Having received an immersion blender as a gift, I needed something that would expand my use of it. This book does the job.

This isn't your mother's cookbook. It does have an appetizing, varying selection of high-end recipes, some of which use expensive ingredients, i.e., saffron, truffle oil. The author likes to use very hot peppers and includes jalapenos, habeneros, and/or Scotch bonnets =whew!= in some recipes. Too many for me. Personally, I can't tolerate that kind of heat on my palette, but to be fair there are a number of other recipes that sound very much worth trying, and most are suitable for special mealtimes. I take exception to his including the recipe for Applesauce for Adults, which sounds really good, but requires unnecessary work peeling, coring, seeding, and chopping of apples that could well be eliminated by using a simple foodmill. The book is sprinkled with some attractive but not spectacular photos, and there isn't one for every recipe, but I don't think that is particularly important. Since I have a Bamix immersion blender with 4 blades: meat chopping, whisking, aerating, standard mixing, plus the mini-processor attachment (wonderful for small amounts like two tablespoons of sun-dried tomatoes), I am disappointed that no mention or use is made of any accessories other than the standard mixing blade as Steele considers them "fairly useless." I disagree and think the "extras" can help reduce the redundant use of other utensils, all of which need to be washed. Because of this, instruction section of the book doesn't enhance the use of my hand blender, since I already know how to puree or chop something with it in a bowl or pan. I've scored this 3 stars for its obvious limitations.

The recipes are interesting but complicated. I was looking for a simple approach to recipes that I could use with my new immersion blender--stuff like how to make a wonderful smoothie. Not much information on the varieties of use of the immersion blenders with their attachments.