The Joy of Silly Cooking

Hospitality is a forgotten art, we always hear. We hapless home cooks need guidance in order to do it right. But perhaps the answer is not in the Food Network stars, but in ourselves. The best evenings aren’t the ones in which we simply pretend to be someone richer, smarter, and with impeccable taste in porcelain egg cups. At its best, entertaining at home can be wonderfully liberating, a chance to break rules established by the food magazines and the snazzy fusion restaurants, a heartfelt mix of “watch me show off” and “take me as I am.”That’s why the two new entertaining books by Amy Sedaris and Paula Deen are so charming. They are weird. They are often in what one might hastily call bad taste. But they stick faithfully to the often bizarre, always original version of hospitality that the authors like best.Amy Sedaris is clearly a member of the “take me as I am” school. The actress-comedienne, star and co-creator of the cult television series “Strangers With Candy,” and sister of writer David Sedaris, has long been famous (and infamous) for her raunchy and fearless sense of humor. It’s not too surprising that her first book would be about cooking — she bakes cupcakes and waitresses occasionally, and magazine profiles of her often make mention of her extensive collection of plastic food. But no amount of background information can quite prepare you for “I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence” (Warner Books, 304 pages, $27.99), a guide to entertaining that breaks a library’s worth of cookbook taboos.“I Like You” covers all the situations that a responsible host or hostess might find him or herself, like the Lumberjack Lunch, Entertaining the Elderly, and Ladies’ Night. And true to her own personality, Ms. Sedaris explores each subject with a mixture of hard-headed practicality and unbridled creativity.Like all the best hostesses, “I Like You” is unashamed and positively ebullient. Color and ingenuity burst from every page, from the sight of Ms. Sedaris skirtless, in nude pantyhose on the back cover to the fearlessly bad food photography, complete with hideous ’50s-style lighting, kitchy cornshaped salt-and-pepper shakers, and bad ladies’ wigs. A sample page might include a craft project or housekeeping tip, recipes like “Crosscut Stump Stew”, and advice like “When planning a child’s party, send invitations out, because children love to get mail.”The recipes range from the fearlessly simplistic to the relatively easy. Ms. Sedaris offers a basic recipe for chicken wings (baking them with oil, salt, and pepper), but also includes Tiddywinks Toadstool Pie, a decadent, creamy, mushroom-filled affair. Her co-writer, Paul Dinello, shares his classic recipe for zucchini fritters, and Stephen Colbert contributes his shrimp paste recipe.“I Like You” is the rare entertaining cookbook that will actually entertain your guests — it functions brilliantly as coffee-table fodder. But it’s certainly not a cookbook for everyone. How can you tell whether it’s for you? A simple litmus test is whether you find the following quote amusing (I sure do). “Many of your guests will have psychological problems and these need to be considered. For instance, one of your guests may be unable to remove himself from a physically abusive relationship. You need to be sensitive to this and avoid menu items such as battered chicken, whipped potatoes, beets, or sockeye salmon.”Paula Deen is, in her own way, just as odd as Amy Sedaris. I’ve long been fascinated by her Food Network show, “Paula’s Home Cooking.” On the show, Ms. Deen makes off-color exclamations (“Mmm … that’s good for my piehole”) and often refers to casseroles as “him,” as in “I’ll just brush him with butter and put him in the oven.” In her newest cookbook, “Paula Deen Celebrates!” (Simon & Schuster, 240 pages, $26), she offers a new batch of comically rich recipes like “Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding with Rum Sauce” and “Green Grits Pie.”Ms. Deen is defiantly unfussy in her tastes, though “that’s not to say that when the old girl has to, she can’t put on the dog.” She offers menus for a more conventional array of celebrations than Ms. Sedaris, from New Year’s Eve, St. Patrick’s Day, and Mother’s Day to slightly more unusual occasions like Presidents Day, May Day, and Elvis’s Birthday.Paula Deen is the type of old-school cook who tops her baked potatoes with Chicken à la King and stirs canned condensed cheddar cheese soup into her macaroni and cheese. She’s unabashed in her use of prefab ingredients and has an abiding love for cream, sour cream, and cream cheese. Her goulash recipe features three types of seasoning powders: Italian seasoning, “House Seasoning,” and seasoned salt.Over-the-top cooking can often be very, very good. Ms. Deen layers dough throughout her chicken potpie as well as on top — a diabolically good idea since there’s never enough crust on a potpie. She glazes her smoked ham with peanut butter and honey, echoing the nutty sweetness of the ham itself. And she offers a great tip for easy homemade peach ice cream — just fold fresh peach puree and almond extract into softened vanilla ice cream.Delightfully, “Paula Deen Celebrates!” also features “Paula’s Pearls of Wisdom” — short sidebars with Ms. Deen’s musings on life. Many of these “Pearls” are so sincere and clichéd that they almost have the tongue-in-cheek tone of Ms. Sedaris’s writing. “Life is like an Easter egg hunt — stay focused and the golden egg may be yours!” Ms. Deen writes. “Graduations are a time to celebrate. You have proven that you have staying power.”Following your own cooking style can lead to hilarity, embarrassing mishaps, and in the end, plenty of good food that’s truly your own. So forget about entertaining Hamptons style. Co-opt the quirks of these passionate cooks, or use them as inspiration to nourish your own. Make a cheese ball or an oyster log — and don’t be shy about it.The Heavyset Cheese BallAdapted from “I Like You” by Amy Sedaris. You’ll need to chill the cheese mixture overnight. Ms. Sedaris notes, “This recipe was originally known as ‘The Nutsnacker’ by Kraft.”1 1/4 cups whole natural almonds 1 8-ounce package cream cheese 1/2 cup real mayonnaise 5 crispy cooked bacon slices, crumbled 1/2 teaspoon dill weed 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper 1 tablespoon chopped green onion1. Preheat oven to 300ºF. Place and spread all the almonds on a cookie sheet or in a shallow pan, pushing the almonds around until they turn color, about 20 minutes. 2. Mix together the cream cheese and the mayonnaise. Add the bacon, pepper, dill, and onion. Chill overnight. 3. On a serving platter, make two pinecone shapes with the cheese. Begin to press the almonds at a slight angle into the cheese, starting at the narrow end of the pinecone shape. Do this in rows, continuing to overlap rows until all the cheese is covered. 4. Garnish with fake pine sprigs, or real ones, or with rosemary. Serve at room temperature and spread on a Ritz.

The Joy of Silly Cooking

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