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Title: Celebrate! by Sheila Lukins ISBN: 0-7611-2372-5 Publisher: Workman Publishing Company Pub. Date: 01 October, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (1 review)
Rating: 5
Summary: Seriously Fun Book for Cooking Up Entertaining Menus
Comment: This book by veteran cookbook author Sheila Lukins is an excellent cookbook for the home cook who likes to cook and to entertain, but who is not a foodie who does not want to spend a lot of time pulling recipes from books by celebrity authors or the 'Joy of Cooking'. The book is also superior to other recent books written to the same theme such as 'Around the Table' by Ellen Wright.
There is a great divide between books written for foodies and culinary professionals and books written for everyone else who needs to prepare food and simply needs some straightforward guidance in how to go about the work in the kitchen. The latter type of book generally specializes in cooking fast, cooking thin, or cooking to other special purpose. Lukins' book covers entertaining menus and recipes in an exceptionally thorough treatment of 43 different events. To my lights, she has done a superb job of selecting recipes, which are appropriate to the occasion. I may miss the special paska bread at the Easter menus, especially since there are two different Easter menus, but I respect Lukins' decision as the book contains no recipes for bread, and the menus contain nothing, which is not made in the home.
While this book is not a foodie book, it succeeds far better than many other general audience cookbooks in selecting recipes, which are genuinely interesting to gourmets. The Salad Nicoise, for example uses freshly sautéed tuna rather than the traditional canned tuna. The chile recipe uses diced beef like most 'competition grade recipes', not ground beef. The recipes for stock are reputable. Expert sources like Cooks Illustrated or Jeremiah Tower may prefer fewer vegetable ingredients or more chicken bones, but Lukins' recipes will give flavorful results without an excessive amount of trouble. The recipe for a standard pastry dough leaves out a few of the finer tips found in books dedicated to pastry, but here too, the recipe supplied will work. I do suspect one may be well served by going to a specialist for baking.
I tried my best to find a menu where an ingredient was clearly used out of season and I could not. Fresh corn was used in recipes slated for summer events, while frozen corn was used in recipes requiring fresh corn at Thanksgiving. Unlike foodie oriented authors, Sheila does not preach to us about using local, seasonal foods, but she is practicing that doctrine gently, without burdening us with the gospel according to Alice Waters. Lukins does, however, tip the hat to intellectual honesty by citing her expert sources. She has a Moroccan menu and, sure enough, she credits Paula Wolfert's authoritative book on Moroccan cuisine as a source.
Lukin's book is primarily about providing worthy recipes to people who want to have fun. Each menu includes an alcoholic beverage recommendation. I am no expert on this, but it makes perfect sense to me to include these recommendations in a book of entertaining menus. Leaving it out would have been a deficiency in the book. The book also includes recommendations for music appropriate to each occasion. While I pretend to know much more about music than I do about wine, I will not object to any of the recommendations except perhaps to the omission of Moussorsky's 'Night on Bald Mountain' from the Halloween lineup. Anyone who recommends Duane Eddy as a listening option certainly has their heart in the right place.
The selection of recipes in each menu are appropriate and the recipes are serious. There are no second rate pot luck event recipes here from the back of Hamberger Helper boxes. I recommend this book over any other of books on the same subject. The paperback price for a book of this size and quality is doubly attractive.
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Title: Around the Table: Easy Menus for Cozy Entertaining at Home by Ellen Wright, Tom Eckerle ISBN: 1558322523 Publisher: Harvard Common Pr Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: America Entertains: A Year of Imaginative Parties by David Tutera ISBN: 1584792841 Publisher: Stewart, Tabori & Chang Pub. Date: 01 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: The Summer House Cookbook : Easy Recipes for When You Have Better Things to Do with Your Time by Geralyn Delaney Graham, Debra Ponzek ISBN: 0609608223 Publisher: Clarkson Potter Pub. Date: 20 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: The Junior League at Home: Meals and Menus for Everyday and Special Occasions by The Association of Junior Leagues International Inc ISBN: 0399150722 Publisher: Putnam Pub Group Pub. Date: 23 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Lost Recipes : Meals to Share with Friends and Family by Marion Cunningham ISBN: 0375411984 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 14 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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