For residents in the states of Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan, Lake Michigan is a readily accessible year-round vacationland, with beloved food traditions and new delicacies and tastes to explore every year. The Lake Michigan Cottage Cookbook is packed with recipes and stories inspired by the distinctive lakeshore cuisine and lifestyle. The Lake Michigan Cottage Cookbook honors a popular vacation region and its laid-back foodways. The recipes reflect the way that people like to eat when relaxing at a cottage and enjoying the scenery: colourful local vegetables and fruits, simply prepared meats, fresh-from-the-lake fish, and indulgent, old-fashioned baked goods. Each distinctive area of the 3,200 miles of shoreline is profiled in a separate chapter, along with its food specialties and traditions, including Door County, Sheboygan, Kohler, and Milwaukee in Wisconsin; Chicago, Illinois; Northwest Indiana; and Harbor Country, the Southwest, Saugatuck, Douglas, Fennville, Traverse City, and the Peninsulas in Michigan. AUTHOR: Amelia Levin is a Chicago-based food writer, chef, cookbook author, and passionate Midwesterner. She grew up in the Chicago area, vacationed for 30 years in Wisconsin, went to college in Michigan, and has since traveled throughout the entire northern Midwest for both fun and business. She contributes to Edible Chicago magazine and is the food editor at FSR, a trade magazine for full-service restaurants.

She is the author of Chicago Chef's Table: Extraordinary Recipes from the Windy City. SELLING POINTS: * Large and popular vacationland across four states. Michigan's tourism website is the busiest in the country. Lake Michigan boasts 3,200 miles of shoreline, often called the Third Coast. Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana all have Lake Michigan frontage. The Lake Michigan circle tour is about 900 miles long and is a popular driving vacation. * 118 recipes honoring local traditions and fresh foods from farms and the daily catch. From cranberry scones to Traverse City cherry pie, Wisconsin 'fish fry' style perch with homemade tartar sauce, and summer squash ratatouille.

* Year-round destination. There's always something going on in the region, from January's Ice Breaker Festival in South Haven to the National Cherry Festival in Traverse City, a huge 8-day event that attracts half a million visitors. Full-colour; photographs and illustrations throughout.