Special Occasions Books - Page 27

Chrismukkah: Everything You Need to Know to Celebrate the Hybrid Holiday

Ron Gompertz

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

Editorial Review:

Christmas meets Hanukkah for millions of mixed-faith families—who deck their trees with Stars of David and spin the dreidel under mistletoe. Here is a one-of-a-kind, amusingly illustrated and endlessly entertaining guide to the joys—and oys—of celebrating Chrismukkah, the hybrid holiday.

A veritable cornucopia of seasonal delights, this handy (and often hilarious) lifestyle guide walks us through all the Chrismukkah events, history, and lore. You’ll learn about hybrid holiday traditions in decorating (ornaments, wreaths, menorahs, dreidels); innovative tchotchkes (Chrismukkah cards, stockings, lights); and a plethora of menorah options (Godzilla or snowman, anyone?). Plus, the book includes rollicking games to play and songs to sing, along with easy-to-follow recipes for Latkes with Sugar Plum Fairy Sauce, General Saul’s Chicken, Mama Mia Matzah Pizza!, Blitzen’s Blintzes, and other Noel Noshes. Your yuletide happy hours will never be the same once you start mixing a Yule Plotz, Meshugga Nog, or Manishewitz Mulled Wine.

Rounding out the mix are chapters on snazzy holiday hats and caps, interfaith dog and cat gift suggestions, and office-party dos and don’ts. It’s beginning to look a lot like Chrismukkah, and now we’ll all be ready to celebrate with style!

The Ultimate Bridal Shower Idea Book: How to Have a Fun, Fabulous, and Memorable Party

Sharon Naylor

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

GREAT! 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This has so many awesome ideas for a bridal shower. I love it.

Tons of Ideas 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

There are many different themes listed in this book. It's a great book if you have not choosen your theme yet. Lacking pictures and detail of some of the others though

Valuable Book 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

We are planning a shower and I found this book to be chock full of great ideas and hints.

This book is worth your money... 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I liked this book. It would be a good purchase for anyone planning on throwing a Bridal Shower.

A Creative, Fun, Class Offering 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book is chock full of amazing ideas! What I love about it most is the idea of picking a theme and then really going for it! If you are preparing a shower for someone you love, she will be absolutely thrilled when you follow the guidelines outlined here. A creative, fun, classy offering from one of the most impressive wedding professionals out there! Bravo!

1,001 Foods To Die For

Andrews McMeel Publishing, Madison Books

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

The Ultimate Food Bible 5 out of 5 stars.
15 of 15 people found this review helpful.

I browse at cookbooks in bookstores as a hobby. I am the proud owner of some titles among the bestsellers' list of Amazon's food, cooking, and wine category but I have never encountered something like this before. I received an email from Amazon offering me to pre-order this item a few months ago. I am so glad that I had stuck it out since its release has been postponed again and again. When the book arrived, I didn't know what to expect besides its cover. I was amazed. This hefty book is the compendium of all delicious foods from all over the world. As I flipped through the pages, it felt like I was touring the world and experiencing the different exotic food each country has to offer. Majority of the foods are foreign sounding. However, there are some as basic as crab cakes, lemon chicken, short ribs, angel food cake, baked cheesecake, lentil soup, etc. The list is broken down into these food groups:
appetizers and small food
soups and salads
noodles and rice
fish and seafood
poultry and game
meats
beans, cheese, and vegetables
desserts
bread, cookies, and patries
beverages
I don't own the other book entitled "1001 Foods You Must Eat Before You Die", so I am curious if they contain more or less the same things. I am very satisfied with this one I have though and I intend to use it as a check list. I will try to taste as many of these foods as I can in my lifetime.

Now, a more critical perspective. I would like to have bigger and more number of photographs... but I suppose the book will be thicker than its 960 pages if that is the case.Hmmm! There are a few foods enlisted that don't have photographs to support them but overall, the book is fine for a visual person like me. It's hard to believe that this is the work of one single person. It's an encyclopedia for an adventurous foodie like me. Imagine how exciting it'll be to have some fantastic food for the first time in one's life and to be informed of its history. Each food has its story of how it came to be.

Editorial Review:

Every epicure seeks the very best-of-the-best foods the world has to offer, from extra-virgin olive oil and artisanal cheeses to rich, dark chocolate. 1,001 Foods To Die For is an essential list for food lovers, featuring luscious photographs and descriptions of must-eat foods from soup to nuts and from all over the world. This food bible includes everything from simple classics like foie gras and aged aceto balsamico to more exotic fare such as blowfish sushi or gratin Dauphinois. The book's contributors include more than eighty renowned culinary professionals--chefs, writers, critics, and historians--share their expert opinions on the delicious dishes and cuisines that must be experienced at least once in a lifetime. With lots of informational sidebars, and recipes for some of the featured dishes, 1,001 Foods To Die For is the ultimate culinary catalog for foodies everywhere.

Williams-Sonoma Entertaining: Dinner Parties (Williams-Sonoma Entertaining)

Williams-Sonoma

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

culinary professional 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I'm in the culinary business and one of the events that I do is small dinner parties. I found this book to be very informative, and a great value.

Editorial Review:

A dinner party celebrates friends gathering around your table for a meal. And hosting one never needs to be stressful or time-consuming. Williams-Sonoma Dinner Parties is a comprehensive guide to creating stylish and fun dinner parties that fit the way we live, work, and entertain today. It's packed with easy, inventive recipes and simple decorating ideas for everything from sophisticated soirees to casual alfresco dinners. Each of the seven seasonal menus include work plans, serving suggestions, hosting tips, elegant tabletop ideas, and gorgeous photography. This book provides all the inspiration and information you need to become a confident dinner party host.

The Last-Minute Party Girl : Fashionable, Fearless, and Foolishly Simple Entertaining

Erika Lenkert

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Hip tips for fabulous fetes on little money and even less time

When the budget is tight and the schedule even tighter, what's a party girl to do? How can she whip up a swanky soiree they'll be dishing about at the watercooler for weeks to come? With The Last-Minute Party Girl, how can she not? A quick dip into this savvy, sassy entertainment guide will inspire any harried, just-got-home-from-the-office hostess to new heights of fabulousness.

Whether an elegant sit-down dinner or a finger food feast, everything required for a party with panache is covered, including innovative invites, cool cocktail creations, and must-have munchies.

This ultimate guide to sensational, spontaneous entertaining includes:

• More than 100 recipes for impressive but easily doable dishes
• Decorating tricks
• Emergency supplies for the party-girl pantry
• Quick refreshers on hostess etiquette
• Industry insiders' favorite cost- and time- cutting tips

A Year of Wine: Perfect Pairings, Great Buys, and What to Sip for Each Season

Tyler Colman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A lively and informative guide to a year of wine enjoyment and appreciation from acclaimed wine expert and blogger Tyler Colman, aka "Dr. Vino"

In A Year of Wine, award-winning educator Tyler "Dr. Vino" Colman, whose wine blog was hailed by Food & Wine magazine as "one of the seven best," views winter, spring, summer, and fall through the glass of his favorite impact-resistant stemware, pairing each month with its perfect ports, Pinots, and bubblies -- and offering good value recommendations for them all. Throughout, Colman reminds readers to try to pair their pours with context, which is wildly underrated when it comes to enjoying your favorite bottle. And while people tend naturally to drink lighter, more refreshing wines during the warm months and heavier, more serious wines during the winter months, Colman takes the seasonal approach a step further by offering innovative recommendations and enlightening facts that will allow readers to impress their friends for twelve months straight.

Is there a perfect wine to serve with chips and salsa on Super Bowl Sunday? Which bottles will help you drown away your tax- day blues without blowing your new budget? Colman answers these questions and much more as he pairs wines with each season, occasion, and moment. Recommending thoughtful and affordable wines for special celebrations and everyday enjoyment, offering tips on beginning a wine collection or spring cleaning the one you have, exploring how to drink with the smallest possible carbon footprint, and explaining how to maximize your wine experience when you dine out, Colman makes wine easy to understand and, most important, to savor.

Colman also shares the secret gems of his favorite wine tourism destinations -- where to find the best wine shops in Paris, which Portuguese vintners still crush grapes with their bare feet, and how you can take a ten-tasting-room tour with one stop in a tiny Oregon town -- and turns to some of the country's top sommeliers for their take on wine appreciation as well.

Perfect for both seasoned wine enthusiasts and oenophobes, A Year of Wine is an innovative approach that will encourage readers to drink outside the bottle.

Big Night In: More Than 100 Wonderful Recipes for Feeding Family and Friends Italian-Style

Domenica Marchetti

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

Great cookbook....excellent for holiday planning 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I bought this after a friend's recommendation, and am so pleased with it. The recipes are a mix of easy ones as well as more involved ones. The photos are beautiful and I like how the book is organized. So far I've tried the carrot soup, loved the splash of rice, what a unique addition. Normally carrot soup recipes are too bland, but this has a nice kick to it. I also made her ham and corn chowder with great success. Great book for holidays.

Editorial Review:

Author Domenica Marchetti had wonderful memories of her childhood, when her Italian-born mother often cooked up homemade ravioli, lasagne, roasts, invited everyone over, and always made them feel at home with her warm and open personality. Domenica recreated those days for her own family and friends by creating over 100 simple, delicious, Italian-inspired recipes that are comforting, delicious, and perfect for any size gathering whether an intimate dinner party or a huge crowd of hungry relatives.

Naked Chef Takes Off, The

Jamie Oliver

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 38 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The naked chef 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book shows you the way to cook fusion food, mixing english, spanish, tai and italian food in a special way.

Don't judge a book by its title 2 out of 5 stars.
0 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This cookbook is just The Return of the Naked Chef with a new title. I already owned The Return of the Naked Chef, so now I have two. I really dislike publishers who mislead us by changing titles or changing covers just to get us to buy that which we already own.

Jamie Oliver's Best 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Of all the Jamie Oliver cookbooks, this is my favorite. Its full of recipes that make you feel like a grown-up, but are wonderfully simple. His enthusiasm makes the recipes a fun read and the pictures will make your tummy talk. An added bonus is that my kids will eat anything that I make from this book. They love Jamie as much as I do. Naked Chef Takes Off is an essential primer for the inexperienced and the seasoned cook alike.

Editorial Review:

In The Naked Chef Takes Off, Oliver returns to offer readers more easy and delicious stripped-down recipes. Oliver features mouthwatering breakfasts, tapas, roasts, fish, and desserts. Each recipe is accompanied by Oliver+s commentary, which will encourage and inspire cooks of all levels!The Naked Chef Takes Off has sold more than 150,000 copies in hardcover in the U.S.

The Martha Stewart Cookbook: Collected Recipes for Every Day

Martha Stewart

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 23 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

The Martha Stewart Cookbook: Collected Recipes for Every Day 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 7 people found this review helpful.

This is best cookbook!!! The recipes are easy and taste great. I love that most of the ingredients needed, I ususally have in my pantry.

Awesome!!!!!!! 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 10 people found this review helpful.

I use this book almost exclusively....despite Martha's latest shinanagins. I call it the "Bible". I rely on this cookbook! Please do not buy anything else. She makes every recipe simple and small, easy to follow. This cookbook makes the amateur into a pro!!!!!!!!

Martha to the rescue! 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

I have been using this book for about five years and it has always been great for looking up basics and easy ways to prepare them. The other day I picked up some lovely Norwegian salmon filets and then fennel was haunting me so I got that too, once I got home this was one of the cook book choices that I had laid out in front of me, and even I was shocked to actually find a recipe called "Salmon with Fennel" on page 232. I usually buy bits and pieces and try to throw them together in an edible way, but this book always comes to my rescue. You can look up virtually any ingredient and find a "correct" standard recipe to make, that ingredient follows up with more options for more varied meals with similar undertones on next page.

The "White corn chowder" on page 141 has been my favorite soup for the past few years, I also made artichokes for the first time using this book, and it was for a room full of hungry guests; that turned out great as well. There are countless yummy potato recipes in here as well; it pleases my little Polish heart to see so much love given to this starch.

This book has so many side dishes that my head is spinning when I try to think about what to make, obviously they are easy recipes, with a handful of ingredients. All I have to do is look up my favorite thing and viola, a whole world of recipes unfolds before me.

This book has following chapters with full detail and dedication of preparation:

- Introduction
- The Pantry
- The Basics
- Hors D'oeuvres
- Eggs
- Breads, Biscuits and Sandwiches
- Soups
- Meat
- Poultry and Game Birds
- Fish and Shellfish
- Vegetables and other side dishes
- Salads
- Potatoes
- Pastas, Grains and Rice
- Entertaining a crowd
- Desserts
- Pies and Tarts
- Ice Cream and Sorbets
- Cakes and Cookies
- Wedding Cakes
- Dips, Sauces and Butters
- Preserves, Vinegars and more
- Beverages

This book is great for looking up basic ways of preparing just about anything, but it has many variations. Many cookbooks will only have 3-4 recipes for Salmon lets say, but this has a few pages. And besides, this can be purchased used for a laughable price, this book pays for itself with even one use.

- Kasia S.

Editorial Review:

The ultimate Martha Stewart recipe collection. All the recipes from Martha's original books--more than 1,400 in all--have been gathered into one convenient reference book for everyday use in the kitchen.

Perfect Vegetables: Part of "The Best Recipe" Series

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Veg-o-rama 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

A well written, detailed book wherein each chapter brings a new vegetable and great ideas. I was primarily looking to make vegetables play a more central and creative role in my cooking, and this book has been the answer. You'll be carmelizing onions and braising endive in no time.

Finally - Vegetables Get Some Respect 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Vegetables have always been the Rodney Dangerfield of food: they never get any respect. They are variously beaten, cooked, stewed, molded, mashed, seasoned, sauced, and pureed to death, sometimes more than once in the same recipe. This behavior even includes places that you expect would have more respect for our botanical friends: Indian/Hindu/vegetarian, Oriental/Buddhist/vegetarian, California/vegan. The cookbook aisles are littered with the carnage of bad vegetable recipes. Properly cooking vegetables is neither easy nor fast. Correctly done, the vegetable portion of your meal often takes MORE time and/or effort than, say, the protein centerpiece of your meal.

This book qualifies as a genuine vegetable encyclopedia that you can rely on for accurate information and proper cooking methods. You get 44 vegetables. Each and every one gets several pages and a thorough treatment, including recommended prep methods and recipes. Typically, each vegetable gets a half dozen or so pages (beets and okra get 2 pages, potatoes 50). This book is an alphabetical encyclopedia of the proper way to prep and cook vegetables. It was a real joy to finally see vegetables given the respect they deserve. Be mindful, however, that this means that cooking your vegetables are no longer quick, easy, and simple.

Their prep methods for artichoke and asparagus are very good, but causes you to throw away some edible parts. Do you know the best way to ripen avocados? This and much more about vegetables will be revealed to you. Can you cook a brussel sprout that people will actually eat? Do you have to cut an "x" in the base? Did you know that there are a couple of frozen vegetables that actually pass muster with the authors? The vegetables chosen are all the standard, usual ones you will find in any supermarket. The authors have the integrity to avoid special, rare, hard to find vegetables that might be fabulous, but impossible to get unless you are a celebrity super-chef in Manhattan. A properly prepared vegetable, although just a side-dish, should be good enough, with a glass of wine, to serve as a light supper all by itself. Are the vegetables you typically prepare at home this good? I was rather surprised that squash (winter and summer) got short-shrift in this book. They are so cheap, so plentiful, so easy to get, and so good, why not devote more attention to them? The only answer I can imagine is that the staff of CI are not very fond of squash, regardless of season.

This is a truly brilliant cookbook, but I knock it down a notch for the poorly thought out format. It is designed just like their periodical, Cooks Illustrated. The format might be suitable for a magazine, but it is a serious mistake for a book designed to be a ready reference for the home cook's bookshelf.
1) Problem #1 - Side Bar Mania. Kitchen tool reviews and taste tests are randomly scattered throughout the test. They are listed in the index under `equipment' and `ingredients' respectively, right where the home cook is likely to forget that they even exist in the book. These should be collated right in front along with the TOC.
2) Problem #2 - Where are the `master recipes'? This book uses a concept they call `master recipe' for the main prep/cooking method for a vegetable plus the variations. The TOC only lists the vegetable. This might be OK for a chapter that has only one master recipe, but is a major flaw for chapters that has 15 such `master recipes'. Each and every master recipe should be listed in the TOC. As is, this book is only marginally useful as a reference.
3) Problem #3 - More Side Bar Mania. Important information about the particular vegetable tends to be buried in each chapter. In potatoes, for example, important information about their storage (and that the frig is OK for them) is buried 4/5 of the way through potato chapter in the middle of a section about French potato salads, where you will never find it unless you read the entire chapter. How is this suppose to help the home cook?
4) Problem #4 - OK, now I am just picking nits. The photographs are out of focus and kind of irritating to look at. How could a food stylist permit this to happen? OK, one baby bok choy is in focus, but the other 3 are blurry; and this flaw is true of all except one (grilled corn) of the color photos.

Editorial Review:

How to prepare and cook everything from asparagus to winter squash Do you know why most stuffed peppers are soggy and bland? Is it better to blanch or steam broccoli? Will washing mushrooms make them waterlogged? In Perfect Vegetables the editors address these and hundreds of commonly asked questions about vegetables. There are more than 350 recipes including Glazed Carrots with Bacon, Grilled Portobello and Spinach Salad and Tomato and Mozzarella Tart