Can't Believe It's Kosher!: Jewish Tradition for Today's Lifestyle

Rating:
Summary: Incredible variety of appealing recipes!
Review: Although I haven't used any recipes yet, I thought I'd pass along some information about the book itself given how little information is provided othewise.

This looks like a great cookbook. I'll go in greater detail about all the wonderful things about it. Let me first get out of the way the only thing wrong with it in my opinion: there is no nutritional information on the recipes at all. That is not surprising, given that it is a "home-grown" type cookbook, not one of the big fancy ones. Although it's appearance is as nice as any, and it's spiral-bound and all. So I keep forgetting that it's supposedly an amateur production. Anyway, that's my only complaint at all.

Now, on to the good things: to start with, the variety of recipes is tremendous. While paging through, I felt like I was looking at a vegetarian, international, or health-food cookbook, rather than a Kosher Jewish cookbook. There are meat recipes, but I'd say 65-80% of the recipes are parve or dairy. Some predominant sets of recipes include:

Pesach recipes (in their own section, but also are indicated throughout the entire book)
Rich collection of comfort-style appetizers
Several challah recipes
Quite a few blintz and quiche recipes
Several gefilte fish recipes
Several brisket entrees
Several recipes for veal and lamb
several tofu recipes - both main dishes and desserts
3 different 20-24 hour cholent recipes
Several kugel recipes

For some idea about the variety of recipes included in this book, here's a sampling of what's available:
Tuna antipasto
Vegetarian chopped liver
2 kinds of tapenade
homemade horseradish sauce
jalepeno jelly sauce
black bean sloppy joes
paella
taiglach
tzimmes
pineapple bakes parsnips
stuffed cauliflower
turkish pilaf
lasagna rollups
kasha varnishkes
hamantaschen
rugelach
tiramisu
mandelbrot
biscotti
spinach puffs
matzo lasagna

Additional information includes:
A "secrets" section at the beginning of each category. These sections contain useful expert-chef and kosher tips, including how to:
tell if eggs are fresh
make garlic skins slip off
keep potatoes from sprouting buds
many more!
A list of dates for the Jewish holidays from 2001 - 2010
A suggested menu (with page numbers for each item) for each holiday
A very brief explanation of Kosher

Truly a cornucopia of opportunities!