Dinner Du Jour and More! by Julie Remer & Paula Weinstein

Cookbooks written by caterers are my favorite. The recipes, which have been put to the test many times under different conditions, must be efficient and economical. And the recipes, which have been served to various customers, must be crowd pleasers both in terms of appearance and taste. In the end, the catering business, events and customers work together as a filter so that only the very best recipes make it into the book. Thus, I found Dinner Du Jour and More!, by caterers Julie Remer and Paula Weinstein, to be a gem of a cookbook.

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The customer is always right. The first two printings of their cookbook Our Customers' Favorites sold out, and requests for the book kept coming in. Fortunately for us, popular caterers Julie Remer and Paula Weinstein listened to their customers and published Dinner Du Jour and More!.

Dinner Du Jour and More!, with recipes from the first book and some new favorites, is a gem. All recipes have been well tested and customer reviewed. As caterers, they used economical recipes that could be quickly prepared, sometimes in advance, for a crowd. And they offered recipes that met their customers special menu needs (Sabbath, holidays, and lifecycle celebrations). And, of course, their dishes had to look and taste wonderful.

I’ve found several Jewish holiday treasures in the book, such as Dairy Noodle Kugel for Yom Kippur Break Fast, Cabbage Rolls for Sukkot, Hamantashen for Purim, and Spinach Lasagna for Shavuot. My Floridian mother-in-law called me in Israel to say she tasted their Matzo Caramel Crunch and needs the recipe for next Passover.

Special occasions aside, many of their recipes have become an everyday part of our home. We regularly use their recipes for Asian Tuna Salad, Parve Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Chicken Marsala.

I use this cookbook so often that it never makes it to my shelf. I like having 180 practical and reliable recipes, wrapped in a succinct spiral-bound paperback, at my fingertips. It should be noted that the book costs about half as much as cookbooks with fancier wrappings. And Julie and Paula donate a portion of the book’s proceeds to breast cancer research.

I received Paula and Julie's first book as a Thanksgiving dinner favor, and I think the book makes an excellent gift. In fact, I think I’ll become the favorite son-in-law by sending my mother-in-law this cookbook, with its recipe for Matzo Caramel Crunch, for Mother’s Day.