Title:	Simple Fare: Fall and Winter
	Author:	Karen Mordechai
	Published:	September 19, 2017, Harry N. Abrams
	No. of Pages:	192
	Cover Price:	$35.00 Paperback, $11.99 Kindle

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Simple Fare: Fall and Winter is the second book in the seasonal cookbook series by bestselling cookbook author, and originator of the popular blog, Sunday Suppers, Karen Mordechai. This cookbook, like the first in the series, features recipes that can be adapted to individual tastes in Mordechai’s trademark simple, straightforward style. The recipes tend to be trendy, and use trendy ingredients.

Some of the most appealing recipes included are: a delicious Morning Loaf, perfect with morning coffee or tea, Dark Chocolate Buttermilk Pancakes (chocolate for breakfast – a great idea!), Smoked Blue Potatoes, and a flavorful Roasted Vegetable Soup. There are excellent detailed instructions for cooking legumes and grains, as well as a guide to all of the popular new salts that everyone is jumping on the bandwagon and using in their cooking.

Mordechai’s book has a whole chapter with simple breakfast ideas, and her fish dishes are easy enough that anyone can successfully prepare them with a minimum of fuss. Beef Brisket is all-the-rage right now (with the price rising several hundred percent from when it was considered a lowly tough cut of meat), and I splurged to prepare the version in this book for Braised Brisket. It was very good, and would make a good main dish for an informal dinner party.

The desserts in the book are not particularly exciting, and I wasn’t moved to make any of them. However, there are three ice creams that look good, as well as some churros and dark chocolate bark that could, at the right dinner, be suitable.

All told, Simple Fare: Fall and Winter is a book for the pretentious cook who would rather focus on meals that are all-the-rage and trendy, rather than just good food that everyone likes. While there are some good recipes in the book, and they are easy to follow, most down-to-earth cooks will prefer to prepare dishes that are actually enjoyed by family and friends, rather than to show off with trendy dishes that are good, but don’t satisfy.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.