Product Description

One sunny summer day in 1987, Carrie Brown and John Werner happened on Jimtown, an abandoned country store in northern California. Founded more than 100 years earlier, the Jimtown Store had held fast to its original building and its old-fashioned charm. Enchanted by its possibilities, Carrie and John decided to turn Jimtown into a new kind of country store: a gathering place for people to share down-to-earth, honest food in a beautiful setting.

The new Jimtown quickly became a favorite, offering exceptional main courses, soups, salads, sandwiches, sweets, and breakfast goods, all made from fresh local produce. Now everyone can enjoy the dishes that have made Jimtown so popular, faithfully recorded by Michael McLaughlin, who collaborated on the legendary Silver Palate cookbooks. Each of the more than 135 recipes blends time-honored simplicity with updated flavors and a modern-day appreciation of quality ingredients. From sophisticated starters such as Crisp Grilled Dates with Manchego and Bacon to their famous Pan-Fried Petaluma Duck Burgers to such homey desserts as the delicious Buttermilk Pie, the recipes are all accessible and imaginative. Unencumbered by national boundaries, The Jimtown Store Cookbook offers a tasty bazaar of international food. Also included are cooking tips, menus for entertaining, and as a welcome bonus, colorful profiles of local vendors. So invite the Jimtown spirit into your home and enjoy the bounties of a very special country store.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #482260 in Books
• Published on: 2002-03-21
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

From Amazon.com
Sonoma County's Jimtown Store, a country market that was dilapidated until it was bought and renovated by Carrie Brown and John Werner in 1987, now serves uniquely good food to locals and visitors alike. Brown and Werner's The Jimtown Store Cookbook, written with Michael McLaughlin, offers 130 of Jimtown's best recipes--robust yet sophisticated dishes that range from Pumpkin Chipotle Soup and Paella Salad with Seared Tuna and Shellfish to Maple-Glazed Meat Loaf and Duck and Olive Ragout with Buttered Noodles. The store also has committed itself to local food producers, and their products help define Jimtown's globe-spanning yet all-American cuisine. This is a truly accomplished blend, and readers will find a ready supply of tantalizing recipes for everyday and special-occasion eating.

Brown and Werner first spotted Jimtown on the Fourth of July, so it's only fitting that they've developed a mouthwatering barbecue repertoire, with many accompanying sauces, condiments, pickles, and relishes. These signature items include Romesco Sauce and Lupe's Tomatillo Salsa; a number of these are fitting accompaniments to dishes like Grilled Fish Tacos, Roast Pork Loin with Bacon and Rosemary, and Grilled Chicken Breasts with Herbed Honey Butter. Other Jimtown specialties include sandwiches like roast beef with horseradish sauce and desserts such as Bittersweet Chocolate Pinwheel Cake and Buttermilk Pie. With the purveyors' cooking tips and menus for entertaining, the book, like the store, rewards digging into. --Arthur Boehm

From Library Journal
Brown and Werner opened their "general store"/restaurant on Sonoma County's Route 128 ten years ago, and it has been popular ever since. Werner was one of the original partners in New York City's Silver Palate shop, and McLaughlin was the coauthor of the incredibly successful first Silver Palate cookbook. Jimtown's recipes are in a similar vein, upscale but easy food such as Green Four-Bean Salad with Caesar Dressing and Roast Pork Loin with Bacon and Rosemary. Suggestions for special menus are scattered throughout, along with sketches of their "resident gentleman organic farmer" and other favorite purveyors. For area and other larger collections.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Before they moved to California to open the Jimtown Store, Carrie Brown was a professional artist and intuitive cook, and John Werner, her late husband, was an original partner in New York's legendary specialty food store The Silver Palate. Carrie continues to live in a cottage behind the store with her dogs, Patty Lewis and Moses, surrounded by the vineyards of the Alexander Valley.

Customer Reviews

My new favorite
This has quickly become the cookbook I turn to most often (and I have hundreds of them). Everything I've tried has been so flavorful and so easy to pull off. The roasted figs and Indian cashews are now a cocktail party staple (and I keep getting calls for the recipe). Same goes for the cheese and pecan crackers. The bourbon-marinaded steak has made me a much more frequent meat-eater. And just this past weekend I made the incredibly easy buttermilk pie, to much fanfare. Do yourself a favor and buy this book. It's OUTSTANDING.

Seasonal best--all year long.
From a small-town country store in the Northern California wine region, comes a great collection of recipes and entertaining ideas using a variety of seasonal products. Authors Carrie Brown and John Werner (with a wonderful assist from cookbook pro Michael McLaughlin) have compiled the very best of seasonal recipes and menu ideas used in the Jimtown Store and its catering business. The recipes are clear and easy to follow (though I wish that the publisher had worked harder to print the COMPLETE recipe on 1 or 2 facing pages--flipping the page in the middle of food prep is a real hassle!). Overall, though, it is a nicely written volume, which provides ideas for springtime suppers, autumn tailgate parties, Fourth of July barbecues, as well as holiday meals. There is an extensive chapter on salads of all sorts, plus another on sauces, condiments, and relishes, just to give us a few new twists on some old stand-by themes. There are some great weekend ideas in the chapter entitled Breakfast Baking. I've already made the maple-glazed meatloaf for dinner (leftovers make terrific sandwiches), and am now planning Grilled Steak with Backyard Bourbon Marinade as well as Apple-Buttermilk Slaw for some weekend lunch guests. Just in time for summer entertaining, this book is destined to become a year-round classic in my kitchen!

Jimtown takes the cake!
One of those unique cookbooks where you'll want to make every recipe, and where you'll actually be able to. Jimtown's style is unfussy, focused on flavor and experience. These recipes mix old and new, national and international cuisine with witty and informative writing. I'm busy working my way through making the recipes and haven't had a dud yet!