Martha Stewart's Hors d'Oeuvres Handbook

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Summary: Beautiful book -- absolute must
Review: The book begins with over 100 pages of high-quality, mouth-watering photos. The recipes are laid out well, and the "basics" section tells you how to make all of the building blocks for hors d'ouevres. There are lots of serving suggestions throughout the book, and many recipes tell you what drinks go well with them. There are also great ideas for different types of parties you can have, as well as good advice on how much food you will need. Great Book!

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Summary: WOW - One of the most useful books yet
Review: I bought this book at the recommendation of a superb professional chef, known for her beautiful creations. When I looked through it I realized it was put together by a staff of people with great food-design talent. Incidentally, I have seen these hors d'oeuvres copied by the best chefs/caterers in New York. For the pages upon pages of beautiful ideas alone, it is worth the price. Martha/the staff/the editor (whomever is responsible) leaves no stone unturned - i.e., every kind of food idea you have ever seen is here in miniature, and more elegant! I have not used the recipes verbatim so I cannot say anything about that ... just the many, many pages of superb visual ideas. This book has changed my plates forever!

Rating:
Summary: A "Must" for your kitchen library!
Review: As owner of a large catering company in central Ohio, I was beginning to grow tired of Martha and of requests from brides to reproduce "Martha's Look". This book, however, is wonderful. It is full of new ideas and twists on the old standbys. Every hors d'oeuvre is illustrated and detailed recipes follow. Ms. Stewart does tend to take some easy recipes and make them more difficult than is necessary, however. Use her book as a guideline and adapt the items to fit your needs.

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Summary: These Recipes Don't Work
Review: Love the photos in this book. Food looks great, but the ingredients are expensive and none of the recipes turn out as they should.

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Summary: Martha Does It Again.....
Review: This is a wonderful compilation of so many great ideas for making and serving hor d'oeuvres - easy as well as the creative ones. Also included are serving ideas and what goes with what. She always includes her helpful hints. If you only can get one book -- make it this one!

Rating:
Summary: Great ideas
Review: I got this book about 3 moths ago and have since tried a fewdifferent stuffs from it. There are many wonderful ideas in this bookand i've had a lot of fun trying different stuffs. I only wish mine would turn out as well as the ones in the book.

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Summary: I wish mine came out that nicely
Review: If I was able to turn these ideas into the food in the pictures, I would have loved it even more. The book was nice - don't get me wrong, but I just felt like the ideas were above my skill level and rubbed it into my face instead of trying to teach me how. It is nice, though.

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Summary: You better watch the Salt!
Review: I'm a Personal Chef/Caterer and I almost threw this book across the room. Take the measurements for the salt with a grain a salt! I cooked some stuff for an event and it was WAY too salty--this has happened on quite a few recipes from this book. Martha is renowned for not really testing the recipes! Anyway, the pictures are great, and the recipes are great--just watch the salt!

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing - at best
Review: I have purchased and enjoyed many other Martha Stewart cookbooks, but I am sorry that I wasted my money on this one. The separation of the photographs from the recipes is distracting; the complexity of most of the recipes is very high; the prep time for most recipes is very extensive and must be done at the last minute; and many of the ingredients are unavailable or very expensive. Save your money and wait for this to come to your local library if you must read it!

Rating:
Summary: Must have this one!
Review: My husband and I used this book over New Year's Eve and were delighted by the great pictures and easy to follow recipes. Highly recommended!