Dole Easy to Elegant Cookbook

This was my first cookbook. I bought it when I was in high school. I must admit, I didn't have much of cooking skills and I only bought this book for the beautiful colored pictures of the finished product is has with most of the recipes (I found it at a clearance section of local grocery chain). Ever since then we used this book in numerous occasions (while I was learning how to cook thanks to this book). Its recipe for ambrosia is always a hit at parties and we get asked for the recipe even from the most skilled cook (Just a hint. Use cream cheese instead of sour cream). The pictures contained finished products as mentioned earlier, but they are shown as table presentations (therefore, you will know how to present your stuff). The book is parted in sections but most of the sections contain desserts, main dishes, salad's etc (although some sections are directly dedicated to that). The recipe sections are: - Best of the Brunch: This section mostly focused on muffins, omelets and scrambled eggs, breads and French toast, pancakes and coffee cakes etc. - Super Salads: It contains many types of vegetarian and not so vegetarian salads. As well as fruit salads. - International favorites: It contains many Asian and South American, as well as Caribbean and European dishes. We made Chinese Pineapple Beef and Sweet n Sour chicken numerous times. This section also gave many fish recipes. - Entertaining with style: It has many recipes from salad to main dish to desserts to create a perfect menu for entertaining. Some of the recipes are very simple while others are gourmet quality. I loved the banana spilt ice cream pie. - Thirst quenchers: This section focused on cocktails and mock tails (some alcoholic drinks and some of their non alcoholic substitute). It also had some smoothie recipes, teas, juice, punch etc.). - Dessert delights: Like the name says, this section focused on desserts. It has cakes, cookies and bars, ice cream, brownies etc. We make upside down pineapple cake most of the time from this recipe. I loved the banana chocolate cream pie. - In addition to the recipes, the book also showed some drawn colored illustrations of techniques on presentation. Like how to cut pineapples, how to make pineapple boats and cups etc. Not all the recipes are given from scratch but they are simple and easy to do. However most of the recipes call for banana or pineapple. One thing is certain; this is a very good book for a newbie or someone who's looking for simple but elegant recipes and ideas. Bottom-line you don't need Dole products to enjoy the recipes.