Joan Nathan

News flash! Not everybody's chicken soup is the way your bubbe used to make! This is a great cookbook, filled with recipes from all over America, of Sephardic and Ashkenazic origin, influenced by where people settled. Gefilte fish is made with whitefish, salmon, haddock or shad, depending on what fish swims in the ocean, lake or river near by. There are latkes with zucchini and chili in Arizona and curried sweet potatoes in Flatbush.

Along with the recipes, you get history, culture and show more religion. What could be bad? Certainly not the Chocolate-filled Rugelach! Gosh, I'm getting hungry just typing this. show less

Comprehensive and enjoyable collection of American recipes that, like the country itself, is a mix of ingredients and tastes from all corners of the globe. The recipes themselves look fun and doable, but in all honesty I read Nathan's books to learn about the cooks and purveyors she met around the U.S. and the foods they work with, and this cookbook does a superb job of presenting the U.S. in all its multiethnic and multiflavored diversity. Someone looking to actually cook from this book show more might be frustrated by the lack of photos of the finished dishes, but I appreciated having pictures of the farms, people, food and scenes from weddings, parties, etc. show less

This cookbook is divided into ten holidays, and is meant to be suitable for children to use alone or with supervision (such as for Sufganiyot, or jelly doughnuts, which will no doubt require an adult’s help for frying the doughnuts). It doesn’t just provide recipes; it also gives simple explanations for procedures with which children might not be familiar, such as how to separate eggs and how to proof yeast.

Each holiday section and many recipes also include a narrative section explaining show more the customs associated with the recipes. Children may need some help understanding the vocabulary (what does it mean, for example, that Haman wished to “exterminate” all the Jews?), but adults will appreciate having the material to guide them in their explanations.

Recipes are made very kid friendly. Who would have thought a “Friday Night Pot Roast” could be made so easily, or that kids could make a fun and easy thing like “Edible Dreidels”? The recipe for “Cheese Blintzes” is a bit of a stretch - made by rolling out white bread, but this is something kids can handle, and will introduce them to the dish in any event until they are ready to tackle crepes. Yet there are more complex recipes, such as the one for Hallah, which includes directions with graphics for braiding.

This book is a lovely way to get children started on understanding their culture and the cuisine that is so much a part of it. show less

As the author writes in her Introduction, “For many people of all ethnic groups, holidays are the last ties binding them to their family and their traditions.” She avers this is even more true for the Jews, both because of the importances of their dietary laws, and the “table-centered rituals” involved in many of the holidays. She gives background on the dietary rules and what they entail before starting the recipes. In addition, before each section (the book is divided by holidays), show more she gives more specific background on food traditions associated with that holiday and where she got the recipes.

Many of the recipes are very basic and familiar to Americans, such as for hallah, kugel, kreplakh, knishes, honey cake, and even Grossinger’s famous blintzes. Additionally there are quite a few recipes from Jewish communities in other countries, such as Hungarian Kugelhopf, Persian Rice and Fruit Stuffing, and Russian Pashtida.

This book should satisfy cooks of all ethnicities, for truly, most of them have analogues to what are thought to be “Jewish” dishes. show less