Clinton - Have you ever thought about hosting an outdoor dinner party — one that goes far beyond the traditional backyard barbeque and features delicacies like sesame-crusted marlin with ginger dressing, mozzarella baked tomatoes, pork satay with spiced dip and vodka watermelon? Have you ever imagined adding some spicy-chile flair to your basic French toast recipe? And what about baking a batch of Parmesan cookies? These savory delectables are a mere sampling of the more than 300 recipes that are yours for the tasting in the motivational, beautifully photographed “Food for Friends” and “Easy Entertaining.”

“Food for Friends,” written by Fran Warde, a professional chef and former Food Editor for “Red” magazine, and “Easy Entertaining,” edited by Celia Brooks Brown, a teacher-chef at the famous bookshop Books for Cooks in Notting Hill, London, show you how to prepare an Indian party buffet for 12 guests, an entrée such as Moroccan lamb tagine with orange relish and a lime mousse with lemon sauce dessert. Warde and Brown assure you throughout that creating such lavish feasts is not as formidable a task as you may think.

     Warde’s cookbook is divided into two specific parts. Part One is called “Everyday Entertaining” and offers complete meal plans — normally four- to five-course meals — based on theme. You’ll find the “Mediterranean Lunch” for eight guests, which includes char-grilled jumbo shrimp with citrus wedges; white bean and tomato salad; baby leaf salad with spring garlic dressing; a pairing of rosé; and strawberry tart. “Supper on a Budget” for four comprises stuffed sweet peppers, country chicken, pasta ribbons with parsley, a pairing of sauvignon blanc and lemon polenta cake with pouring cream.

     “Parties & Celebrations” is Part Two. It offers well-rounded menus suited for special occasions — “red-carpet dining,” as Warde describes it. Cute and clever ideas are plentiful for the “Children’s Tea Party” for 12: star and heart sandwiches; cheese number puffs; boys’ and girls’ meringues; and bedazzled fairy cake mountain. “Girls’ Reunion Lunch” for four lists as its set of choices artichoke hummus with ciabatta bread, onion tart, roasted salmon wrapped in prosciutto, tossed zucchini ribbons and pasta, pairings of champagne and chardonnay and marbled chocolate cakes.

     And say you’re having a big celebration under a tent. “Why not,” Warde suggests, “make full use of it the following day for a more relaxed, intimate party. It gives everyone the opportunity to discuss the previous day’s events, and the menu is completely cook-ahead. …” The “After the Main Event” includes osso buco (an Italian dish of braised veal shanks), garlic sautéed green beans, a pairing of pinot noir with the veal and poached pears and peaches in spiced wine with a pairing of Sauternes.

     Warde provides a “Work Plan” for all recipes. This helpful guide instructs you on what to do the day before your dinner party, what to do on the day of and what to do just before serving. She also suggests how to set the scene and style.

     Brown’s cookbook contains tasty offerings for everything from brunch to salads to meat and game to dessert to cocktails. Her chapter “Vegetables and Vegetarian Entrées” features chickpea and tomato masala with beans and cilantro, Roquefort tart with walnut and toasted garlic dressing and lemon-roasted new potatoes. You’ll discover recipes for seared swordfish with avocado and salsa and traditional fish pie in “Fish & Seafood.” And “Chicken & Duck” teaches you how to make chicken panini with mozzarella, honey duck with mango salsa and hot chicken tikka platter with yogurt.

     Both of these wonderful cookbooks emphasize an “easy” approach to cooking, but, as Brown writes, “this in no way compromises the food you can cook, its taste, or the ‘wow’ factor. … Each recipe is presented in easy-to-follow stages to make your time in the kitchen as simple and as stress-free as possible. You will soon find yourself delving enthusiastically into the book’s  … chapters to come up with menus to suit your own culinary gatherings and the tastes of your guests. You will be amazed at the way entertaining can play such a pleasurable part in your social life.”

     Warde concurs. She writes: “I want you to enjoy your kitchen and your cooking. It’s great to go out, but some of the most memorable and enjoyable times will be in the comfort of your own home in relaxed company. If you have bought this book, you obviously have an interest in cooking, either as a beginner or an experienced cook with flair and creativity. So just turn the pages, choose the occasion, and create your menu from the suggestions given. … Yes, it’s as simple as that.”

A dinner party from these pages

Being supremely inspired by the mouth-watering recipes in “Food for Friends” and “Easy Entertaining,” last month I hosted a dinner party for five friends. I followed Warde’s “Summer Sundown” meal plan, which comprised seared tuna salad with lime and soy dressing with a pairing of pinot grigio; new potato, garden pea and bean salad; and sage-stuffed pork fillet with lentils and scallion dressing and a pairing of gamay.

It may be a bit out of context to prepare a meal intended for summer given that we have several weeks to wait before that splendid season arrives. However, “Summer Sundown” contains some of my favorite tastes, as well as those of my guests, that it seemed ludicrous not to try it just because it’s still cool outside. The flavors of lime, lemon, chile pepper, scallion, chive, garlic, watercress, parsley, sage, green beans and lentils all combined and complimented one another to create a satisfying, fantastically delicious and pleasantly light dinner. All five of us raved about the peppery snap of the watercress in our salads, the pungency of the scallions that accompanied the pork, the full-bodied gamay.

     As for the dessert — the happy ending to any meal — I departed from the orange and lemon bake that concludes the “Summer Sundown.” Coconut is a major ingredient in this sponge cake, and being averse to it I opted for the poached pears and served them with chocolate almond biscotti and cream. The dessert’s elegance and flavor, which derives in part from cardamom, cloves and anise, belie its simple preparation. It was the capstone of our spectacular and memorable dinner party.

     “Entertaining needn’t be daunting,” Warde asserts. Trust her on this, and take it from me: with concentrated preparation, a clearly laid out plan and a little improvisation, entertaining and sumptuous dining are easy to achieve.

Amy O’Loughlin is a native of Clinton and a regular columnist for MotherTown.