Prairie Home Cooking celebrates this glorious American regional cuisine and culture, from its diverse ethnic influences to the region's seasonal specialties, in 400 inspired recipes and innumerable sidebars. From Native American dishes to state fair blue-ribbon pies and preserves, from barbecue and cornbread to strudels, sausages, pierogis, and pastas, the Midwestern table is a harmonious blend of the best of America's many traditions and heritages.Midwestern cuisine is the flavor of America itself; a triumphant mixture of tradition and innovation, of comfort and creativity, of abundance and thrift. Prairie Home Cooking offers the best of the Midwest, in recipes like Heartland Smoked Chicken and Corn Chowder, Farmhouse Tomato Aspic with Herbed Buttermilk Dressing, Oma's Sauerkraut with White Beans and Pork, Comfort Food Chicken and Noodles, Blue Cheese Mashed Potatoes, Black Walnut Pound Cake, and Wild Raspberry Ice Cream. Prairie Home Cooking is a warm welcome to savor the earth's bounty in cold-weather comfort dishes and vibrant summer fare, in traditional American dishes and inspired new preparations of the heartland's harvest.