Having attended dozens of tennis socials, Daniela Mellen saw a vital need for more home cooked and variety offerings for her club’s popular potlucks. As a dab-hand in the kitchen with a flair for keeping it simple, Mellen serves up many of her most popular recipes in a taste bud-tingling new book.

New London, NH -- (SBWire) -- 03/27/2013 --The popular potluck dinner format comes with a few constraints; dishes must be easy to transport, require no on-site preparation and use minimal equipment. Forcing most people to show up at the door with a bag of chips and store-bought dip, a refreshment renaissance has certainly been in high demand.

However, thanks to a new book by Daniela Mellen, anyone can impress fellow guests at their next potluck party with a delicious, healthy and creative dish that fits even the most demanding of logistical nightmares.

Inspired by the decades of potlucks she has attended while enjoying her passion for tennis, Mellen is now out of the test kitchen and releasing her book to the world – ‘Après Tennis: Tempting Treats to Bring to Socials, Mixers and Potlucks’.

Synopsis:

Potlucks and socials are part of the tennis culture, but also, part of any group activity. It’s a fun and cooperative way to spend time together while sharing a meal and introducing friends to new and fun dishes. But any sport lends itself to sharing a meal together. You work up an appetite so why not get together and eat.

Each recipe in Après Tennis has been modified to meet the challenges of early preparation, transportation, taste and presentation for a potluck party. Recipes are tailored to be prepared ahead of time with tips on what to pack, ways to present your dish and a photo of each recipe.

Après Tennis offers 26 tested and true recipes. All the recipes were chosen because they are tasty, uncomplicated and have been modified to be transportable. Some recipes use prepared ingredients from the grocery store to save time, but can easily be altered by the gourmet cook. There are suggested options for altering the recipes to make them your own, but they are delicious just as stated. Each recipe comes with a serving tool reminder, variations or accompaniments to make each dish complete.

As the author explains, her book stands head-and-shoulders above other similar offerings on the market.

“Unlike other recipe books, Après Tennis is geared towards cooks who have the added challenge of transporting their food to another place, often without a full working kitchen. Each recipe can be enjoyed by anyone who attends an event and then shared in a potluck afterwards: sports banquets, school functions, town meetings and the like,” says Mellen, a noted artist.

Continuing, “However, they are diverse enough to also be enjoyed away from the large group setting. While the recipes have serving suggestions for later feasting, they are easily prepared for the home cook as well.”

Critics praise Mellen for her realistic approach to great-tasting and healthy home cooked food. With the book’s demand steadily increasing, interested readers are urged to purchase their copies as soon as possible.

‘Après Tennis: Tempting Treats to Bring to Socials, Mixers and Potlucks’, published by Caladan Software, is available now: http://amzn.to/XvcAnt

For more information, visit the author’s official website: http://www.danielamellen.com

About Daniela Mellen
Daniela Mellen is a writer and artist living in New Hampshire. She began writing as a teenager while learning to plan menus in her father's restaurant and continued to sharpen her skills while pursuing a degree in education at the University of New Hampshire. When she learned that a college History professor entered her fictional essay in a scholarship contest, she began to realize her love of words, text and stories.

Daniela has continued writing fiction and combined them with her professional cooking experiences by launching eBook cookbooks. Before that, she wrote instructional and procedural manuals for the high temperature industry for over ten years.

In addition to writing, Daniela pursues painting, sketching and digital illustration in her free time. Her love for art comes second to her obsession with tennis and running.