps some delectable Strawberry Shortcake Trifle. But now that the cooking is finished, how do you wrap it? Can you craft a package that’s as classy as its contents?

In Gourmet Gifts: 100 Delicious Recipes for Every Occasion to Make Yourself and Wrap with Style (Harvard Common Press, November 2011), longtime Martha’s Vineyard cooking teacher and food writer Dinah Corley shows readers how to cook and wrap their gifts with love. The result? Edible gifts that dazzle, before they reach a single tastebud.

After culling 30+ years of collected recipes for the very best travel-ready gifts, Dinah crafted eye-pleasing packages for each one. From money-saving gifts to opulent special-occasion gifts, foods that ship well over a long distance, gifts for people who are under the weather, and loads of ideas for the holidays, Dinah’s food crafts – shot in full-color by Alison Shaw – strike the perfect balance between tasty and pretty.

Cook and craft recipes include: Herb-Stuffed Eggs in a Wheat Grass Nest, Cool Cucumber Vodka in Leaf-Tendril Wrapped Bottles, Pistachio Sugarplums in Decorative Paper Pyramids, Cardamom Coffee Can Cake adorned with Burlap Bows, and dozens more.

Legions of cooking students have enjoyed Dinah’s food craft lessons in person. Now, Gourmet Gifts brings her warmth and collection of 100+ recipes to readers everywhere, helping them cook – and give – with love.

"Good food and generosity--what a wonderful, immediately appealing premise for a cookbook! With salt-cured whole lemons preserved in extra-virgin olive oil, and eggplant spread in a crisp wonton wrapper, there seems to be no end to the creative treats Dinah Corley provides here. Tempting is hardly a sufficient word for them. Alison Shaw's photographs are feasts for the eye."
—David McCullough, author of The Greater Journey and John Adams

EVENT DETAILS: On Tues., Dec. 13 at 7:30pm, meet Dinah Corley and purchase a signed copy of her cookbook, Gourmet Gifts.

Barnes & Noble – 12089 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852
(301) 881-2361, www.bn.com
Book signing and demonstration

DINAH CORLEY (www.DinahsGourmetGifts.com) is a lifelong cooking teacher, food writer, restaurant consultant and gift-giver. During her culinary training, she apprenticed to Simone Beck, and studied under both Julia Child and James Beard. After nearly 20 years of cooking in Martha’s Vineyard and Washington DC, she is now based in the Shenandoah Valley, where she continues to teach cooking classes.

Official Website: http://www.dinahsgourmetgifts.com/