"The Cast Iron Skillet Cookbook is . . . a damn fine work that's at once a treatise, chronicle, and paean to perhaps the most versatile tool in a cook's arsenal. . . . I promise you, with this book your cast iron skillet will never again leave the top of your stove. It's that good." -David Leite, publisher of the two-time James Beard Award-winning website Leite's Culinaria (LCcooks.com)
Cast iron skillets are booming in popularity: they're versatile, they're relatively inexpensive, and they don't have the toxic chemicals released by artificial nonstick pans. Though cast iron was the only pan in grandma's kitchen, these 150 recipes are fresh and updated. They range from traditional skillet favorites, like Seared Chicken Hash, Spanish Potato and Sausage Tortilla, and pan-seared steaks and chops, to surprising dishes like cornbread with an Italian spin; quesadillas filled with brie, papaya, and pineapple; and a gingerbread cake topped with fresh pears. Ellen Brown gained the national limelight as the founding food editor of USA Today as well as one of the founders of the New American Cuisine movement. She has written 40 cookbooks, including the critically acclaimed Cooking with the New American Chefs (Harper & Row), which won second place in the Tastemaker Awards, and the 1989 IACP Award-winning Gourmet Gazelle Cookbook (Bantam Books). She now writes a weekly column for the Providence Journal, and her articles have appeared in numerous publications, including the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, BonAppétit, and Art Culinaire. In 1985, she was inducted into the prestigious "Whos Who of Cooking in America." She lives in Providence, RI.
