Bless This Food: Four Seasons of Menus, Recipes and Table Graces (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Bless This Food is a unique menu cookbook that combines wonderful menus and recipes with table prayers, food customs, and religious and cultural traditions. The menus are for many occasions—traditional gatherings, religious celebrations, ethnic festivals, life passages, and get-togethers with friends.

Organized by seasons, Bless This Food is eclectic in its choice of cuisines—from French, Italian, English, American, Jewish, and Irish to Native American, African American, and Hispanic. The occasions celebrated are also eclectic and culturally diverse, celebrating the many traditions of Americans. The main religious celebrations of the Christian and Jewish traditions are included. The authors' personal interests are reflected in their choices of such occasions as Winston Churchill's Birthday Breakfast, Claude Monet's Birthday, A Jane Austen Holiday Lunch, Robert Burns Night, and Blessings in Deed, in which a meal is prepared for another person or family.

Beautifully and elegantly designed and illustrated with the sketches of Tonya Young, Bless This Food acknowledges the sacred nature of the everyday pleasures of food and table.

From the Inside Flap

"Bless This Food" is a unique cookbook that combines wonderful menus and recipes with table prayers, food customs, and religious and cultural traditions. The menus are for many varied occasions--traditional national holidays, family gatherings, religious celebrations, ethnic festivals, life passages, and get-together's with friends.

Organized by seasons, "Bless This Food" is eclectic in its choice of cuisines-from French, Italian, English, American, Jewish, and Irish to Native-American, African-American, and Hispanic. The occasions celebrated are also eclectic and culturally diverse, celebrating the many traditions from which America's citizens have originated. The main religious celebrations of the Christian and Jewish traditions are included. The authors' own interests are reflected in their choices of such occasions as Winston Churchill's Birthday breakfast, Claude Monet's Birthday, A Jane Austen Holiday Lunch, Robert Burns Night, and Blessings in Deed, in which a meal is prepared for another person or family.

Beautifully and elegantly designed and illustrated with the sketches of Tonya Presley, "Bless This Food" acknowledges the sacred nature of the everyday pleasures of food and table. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Cumberland House Publishing (October 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581824815
• ISBN-13: 978-1581824810
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 8.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,144,604 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Many Thanks for this Great Book!, July 24, 2006

By	Reader Views "www.readerviews.com" (Austin, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bless This Food: Four Seasons of Menus, Recipes, and Table Graces (Hardcover)

Reviewed by Debra Gaynor for Reader Views (7/06)

Julia Pitkin, Karen Grant and George Grant, combined their talents to create this one of a kind cookbook. There are four divisions in this book, one representing each season. Each season is divided into special occasions; each occasion has appropriate table graces and menus, with recipes for each menu. It is the best of many cultures and their many holidays the authors remind us of what the term "fine dining" truly means.

Currently I'm assisting my future daughter-in-law in planning her wedding reception. This book has been extremely helpful. The Cucumber Mint Butter Sandwiches will definitely be on the menu, as will several other recipes.

Several of the recipes took me down memory lane. The Old Fashioned Lemonade reminded me of summers at my grandmother's. She'd gather the whole family together for a reunion. There would always be homemade banana ice cream and lemonade made with real lemons. The Roast Chicken with rosemary, thyme, oregano and other spices brought back the memories of dinners with a favorite aunt. I can still recall the smell of roasting chicken greeting me when entering her home.

We live in a hurry up world, where we look for the fastest way of completing everything and anything. Rarely do we realize that we've lost much. We no longer have the taste of real lemons; instead we open a can, measure out powder and add water. Rarely do we take time to make our own bread, it's easier to open a can or a bag. But the feel of kneading bread relieves stress and homemade bread always tastes better.

The menus and recipes in this book are good. But this book is so much more. This book is about elegant dining. I picture white table linens and silver candleholders. I picture families sitting down together to enjoy the meal. I send many thanks to the authors for creating this great book.

5.0 out of 5 stars Love the themes and the food is incredible, October 27, 2009

By	Former culinary student - See all my reviews

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I have *A LOT* of cookbooks and there is definitely a space on my shelf for this one. The food is off the charts good. It's special occasion food, and probably not for a beginner cook just starting out as many of the recipes take some time to prepare. If you want to your guests to rave about your cooking, check this cookbook out! My favorite recipe is the Herb Cheesecake appetizer- a real hit.

2.0 out of 5 stars A Disappointment, January 8, 2009

By	Laura Gifford "llhope" (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Bless This Food: Four Seasons of Menus, Recipes, and Table Graces (Hardcover)

I had great hopes for this book, but while many of the recipes and menus are appealing, I found it frustrating to apply them. There is no indication of how many the menus are intended to serve and the recipes within the menus are listed as making different servings. There was little discussion of the events that these menus are to be connected with and frequently little apparent connection between the event and the food. Many of the graces are quite long and not what I would consider appropriate.