What, not another publication! What is she thinking?

Well, she thinks that people might like a seasonal mini-book, published four times a year. Voila! Entertablement Seasonal Quarterly Autumn 2021 is the first such book. 

The idea came about when Mary Plumstead and I were wrestling with printing Entertablement—Much Depends on Dinner. We contacted several printing companies to explore our options. They expressed universal astonishment that both it and Entertablement—The Four Seasons had been laid out in Adobe’s Lightroom rather than the more sophisticated (and, therefore, to me, terrifyingly complicated) program, In Design.

You can do all kinds of things with InDesign you cannot do in Lightroom. Such as this…

I won’t bore you with all the ins and outs of why InDesign is a superior program, but to learn the dratted thing, I needed a project on which to learn it. That got me thinking about producing a flipbook or even a magazine of around 100 pages. Enough for half a dozen table settings…

About a dozen recipes…

a travel feature…

And perhaps an in-depth exploration of a tableware or cooking item from its origins to today. Such as game bird dishes.

You can find more detail over at the Entertablement Books site, where Mary has created a short flipbook to give you a peek inside. And here’s a bit more about what we’ve covered.

In our inaugural issue of Entertablement’s Seasonal Quarterly, we feature fall tablescapes to inspire you, from quick and easy to layered and lush. In addition, history buffs will enjoy exploring the evolving role of game bird dishes in preparing and presenting rich fillings enrobed in crisp pastry.

We take a trip into Cambridgeshire to visit the Wimpole Estate, whose long list of owners included Elsie Bambridge, daughter of Rudyard Kipling, author of The Jungle Book and The Just So Stories. As you might expect of a literary family, the library is simply stunning.

I hope you’ll also enjoy the recipes, which cover breakfast to desserts—a Peach Cake and a Chocolate Stout Cake with Caramel Meringue, included. I was inspired to see how much I could do with a chunk of a leftover leg of lamb and a Savoy cabbage (A Sweet Lamb Pie, a pot of Scotch Broth and a bunch of Cabbage Rolls). A pan of Jalapeno Cornbread made its way into Tea Sandwiches and topped a Butternut Squash lasagne (no pasta required).

Whatever your favourite season, please join me in celebrating the arrival of autumn this year.

It’s available in digital format only.

I’m dying to know what everyone thinks! Please weigh in, all!