Product Description

Marlene Sorosky, America's favorite party planner and James Beard Award-winning author of Entertaining on the Run, makes the Jewish holidays come alive with simple, festive menus providing nearly 150 recipes and essential prayers and rituals that make it easy for home cooks to celebrate all year round. From Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Hanukkah to the Sabbath, Passover, and celebrations, including the Bar Mitzvah, each holiday chapter contains menus, game plans, table decorations, fascinating historical information, important prayers, and celebration ideas.

Here's the must-have cookbook for the modern home cook who has little time but lots of enthusiasm for keeping up with Jewish traditions.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #617922 in Books
• Published on: 1997-09-03
• Released on: 1997-08-20
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

Amazon.com Review
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.

In her foreword, Marlene Sorosky admits that her upbringing in a tyranically Orthodox household spoiled Jewish holidays for her until she was well into adulthood. While writing this book, however, she discovered the joyous spirit of both the holidays and Judaism--apparent in every page of Fast and Festive Meals for the Jewish Holidays.

From Library Journal
Other holiday cookbooks cover some Jewish holidays, and other Jewish cookbooks include dishes for the holidays, but Sorosky provides menus for all the major holidays or holy days and some minor ones, as well as for a bar/bat mitzvah, Israel Independence Day, and other events. The author of several previous books on entertaining, she also offers decorating tips, ideas for kids' activities, and "game plans" and provides brief descriptions of the rituals involved, with appropriate blessings. Not every menu seems particularly "fast," but all the recipes include advance preparation suggestions, and many can be made well ahead. Recommended.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Marlene Sorosky is the award-winning author of seven cookbooks, including Cooking for Entertaining and the James Beard Award-winning book Entertaining on the Run, which together have sold in excess of one million copies. Her articles and recipes have appeared in many national publications, and since 1990 she has been contributing editor of Style magazine, published by The Jewish Times. Today she works for Safeway Stores as a spokesperson, writing for the company's magazine Fresh Ideas, and developing new products. She lives in Danville, California.

Customer Reviews

Outstanding authentic recipes!
I was skeptical that this cookbook could deliver, but it does! I have made many of these recipes and complete menus, and everything has obviously been tested repeatedly; each recipe is a winner! I have gotten many compliments over these dishes. Best of all, I am able to entertain with two small children by following her timelines and preparing in advance. This has become a favorite cookbook of mine for all Jewish holidays.

Interesting, great tasting recipes that really work.
This is a cookbook that can help take the fear and trepidation out of holiday cooking, especially for novice cooks. There are many reasonable shortcuts (using a cake mix as a base) and interesting ideas. Many of the recipes hav become year-long family favorites. It is a welcome addition to my vast collection of coolbooks.

A Converts' culinary guide to Judaism
Last year my sister gave me Fast and Festive Meal..as a Chanakah gift as I was converting to Judaism and had little knowledge of how to cook jewishly. This book is absolutely amazing. Wonderful meal suggestions that have allowed me to incorporate Jewish eating into my new life as a Jew with the attendant rituals. What I find most attractive are her suggestions on the timing of preparations and the possibilities for freezing.

L'année passée ma soeur m'a donné comme cadeau de Hanoucca, Fast and Festive Meals car j'étais en train de me convertir au Judaisme. J'avais besoin d'un guide pour cuisiner en juif Ce livre m'a permis d'incorporer la cuisine juive dans ma vie de tous les jours et ceci avec les rituels prescripts. Ce que je trouve des plus intéressants sont ses suggestions pour l'horaire de la préparations et les possibilités pour la congelation.