I've owned this book for over a year and have used it when planning for a few parties. Some of the recipes are excellent, but others just don't taste good. I am an avid cook, and have had to improvise a number of times when the finished recipe was completed because the appetizer was close to tasteless (example: the dipping sauce for the Rockin Rubens as well as the Rockin Ruben breadsticks themselves; Dab a Crab was dab-a-boring).I have found that I use Cocktail Food now more for inspiration than to follow the actual recipes. I too found the recipe names a little too cute, so most of the time my appetizers go incognito when people ask about the actual names.