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The Hallaca plate sounds crazy because it is eaten in Venezuela only in Xmas. I guess it's a one time indulgence. As a Venezuelan, I would feel totally weird eating hallacas even in November. It's like having a Thanksgiving meal in July.

For years I went to Martha's Vineyard in August and entertained
using a cookbook I bought at a local bakery--Scottish Bakehouse
Cookbook by Isabella White. I used it until the pages came unglued
and put a rubberband around it. Julia inspired me to just use a
cookbook as a starting point and create your own style. Thanks, Elaine

The French Chef, of course! When we were married 38 years ago, my husband-to-be's next door neighbor gave us a Swing Way can opener and a copy of The French Chef. I have been using both all these years, but the French Chef has many more miles on it. I was 19, had never cooked and knew back then, in a very un-feminist way, that the way to a man's heart was through his stomach. It worked! I love this book and always will.

Urban Italian: Simple Recipes and True Stories from a Life in Food, by Andrew Carmellini. I'm a vegetarian, but there are still plenty of recipes for me to try. I repeatedly take it out of the library. Please, someone buy me this book for Christmas!

An autographed copy of Craig Claiborne’s New York Times Cookbook. One evening after a school dance, friends descended on my parent’s home and one of them piped up, “Where’s the eggs benedict?” I popped into the kitchen and shortly produced something resembling poached eggs with Hollandaise. (One egg never made it past the side of the stove.) From that first effort, I prepared several other winning recipes like Knockwurst in beer. Fast forward 15 years and dozens of other cookbooks and I am co-author of Passport to New York Restaurants and auction correspondent for Wine Spectator.

The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen by Grace Young. The dishes really tastes like the ones I had growing up.

The James Beard Cookbook ~ my very first cookbook from which I learned that there was more to cooking than my mother's standard operating procedure of putting a hunk of meat under the broiler, plopping frozen vegies into pots of boiling water, and pitching potatoes into the oven to bake.

Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book, my mom used hers all the time and now that I'm away from home I use the one she bought for me! just the classics : )

Ed-

To avoid any further embarrassment, I would suggest that you don't attempt this event again. Hand the planning to someone else because you failed pretty badly.

Waste of time to try

As a woman who buys wine because it tastes good (and is comfortable selecting wines solo), I am a bit appalled to find out that wine marketing had deemed women more interested in cute labels and looking chic. My wine glass is not an accessory. But, at least it sounds like the market researcher made the correct inferences from the survey, and hopefully female drinkers won't be viewed the same way going forward.

However, I must stick up for NW servers - every single time I have ordered wine in the presence of a man, I have been offered the taste.

@jboylan - you make a good point about the crap wines with appealing packaging. But I look at it this way:
Good-on-em if they can make sales based on "fashion" but at least the smart wine-os know how to pick'em....MORE FOR US! haha

I can totally agree with this. If I have to explain one more time that I don't like white wine, and yes, that is compatible with being a woman...ugh.
I drink wine because I like the taste, and how it complements my food. I am not going to drink something because it's fashionable, that's not to say that I am going to quit wearing painful beautiful shoes. Clearly, this is where the dichotomy lies.

Food courts in Flushing, and the Kebab carts.