The most cutting-edge book of the recent New England crop is Dishing Up Vermont (Storey Publishing, 2008, $19.95) by food writer Tracey Medeiros, which showcases the products and recipes of farms, orchards, restaurants and inns in that increasingly food-centric state.  The Vermont Fresh Network, which benefits from a portion of the book's proceeds, was the nation's first statewide farm-to-restaurant program. As in the trend among local-food cookbooks, Dishing Up Vermont offers lots of beautiful photographs, not of the recipes, but of their raw ingredients in natural settings -- stalks of corn, berries on the vine and yes, unsuspecting lambs who may eventually become dinner. Those raw ingredients are used in inventive ways. Sometime this fall, you simply must put aside your normal brunch dish for the book's exquisitely decadent Vermont Croque Monsieur.  This version of the traditional French bistro sandwich, contributed by a chef from Cliff House at Stowe Mountain Resort, features cinnamon-raisin bread cooked in egg and slathered with a spread of mascarpone cheese blended with chives and a bit of maple syrup, then piled high with ham, turkey and Gouda and baked. The book's flourishes are fun, but some of the best food in Dishing Up Vermont is simple.

 With just eight basic ingredients, the Flip-Over Apple Cake is a good example.  Its slightly crunchy yet buttery underbelly serves as a fine foil for its tender, pretty apple topping. Though the book's recipe, contributed by owners of a 114-year-old Vermont orchard, calls for Northern Spy or Rhode Island Greening apples, I found that a combination of Ginger Gold and tasted just fine.