Season's Greetings: Cooking and Entertaining for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's

""Putting up'' preserves is one of the oldest culinary traditions, and Lupi, an Italian food editor, and Sorzio, head chef of a Venice hotel, serve up the gamut of centuries-old favorites, including orange-and-lemon marmalade, grape jelly, raspberry preserves, dried apples, canned tomatoes and pickles. This exhaustive guide, accompanied by tempting color photographs and illustrations, also offers less standard items like curried leeks, citron marmalade, fruit preserved in liquor and syrup, and with flowers (rose petal and apple preserves), and vegetable preserves (carrot and tomato jams). A small caveat is that some of the more exotic fruits and vegetables are difficult to procure. Beginners will enjoy the valuable preserving tips and sample step-by-step recipes (grapes in grappa, artichokes in light brine, cauliflower in oil, button mushrooms in vinegar, sweet-sour onions, etc.). (October 17)