Fast and Festive Meals for the Jewish Holidays: Complete Menus, Rituals, and Party-Planning Ideas for Every Holiday of the Year [Hardcover]

Marlene Sorosky (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 20, 1997

In "Fast Festive Meals for the Jewish Holidays," author Marlene Sorosky takes away all the guesswork and provides the fundamentals for celebrating every Jewish holiday: An explanation of why celebrate the holiday; a list of all the essential religious items and foods you will need and, where appropriate, the primary blessings to be recited; a complete menu with kosher recipes full of flavor that keep preparation time to a minimum; and a Game Plan that clearly lays out all possibilities for advance preparation and gives you a what-to-do-now party countdown. Marlene covers all the holidays, as well as Shabbat and the celebrations of life's passages - brit milah, or baby naming, and bar or bat mitzvah. The recipes are a wonderful mix of the traditional, like haroset and how to roast an egg (for Passover), with new, lighter, easier twists on the traditional. In addition to recipes, Marlene's menus include ideas for memorable invitations and centerpieces (attach your invitation to a grager, or noisemaker, for a Purim masquerade gala; make a breadstick sukkah for the table at Sukkot); projects for the children (make an Elijah cup for Passover, a challah cover for Shabbat, or plant seeds to celebrate Tu B'Shevat, the New Year of the Trees), and interesting facts about the holidays.

Editorial Reviews

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.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 220 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Cookbooks; 1 edition (August 20, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688145701
• ISBN-13: 978-0688145705
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 8.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #429,822 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #80 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Special Diet > Kosher

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding authentic recipes!, February 11, 2003

By 

CoolerHeads (CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fast and Festive Meals for the Jewish Holidays: Complete Menus, Rituals, and Party-Planning Ideas for Every Holiday of the Year (Hardcover)

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.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, great tasting recipes that really work., November 17, 1999

By 

Helene Zukof ([e-mail]) (Louisville, KYUSA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fast and Festive Meals for the Jewish Holidays: Complete Menus, Rituals, and Party-Planning Ideas for Every Holiday of the Year (Hardcover)

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.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Converts' culinary guide to Judaism, December 24, 2003

By 

Jean-Charles Le Brun (Québec) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fast and Festive Meals for the Jewish Holidays: Complete Menus, Rituals, and Party-Planning Ideas for Every Holiday of the Year (Hardcover)

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.