I may have been only six, but I knew the best thing about my parents' parties was the hors d'oeuvres: cheese puffs, stuffed mushroom caps, pigs nestled doughy blankets. Twenty-six years later, I'm still crazy for finger food, but scallops n' bacon and cheddar pinwheels just won't cut it anymore.

Good thing I found "Cocktail Food: 50 finger foods with attitude," the latest offspring from San Francisco caterers Mary Corpening Barber and Sara Corpening Whiteford (with Lori Lyn Narlock), the twin dream team who brought us the best selling and . Smart, stylish bites from big and bold to light and delicate included the cleverly titled Vietnamese Wrapture (ground pork with hoisin, mint, and basil wrapped in rice paper), Sorry, Charlie (spicy tuna tartare on wonton squares), Leaves of Glory (Parmesan-basil aioli on artichoke leaves), and Figs in a Blanket (fresh figs with gorgonzola and prosciutto), a complete rehab of the mini hot dog classic. The recipes were easy enough for this non-chef to follow, the do-ahead suggestions kept me from slaving in the kitchen during my own soir e, and the planning tips how much booze to buy, how to balance flavors and textures transformed me into a hostess even my husband didn't recognize me. Move over, Martha.
Deceptively packaged, this book presents itself as one of those finds beloved of historians-- the untouched trunk in the attic full of journals, letters, and souvenirs. It is, in fact, a work of the imagination, pretending to cover th4e memories of six generations of women on an Indiana homestead.

Here's the concept: Marianne, a French aristocrat, marries pioneer Joshua Metcalfe in 1835 and happily departs for the Indianawilderness to chop wood, draw water, tend chickens, clean, and cook. She also sets the scene for a family Christmas whose traditions will continue to the present. Another tradition: an end-of-year journal summing up annual events and picked up by succeeding generations, usually daughters-in-law of different ethnic background-- German, Irish, English, Swedish-- who can add cultural variations to the Christmas celebrations and reflect in their annual summations the progress of civilization at the farm: indoor plumbing, electricity, automobiles, computers.

Beautifully published, with each woman's entries in a different handwriting and authentic-looking photographs and memorabilia reproduced, here's a charming reconstruction of the flow of history as it affects one particular family.