The Accidental Gourmet Weekends and Holidays: Festive Meals for Family and Friends

This book was given to me by my grandma for Christmas and my husband and I are truely ennjoying having it around the house. It is easy to follow and makes plenty, not to mention, I am always a fan of anything that includes dinner AND dessert. My hunsband and I have learned so many new recipes! The only real complaint is that there is no pictures, but I hear they included pictures in Dinner A Day so I will be ordering it soon. I have made some alterations to the recipes, biggest one being to leave out all onions since I am allergic, but it is a wonderful guide and the recipes come out fabulous, even if you make a change or two! These books are one of a kind in the fact that they guide you from the grocery list to the utensils needed and even have a countdown clock telling you at what order to make the dishes so everything is ready in perfect timing for dinner.

I have been waiting for a cookbook thatknows how to help create meals not just recipes. I haven't the time to search through most cookbooks that offer a main dish in a catagory and then I spend too much time trying to put a meal together that works. I love the idea that this book gives you a shopping list, a list of staples, a countdown, and a list of equiptment. Nothing I hate more than starting a meal and finding I am out of something essential. My hats off to the authors for giving me the chance to prove that I can be a gourmet cook easily.

Am glad to see more receipes from these experienced cooks who understand the organization of tools, ingredients and the roadmap to bring a great meal to table. Was a fan of "A Dinner a Day" and have given it to many young brides. This is a format that skips the pictures and gets to the structure of a putting the parts of a complete dinner together from shopping to presentation. The "fun with puns" titles are a delight and spark dinner discussions to the education and delight of family and guests. Easy to bend book back to computer Scan or machine copy ingredients list for shopping. Love the "Countdown" formula for pulling the meal together. Without a lot of pictures and calorie counts to fill up pages (who doesn't know what a pot roast looks like by now. . .), these experienced chefs have given us hundreds of proven-good receipes between the pages of their efficent layout (practical binding lets it self-stand on counter for easy reference and page turning). Combining things we've tried and like from one menu to another has created even more dinners for my family (great index in back). Hats off to these talented cooks who've done it again. . .hope we see them on Food Network soon. As regards my "buy" recommendation for this wonderful cookbook . ."Thistle Please You" from their aptly-named artichoke receipe, page 187. . .every pun intended!!