flower Contributing Editor Susan S. Elliott shares her stellar review of Cornelia Guest’s new book, Simple Pleasures: Healthy Seasonal Cooking and Easy Entertaining
Simple Pleasures: Healthy Seasonal Cooking and Easy Entertaining, by Cornelia Guest with Diane Reverand (Weinstein Books, 2012)
Cornelia Guest’s Simple Pleasures is a charming book filled with vegan recipes and entertaining advice. The daughter of fashion & gardening icon C.Z. Guest and polo champion Winston Guest, Cornelia grew up at Templeton, the legendary estate where her parents enjoyed entertaining frequently. Guest moved back home as an adult when her mother became ill with breast cancer. That experience seems to have been life changing for Guest, and it steered her firmly onto the path of a vegan lifestyle.
When entertaining, Guest often places bright tulips in her father’s old polo trophies out by the pool. (© 2012 Matthew Klein)
Simple Pleasures brims with beautiful photographs captured at Templeton with its rose garden, heirloom china, bouquets of tulips arranged in family silver polo trophies, and adorable pets. Happily, flower magazine’s own Editor-in-Chief Margot Shaw contributed a few graceful flower notes. For summer, Margot wisely encourages the use of hydrangeas for easy entertaining, as “they are so full and frothy, they pretty much arrange themselves. Just be sure to remove foliage from below the water line to avoid bacteria in the water.”
White and yellow daisies and green button mums accent Guest’s vegan breakfast buffet of raspberry muffins, cinnamon muffins, Debra’s Granola, and pecan waffles. (© 2012 Matthew Klein)
Arranged by the seasons, the recipes look absolutely delicious and are all for vegan cuisine. Some of the most appealing recipes are the vegetable dishes created with simple seasonal ingredients like the Roast Summer Vegetable Pasta for July, and the Broccoli Rabe Orecchiette or the Spaghetti Squash with Pine Nuts and Tarragon for autumn.
Pan holds a tray of iced tea while Guest’s dog Winston watches guard. (© 2012 Matthew Klein)
In the spirit of summer, enjoy making this refreshing recipe for the Iced Tea that Cornelia Guest serves in the legendary gardens at Templeton.
Iced Tea
Serves 8
Prep Time: 50 minutes
2 quarts boiling water
8 herbal lemon tea bags
1½ cups fresh squeezed orange juice
Fresh mint
Pour 2 quarts boiling water over tea bags. Brew for 30 minutes and let cool. Remove tea bags.
Add orange juice and serve over ice with fresh mint.
In one of Guest’s favorite photos of all time, her donkey, Madonna, grazes by the pool at Templeton. (© 2012 Matthew Klein)
To purchase this book on Amazon, click here.
By Susan S. Elliott
