Amazon.com The point of entertaining is simply to feed people and be relaxed. In Help， My Apartment Has a Dining Room， Kevin and Nancy Mills， the son-and-mother team who wrote Help， My Apartment Has a Kitchen， apply their wit and wisdom to just that. Targeted to students and newly independent twentysomethings， this user-friendly cookbook offers tips and menus to help the novice host weather nerves and wobbly cooking. First， cook ahead as much as possible. And make several dishes--the variety helps please everyone， avoid disaster from inevitable kitchen failures， and cope with vegetarians and individual allergies. Beginners can follow recommended menus (for example， Creamy Mushroom Soup， Chicken Kiev， Gingery Carrots， and Chocolate Fondue) or compose their own from recipes rated Very Easy (Thousand Island Dressing: three ingredients， five minutes) to Not So Easy (Beef Bourguignon). The authors explain everything， even how to hold a knife to chop nuts. The Mom Tips and Mom Warnings that follow recipes add more reassurance， like what stew meat and wine to buy for the Bourguignon. Helpful to the last detail， the Millses explain how to make coffee and tea， and how to set the table， suggesting you use one rather than assembling around the sofa. A perfect shower gift， this book can save parents a fortune on phone bills and help your friends (or you) survive entertaining without emotional meltdown. --Dana Jacobi Book Description The dynamic mother-son team who wrote Help! My Apartment Has a Kitchen Cookbook now offers humorous advice and easy recipes for gen-Xers and other novice cooks who want to invite friends for dinner. When we last met Kevin Mills in the runaway， surprise bestseller Help! My Apartment Has a Kitchen Cookbook， he was a recent college graduate who took a cooking-by-phone class from his mom in order to survive in the kitchen， eventually winning over his vegetarian girlfriend with his culinary skills. Now he's married to her， she's a doctor， and he still does all the cooking in their tiny kitchen. And now they entertain. With the same combination of witty writing and clever illustrations that earned the authors' first book accolades in the New York Times， the Washington Post， the Boston Globe， and Seventeen， Help! My Apartment Has a Dining Room dispenses straight advice and 150 easy recipes from a kitchen veteran， Mom， road-tested and written by her twentysomething son， who has taken out "all the fancy cookbook talk." With "Mom Tips" and "Mom Warnings，" this book gives novices the benefit of Mom's experience without having her in the kitchen. See all Editorial Reviews