Reviewed by Emily-Jane Hills Orford for Readers' Favorite

I love the words “Love, laughter and rhubarb” on the cook’s apron in Pot Luck: Random Acts of Cooking by Tinky Weisblat. It’s quite prophetic and they’re three things at the top of my appreciation list. Seriously, food is full of so much that defines our lives: our taste and smell senses are instantly revitalized, and sound is epic as one listens to the motions of food preparation (not to mention that the act of food often encourages singing, or, possibly, talking to oneself), sight and touch because what we see and feel is what we eat. In short, “food is essential not just to our bodies but also to our souls.”

Tinky Weisblat’s book Pot Luck is a real treasure for all cookbook connoisseurs and cooks and bakers everywhere. The author pays tribute to good wholesome home cooking, always maintaining that the best ingredients are both fresh and grown or produced locally. She has divided her book seasonally, strategically placing the recipes in the sections featuring ingredients of that season, like maple syrup recipes in the winter section. Each recipe is accompanied by a story, a tribute to the recipe itself, its relevance to the title given, and the seasonal section in which it appears. Each recipe is well organized with a clear list of ingredients, quantities, and the procedure for preparing the food.

With musical interludes like intermezzo and coda to identify parts of the seasonal sections, the reader can easily see the connection between music and food, the author's two greatest passions in life. There are some recipes in this collection I’d love to try, particularly the Maple-Baked Feta. As I love both maple syrup and maple sugar as well as feta cheese, these two combined sound quite divine. Photographs of the prepared foods, the source of the food ingredients, and timely food-related advertisements from years gone by add a distinctive educational and entertainment value to the already mouth-watering collection of recipes.