Customer Reviews

Private Collection: Recipes from the Junior League of Palo Alto

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Bonnie Mickelson, the editor, was promoting this little book at I. Magnin's in San Francisco in 1980 and I am so grateful that I happened to be in the store that day. I purchased copies for my mother and myself having a soft spot for Junior League cookbooks. This one is very good. While slight with only 110 recipes, they are well chosen and have been tested. It has been over 25 years since I bought this book and I still turn to it--especially for entertaining for large crowds. The Beef Bourguignon for 24 is easy and very good. Easier than Julia Child's and just as good. Serving it with Hungarian Noodles, as suggested, always gets raves and requests for the recipe. The Barley and Pine Nut Pilaf is easy and wonderful with beef and lamb. The Frozen Mocha Mousse made with ladyfingers, which turns it into a charlotte, is very, very good and serves a large crowd and is impressive to look at. There was a follow-up volume that I suspect is a collection of recipes that just didn't seem good enough to make it the first time around. I use that book too, but not as often. The drawings by Linda Newberry are very charming.

I received my copy of Private Collection today and I've just ordered another copy of this delightful cookbook as a Christmas gift for a dear friend. The recipes are elegant - the Avocado Crab Mornay sang on our tongues tonight. It isn't just the food that sings in this cookbook, the paper begs to be touched, and the illustrations are exquisite.

This cookbook is brimming with wonderful recipes that bring me back to the Northern California where I grew up. I think of it as the best of the best of the "Sunset Magazine" ethos of cooking and entertaining. I can promise that you will often prefer its renditions of well-known ideas---the great California-Chinese dishes, Italian classics like Risotto alla Milanese, and summer grilling recipes---to those in more expensive or faddish cookbooks. And the Chicken alla Margherita is one of the great favorites of our family, I think that it alone will be worth the few dollars it will cost you for a used copy of this gem.

...I have contacted the seller twice and haven't received a reply. I still haven't received it!!!