Celebrate! - Sheila Lukins

This one's a solo endeavor by Sheila Lukins of The Silver Palate fame. As are many of her books, this one's focused on entertaining. However, rather than organized traditionally by recipe type, this one is laid out by holiday and includes national ones like New Year's Eve, Valentines Day, and Christmas, as well as other reasons to throw a party, such as a graduation or the Kentucky Derby. Each event includes a full menu for a set number of people (it varies by party), as well as suggested music and drinks. Lukins typically also includes a bit of festive decor advice along with each menu. 

I've had pretty resounding success with most of Lukin's recipes and have learned that for the most part I can trust them. I must admit, I did not make an entire meal from any of the chapters, but rather did a pick and choose with the recipes, so I really can't attest to how the recipes in a chapter come together as a whole. I made a variety of things, including Red Snapper In An Aromatic Broth (from the Celebrate India chapter), Summer Corn Salad (Glorious Summertime chapter), and Molasses Cookies (Super Bowl chapter). All were delicious, but I did have a good bit of technical difficulty with the cookies. The recipe calls for mixing the dough and then wrapping in plastic wrap to chill awhile, but using the word dough would be a stretch...it made more of a batter. I tried, very unsuccessfully I might add, to wrap it in plastic wrap, but it just oozed all over the place, and I'm really not sure why. I ended up just tossing the whole mixing bowl in the fridge for a while and it firmed right up and made great cookies. 

Taste-wise I think I prefer the recipes from the Silver Palate books, but I really enjoy the way Celebrate! is laid out, and that it takes the guess work out of menu planning for a mass, and puts the fun back into large entertaining events.