The 75^th Anniversary edition of the Joy of Cooking is packed with 500 new recipes and 400 classics that have been retested and updated. 

Seventy five years ago a St. Louis widow named Irma Rombauer took her life savings and self-published a book called The Joy of Cooking.  Her daughter Marion tested the recipes and made the illustrations and they sold the books from their apartment. 

They have had 9 revisions since then and this is one of the absolutely most important cookbooks today. 

One of the things that I most like about this book is the section on entertaining where the proper table settings are shown.  It also talks about the different kinds of entertaining such as informal dinner, brunch, buffets, children’s parties, cocktail parties, family meals, outdoor entertaining and on and on. 

There are menus for different occasions such as holiday dinners, Christmas, New Year’s eve, valentines, St. Patrick’s day, Passover, Easter, Mother’s day, Father’s Day and more.  It even has special occasion menus for Super Bowl Party, Wedding Buffet, Picnic, Vegetarian and more. 

There is a section on beverages that shows the different types of coffee pots with lots of brewing tips, and an ample section on tea,  juices, wine and beer.  This book alone could be your complete guide for your cocktail party where your guests would be indeed impressed. 

Every page of this book is a refreshing surprise as the illustrations are very clean and clear and the recipes are with simple easily available ingredients, much of which you will probably already have in a well stocked pantry. 

Overall, if you’re buying one cookbook this year or if you have some serious entertaining to do, this is the book that you must have in order to have a successful affair.

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