My all-time favorite, which makes great use of herbs and uses them to put twists on simple dishes, such as champagne-lavendar sorbet, is The Herbfarm Cookbook, by James Beard winner Jerry Traunfeld:
http://www.amazon.com/Herbfarm-Cookb...2227467&sr=1-1
I use this one a lot for party foods and appetizers - Dishing with Kathy Casey:
http://www.amazon.com/Dishing-Kathy-...2227742&sr=1-4
From one of my favorite restaurants in Seattle, the Icon Grill's Aroused Americana:
http://www.amazon.com/Aroused-Americ...2227855&sr=1-1
If you're looking for good, classic "standard" recipes, the Williams Sonoma cookbooks are good (I have the ones on Meats and Desserts), and one cookbook I use a lot is "The Best Recipe" by Cook's Illustrated - basically a collection of popular recipes they've cooked a gazillion ways to come up with the one that offered the "best" results. The roast beef recipe in that cookbook has NEVER let me down.
I also have several Ina Garten (Barefoot Contessa), Jamie Oliver and Tom Douglass books. Yeah, I pretty much collect cookbooks.
Threaded Mode
