Spring has sprung and the flowers are in full bloom! What better way to celebrate than with a floral-themed picnic in the park?

In addition to being gorgeous to look at, flowers can be a source of inspiration and flavor in the kitchen. For this month's 24, 24, 24 event, I created a multi-course picnic dinner inspired by — and including — flowers. On the menu: Orange Blossom Brioche with Pate and Orange-Balsamic Marmalade, Green Salad with Flower Petals and Lemon-Poppy Vinaigrette, Tuna-Strawberry-Rose Maki, and Lavender Creme Brûlée. The biggest hits were definitely the brioche and the creme brûlée — yummy!

Hunting down flowers to use in my dishes was a little more difficult than I anticipated. It's still a little early in the season for the farmer's markets to have any, and even though many common flowers are edible (dandelion, chrysanthemum, pansy, etc), you don't want to just go and pick them or buy a bouquet because they'll be full of nasty chemicals. Make sure that any flowers you intend to eat are sold as being edible or grow them yourself without any chemicals or pesticides. ;)

Anyway, I was having trouble finding exactly what I wanted, so I had to make do with using only one type of fresh flower (I'm honestly not even sure what they were, since they weren't labeled other than "edible flowers" anyone know?) as well as dried rose buds, dried lavender, and a bottle of orange blossom water. Dried flowers have a more concentrated flavor and tend to be more "floral" tasting, so it's best to use them in applications where the flavor is infused into another ingredient. Fresh flowers have a more subtle flavor that's less like eating perfume — they're a little bitter and almost peppery. I like to balance them out with something sweet or rich.

They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, and in this case I'm glad that I didn't. I'll be honest: Secrets of a Skinny Chef probably isn't a cookbook that would catch my eye if I was browsing around Barnes and Noble. The cover is a dull yellow-green color (I couldn't even take a decent photo of it!), the cartoon is kind of hokey, and there's something about the word "skinny" that really turns me off. But the description pulled me in - Jennifer Iserloh and I share a similar food philosophy that includes moderate portions of real foods, lots of veggies, and not falling victim to food fads. Plus, her recipe for mac and cheese loaded up with cauliflower sounded really good (ever since I made that gratin, I've been obsessed with the combination of cauliflower and cheese).

In terms of layout, the book is very no-frills. Although there is a small insert of photos in the middle, the rest of the book is printed simply in two colors with a few small illustrations here and there. So you'll have to use your imagination and actually read a little to decide which recipe's you want to try. Which might be a good thing because, if your like me, you probably don't usually bother to cook the recipes that don't have photos. And you just might be missing out on some good ones.

The book covers a really wide range of dishes, with chapters dedicated to everything from breakfast to side dishes to desserts. There are also some really cool extras, like a "skinny shopping list" and a section dedicated to using up leftovers. None of the recipes call for "diet" foods or specify that you use a specific brand of something, and all of them include nutrition information. The recipes are straightforward and easy to make — not intimidating at all for those of you who aren't "cooks." They don't involve complicated or expensive ingredients, and they're fast to cook up.

The first recipe that I made was the shrimp and corn fritters with sweet chili sauce. It was incredible!! The fritters were light and fluffy in the center, but crisp on the outside, and the seasoning mixture in them was unlike anything I've ever eaten. The sauce was a lot spicier than I expected, but it was full of flavor and paired perfectly with the fritters. The sweetness of the corn also went really nicely with the spicy sauce. One serving didn't look like much on my plate, but the three fritters (302 calories) and a side of asparagus was more than I could finish. I plan to make these again soon!

The second recipe I made was the mac and cheese that I mentioned earlier. Unfortunately, this recipe and I didn't get along very well. It was most likely my fault - I was in a horrible mood when I started cooking and it was late and I was cranky. But my pasta turned to mush and my sauce was more solid than creamy.

The last recipe I tried was the pork lo mein, hold the grease. While I wouldn't call this dish lo mein (the sauce wasn't what I was expecting) it was, again, an excellent dish. It was packed full of filling vegetables, and the sauce had a ton of flavor. I also really enjoyed the use soba noodles in this recipe. For 293 calories, this dish was not only much tastier than take-out, but much healthier too.

Before I received a copy to review, I don't think I would have ever thought about buying Michael Symon's book. I love iron Chef, but I'm always slightly disappointed when he's the one picked. We joke that the challenger picks him when they want someone who will take it easy on them. This book changed my opinion of him though, and I have a new respect for Michael Symon.

First though, let's talk about the book itself: as you can probably tell from the blog, I'm a very visual person. I like pictures. And I most likely won't look at a recipe in a cookbook twice if there isn't a picture to go along with it. I was very happy to see that this book is full color and loaded with mouth-watering photographs. Not all together in a little section in the middle either- the photo is right there with the recipe. And a lot of recipes even have multiple photos! That's my kind of cookbook.

The second thing that I noticed about this book were the chapters - in addition to standards like "meat," "soups and sandwiches," and "salads" there are categories for things like "charcuterie" and "pickles." Fun! But it also demonstrates that this isn't your everyday cookbook. Certainly some of the recipes can be made easily on a weeknight, but others - like cuing your own bacon and pancetta - are pretty involved and not for those of you who are easily intimidates in the kitchen. other recipes looks awesome, but are pretty impractical for the home-cook - I'm not sure where I would find ingredients like beef cheeks or suckling pig head.

That aside, this cookbook is pretty awesome. I tried a few recipes from it, and they were huge hits. First I made braised pork belly, which took a long time but was very easy to make (95% of it was inactive time that it spent in the oven). The pork belly was great on it's own, but even bette when used to make pork belly croutons to go on a salad with an egg and Symon's Sherry Vinaigrette! This was a really fun play on bacon and eggs and we loved it. The flavors went beautifully together. I'll be making the vinaigrette a lot.

The next recipe I tried knocked it out of the park though, and is what really changed my opinion about Symon. The recipe for Crispy Gnocchi with Morels and Spring Peas is easily worth the price of the book. Love, love, love! I had to use porcini mushrooms and frozen peas, and it was still awesome - I can only imagine how great it would be with the right ingredients! the gnocchi was light and fluffy, with a crispy exterior and a bright lemon flavor. The brown butter sauce was amazing with the mushrooms and peas. AND it was easy enough to make on a weeknight. I can't say enough about this dish. Seriously buy this book and make it ASAP.

The verdict: This isn't a book for the casual home-cook, but if you're a little more adventurous in the kitchen it's a great addition to your cookbook collection. None of the recipes are particularly difficult, but some are pretty involved and have multiple steps or use hard-to-find ingredients. You likely won't be able to (or want to) make every recipe in it, but its a beautiful collection of solid recipes that will inspire you to try new combinations of ingredients and think a little differently about some old standards.  

Would I buy this book? While I never would have given it a second look before, I would definitely buy this book for myself or for a food-loving friend.

Michael Symon's Live to Cook is available at Amazon.com for $23.10.

So to help you start the New Year off on the right foot, here's a roundup of some of the most crave-worthy recipes that have appeared on Healthy.Delicious. in 2009. This list certainly doesn't represent all of my favorites (if I don't absolutely love something that I make, I generally don't post it) but they are some of the healthier recipes that I keep going back to and that you can realistically make during this time of the year. I had some fabulous recipes over the summer, but they just wouldn't be the same without fresh, in-season produce.

Here's to a great New Year full of healthy and delicious meals, good friends both new and old, and success in and out of the kitchen! If you had to pick one meal as your favorite of 2009, what would it be?

Vegan Dosas

Southwest Stuffed Acorn Squash

Egyptian Lentils with Yogurt-Marinated Chicken

Beef pho

Risotto with Crab and Lemon

Pumpkin polenta with chorizo

Spicy gumbo with andouille and bacon wrapped shrimp

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Cranberries

Wow! You guys really like cheese, huh? I can't say that I blame you! ;) Between all of the comments and tweets, we ended up with 78 entries! I entered them all into a spreadsheet (comments first, then tweets) and used random.org to choose a winner.