The Loaves and Fishes Party Cookbook

Anna and Sybille Pump have created an exceptional cookbook. Recipes are as simple as they can be still delivering extraordinary results. These recipes are innovative, unfussy, and tested in a commercial kitchen that has no time to waste. Dishes present very well and the flavors in each carefully crafted recipe are clear, sufficiently complex without being at all muddled. This is one of my very favorite cookbooks, reflecting as it does skills well honed.

I received this as a gift years ago when I was learning to cook. The recipes are not too difficult, and most are simply excellent. The author is also very good at giving you fairly accurate preparation times, so you have a good idea of what you are in for. The only caveat: this book is NOT for someone on a low-cholesterol diet. The recipes are full of butter and cream, which is probably why they are so good. Perhaps my only critique is that you may want to reduce salt on some of the recipes. But that is a minor quibble. This is a fabulous book that runs the gamut from salads to soups, roasts to an excellent carrot cake and amazing chocolate rum cake.

It's an excellent creative cookbook. I do not own one, but would love to. My sister in law has made some wonderful dishes from this book.