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There's more than just recipes here: in addition to great menus for every Jewish holiday, Sorosky includes a short history of the occasion, the appropriate blessings, decorations and centerpieces, and essential religious items and foods--in short, everything you need to know and have to make your holiday meal a success. What's more, she provides a game plan for organizing your time in the kitchen and getting everything on the table at the right time and temperature. As an added bonus, Sorosky includes "Extra Points": special projects for children, invitation ideas, or special decorations to lift your celebration above the ordinary.

365 Ways To Cook Pasta, Marie Simmons, HarperCollins publishers, 1985 hardcover, 1995  hardcover

This is the single most useful pasta book that I have encountered. It contains a broad variety of pasta recipes organized into useful chapter categories – (Not all inclusively) Italian Classics, Savory Summer Salads, Seafood and Pasta Combinations, the Asian Connection, Quick Cook Sauces, Light and Easy. Among the recipes are clear tips and guidelines on cooking and ingredients such "Olive Oil" or "Perfectly Cooked Pasta every time". If you follow the directions, you will get perfect pasta every time. The author covers pasta shapes and sizes and the appropriate pairings of ingredients.

The Barbecue Bible, Steven Raichlen, Workman Publishing Company, June, 1998.

The title says it all. It is a compendium of recipes, personally garnered from all over the world by Steve Raichlen. He interestingly interweaves recipes with his adventures as he traveled around the world to get them. In the book are a vast array of ethnic barbecue cuisines, American region by region, Argentinean, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Uruguay, Brazilian, Mexican, the list goes on and on. The variety of things you can grill will surprise you, steaks, fish, vegetables, burgers, ribs, ka-bobs, shellfish, accompanied by a variety of fresh herbs, spices, sauces, and salsas. The recipes are clearly and thoroughly written and Raichlen details, equipment, ingredients, cooking times, temperatures and grilling, smoking, and barbecuing techniques.

A Taste of India, Madhur Jaffrey, Pavilion Books Ltd, 1985

India is a vast country with over a billion people, multiple major languages, many, many minor languages, and five major religions. Madhur Jaffrey is a well known cook, author, and personality, who has made many appearances since this book was published. The book is an exploration of Indian culture and its rich cuisines in a beautifully written and illustrated book. It is organized by chapters associated with its capital, Delhi, and all of its major regions. Because of India’s size and age, the variance in cuisine is almost impossible to describe, encompassing barbecued meats, cuisines that are entirely vegetarian, cuisines that emphasize pilafs, Persian influences, as well as Oriental influences. All of these are seasoned with an incredible variety of fresh spices. The recipes are well written and detailed. This book would make a wonderful gift to a person who enjoys the pleasures (and work) of making exotic dishes from scratch.

Simple French Food, Richard Olney, Collier Books, MacMillan Publishing Company, 1992

I can highly recommend Simple French Food. I have made multiple recipes from this book and value the recipes as well as the cooking advice, whether it is admonition to eliminate extraneous water from dishes or recommendation of a "robot" cutter that allows vegetables to be cut in regular and attractive pieces (unlike a food processor). French cooking can be fairly involved. My comment about this book is that the recipes are simpler than some French recipes without taking any shortcuts. I have had particular success with a delicious vegetable terrine and various vegetable dishes, although the book includes recipes for lamb, beef, fish, omelets, and some things that don’t normally appear on American tables, frog-legs and rabbit being examples.

The Escoffier Cookbook, A guide to the Fine Art of French Cuisine, Auguste Escoffier, first published in the French as Guide Culinaire, 1903

This is the classic work by a Chef, who among other things, created Peach Melba. This book is organized in two parts, the first being a section dedicated to the principles of French cooking, things like how to make Roux, Glazes, and Veloutes, the foundations for Sauces and Stocks, Soups, Braising, Poaching, Poeling, Sautéing, Roasting, Grilling, Frying, Gratins, Glazing, Treatment of Vegetables and Garnishes. The second part of the book contains over 2,000 actual recipes, which are delicious, but can be a fair amount of work, as great cooking can be. This book is of great value to have if for no other reason than it contains the basics for almost any kind of cooking. Even if you are not making the particular recipes here, it provides knowledge on basic techniques that can be used for any recipe. This book is approximately one quarter of the cost of The Complete guide to Fine Cooking by the same author.

A Taste of the Orient, The complete Book of Eastern Cooking, Edited and adapted by Alison Granger, Gallery Books, 1987

This is an encyclopedia of Oriental cooking. It contains techniques and recipes from all of the major Oriental cuisines of the world – Chinese, Indonesian, Malaysian, Philippine, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, Singaporean, Sri Lankan, Burmese, Indian and Pakistani, and Japanese. The book is organized along these regional lines, but also includes a very complete, nicely illustrated section on tools and techniques of Oriental cooking. Each regional section contains (also nicely illustrated) recipes that detail ingredients and instructions and also give the time in preparation and cooking and rate the recipe for relative difficulty – easy, more difficult, for experienced chefs.

The Green Chile Bible, Award-Winning New Mexico Recipes, Compiled and Edited by the Albuquerque Tribune, Clear Light Publishers, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1994

This book is a compendium of recipes contributed by readers of the Tribune. It is not haute cuisine, but rather a collection of everyday recipes with the flavor of the Southwest. The book lives up to its title – almost every recipe, including breakfast rolls and macaroni and cheese, includes canned or fresh green chilies. Most of the recipes have a too high fat content for my taste, either too much ground beef, or an ingredient list that includes sour cream. That said, the recipes are interesting and they can be adapted to remedy, what is for me a defect, but might not be one for other people.

Beer Lovers Rating Guide, Bob Klein, Workman Publishing Company, 1995

This is not a recipe book, but since the recipes in CookenPro contain beer and wine recommendations, review of this book seems a natural. Beers come in a variety of styles (lagers, ales, bitters, etc) from an even larger number of countries and microbreweries. This guide is alphabetically arranged so you can look up a review of your favorite brew (see what someone else thinks) or look up a beer before you purchase. You can also just look at an easy chart in the back, arranged by country, in which is present a name, a country of origin, a style, and a rating. I like to drink different beers so it is fun to compare what I taste and experience with a beer versus a stranger’s written description of what they have tasted and experienced.

The Encyclopedia of Creative Cooking, Compiled by Jane Solmson and Edited by Charlotte Turgeon, Weathervane Books, 1984.

This book contains 2000 recipes and 800 full-color photographs. It contains basic recipes that are organized by food classification – Appetizer, Bread, Chicken, Crepes, Eggs, Soups, Seafood, Fish, Pasta, Vegetable, Soups, Salads, etc. There is no instructional or techniques section. This is a very complete book in the sense of having a recipe for anything I am likely to cook. I am glad I have it, however, sometimes the instructions can leave you guessing as exactly how to do something. Given this drawback and the fact that I sometimes like other versions of recipes better than the ones I find here, I can say there is no more complete book to have, to know that there will be a recipe for almost anything that you will ever want to make.

The New York Times International Cook Book, Craig Claiborne, Harper and Row, 1971

Boy do I feel funny reviewing a New York Times cookbook. This book is organized by country with a few recipes from each of a good list of countries. It is nicely illustrated with full-color plates of selected dishes. It contains a good number of interesting recipes for each country. The recipes are completely detailed, step by step in a fashion that does not leave a reader in doubt as to how or when to do something. This book is currently out of print but is available through amazon.com, along with many more cook books by Craig Claiborne. This book was reviewed because it is the one that I have.

Kwanzaa, An African-American Celebration of Culture and Cooking, Eric V. Copage, William Morrow and Company, New York, 1991

Kwanzaa is a cultural observance created for African-Americans 32 years ago. It was not and is not intended to take the place of Christmas, but rather separately is a celebration of Africa-inspired culture, spreading across a variety of national cuisines, Jamaican, the American South, Senegal, Brazil among others. This is an interesting cookbook for persons of any culture. You can open this book to almost any page and find something you want to try, Bahian Shrimp Ragout with Toasted Manioc and Hot Peppers Sauce, Passion Fruit Mouse with Tropical Fruits, or Red Snapper En Pappillote (in paper) Caribbean. Recipes more familiar to most Americans are included as well, Hoppin’ John, Cornbread, Greens. This book was a gift from my sister and I’m glad that I have it. Included is a list of suppliers for hard to get supplies.

Justin Wilson Looking Back, A Cajun Cookbook, Justin Wilson, Pelican Publishing Company, 1997

This book is a look back ("casting mah eye back") on Justin Wilson’s career that includes updated recipes from two earlier publications The Justin Wilson #2 Cookbook: Cookin’ Cajun and The Justin Wilson Cookbook. It is updated to reflect more modern tastes that use lower fat content. Earlier Cajun recipes might have included copious quantities of lard or olive oil. Most of these utilize wine and/or moderate quantities of olive oil. These recipes are in the hearty, country style that we know as Cajun. Recipes include the Cajun classics – Gumbos, etouffees, Jambalaya, but also recipes for meat, poultry, seafood, game, rice, and pastries. Interspersed with the recipes are black and white photos of Mr. Wilson throughout his career with little captions that just make you want to laugh at their uniqueness – "Me, I got a frien’. Pete his front name, Fountain his behin’ name."

Cajun – Creole Cooking, Terry Thompson, Hpbooks, 1986

This is a good cookbook. Terry is a food writer and instructor who has taught over 10,000 students in cooking classes and seminars. This book gives a brief history and explanation of Cajun Cooking as well as detailing techniques used in this style of cooking. Terry’s recipes combine the heartiness of Cajun Country cooking with a finished French reliance on broth and sauces. Recipe chapters include "Soups, Gumbos, Bisques & Breads, "Salads & Salad Dressings", "Poultry & Meat", "Fish & Shellfish", and "Vegetables & Rice", "Desserts", "Cajun Country", and "Brunch" among others.