Feast­ing is for those who real­ly love food. The book, filled with the sense of abun­dance that the word ​“feast” implies, is designed to bring fam­i­ly and friends togeth­er around good, nur­tur­ing food. Aman­da Ruben gen­er­ous­ly shares her gift for using food to cre­ate an atmos­phere of cel­e­bra­tion and connection.

The book’s recipes are orga­nized by starters, sal­ads, mains, sides and desserts, but Ruben also pro­vides some menu ideas. She high­lights recipes like her Decon­struct­ed Baba Ganoush for Rosh Hashanah and her sig­na­ture Miss Ruben’s Pas­tra­mi for Yom Kip­pur. The sound of her pas­tra­mi served ​“sliced and still warm” sounds incred­i­bly appe­tiz­ing with just the right touch of tra­di­tion. Ruben does stray from the ​“typ­i­cal” Jew­ish dish. Recipes like Sticky Beef Rib Fried Rice, Osso Buc­co, and Fried Bread­ed Cau­li­flower push the bound­aries of the tra­di­tion­al Fri­day night din­ner menu.

Some of the recipes in the book are more sim­ple — dish­es that an avid cook might con­ceive of on their own, such as the Gua­camole with Char­grilled Corn Sal­sa, or Roast­ed Dutch Car­rots with Hon­ey and Cumin. In the spir­it of serv­ing many, the recipes are all very flex­i­ble. Ruben her­self rec­om­mends mak­ing the recipes with what­ev­er you have on hand, ​“aspara­gus for beans, feta for goat’s cheese, sweet pota­to for pumpkin”.

This cook­book is per­fect for real fam­i­ly cook­ing — the kind that takes place quick­ly at the end of a long day, or over a slow and mean­der­ing week­end. Read­ers can use it to fit their needs, all the while feel­ing con­fi­dent that each recipe is going to deliv­er some­thing the fam­i­ly will be talk­ing about until the next meal.