THE SILVER PALATE COOKBOOK by Julee Rosso & Sheila Lukins with Michael McLaughlin

The Book: Julee Rosso & Sheila Lukins with Michael McLaughlin, THE SILVER PALATE COOKBOOK: Delicious recipes, tips, love from Manhattan's celebrated gourmet food shop. Workman Publishing softcover, 1982 (39th printing). Good condition; some water damage and food staining, spine is cracked at the "Lemon Chicken" recipe (p. 93).
First read: 1985
Owned since: 1985

I'm pretty sure this was a Christmas present in 1985, although I don't specifically remember getting it. I do, however, remember using it to cook Thanksgiving dinner in 1986, and it's been in heavy use ever since. I just pulled it out on Thursday night, in fact, to make toffee bars for the party at Kate's Mystery Books. I should have doubled the recipe.

It's a little unfair that the Silver Palate became such an icon of 1980s hedonism, because the recipes are about cooking good food simply. I still use this cookbook all the time; the recipes are easy and the food is terrific. Granted, some of it's a bit dated now. The pureed-vegetable craze came and went, thank goodness, except in houses where parents make their own baby food. (Even there, I'm not sure those babies are eating chestnut and potato puree.)

Kate's party was a great time (bad name-dropping to follow). My cousin Kathleen McLaughlin Jacobson came in from the Cape, and I was glad to see Tom, Joe Finder, Chuck Hogan and Dana Cameron, among others. Didn't post yesterday because I've managed to pick up a cold somewhere along the way, and went straight to bed with an extra dose of Alka-Selzer Cold and Megan Abbott's new anthology, A Hell of a Woman.

I'm still not feeling great today, but need to get a few things done. It would nice to have my apartment a little better organized before the end of the year; one less New Year's resolution to break...