Special Occasions Books - Page 15

Paula Deen's The Deen Family Cookbook

Paula Deen

Amazon Price: $17.16 List Price: $26.00 Not yet published By: Simon & Schuster

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Cooking for a Crowd: Menus, Recipes and Strategies for Entertaining 10 to 50

Susan Wyler

Amazon Price: $13.57 List Price: $19.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Rodale Books Amazon Marketplace: 53 new & used starting at $1.83

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Susan Wyler's indispensable classic is back in print-now better than ever, with more than a dozen new menus, over 70 new recipes, and a wealth of updated strategies

The original edition of Cooking for a Crowd won great praise all around: Florence Fabricant named it one of the New York Times best books of the season. Perla Meyers, author of How to Peel a Peach, advised, "Keep this book as a reference whenever you are entertaining." And Rose Levy Berenbaum, author of The Cake Bible, declared, "She puts together the components of a dinner with the passion, perfection, and ease of a master painter. The game plans . . . enable any cook to impress without risk."

This new edition builds on the premise of the original-that many a home cook can manage the occasional dinner party for 4 to 6, but when it comes to entertaining a crowd of 10 or more, the logistics become exponentially more complicated. Wyler's ingeniously user-friendly combination of creative menus, do-ahead game plans, and crowd-pleasing recipes makes it possible for any home cook to entertain on a large scale.

Wyler has expanded the volume to include over 225 recipes and 35 menus for a variety of sizes and occasions-such as Tuscan Lunch for 12 to 16, Black and Orange Halloween Party for 24, even a Wedding Supper for 50.

A perfect balance of inspiring and instructive, Cooking for a Crowd is a must-have for all home cooks who want to bring large groups of family and friends together at the table.

Michael Chiarello's Casual Cooking

Michael Chiarello

Amazon Price: $26.40 List Price: $40.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Chronicle Books Amazon Marketplace: 56 new & used starting at $7.65

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Special recipes... without being exhausting 5 out of 5 stars.
22 of 22 people found this review helpful.

I've grown to love Michael Chiarello's recipes. In the Goldilocks challenge between making a dish "too simple" or "too much work," time after time Chiarello manages to find the spot that's exactly right. His recipes don't promise instant gratification, in the semi-homemade 30-minute style that's become popular recently. But he's also aware that you have something else to do with your day besides cooking dinner.

Chiarello's background is Italian, so a lot of recipes in this book display that influence -- quite a bit of pasta, for example, and a tendency to use olive oil where others might choose butter. But you'd do better to think of it as Napa-meets-Italian, as his recipes aren't the sort of food that you'll find at the traditional restaurant with a red-checked tablecloth and a candle stuck in a bottle of Chianti. The book lives up to its promise of "casual cooking."

Chiarello encourages you to create a pantry of ingredients that you can call upon whenever needed, and I completely agree with that "good cooking in not much time" philosophy. At first, it might sound as though you need to cook three things just to have the ingredients for a single dish, but the pantry section helps you create items that, later, you'll be able to grab out of the freezer or your spice shelf and put into an "instant" meal. For example, we first made his awesome winter panzanella, which uses homemade croutons in addition to butternut squash and brussels sprouts. The croutons are easy enough -- assuming that you already made his bagna cauda butter. (It's basically anchovies, parsley, and garlic mixed with two sticks of softened butter.) But two days after the salad, we made clams and linguine with more of the bagna cauda butter, and *that* came together in less time than it took to boil the noodles. I still have a half cup of the bagna cauda butter in the freezer, just waiting for a day when I feel like more than a slab-of-steak.

The pantry chapter is 30 pages long (including lots of beautiful photos; this is a great eye-candy cookbook), which includes everything from spiced walnuts to a fennel spice mix. The other chapters are appetizers; eggs & sandwiches; soups & salads; pasta; rice, beans & polenta; fish & shellfish; meat & poultry; vegetables; and sweet things. If you want a collection of fine Italian baking, you'll have to buy another book in addition to this one (you notice I'm assuming you'll buy this in any case), as his dessert choices are on the no-big-deal side of Thursday dinner rather than a big blowout feast. Panna cotta, perhaps, or dried fruit compote with Sambuca.

Many of the recipes are extremely simple, in that "perfect roast chicken" way (his uses rosemary and lemon -- and it came out great) but he isn't afraid to provide a recipes for a sauce that needs to cook for hours. He usually includes menu advice (i.e. serve this with roast pork), and some kind of cook's notes, such as the tip that soaking red onion briefly in sherry vinegar will mellow the raw onion taste.

A fine cookbook. Recommended.

Editorial Review:

From Michael Chiarello, author of The Tra Vigne Cookbook, comes a collection of recipes on his favorite subject-and the favorite subject of home cooks everywhere-preparing meals for family and friends. These treasured recipes marry the rich traditions of his Italian culinary heritage with the casual style and fresh flavors of the Wine Country. Each outhwatering dish-such as Tuscan Shrimp with White Beans, Chicken with Rosemary and Lemon Salt, and Italian Fruit Salad with Sta Bene Honey Zabaglione-is sophisticated, yet simple to prepare. Gorgeous color images by award-winning photographer Deborah Jones show dishes that look too good to be this easy! The companion volume to his new 26-part series on public television, Michael Chiarello's Casual Cooking is perfect for stress-free weekday meals and spontaneous gatherings of friends and family. It doesn't get any better than this.

A Greener Christmas

Sheherazade Goldsmith

Amazon Price: $16.50 List Price: $25.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: DK ADULT Amazon Marketplace: 46 new & used starting at $13.49

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

great book 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I got the book, because I was trying to find a book. That could show and tell you to have a more greener christmas with out polluting the world. Great recipe and craft's. Worth every penny!!!! I had great luck with all the recipe. If you want a more greener christmas, buy the book. Enjoy the holday's with out going broke.

Editorial Review:

The only guide to celebrating a greener Christmas shows you how to make your home merry, bright, and eco-friendly! Part craft, gardening, and cookbook, part home décor and entertaining guide, A Greener Christmas lets the whole family get in on projects that are simple, seasonal, and of-the-moment. Welcome guests with candlelit lanterns, hand-stitched stockings, and cozy homemade wreaths. Trim your homegrown tree with shiny recycled tinsel, spicy dried citrus fruits, and wood-scented pinecones. Give heartfelt, environmentally-friendly gifts like homemade herbal teas and mulled wine sachets, all wrapped up in gorgeous, reusable packaging. And set a mouthwatering holiday spread, with the freshest breads, cheeses, meats, and produce, all sourced from local farms. Edited by food and lifestyle maven Sheherazade Goldsmith, this book will help you plan the most beautiful, most festive, and most responsible Christmas yet.

Autumn from the Heart of the Home

Susan Branch

Amazon Price: $17.13 List Price: $25.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Little, Brown and Company Amazon Marketplace: 44 new & used starting at $9.09

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Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Special Occasions -> Seasonal

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Celebrate fall with Susan Branchs first all-new, large- format work in four years--a brightly illustrated and lovingly designed, full-color paean to autumn.

Susan Branchs long-awaited autumn book picks up where The Summer Book left off, featuring more of the delicious, easy recipes and inspirational ideas that have won her an enthusiastic and growing following. AUTUMN FROM THE HEART OF THE HOME is a bountiful harvest of appetizing recipes, imaginative menus, and homemade autumn arts. Full of cozy projects, thoughtful gifts such as the Sniffle Basket and the Sunday Breakfast kit, seasonal decorating and entertaining ideas, Halloween and Thanksgiving inspirations, and garden tips, AUTUMN FROM THE HEART OF THE HOME features mouthwatering recipes for Touchdown Chili, Butternut Shotglass Soup, Iowa Corn Bread, Savory Sage Riblets, Harvest Stew, Grandmas Stuffing, Curried Pumpkin Pots, Ginger Crisps, and of course, Hot Chocolate. Illustrated with glorious watercolors and handwritten in Susan Branchs trademark style, this beautiful new book is a sensational addition to the Susan Branch collection.

Microwave Gourmet

Barbara Kafka

Amazon Price: $14.93 List Price: $21.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: William Morrow Cookbooks Amazon Marketplace: 59 new & used starting at $1.64

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Not my thing 3 out of 5 stars.
9 of 14 people found this review helpful.

I gave this three stars because for those with more gourmet tastes, this book would probably be a great addition to their cookbook library. I personally however didn't care for this book much at all. There's a few recipes I'll try and I made note of a few suggested cooking times from the dictionary section of the book, but I'm glad I checked this out from the library rather than spend money on it. I would have been greatly disappointed with the purchase.

Editorial Review:

Learn to use your microwave oven to do everything you hoped it could and more with breakthrough techniques and recipes that will change the way you cook forever.

First published in 1987, Barbara Kafka's Microwave Gourmet redefined the way people thought about the microwave oven. Microwave Gourmet is the only book that clarifies which dishes are at their best when made in the microwave, which are the worst, and why.

There are over six hundred delicious recipes for everything you can conceivably want classics like Filet of Sole with Almonds and Turkey with Cranberry Sauce and Saffron Risotto, plus old-fashioned favorites such as Baked Macaroni and Cheese and an American Chocolate Layer Cake that cook up in five to ten minutes. Microwave Gourmet lets you eat good, homemade food in no time at all.

Microwave Gourmet is an indispensable reference and a ground-breaking book that will change your mind about using the microwave forever.

Gourmet Meals in Minutes

Culinary Institute of America

Amazon Price: $26.40 List Price: $40.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Lebhar-Friedman Books Amazon Marketplace: 54 new & used starting at $11.44

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The Rolls Royce of meals in minutes cookbooks 5 out of 5 stars.
16 of 17 people found this review helpful.

I love cookbooks. I have an extensive collection. I taught myself how to cook using cookbooks so I believe a good cookbook is one that inspires and should be understandable and reasonably easy to use; with that in mind I love this cookbook.

A big reason I love this book is because it does not try to trick you into believing that a great meal will just magically appear in 30 minutes. This book educates you on how to organize your kitchen so you will be able to produce gourmet meals with minimal cooking time. This includes practical suggestions on how to stock your kitchen pantry, refrigerator and freezer. Detailed time-saving techniques on how to prepare herbs, spices and other ingredients ahead of time so that their flavor is preserved and you have minimal prep-time when cooking. There is also advice on equipment and a lot of time is spent on techniques; each individual technique or set of techniques are explained step-by-step and illustrated when necessary.

I find that knowing my skill level helps me to determine if a cookbook is written for me; so far my stages of development have been total disaster, occasional disaster or novice, beginner, experienced beginner, advanced beginner/almost intermediate, and now I consider myself an intermediate cook. I am not a gourmet or professional by any means. I would not recommend this cookbook for a novice or beginner but for an experienced beginner through intermediate cook who wants to expand his or her repertoire and wants suggestions on technique, food preparation and stocking up their kitchen. I imagine this would be too simple for someone who is really advanced. If you fit in the categories I described above then this is a great option.

For the reviewer who described dishes she prepared as bland I have not had that experience. Although I follow the recipes from cookbooks as closely as possible I have found that it is always important to taste a dish when I am cooking and making changes if needed.

Editorial Review:

We live in a hectic world where there isn't a lot of time to spend on meal preparation, but we still want to enjoy the food we eat. Gourmet Meals in Minutes will show you how to create a wide variety of mouth-watering, nutritious meals without spending all day in the kitchen.

A Twist of the Wrist: Quick Flavorful Meals with Ingredients from Jars, Cans, Bags, and Boxes

Nancy Silverton

Amazon Price: $19.77 List Price: $29.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Knopf Amazon Marketplace: 46 new & used starting at $10.19

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Award-winning chef Nancy Silverton has conquered the gourmet world as the original dessert chef at Spago and founder of the celebrated La Brea Bakery. Her recipes are legendary, innovative, and delicious. However, in the last few years, there has been a great shift in cooking toward the Home Meal Replacement (HMR), better known as “takeout.” It’s impossible to spend hours in the kitchen after a hard day’s work, so more people are buying prepared foods and frozen meals, compromising taste for convenience. Realizing that people’s hectic workdays don’t afford everyone the time to re-create her epicurean triumphs, Nancy has come up with the perfect solution . . .

Enter, the jar!

Compiling a list of her favorite products that come in jars—and cans, bags, and boxes—Nancy has created easy-to-follow recipes that require less than thirty minutes to prepare. With this book there’s no need to sacrifice flavor, sophistication, and taste just because you’re spending less time chopping, cleaning, cooking, or baking. Nancy’s shortcuts not only allow us to produce quick and easy meals at home, they let us bring back the pride and the joy of creating gourmet meals for our family and friends.

A Twist of the Wrist contains 137 quick and delicious gourmet recipes from salads to pasta to meats and desserts, such as:

Cumin Shrimp and Chickpea Salad with Roasted Carrots
Creamy Corn Soup with Bacon and Cheddar Crostini
Orzo with Dried Porcini Mushrooms, Radicchio, and Aged Balsamic Vinegar
Boneless Pork Chops, with Creamy Polenta and Fennel Pollen
Seared Rare Tuna with Tomato-Olive Salsa
Dulce de Leche Ice Cream Pie with Hot Fudge Sauce, Cajeta, and Salty Spanish Peanuts

In addition to Nancy’s own creations, she includes recipes concocted with prepared ingredients from some of her chef friends, including Sara Foster, Tom Colicchio, Charlie Trotter, Mario Batali, Suzanne Goin, Ruth Reichl, and Jean-Georges Vongerichten.

There is also a pantry section, telling us where to get—by the Internet and mail order—the best of all things canned, jarred, and bottled.

This charming and utterly indispensable cookbook is suited for any type of cook, whether you’re an on-the-go gourmand or you just love flavorful, accessible meals at home. A Twist of the Wrist fits perfectly into today’s modern lifestyle and is a must-have for the contemporary kitchen.

Entertaining with the Sopranos

Carmela Soprano, Allen Rucker, Michele Scicolone, David Chase

Amazon Price: $19.77 List Price: $29.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Grand Central Publishing Amazon Marketplace: 55 new & used starting at $2.45

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

An Italian-American Classic 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

What a great concept! This book, along with its counterpart The Sopranos Family Cookbook: As Compiled by Artie Bucco are two of my favorite resources for Italian-American recipes, party ideas, and pure entertainment. Any time I tell family and friends that I'm going to be cooking recipes out of one of these cookbooks they all want to come over. "Entertaining with the Sopranos" offers party planning ideas and menus for every event from birth to death. Outstanding! Highly recommended.

Editorial Review:

In this well-designed book, the Sopranos offer a complete guide to entertaining:- from dinner parties to barbecues, from student parties to birthdays and anniversaries. Over seventy- five new recipes and plenty of entertaining ideas for hosting the ultimate crowd-pleaser. Lavishly illustrated with photos from the television series and sprinkled with exclusive interviews with favourite characters (including new characters not in the first book), this is an inspiring and accessible guide to what the Sopranos do best - entertain.

In Season: Cooking with Vegetables and Fruits

Sarah Raven

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Divided By Month, Every Vegetable Under The Sun. 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This cookbook is divided so that each month tells you what fruits and vegetables are in season. It's amazing. I had no idea there were even these vegetables in existence! LOL.

I guickly turned to the November/December chapter as I was headed to the grocery. And the vegetables mentioned were brussel sprouts, chard, kale, leeks, pomegranates, cranberries and winter root vegetables.

Brussle sprouts are not a vegetable I would choose to eat regularly but I thought for the purpose of this review I could...once. Unfortunately my Kroger store had a terrible selection of brussel sprouts. I picked the best I could and of the 3 recipes provided I chose the one that I actually had all the ingredients (I did not have creme fraiche, or a handful of chopped fresh herbs) so I made the saute of red brussel sprouts with almonds, page 391. hummmm....something went wrong because it did not taste as I would have liked. But like I said, my grocery had a pitiful selection of brussel sprouts and I live in the mid-west so truly fresh produce is limited.

I didn't find chard or kale in my grocery but then I see the author suggests growing your own. Well it's too late for that this year. The one recipe for kale seaweed did not seem appetizing to me. I, in honesty, did not try it. Perhaps November and December were not good months to start with. However while trying all these dishes I did discover the recipe for Cranberry Vodka which I did try and which I can say is wonderful! I then moved on to Cranberry Cocktail and it too was really good.

I made the orange and cranberry pie recipe but I also added granny smith apples to the mix. It was very good. All in all the cookbook delivers on what it says it does. There are some great pictures, all the recipes are easily readable. There is no nutritional information. The cooking and prep times are mixed throughout the recipe so you'd have to read the entire thing to know how long each dish will take.

If you're looking for a basic vegetable cookbook I would rather recommend "5-a-day Savor the Flavor" by Elizabeth Pivonka or even "What Color is Your Diet" by David Heber. I do not recommend "5-a-day" by Maggie Mayhew. However, if you want a complete something different, every vegetable under the sun then this cookbook is for you. Most Americans eat the same 7 vegetables anyway (corn, carrots, green beans, broccoli, lettuce, peas and cauliflower) so this cookbook would certainly expand your palette.

Editorial Review:

Here Sarah Raven, a leading proponent of the local foods movement, shows how to make the most of fresh produce, whether from your own garden, your local farmers’ market or the grocery. Taking us through the year in six seasonal chunks of two months each, she highlights the best vegetables, fruits, and herbs from each period, throwing in tidbits she’s learned firsthand from her own garden. The more than 250 simple and delicious recipes borrow from different cuisines and include such inventive dishes as Cranberry Bean Hummus; Squid, Pea, and Chorizo Stew; Basil Custard; Zucchini Chutney; Saute of Peas and Lettuce; Penne with Preserved Lemon and Avocado; and Pears Poached in Saffron Syrup. While some recipes are ideal for vegetarians, there are many designed to bring out the best in meat, poultry, and seafood. In Season will inspire a new appreciation of fresh produce and will be an indispensable addition to every serious cook’s shelves.