Baking is usually not a summer activity, who wants to warm up the house by having the oven going.  But you may change your mind after perusing a couple of new cookbooks.       

 

Kelsey Siemens is the founder of The Farmer’s Daughter blog and a full-time apple farmer on Willow View Farms.  Her work has been featured in magazines and on The Kitchn.  “The Farmer’s Daughter Bakes: Cakes, Pies, Crisps & More for Every Fruit on the Farm” is a beautiful cookbook loaded with full-color photographs that just have you reaching for those post-it notes to mark. 

         

From Spring Fever with its many recipes for rhubarb to strawberries to lavender including “Rhubarb-Raspberry Crisp” to “Lavender Lemon Loaf,” the book moves through berries, orchard fruits, harvest, winter, and preserving the seasons.  With basic information on how to make pie dough and how to braid it to how to freeze fruit, this is a cookbook that provides loads of inspiration. 

         

For those who want to enjoy these last few weeks of summer with outdoor entertaining, then Jeff Mauro’s “Come on Over” is the book for you.  Mauro, the winner of season seven of Food Network Star, is known for his sandwiches and he includes quite a few of them here such as “BLT Sliders with Candied Bacon,” as well as other guaranteed party hits such as “Hawaiian BBQ Pork Extravaganza” with “Sweet Potato Potato Salad.”   

         

There are also recipes for appealing sides such as “Crispy Broccoli with Asiago and Pine Nuts” as well as “Aunt Jae’s Double-Dressed Creamy Garlic-Garden Salad.”  

         

Concluding the book is a chapter from his wife with some scrumptious cookies, cakes, and pies such as “Atlantic Citrus Beach Pie” and “Sarah’s Famous Sea Salt Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies. 

         

Both these cookbooks make returning to the kitchen the thing to do no matter what the temperature is outside.