Tom's Big Dinners… yes, it's finally real. Our new cookbook, published by William Morrow, an imprint of Harper Collins, is going to hit the shelves late October. After a long, hard year of recipe testing, writing, photo shoots, food tastings and cocktail shakings—we are done!

This time around, Jackie and I decided to get out of the restaurants and into our home kitchen with a menu and entertaining cookbook subtitled "Big Time Home Cooking for Family and Friends." What is a "big dinner" to you? For some people, cooking dinner for two can send them into a frenzy. But for Jackie and me, who both grew up in households where big family dinners were the order of the day, inviting 10, 12, or 15 people to dinner is no big deal. So we compromised and wrote these recipes to feed 6 to 8, the average size of a dinner party for most people. You can double the recipes for a bigger "big dinner," or scale them down and cook a big romantic dinner for that special someone!

The thirteen menus featured in Tom's Big Dinners include some of our favorite foods in the world and celebrate important, often lifelong, traditions in Jackie's and my extended families. The "Pop Pop's Winter Solstice" menu features Loretta's grandfather's annual homage to the shortest day of winter and the return of the sun. Naturally, this menu starts with Pop Pop's perfect martini, deliciously paired with a caramelized fennel tart. A creamy seafood chowder is the mainstay of the meal and a cornmeal rosemary cake with lemon fondant finishes off this mid-December feast.

For the "Remembering Labuznik" menu, Peter and Susan Cipra were kind enough to mentor us through some of our favorite Czech recipes from their now-closed restaurant, Labuznik. Jackie and I spent many a romantic night there noshing on slow roasted pork with caraway onion gravy and light-as-a-feather bread dumplings. Peter's amazing Bordeaux wine list, the best in town at the time, always complemented the meat heavy menu perfectly.

A "Pike Place Market Menu", "Dinner with Dale Chihuly", and "Chinook Salmon Roast" are a few more of the menus in our book featuring the likes of Olive Stuffed Flank Steak, Moscato d'Asti 'Glass', Mom's Crab Dip with Russet Potato Chips, Peach Caramel Upside Down Cakes and fragrant Star Anise Vodka Dragons.

Tom's Big Dinners was crafted with the same dedicated teamwork that we gave our first book, Tom Douglas' Seattle Kitchen, but was even more of a family affair. Our good friend Ed Levine, author of New York Eats (More), flew in from New York to work with us on the writing. Shelley Lance tested recipes over and over on a real "home stove" squeezed on to the hot line at Palace Kitchen. Jackie trolled through every kitchenware and tabletop store in town as our in-house artistic director and prop stylist. And Loretta had to sit at the table and pretend she liked my cooking every time Robin Layton, our photographer, was around.

In the upcoming October newsletter we will offer the same service we did with Seattle Kitchen. I am happy to personalize a book to whomever you choose. We will gift wrap it if you like, and direct ship to anyone you choose. If you would like to order immediately, just click here.

A quick trip back to the big apple found Martha Stewart alive and well. Not only did she look fabulous, but her sense of humor hasn't deserted her. Go Martha! (The show will air this fall.)

Some quick restaurant stops while I was there.... Jean George's new Chinese-inspired restaurant, 66, was over-the-top trendy, but way more delicious than some of the reviews I've read! Mario Batali's pizzeria, Otto, was good. For Italian enophiles, it is the best wine list I've ever seen. The charcuterie, crudo (raw meats and fish), marinated veggies, and grilled breads were the best course, much like the menu at his famous Lupa restaurant. The pizza contained high quality ingredients like goat cheese, caramelized onions, or fresh figs, but it didn't send me. Mary's Fish Camp was perfect. Great grilled whole fish, stuffed with tarragon and lemon, charred on the outside and fragrant and flaky on the inside. I ate the best lobster roll: stuffed with a ton of mayonnaise-dressed lobster and served in a butter-fried old fashioned hot dog bun. Mmm good. There is always a line and no air conditioning. Try to sit at the counter by the front door and the kitchen. I picked up some great tips watching the cooks! PS, you gotta have the fries.

Cheers!

Tom and Jackie