Marlene van der Westhuizen, celebrated author of Delectable and Sumptuous, shares her favourite recipes for long lazy lunches with friends and family in this accessible little book. There are recipes for summer lunches in the garden and winter lunches in front of the fire, a casual kitchen lunch with family or a romantic lunch on the Victorian balcony of her home. Whether you choose the mackerel and sweet potato fishcakes or the applecider glazed onion tart, your guests will be delighted. Marlene makes the romance of French cooking accessible to all South African cooks.

Marlene van der Westhuizen, celebrated author of Delectable and Sumptuous, shares her favourite recipes for decadent dinners with friends and family in this accessible little book. There are recipes for formal dinners around a beautifully laid table with all your best cutlery and glassware, but also for casual meals served in front of the fire on a cold winter's evening. You can choose to tackle the stuffed shoulder of lamb, or the wonderfully simple, but delicious, tagliolini with pine nuts, sage and lemon. Marlene makes the romance of French cooking accessible to all South African cooks.

The bright yellow sunflowers in the fields around Charroux, the smell of roasting chestnuts, rich onion soup, a classic salad Nicoise, cassoulet or pot au feu, fennel and endive, lemn tarts, malva pudding and the wild food of the places where I live ... Walks down narrow country lanes, wild beaches and cobbled streets ... Times with special people over simple meals ... This I want to share with you. Marlene van der Westhuizen More wonderful recipes from Marlene van der Westhuizen's French cooking school.

Evita – acclaimed chef and icon of the nation – presents her recipes for delicious dishes gathered on travels in South Africa and around the world.

From the Cape to Limpopo, the West Coast to our president’s home province, come divine platefuls: guineafowl with prunes, potroasted quail, quince bredie and orange duck. Pofadders, oxtail and even sweet and sour warthog. Evita reinvents old favourites, and deliciously prepares veldkos – who would have thought of waterblommetjie chicken or dandelion salad for the dinner table? Each recipe has been tested and vetted, and they’re all ridiculously easy to make. My liewe aarde, just paging through the book is a mouth-watering experience, with all these pictures taken on her visits.

First there was Kossie Sikelela, now there is Bossie. A new culinary front hits your table!

Delectable is more than just a cookery book; it's about good living as much as it is about good food. Author Marlene van der Westhuizen uses her love of France and French country cooking to infuse local dishes with a particularly European flavour. The food she cooks is not haute cuisine – you will not find in this book small portions of foreign dishes with strange ingredients. On the contrary, Marlene cooks South African food (and dishes up enough to satisfy a South African appetite), but with a rural french twist. Delectable contains over 80 recipes and more than twice as many photographs, showcasing the scenery of the french countryside, detail of ancient french villages, the colour and vitality of markets and antique fairs, and, of course, the food! Recipes are interspersed with little-known treasures from the South African wine industry, ensuring that your table is laid with the food and drink of the gods. And just like the recipes, the layout and format of the book are simple, sleek, and easy-to-use, and heavyweight art-coated paper has been used to ensure that the photographs depict the french countryside as vividly as possible.

These are recipes specially created to suit your mood - food that will give you a lift when you are feeling down, add that extra bit of joy to your celebrations, turn a romantic occasion into something fantastic, enhance moments of calm and serenity, and even cover those days when you feel too lazy to cook but need to feed yourself and your family.

Get inspired by Alida Ryder's enthusiasm, her fresh ideas and her easy to follow instructions and cook scrumptious food, whatever your mood.

Alida Ryder's first book, Simple & Delicious, was published by Penguin South Africa in 2012. Apart from her expertise in the kitchen, she is a food stylist, photographer, award-winning blogger and the mother of twins.