Around My French Table

Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours By Dorie Greenspan, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010. Hardcover. $40; 530 pages

This culinary tour de force includes recipes that read as if you're working from Greenspan's handwritten recipe cards. Each begins with a headnote, always containing a tidbit about method. Often there are comparisons to more familiar American recipes that will disarm anyone unfamiliar with—or intimidated by—a recipe or its title. Ever practical, she also offers substitutions and storage tips.

"This is elbows-on-the-table food ..." she promises. "It's the food I would cook for you if you visit me in Paris—or New York City."