Hot off the presses, Joe Yonan’s “Serve Yourself: Nightly Adventures in Cooking For One” is a bright and breezy compendium of delicious recipes that you can enjoy alone while dressed in jammies and watching HBO, or a la table with a lucky dinner guest.
“Serve Yourself” means never having to say “I ate cereal for dinner last night” again.
Last night, Yonan partnered with Chef Andy Husbands of Tremont 647 (long one of my favorite eateries in Boston) to do a “Serve Yourself” dinner. A sell-out crowd of about 60 diners – mostly two-somes --showed up for the four-course affair that was cooked by Husbands while Yonan schmoozed with the food-lovers and signed books. By 5:30 pm the restaurant was already perfumed with hints of the Gingery Glazed Halibut; Sweet Potato and Orange Soup (pictured here); and Cardamom Brown Sugar Snickerdoodles to come.
Yonan, the Food and Travel Editor of the Washington Post since 2006, has been writing the award-winning “Cooking for One” column for a couple of years. Now he packages his favorite tips, techniques, recipes and menus into this welcome gift to solo diners. In addition to tantalizing creations such as Ex-Texas Romaine Salad with 12-hour Tomatoes, Feta, Black Beans and Crumbled Fried Corn Tortilla; and Couscous with Tomato, Walnuts and Capers, Yonan provides shopping and storage tips for the single-chef household, along with creative ideas for making use of extra ingredients.
Recipes are imaginative, with many sophisticated twists, but easy to follow and, for the most part, do-able in the time it takes to read your email, feed the dog and pour yourself a glass of wine.
In case you’re wondering, the “Ex Texas” salad is an “update” on a salad that Yonan’s mother made when he was growing up in Texas. He described the original to me as “one head iceberg, one block 
cheddar cheese grated, 1 bag Frito’s chips crushed, 1 bottle of Catalina French salad dressing. “Sometimes it hung around for a couple days and was pretty gross,” said Yonan. “But, still, I had fond memories of it so I decided to do the updated recipe.”
In case you’re wondering, yes, Yonan says he does cook for himself most nights, in spite of the many dining-out demands on a big-city paper’s food editor. "I like to cook for dinner parties, too, but I’d say I eat at home three or four nights a week. Just me…and my 105-pound Doberman, Red. He takes care of the clean-up.”
The book is available at Amazon.com for $12.46.
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