MORE RECIPES WORTH THE TIME

When we last were in Sacramento, my good friend Becky found and presented this cookbook to me after we had spent a fruitless afternoon searching the bookstore. I had printed several recipes from the Eating Well website but, as a confirmed book-lover (not a good trait when you live in a small space), I really wanted to be able to sit back and peruse the recipes in a book rather than on the computer.

When we had an abundance of fresh fruit recently, I found a simple and yummy "Old Fashioned Fruit Crumble for 2" recipe here - quick, easy, and delicious (I used blueberries and peaches), and just right for two people. The cookbook had another recipe I wanted to try and, after I bought an important ingredient - a fresh fennel bulb - at the farmers' market in Port Townsend Saturday morning, I made Fennel-Crusted Salmon on White Beans, another keeper. The link here. to the Eating Well website, serves 6 (the one in the book has been modified for serve two).

One more recipe to recommend, this time from The Oregonian, Portland's newspaper: Tuscan White Bean and Chicken Pasta Salad. This recipe uses leftover, cooked chicken. We buy rotisserie chicken often when grocery shopping and this was a delicious way to use the moist, leftover breast meat (we eat all the dark meat as soon as we get it home!) It was an easy, cool dinner during Portland's heat wave.