NEW ENGLAND COOKBOOK

The author of Cape Cod Summer, Island Patchwork. And This Is Boston (not to mention wanderings in other regions) has gone back to an old love, cooking, for an appetizing and nostalgic collection of recipes from her home grounds. This- in essence and scope, comes closest to the spirit and quality of Imogene Wolcott's Yankee Cookbook (Coward-McCann), and only time forbade some close checking, back and forth, for likes and differences. The ultimate test, for me, is trying out some tantalizing recipes, such as Cheese-Chive Souffle, New England's version of Pancakes for Dessert, the kind of Apple Tapioca that reads like one I've been hunting, Cottage Pudding (with sweet lemon sauce- a version too seldom found but fondly remembered), Lemon Snow Pudding (no, not the one on the gelatine venlopes- but again one that takes me back to childhood) and the right kind of Strawberry Shortcake. Then there are some shortcuts I want to try, - buckwheat cakes that don't have to be set overnight, a simplification of sponge cake guaranteed to turn out like the tricky ones of a generation ago, and an old fashioned gingerbread that I'm hoping is the answer to a long hunt. Anyhow-here it is- a specialty cookbook that I want to own.