Review: Slurp

Slurp: Drinks and Light Fare, All Day, All Night
by Nina Dreyer Hansley, Jim Hensley, and Paul Lowe

I received this Advanced Review Copy from Andrews McMeel Publishing through LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program. For the last couple of years my husband has been learning everything he can about spirits and mixed drinks. This plus my love of entertaining makes this book perfect for our bookshelves. The book is divided into four sections:

1. Drink Accessories-where we are given a few basics and told how to create little finishing touches for our drinks such as different types of glasses, making a pleasing sugar rim, and creating ice cubes filled with berries and other garnishes.
2. Morning-made up of recipes for juices, smoothies, teas and coffees, and breakfast foods.
3. Daytime-this section has various drinks, like coolers, shakes, iced teas, and afternoon cocktails, as well as lunch ideas.
4. Evening-it has a few finger foods and a bunch of alcoholic choices, everything from classic drinks to modern creations, night caps to "the day after," in case you indulged a little too much.

This 8x8 inch book has full color layouts with very simple to follow recipes throughout. Some of the food items listed are:

• baked plums with yogurt and almonds
• zucchini and feta cheese omelets
• focaccia with pesto, parma ham, and mozzarella
• salmon and potato salad
• sweet potato chips
• gazpacho with shrimp

But these are just the appetizers. The main part of the book is the drinks. Try these out for size:

• blueberry and vanilla smoothie
• cafe mocha
• chai lai tea
• watermelon and ginger cooler
• mango and coconut shake
• banana and pear lassi (an Indian yogurt drink)
• mimosa
• sparkling sangria
• mai thai
• bellini
• opal ice
• hot toddy
• and many more

This book makes me thirsty. It also makes me want to entertain so I can try out some of these recipes with friends. We are working our way through the recipes calling for blueberries this week. For breakfast this morning we had the Breakfast Muffins with fruit. They were easy to make and didn't take long either. They were sweet and yummy. The recipe made a dozen small sized muffins, which was perfect for the kids and I, but we will probably make half a dozen larger muffins the next time.

The recipes are perfect for summer entertaining out on the deck. And the book could easily be used as a coffee table book too. But it is not in depth about glassware or exhaustive about what a stocked wet bar needs. It is just a book of simple food and drink ideas, beautifully photographed, that I would not hesitate to recommend to anyone.