If you want your food to be a conversation piece- and are running out of ideas- set yourself down with this book, and plan a meal from appetizers and soup to dessert -- check your liquor closet (from beer to champagne) -- invite appreciative guests-and get to work. I found myself chuckling over some of the new fillips for tired dishes, jotting down notes to try this or that, discarding a good many that seemed much too chancey, but feeling a lot of the recipes worth a try. This is not another gourmet cookbook such as my favorite With a Jug of Wine, but Mrs. Neumann has taken good, substantial American kitchen standbyes, varied her recipes by using ""spirits"" with a judicious restraint, and provided every course with some new ideas. One surprise- her statement that about anything calling for dry wine can be cooked with beer- and almost nobody will know the difference; multiple warnings- add your spirits a teaspoonful at a time- and taste as you go to avoid putting in too much; a simple chart indicating what goes best with what; a glossary of terms and names; some hints for the mixer on measurements -- and then recipes- some 700 of them.