Small Bites, Big Flavor — 3rd Installement of Tastefully Small

Thinking about cutting corners this holiday season?
With temperatures and incomes dropping, home entertaining is looking better and better. For making a big splash with less cash, cookbook author Kim Hendrickson has one small suggestion: downsize your dishes. “When it comes to good food, less is more.” That’s the premise behind Hendrickson’s award-winning series, Tastefully Small.

Savory Bites includes such novel nibbles as Wild Mushroom Rugelach, Thai Shrimp Baskets, and Country Pâté Truffles. Every recipe includes both bite-size and full-size versions, and nearly every item can be made either all or partly in advance. Chapters on edible garnishes and guidelines for a successful event round out this guide to compact entertaining.

If strong sales are any indication, Hendrickson’s hit on a growing—or rather, shrinking—trend. Her first release, Finger Sandwiches, peaked at #2 in Amazon’s entertaining category last Fall. Dessert Canapés is her publisher’s best seller. Hendrickson, who has been catering and teaching cooking in the NY area for twenty years, says she got the idea for mini morsels from her students. “As we sampled different dishes, everyone kept saying how much more fun this was than the traditional one main course meal.”

Echoing the idea that bigger is not necessarily better, Hillel Cooperman of tastingmenu.com asserts that “we need to redefine how we think about eating to have an approach centered more around tasting as much as possible than eating as much as possible.” Though these books are not written for dieters or the health-conscious, they certainly lend themselves to “a careful, appreciative tasting of various foods."

Kim Hendrickson is author of the Tastefully Small™ cookbook series, winner of two Florida Publisher’s Association gold medals. She has catered for the New York Metropolitan Opera, the Penguin Repertory Theatre, The Bizarre Food Show, and Slangman’s World. She is a regular presenter at the World Tea Expo, John Campbell Folk School, and at culinary events throughout the New York area. Kim teaches that good food is more than good taste; it’s the fun and joy of creating something beautiful and sharing it with others.