Sometimes you would like to make a celebratory meal without spending the day on a brown sauce. This is the book for those times. These recipes are for occasions on the scale of a birthday or an informal evening at home with friends. Some of the recipes do require more than casual involvement. Some (such as gyoza) even require that you cook in batches as the hungry wait. But none of them require you to have trained as a chef. Many quick and easy (but memorable) meals are here--spaghetti and meatballs, chicken cutlets--and so are some more unusual ones, such as moussaka and sukiyaki. Many of the recipes were adapted from other cookbooks, some were donated by friends, others are family inheritances, and a few are new. Low carbohydrate versions have been supplied for almost all recipes save desserts. Fully indexed. Where the source of a recipe is known it is indicated. 193 pages. Allen Tilley is author of Hungry Zen: Vegetarian Meals in Under an Hour (Stone Snake Press, 2009), published under Zojo Allen Tilley (his dharma name), and of three books on narrative theory. The family heritage recipes come mostly from the Tilley and Dortch families of Western Kentucky and Southern Indiana, and include Classic Paducah Barbeque, Hanover Oatmeal Cake, and Aunt Fanny's Baked Squash.