My friend had this cookbook and I had to have it. It has a great section on working with phylo dough. It has some recipes I've never seen in any other cookbooks. Everything I've made using these recipes has turned out great. Mostly the ingredients and items you can find any grocery store, some of the cheeses are a little bit more difficult to find. The directions are easy.

I highly suggest this cookbook to anyone who enjoys Greek cooking.

enjoy

The recipes and narrative description of preparation are much better than I had anticipated. I love reading it over and over. The varied and distinct tastes are a love for the discriminating diner.

If this is an updated version of the book my mother used, I am ecstatic. I have been searching for one for years. In my family it is considered the "bible" of cookbooks. My mother used no other. My brother and I fought for possession of it when she passed away. It has been passed back and forth between us for holiday recipes, guidance, etc. Now we can each have our new one. I will always keep my mother's original (she referenced everything with a turned down page), but it will be nice not to have to worry about losing a leaf anymore. Thank you

So far I've mainly made the pizza recipes in this book, but they alone are worth the price. The crust recipe is heavenly and quite easy to make. The dough balls are so light and fluffy after rising that they practically float off the board. They hardly need any working and cook in 6-7 minutes on a baking stone into a uniquely thin, light, crunchy and tasty crust.

One thing to watch out for, however, is that English specifies fresh yeast for the pizza dough. I had trouble finding that, so I used the active dry yeast commonly found in supermarkets, and after one try it worked perfectly. The equivalent measure for the two teaspoons of fresh yeast is one generous teaspoon of active dry. Also, dissolve the dry yeast in the water/oil liquid (at 115 degrees F) just prior to mixing, rather than putting it in with the dry ingredients as specified for the fresh yeast. If there's a fault to the book, it's that English doesn't help you much with substitutions like this that vary from his ideal.

The pizza toppings are imaginative and yummy, and can inspire you to create your own. English tends to be a bit minimalist, however, so we sometimes increase the cheese and some other topping ingredients.

I've also made the white-chocolate challah pudding, which lives up to its billing as "sex on a spoon". Be sure you have plenty of people to share it, however, or you'll wind up with a big pan of incredibly delicious but super-rich pudding calling to you from the fridge for days.

It's a uniquely great cookbook. I look forward to working through the other recipes.

Todd English provides simple, relatively easy to prepare recipes that will delight your taste buds. The pizza ideas are simple to prepare, and will inspire you to try combinations you didn't think possible. The rissoto recipes can make either a quick family meal or provide a wonderful accompaniment for a more formal meal with friends. There are also some excellent recipes for chicken or other main courses that can be prepared in less than an hour and will absolutely amaze you.

English is quite creative, and these recipes are mostly quick and easy. A great cook book.

The book was really fun to read and filled with many interesting tips for anyone who is beginning to cook. The variety of recipes are wonderful. I've tried some of the recipes and they were exceptional. The roasted beet and walnut gorgonzola salad, ymmm! The portobello burger and Aioli sauces were incredible. The book gives advice to newer cooks and is a real find for those who love to try new and innovative recipes. Any family member or guest would love eating food prepared from this cookbook, it is a treasure and I already know what I will make next from the cookbook: Olivia's Crunchy Chicken and Gingersnaps. I enjoyed the variety of foods offered: simple to fancy but always unique. I haven't been to Boston in 30 years and plan a trip soon and FIGS will be the first restaurant our family visits.

Scholorly in its research but popular in its writing style, this book is a refreashing change for anyone who is mistakenly led to believe that Christianity is based on blind faith rather than actualy events from history.

Archaelogical finds that include the carved name of Pontious Pilate, and Chaiaphus the High Priest found in ancient ruins along with coins that illustrate the historical accuracy of Luke, this book is an invaluble aid.

After reading Archeology and the Old Testament by Hoerth, this book fills out the needed holes. For a newcomer to the field of archeology this book helps to understand some of the basics. Very well put together and infromative. The development of ideas is clear and insightful. This book is a winner, and I recommend this for any student of the Bible who seeks to teach the Word of God in it's context. You will find yourself quoting from this book in your sermons!!! Gary Van Daele

An up to date discussion of the more important archaeological finds relevant to New Testament studies. Packed with social and cultural insights and written clearly.

Thank you, Donna Klein, for writing the vegan cookbook I've always wanted! These are real, authentic, naturally vegan recipes from the different Mediterranean nations, not imitations that rely on faux meats or obscure Asian condiments (tasty as those things can be in the right context).

You'll find some old favorites here, like a variety of bean- and tomato-based crostini toppings or minestrone, as well as some interesting treats--my personal favorite is the rich and moist currant cake, made with light olive oil. Many of the recipes are Italian, but a good number are from less well-known cuisines, such as Catalan and Provencal. There are relatively few Middle Eastern or Greek recipes, but these cuisines are already well-represented in so many other cookbooks, that I didn't miss them.

Klein gives a lot of helpful hints along the way: nutritional information about each recipe, cook's tips, menu ideas, and substitutions for the few fresh vegetables (e.g., fava beans) and other ingredients that may be hard to find outside of major cities.

This is a cook-your-way-through cookbook! Enjoy!

This cookbook is the antidote for the question often posed by well-meaning non-vegans: "don't you find a vegan diet limiting, with only vegetables and tofu?"

I've cooked several of the dishes, all of which have been hits with vegan and non-vegan eaters - satisfying even to my meat-eating friends who believe only meat makes a meal! I served the squash gnocchi recently at a dinner party, and my guests were bowled over by it (it was worth every minute of effort). A cold cauliflower salad with a dressing involving capers was outstanding.

What I most enjoy about the book is its quintessentially mediterranean nature: simple, fresh, uncomplicated, and absolutely delicious. Having grown up in an Italian family, I've hungered for vegan recipes with mediterranean roots that are not the usual pasta and sauce fare. This book has this and more.

While I enjoy cooking with and eating soy products, this book takes a creative approach that doesn't rely on this as many vegan cookbooks do. It also has recipes appealing to every level, from the person wanting only a few ingredients and easy prep to the experienced cook willing to invest a good amount of time. Buy this book - you won't regret it!

I love this cookbook. All the dishes are made from real food. I have other cookbooks that use tofu and other ingredients to "make up for" not using meat and dairy. It gets really old buying all the ingredients that they say are so good and when you try them you end up throwing them out because they are so awful. It is a real delight to open up a vegan cookbook and see normal good tasting foods in the recipes. It is wonderful to have recipes that you can really enjoy. If you want to eat vegan but you can't bring yourself to give up your favorite unhealthy dishes you can try the "fake" dishes that you usually see in vegan cookbooks, but there is a good chance that you won't like the recipes and you'll go back to your old eating habits. However, if you want to try new dishes which taste great and will replace your desire for the less healthy foods then buy this book. I have tried some recipes in this book that are great, others are okay. But even the okay ones have given me ideas and taught me things so that I can change the recipes just enough to make them more palatable to my own taste buds. If you are a tofu, miso, tahini person buy another book, but if not, this one is for you.

I am a fan of Sir Steven Runciman's books. This one must rank together with the same author's account on the "Fall of Constantinople" and the "History of the Crusades". In this case, Sir Steven provides an ample spectrum of separate developments, along the whole Mediterranean, from Spain to Constantinople, that drove, first to Charles of Anjou's accesion to the Sicilian throne, and later on to his downfall, with the due assistence of the Eastern Roman emperor. The origins of the now famous uprising are not simple, and are extremely well explained by Sir Steven, in an easy to understand language. But, considering the very good comments provided by other readers, there is not so much I can add on the great virtues of this work.
If you are interested in the historical background of Sicily, together with this wonderful book I also recomend the very interesting book "The Normans in Sicily", by Lord Norwich, that itself is a two volume book with the narrative of the settlement of French Normans in Southern Italy, their reconquest of Sicily, and the establishment of a Sicilian-based multicultural kingdom. The end of that mighty kingdom, and the coming resentment of all Sicilians against foreign intruders, provoked the Sicilian Vespers.

This great book demonstrates that the Sicilian Vespers--on Easter Monday, March 30, 1282--was the key event that it was. I really don't think a better book on that momentous event could be written.

Sir Steven Runciman was one of the leading scholars of the Middle Ages. He also had a profound understanding of diplomacy and warfare. He is not only the author of this book, but also several books on the Crusades and Byzantium. However, this I feel is his best book. First of all it is a wonderful story. This is how the Byzantine empire managed with no army, no navy, very little money, but with a great deal of diplomacy and intelligence to prevent a planned invasion from the mightiest power in 100 years. This book should be required reading for all statesmen, would be statesmen, and military planners. Runciman describes here how things can go wrong regardless of ability, manpower, and money when one is faced with a very clever foe.

Alan Moorehead was a war correspondent who covered most of the 3-year desert campaign in North Africa in World War II. Therefore, he saw the war at first hand, sometimes coming under fire himself (usually from aircraft), sometimes getting lost in the vast desert, sometimes missing key events because his reporter's intuition led him astray. Although he was not usually on the front line, he did manage to get into towns within hours of their liberation. He had interviews with the general staff of the (British and U.S.) armies and a good grasp on the overall strategic vision of the campaign, from the Allies' point of view.

The writing quality is top-notch, especially descriptions of the burnt out and fought-over towns and countryside. You get a good flavour for the conditions the troops fought in and for the bravery and resilience shown by the soldiers. There are a number of very interesting sidelights to the action, highlighting the difficulties encountered in trying to report the war.

Unfortunately, there are a number of quibbles that detract from a 5-star rating. This book is not a "definitive" history of the war - it was written too soon and from a purely Allied point of view. It is undoubtedly biased - he constantly makes excuses for the Allied generals' failings to deliver a knock-out blow to the Axis, especially blaming the long supply line from England (neglecting the fact that half of the Axis' supplies were sunk in the Mediterranean). He refuses to admit the Allied forces were consistently outgeneralled by Rommell, blaming the British training and internal organisation instead, first claiming the generals could not change it (bureaucratic inertia), then applauding Montgomery for changing it quickly. There's distracting (and long) digressions from the front, especially a trip through India and a vacation to the U.S. While the politics of Indian independence are interesting in their own right, they are complex and require an historical context so they couldn't be developed properly. Finally, there is no background material - the author assumes at least a passing knowledge of the people and politics of the day, so it might be frustrating for a beginner. The maps are generally quite good, however, so geographical mastery of the area is not necessary.

Therefore, I recommend this book as a personal snapshot of the attitudes and actions of the Allied armies in the desert campaigns of WWII. As such, it is clearly biased, but the quality of the writing and the descriptions overcomes this difficulty.

If you are interested in the War in North Africa this is the read for you. It is absorbing and well written with a flow of a correspondent who is constantly moving to different parts of the front. I love and would recommend anything by Moorehead, but this is still a special book because he lived most of it. It is not however a history of the war. There are large chunks of the war that are not written about, time frames where whole battles are not directly refered to. That is because Moorehead was not there to cover the war. That does not detract from the flavour and action of the book. Moorehead is great in, among other areas,

* his description of the British Campaign against Italy in Ethiopia
* his descrption of the early days of the war and also the Australian role in the war against Vichy France in Syria and then its role to nip a coup and Nazi support for Iraq, firmly in the bud
* his description of the ebb and flow of battle that confused both sides, but ultimately was most boldly exploited by the Germans. The swirl of dust and whole lines of transport and tanks wondering either into or out of battle can almost be tasted.
* the seldom written about race to Tunis at the end of the book, the sudden rush across Algeria and then bogged down fighting in Tunisia; tough battle that tested the Americans for the first time and one where, despite the public image, was still largely British in effort.

The book is also of note in that halfway through Moorehead leaves the front for India and covers the Scripp's mission on Indian Independence at the height of the Japanese invasion. I know of really few descriptions of the positions of all the major parties in debating future of India: Gandhi with his unrealistic notion of "sating the violence of the Japanese invader with the blood of pacifist Indians who merely submit to the bayonets;" Ali Jinnah's willingness to send millions of Muslim troops to support the British if Britain would grant defacto status of the Muslim homeland of Pakistan. Somewhere between the two was the ever boxing clever Nehru. Moorhead met all these men and interviewed them in detail.

Moorehead also relates the loss of other correspondents in the fighting. The constant weariness and grind of the campaign that had Britain in the fighting for more than 3 years is apparent and there is a heartrending description of a British Tommy experiencing too much of the constant slogging and pounding of battle and not caring, in desperation, leads a forlorn attack in what was obviously a case of suicide.

This is one of the best books on WWII and war that I have ever read... and I may have read over 1000 since my early teens.

Moorehead's first person account of the African Desert Campaign is top-flight. He captures the moment as he experiences it. I feel I am sitting right beside him as he describes events and his reactions to them. Could this man write! I carry this book in my briefcase and whip it out whenever I have a few minutes to spare. I am always rewarded.

Sonia Uvezian has written yet another landmark cookbook, her best yet. I am familiar with many books on eastern Mediterranean/Middle Eastern cooking, but none compare to this revelatory and loving volume in which the author brings to life a cuisine and a culture in the way only one who was born and reared in the region could. Recipes and Remembrances from an Eastern Mediterranean Kitchen recreates a time and place inaccessible not only to most Americans, but even to most eastern Mediterraneans. It evokes the world of Uvezian's Lebanese childhood and is a rich portrayal of how people lived once upon a time, a happy time, not too long ago. A masterpiece of culinary instruction as valuable for its authentic and inspired recipes as for its exceptionally informative text, this extraordinary work is an essential guide for anyone who enjoys cooking and reading about eastern Mediterranean ingredients, markets, traditional utensils, scenes of daily life, views of mountain villages and the sea, ancient temples, mosques, and monasteries. I found the content of these illustrations at least as impressive as their inherent beauty. Anyone can make the dishes described by following the author's clearly written recipes, which are almost always based on readily available ingredients. Some of the best cooking I have done-ever-resulted from this wonderful book.

I am so impressed with Recipes and Remembrances from an Eastern Mediterranean Kitchen that I have ordered several copies as gifts for friends and relatives on my Christmas list. I strongly recommend that you buy two copies for yourself, one for your kitchen and the other for your night table. My thanks to Sonia Uvezian for a truly remarkable cookbook.

I love eastern Mediterranean food, especially Lebanese, but had always been better at eating it than cooking it. This book has changed that. Not only do the recipes produce fantastic results, they are not at all difficult to make and require no special expertise, equipment, or hard-to-find ingredients.

I really enjoyed reading about how the cuisine has evolved over so many centuries and found the author's personal insights and memories as well as the fascinating stories, quotations, and proverbs very helpful in placing the recipes in a cultural context. The information on ingredients is a revelation and far better than anything I have seen elsewhere, and the menu suggestions are super! Also, the many evocative period illustrations relate beautifully to the enlightening text.

"Recipes and Remembrances from an Eastern Mediterranean Kitchen" is a truly unique and exceptional cookbook that is amazing in its scope. It is a must for every family of Lebanese or Syrian descent and indispensable for any lover of good food. Whether you actually cook from the book or simply read it (I strongly recommend you do both!), an inexhaustible fund of knowledge and pleasure awaits you.

Uvezian's timeless classics, The Cuisine of Armenia, Cooking from the Caucasus, and The Book of Yogurt, turned me into a passionate cook. But as wonderful as those three volumes are, this one is even better. In fact, Recipes and Remembrances from an Eastern Mediterranean Kitchen is surely one of the finest cookbooks ever written. I could go on singing its praises, but to appreciate what a great book it really is, you must read its illuminating text, see its fascinating period illustrations, and try its magnificent recipes, which, in addition to those from Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan, include some superb Armenian ones not found in the author's previous works. I can't recommend this masterful volume highly enough!

This is a wonderful cookbook by famous chef Matthew Kenney. I love Morrocan and Mediterranean foods. I found the recipes not only delicious but very easy to make. Matthew describes his first interest in Mediterranean cooking and how he became a chef. Some of my favorite recipes are the carpaccio, the fennel salad, and the poek loin with apricot and pistachios. It's a great little book if you like cooking "exotic foods".

This book offers a great combination of things: Excellent recipes, relative ease of cooking the dishes, beautifully graphic layout/design, and wonderful text.

Matthew has a good ability to cook these dishes, and an equally good ability to "teach" the reader how to do the same.

The recipes are really all over the place, drawing upon influences of all Mediterrean countries. Some dishes for instance, are really more common to Middle-Eastern countries, but all flow wonderfully together in this work.

A truly enjoyable, as well as informative, book.

With recipes easy enough for beginners and interesting enough for seasoned (no pun intended) gourmands, this book is one I keep going back to time after time. This book also makes a great gift, as it is as attractive as it is usable. I'm here in the heart of America's Dairyland, but Matthew's Olive Oil Mashed Potatoes could almost make me give up butter!

About a year ago I purchased this classic as well as Uvezian's "Recipes and Remembrances from an Eastern Mediterranean Kitchen," and I am simply hooked! Everything I have tried has been first-rate, and I use both books all the time. "The Cuisine of Armenia" is a truly outstanding volume, full of exciting and easy-to-follow recipes that rely on readily available ingredients and simplified cooking techniques. Like "Recipes and Remembrances," it is one of the few cookbooks that will tempt you to test every recipe on every page. Not only is it a must for every Armenian household, it belongs in the library of every serious cook. It is hard to think of a book more warmly to be recommended to anyone with the slightest interest in Armenian food and culture.

This definitive guide is packed with authentic recipes for dishes that range from earthy peasant fare to elegant banquet creations. Here are some of my favorites: Lamb Soup with Potatoes, Apricots, Walnuts, and Cinnamon; Fish Kebabs Served with Grilled Peppers, Tomatoes, and Onions and Lemon Sauce; Chicken and Mushrooms with Wine, Tarragon, and Walnuts; Roast Rabbit with Sautéed Apples and Quinces; Artichokes Stuffed with Ground Lamb and Pine Nuts Served over Saffron Rice Pilaf; Melon Dolma (Cantaloupe Stuffed with Ground Meat, Rice, Pine Nuts, and Currants; Lentil and Bulghur Keufteh with Green Peppers, Scallions, and Herbs; Baked Noodles, Spinach, and Cheese with Garlic Yogurt Sauce; Braised Leeks with Tomatoes and Dill; Cinnamon-Glazed Pumpkin with Rice, Dried Fruits, and Toasted Almonds; Eggplant with Pomegranate Sauce and Pistachios; Phyllo Pastry Triangles with Apple and Nut Filling; Spiced Date- and Nut-Filled Cookies; and Armenian Cherry Brandy. I should also add that this book has some of the best vegetarian recipes I have ever seen!

This is an exceptionally fine cookbook, for which Sonia Uvezian deserves the eternal gratitude of food lovers. Anyone seriously interested in Armenian food should own this groundbreaking classic written by one of the most knowledgeable experts in the field. The book offers hundreds of healthful and imaginative recipes (many of them previously unknown in the West). I have tried well over half of them, and all have turned out superbly. Uvezian's text is highly informative, her directions are wonderfully clear and easy to follow, and the ingredients called for are widely available. "The Cuisine of Armenia" is a user-friendly guide for beginners and an indispensable reference for advanced cooks. It has long been considered the standard work in its subject area and should make Armenians even more proud of their heritage than they may already have been.

Another great book by Sonia Uvezian is "Recipes and Remembrances from an Eastern Mediterranean Kitchen: A Culinary Journey through Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan." This is without doubt the most important volume on the region's cookery, offering a profusion of splendid recipes interspersed with enlightening text and evocative period illustrations.

This is a very fine cookbook that provides a large number of mouth-watering recipes written in a clear and straightforward style. Dishes from both Eastern and Western Armenia are included, as are a number of Uvezian's own creations that are steeped in the Armenian tradition. Although the book lacks color photos, it does have a stunning color shot of Ararat Pilaf (two peaks of rice shaped like Great and Little Ararat) on the cover and includes beautiful drawings of dishes that are placed at the beginning of each chapter. I especially like the two illustrations that make striking use of old Armenian churches as a backdrop as well as the elegant medieval Armenian manuscript illumination that borders both the title page and the table of contents. Since this volume is moderately priced (and a great value considering the treasure that lies within it), expecting it to contain color photos would be unrealistic; the cost would have been prohibitive. Actually, the directions are so easy to follow that pictures are unnecessary. I would much rather have a cookbook like this that offers an extensive selection of outstanding recipes in addition to a tremendous amount of helpful and necessary culinary information, plus some lovely illustrations. Although Uvezian has provided a generous amount of enlightening historical material that traces the roots of Armenian cuisine far back into antiquity, she has wisely avoided trying to pinpoint the origins of the dishes, a task impossible to accomplish due to the long tradition of cultural and culinary interchange in the Middle East and Caucasus. As she explains, in addition to preserving their repertoire of national dishes, Armenians have skillfully assimilated foods of other peoples in the region and, conversely, a number of Armenian recipes have become part of the cuisines of other cultures. Until a time machine is invented that allows us to go back into the past without being impaled on someone's sword, it is probably best for us not to argue about origins but to celebrate the extraordinary creativity and diversity of Armenian cuisine as presented to us in this exceptional cookbook and to savor the delectable results it produces with joy and gratitude.

This is a great book to get an integrated view of the ancient world. I looked at many different books before reading this one, having previously devoured a number of more specialized books about the ancient world over the years, but wanting something more in the way of an overall perspective and context. This book is great for that.

I was mainly interested in the sections covering pre-Classical Period Greece, from 1500 down to the Golden Age (about 500 BC), but the other areas of coverage are superb also. Freeman also has an especially nice touch and fluency with the Greek history, and I wasn't surprised to find a separate book on Greek history by him next to this one on the bookshelf. There were also several gaps in my historical knowledge that this book plugged. For example, his section on the Etruscans, which I only had very fragmentary and superficial knowledge of, was also excellent.

The book benefits from much recent scholarship, and the author points out in the introduction that one of the main differences between a modern book on ancient history and older ones is the degree to which ancient civilizations like Greece can be placed much more securely in the context of their times, showing them not as isolated cultural entities, but as arising from the interplay of much more cosmopolitan influences as they interacted with, and were influenced by, their contacts, peaceable or otherwise, with neighboring or competing cultures. This is another one of the great scholarly strengths of the book.

I also found the author's deft touch and writing style a big plus, and although by necessity this is not a short book, it rarely got tedious or boring. That is notable by itself in a work of this size and nature. Overall, it counts as the best overall book on the history of the ancient world, and one of the most consistently interesting history books, I've ever read.

If you are constantly confused by this period of history, this is the book for you. It puts into context, the whole shape of the era. It makes you realise that someone like Cleopatra is closer to our time than the beginnings of Egyptian history. I have read the whole book through and it is a superb narrative. This is no mean feat, for if you where to write a history of the United States from Columbus to the present, it would be close to a third of the time that he covers. You can start to see the relationship between the writers of the period and the politicians. You can begin to way each period is interlocked with the next. But more than that, you can look up any period and be given a succint description to help you through.

My only regret was that this book was not published years earlier. I cannot recommend a book more highly.

Over the last few years I have gotten interested in the sources of the ideas of our current world. For instance, when reading about Jefferson, Adams and people that founded the US I find they are fluent in Latin and Greek and read the classics extensively.

I have read the Histories, the Pelloponesian Wars, much of Plutarch and survey books I could find and though I found the stories interesting I have been groping for some context. I felt like one of the blind men and the elephant, only apprehending the little piece I was in contact with and not having any idea what a whole elephant is like.

I came across this book by looking through ...(this very place) and it looked like it would give me an overall structure. The book succeeded beyond my expectations. Starting with Egypt and ending with the Byzantine Empire it covers the myriad civilizations around the Mediterranean during that period. It puts Solon and Dracon into their context. It explains how the Etruscians related to the Greek civilization, and then to Roman. It discusses the Phoenecians, the Latins, the Gauls, the Celts and all the various people that interacted with the Romans as their empire expanded and then the Germans, Huns and other that became important as their empire declined.

Much of what we know about the ancient world is relatively new because excavations are ongoing and techniques are improving. Besides that our thinking aout the ancient world is evolving as well. This book trys to understand the period it covers not just from the point of view of the wealthy, literate folks that wrote the classics, but from the point of view of craftsmen, farmers and slaves as well.

This is definately the book I had been looking for to get me started learning about the influence the past has had on the present. I may not know yet what the elephant of ancient history smells like because I have not been that close, but I have a pretty good idea what it looks like thanks to this book.