Does The Silver Palate Cookbook ring a bell? Or The New Basics Cookbook? That's Sheila Lukins, with partner Julee Rosso, back in the days of making a major splash in the food world. What had been an upscale take-out shop became a brand, a series of books, and a line of specialty foods. Lukins went on to become food editor of Parade magazine. And she never slowed down on the cookbooks, producing on her own All Around the World Cookbook and USA Cookbook. Now her legion of fans can welcome Celebrate! Like all the others, it's a big book: 350 recipes, 200 color photographs, 480 pages.

"I'm in the mood to celebrate," Lukins crows. "It's the kind of joyous mood that makes me happy to call friends and family and invite them over for good food, good conversation, and good cheer! It's the kind of mood that makes needing a reason to celebrate...." Should you find yourself banging around for a reason to celebrate, relax: Lukins provides 43 of them. She hits all the major holidays--Christmas, Mother's Day, Passover, Superbowl. And then she witches up come celebrations you probably wouldn't think up on your own--Celebrate India, for example, or Celebrate Fresh Blueberry Breakfast. This is a book of menus and clustered recipes, which is handy if you don't want to think through an entire meal. Nothing's too demanding, flavor remains the bellwhether, ingredients will be in easy reach. Piece of cake. Piece of Devil's Food Cake, for that matter. You'll find that along with Deviled Chicken Wings, Red Hot Short Ribs of Beef, Jicama Slaw, and Tangerine Sorbet when it comes time to Celebrate an Old-Fashioned Halloween.

Sheila Lukins has always been one to point the way. Sure, celebrating with food and family and friends is obvious. But Lukins moves it all up to the next level, with bold splashes of color. If you make celebration a part of your everyday life, she's saying, you'll surround yourself with everything in life that's worth celebrating. Good food is certainly part of that living equation. --Schuyler Ingle

From Publishers Weekly
Celebrated cookbook writer Lukins (co-author, The Silver Palate and The New Basics) delivers a glossy full-color volume encompassing almost all the possible celebrations in life. Following the year from a New Year's Day Breakfast through an Academy Awards Bash to Chanukah and Christmas, she then continues with the myriad of life-affirming occasions-new job, graduation, bridal shower. Each celebration is prefaced with a menu and description of the dishes, often with a suggestion for presentation that is sure to enhance the occasion. The recipes vary in complexity, but the clear instructions and the sprinkling of helpful tips put them within the reach of most cooks. As in her other books, Lukins delivers a wide range of delightful dishes drawing on modern, fashionable, traditional and international inspirations, from the simple yet effective Summer Corn Soup (Midsummer Night's feast), with its unusual use of lemongrass, to the appropriately named Devil's Food Cake for Halloween and a Luscious Leek Frittata that is sure to perk up any Sunday morning. For "The Big Raise," Lukins recommends an appetizer of Blushing Lobster Cocktail and a main course of Rich Man's Burgers with B‚arnaise Mayonnaise-served with Champagne Pauillac and the music of Dean Martin. In the end, home cooks won't be surprised to find Lukins high standard of the dishes and a nice variety of recipes.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Book Description
Time to celebrate! With one purpose only-to bring family and friends together-Sheila Lukins presents Celebrate!, a full-color extravaganza of a book with 46 festive menus, 350 foolproof, with-a-twist recipes in the Silver Palate style, 200 color photographs, and throughout, the passion that's made her one of America's most creative cooks and best-loved food writers. Here are menus to re-energize traditional holidays-for Thanksgiving serve Maple Ginger Turkey with a piquant Cornbread Chorizo Stuffing. Menus that will turn impromptu gatherings into yearly events-a hearty selection of bowl foods for Super Bowl Sunday, a red-white-and-blue menu for a Memorial Day barbecue, an easy weekday Cozy Dinner for Two. And menus that will inspire whole new reasons to throw a party-The Big Raise (featuring a Blushing Lobster Cocktail), When Spring Has Sprung, The First Summer Tomatoes, a Celebrate Morocco Dinner with Moorish Carrot Soup, Lamb Tagine, Orange Flower Sorbet. Celebrate! is a blueprint for joy, making any time the right time to celebrate and showing just how to pull it off.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Rodeo Ribs The Dallas Cowboys were in so many Super Bowls when my friends and I first started to gather for the game that it seemed the state of Texas needed some recognition in a Super Bowl meal. Because Texas is the home of the longhorn, no pork ribs are allowed. Instead, this recipe calls for meaty, succulent beef short ribs. Slather them with a spicy, tangy barbecue sauce with that distinctive zip typical of sauces from the Alamo to the Oklahoma border. Be sure to make the sauce at least two days before you plan to cook the ribs, to allow the flavors to develop. If you're inclined to adjust the tang or the sweetness, add more lemon juice first, and then brown sugar, a teaspoon at a time. You want to be sure to ask the butcher to cut the ribs in 2 1/2-inch lengths so you can pick them up with your hands and just eat the meat right off the bone. If they are too long they'll be too messy, and face it-ribs are messy enough to begin with. 4 pounds beef short ribs, cut into 2- to 2 1/2-inch lengths
Coarse (kosher) salt and coarsely ground black pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, halved lengthwise and slivered
1 cup Beef Broth
Rodeo Barbecue Sauce (recipe follows) 1. Preheat the oven to 350ªF. 2. Sprinkle the ribs generously with coarse salt and pepper. Place the olive oil in a heavy Dutch oven and heat it over medium heat. Add the ribs, in batches, and brown them well on all sides, about 8 minutes per batch. Transfer the ribs to a plate. 3. Add the onion to the Dutch oven and cook over low heat until wilted, scraping up any browned bits, 8 to 10 minutes. Return the ribs to the Dutch oven, arranging them on top of the onions. Cover the pot and transfer it to the oven. 4. Bake for 30 minutes, then add the beef broth, stir, and continue to cook, covered, for another 45 minutes. 5. Remove the pot from the oven and stir in 2 cups of the Rodeo Barbecue Sauce. Then spoon the mixture over the ribs. Return the pot to the oven and cook, uncovered, basting the ribs once or twice, until the meat is tender and succulent, 40 minutes. 6. Remove the pot from the oven and skim off the fat. Serve the ribs, with the remaining barbecue sauce alongside. Rodeo Barbecue Sauce This barbecue sauce has the kick and tang of Texas sauces. It goes with almost anything you cook on a grill, so think of it for steaks, burgers, chicken-you name it. 2 cups ketchup
1 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
Juice of 1 large lemon
1/4 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
1/4 cup chili powder
2 tablespoons paprika
3 cloves garlic, minced with 1/2 teaspoon coarse (kosher) salt
1. Combine all the ingredients plus 4 cups water in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a slow rolling boil over medium heat and cook, stirring regularly to prevent the sauce from scorching, until thickened, 25 to 30 minutes. 2. Pour the sauce through a fine-mesh strainer into a bowl to remove the garlic. Let the sauce cool to room temperature. Then transfer it to a container and refrigerate for 2 days for the flavors to blend. Makes 4 1/2 cups

FROM THE PUBLISHER

With One Purpose Only -- to bring friends and family together -- Sheila Lukins invites you to Celebrate!, with a full-color revel of a cookbook featuring 43 menus and over 350 knockout recipes. Infused with high spirits and chock-full of ideas, it is a book of cooking and entertaining that enlivens traditional Thanksgivings, brunches, and backyard barbecues, and inspires festive gatherings throughout the year with new reasons to eat, drink, and make merry.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly