From the award-winning authors of the Canal House Cooking series comes Christopher Hirsheimer and Melissa Hamilton’s newest cookbook Canal House Cooks Every Day (Andrews McMeel Publishing). Christopher and Melissa’s daily blog, Canal House Cooks Lunch, has thousands of daily followers interested in what these two women have cooked up that day. Using the best seasonal ingredients, their recipes reflect the seasons and their appetites and cravings — home cooking at its best, by home cooks for home cooks. There are recipes for dishes as simple as a lunch of summer tomato sandwiches spread with lemon butter with smoked salmon, to more complex meals like braised chicken with wild mushrooms and fine egg noodles. Try their poached wild salmon with fresh English peas and morels for a special occasion like Mother’s Day.

In addition to the recipes, this cookbook includes menus for all the holidays throughout the year, plus 12 intimate essays – on picking a ripe tomato, making your own pasta, or foraging for wild mushrooms – that introduce each month and capture the feeling of that special time of year.

The Sunset Essential Western Cookbook (Oxmoor House) offers the region’s cuisine which is as distinct and varied as its culture and geography. Travel through cooking with stews like cioppino from San Francisco, chile verde from the Southwest and cool, refreshing tuna poke from Hawaii. Editors of Sunset magazine say that “Somehow you’ll appreciate salmon more once you’ve seen it through Lewis and Clark’s eyes, swimming in a flashing tumult up the Columbia River.” Bean and chicken taquitos, California date shake, beer and bison burgers, kimchi and avocado quesadillas, huckleberry skillet cobbler – they are all here, Western dishes old and new. There are helpful hints too on using a Dutch oven and rolling your own sushi. Avocados with warm bacon parsley vinaigrette might make a great appetizer or first course for a Mother’s Day meal.

Make everyday a holiday with The Daily Cookie (Andrews McMeel Publishing). An event or holiday each day provides a recipe that complements the special occasion, with holidays ranging from quirky to classic: Day of the Ninja (Chocolate Ninjabread cookies); Squirrel Appreciation Day (Caramel Nut Bars); Valentine’s Day (Mocha Chocolate Brownies). And as Elvis loved peanut butter and banana sandwiches, there’s a peanut, browned-butter, banana, bacon cookie for his birthday, January 8. Whether chewy, crunchy, crispy, bars, brownies, sweet, salty, savory, or even vegan or gluten free are preferred, The Daily Cookie has recipes everyone will love, making it a perfect gift for mothers and those who love to bake.

Mothers will also appreciate America’s Best Pies (Skyhorse Publishing), a collection of 200 recipes that have won awards at the American Pie Council/Crisco National Pie Championships held since 1995 for amateur, commercial and professional bakers. Here are the best of the best from across the country: classic apple; silky, rich and smooth chocolate pie; lemon raspberry twist; deep-dish deluxe banana split pie; vanilla bean brulee pie, and more. For more information about National Pie Day every January 23, visit www.piecouncil.org.

Recipes:

Avocados with Warm Bacon Parsley Vinaigrette

Poached Wild Salmon with Fresh English Peas and Morels

Ann Hattes has over 25 years experience writing about both travel and food for publications both in the US and internationally. A senior living in Wisconsin, she’s a member of the International Food, Wine and Travel Writers Association and the Midwest Travel Writers Association.

Meet Ann