Ah well, live and learn.... I can understand problems with the run of the mill cook book, but How to Cook Everything presents itself as a definitive, all-you-need-to-know cookbook for beginners to old pros. You don't want to have failures (especially high visibility ones like the Xmas prime rib). An old pro might know better (as I did on the chicken recipe) but a beginner doesn't. That said, I still use the book for many other recipes. I bake his french bread all the time. I like his beef daube recipe. I have done numerous other recipes out of HTCE. Now I'm a bit gun-shy, however. Leila May I suggest a series of dependable cookbooks? The Canadian Living Cookbooks contain recipes which proudly proclaim tested till perfect , as do those in the magazine of the same name and on their foodtv program Canadian Living Cooks. If these books are not available in the States (or other places), they certainly are on the Canadian Living website. Their recipes are very solid and work very well consistantly. Try a few of the ones on either <foodtv.ca or at the Canadian Living website, to see if you like them. I too use Mark Bittman's book often (and also love his french bread) but I have found the times to be quite off very often. jcm