Some of the romantic dinners for two suggest obvious dishes like "Zinfandel-Braised Red & Green Cabbages" and "Cold Curried Chicken." Sadly there were no pictures of the dishes (only glam shots of the stars).

Zinfandel-Braised Red & Green Cabbages When the cruciferous vegetables rein supreme, the winter months can be filled with this regal presentation of the affordable cabbage.

Nikki and Victor

The book concludes on a somber note with "Recipes for Singles."

Everyone is single at some point, and sometimes it seems like the right person will never appear. Sometimes romance is elusive even when it seems to be all around. The singles of Genoa City know what it's like to eat alone, and some are tired of the easy fast-food route. They look instead for practical recipes that are easy to make and can also be prepared for more than one serving.

We feel better already. The one bit of solace that singles reading this book will find is that the recipes for singles are far superior to the "Dinner for Two," "Romantic Meals," "Weddings and Honeymoon" chapters.

Recipes for singles range from complicated recipes like "Country Ham and Oyster Poor Boy" to the one-ingredient recipe of "Baked Colorful Corn Tortilla Chips." With this simple dish all you have to do is find a store that sells chips that come in red, white and blue; buy them and eat them (although the cookbook takes almost an entire page to state this).

Favorite quotes from the recipes:

Mushroom Lasagna Florentine - "Phyllis sometimes worries that she puts in too much mozzarella for Danny, but that has never happned. Why does Phyllis worry about little things like cholesterol and not big things like paternity and fires?"

Monogram Focaccia - "This dough is particularly suited for forming the initials of a special friend."

Jess Walton's Beef Stroganoff - "Jess says, when I was a kid I used to imagine that I was a Russian princess. I'd be in bed and I'd get under the covers and imagine that I was being spirited across the tundra in a horse-drawn sleigh; it would make me feel cozy and protected. I'd fall asleep. I think that's why I like beef stroganoff."

Cheeseheads Green-and-Gold Football - "This football-shaped cheeseball might just set off a frenzy. Two of the state's star cheeses are mixed with the aid of a food processor with a secret punt of port."

**We'd like to note that despite the overly simplistic menus, this book is a great resource for high school students studying for the verbal section of the SATS. There was an unusually high proportion of big words sprinkled throughout the book. Either the writer of the cookbook is super smart or she got her hands on some serious Thesauri.