With the social obligations of summer in full force, there is little chance that we will find ourselves alone in the kitchen any time soon. That is fine with us. In the summer months, our dining area extends beyond the confines of a tiny apartment corner into the backyard. This means we get to experiment with new recipes and prepare dishes for whole troops of friends. As a result the kitchen and backyard are often filled with aspiring sous chefs and potluck contributors.

Until the weather cools and we're forced back into the claustrophobic walls, we will enjoy the quiet calm we experience when reading a new anthology about cooking and dining alone. We have been devouring the collection of essays in Alone in the Kitchen with Eggplant: Confessions of Cooking for One and Dining Alone, edited by Jenni Ferrari-Adler. Contributor include Jonathan Ames, Haruki Murakami, M.F.K. Fisher, Amanda Hesser, Beverly Lowry and Laurie Colwin, to name a few. Live vicariously through the writers who remind us of the pleasures of cooking for one and dining alone.