Holidays Books - Page 5

The Best American Classics: A Best Recipe Classic (Best Recipe Series)

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Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Step into our test kitchen and learn how to make truly great American food. Want to know how to keep lemon meringue pie from weeping or which type of chocolate makes the best pudding? Want to capture the flavors of a real clambake on top of the stove? To find the answers to these and hundreds more questions, we made 28 lemon meringue pies, chopped our way through pounds of chocolate, and steamed enough clams to feed a small town. In addition, we've included more than 200 illustrations plus no-nonsense equipment ratings and taste tests of supermarket ingredients.

The Best American Classics features more than 300 recipes that cover the wide range of American cooking. Choose from favorite regional dishes such as Chicago deep-dish pizza, New Orleans' legendary red beans and rice, or New York cheesecake. Or select beloved family fare like chicken pot pie, glazed meatloaf, and green bean casserole. Restaurant classics are here as well, from Parker House rolls and Waldorf salad to bananas foster. The Best American Classics celebrates the breadth of our cuisine with foolproof recipes that will stand the test of time.

Real Boston Baked Beans that are worth the wait

If you want to make Boston baked beans that are a cut above the tourist variety, you'll need salt pork and bacon for authentic smoky flavor. And for best results, bake the beans for five hours, leaving the cover off the pot during the final hour to thicken the sauce to just the right consistency.

Stovetop Mac 'n Cheese that's Silky Not Sticky

This all-around family favorite appears in more guises than just about any other comfort food on the planet. But the best recipe, we found, is made on the stovetop (not baked) and uses evaporated milk in the sauce (not a fussy béchamel).

All-American Meatloaf that's Crusty and Glazed Not Soggy

For the best meatloaf, use a mix of meats (beef, pork, and veal). Then, select the right binders: cracker crumbs and breadcrumbs don't mask the flavor of the meat. Lastly, bake the loaf free-form (so it doesn't get soggy) and give it a double dose of glaze.

Strawberry Shortcake That Tastes as Good as it Looks

For a juicy filling that stays put between the biscuits, choose the ripest berries and then mash some of them into a chunky sauce and slice the rest. Left to sit with a little sugar, the mixture macerates, making a thick filling that soaks into the tender, easy-to-make biscuits.

The Best Recipe

Editors of Cook's Illustrated Magazine

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Total reviews: 204 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Founded in 1980, Cook's Illustrated (formerly Cook's Magazine) has emerged as "America's Test Kitchen," renowned for its near-obsessive dedication to finding the best methods of American home cooking. Over the years, we've tested 80 recipes for chocolate chip cookies, more than 70 recipes for gumbo, 40 versions of the peanut butter cookie, and more than 20 versions of such simple recipes as coleslaw, roast chicken, and hash brown potatoes. The Best Recipe is a collection of the editors' picks from the pages of Cook's Illustrated. The recipes have been edited, organized, and annotated with in-depth descriptions of how we developed the "best" recipe. And they appear alongside dozens of equipment ratings and taste tests of supermarket foods, as well as more than 200 illustrations demonstrating the most efficient food preparation methods.

In The Best Recipe, we invite you into our test kitchen, where you will stand at our elbow as we try to develop the best macaroni and cheese or the best split pea soup. You'll discover how to make a foolproof yellow cake, a perfectly cooked prime rib roast, and homemade bread in under two hours. You'll find out how to solve the problem of watery coleslaw, overcooked turkey breast, acidic salad dressing, dull tomato sauce, sticky white rice, dry turkey burgers, tough scrambled eggs, and sunken birthday cakes. You will also find the secret to bakery-style high-rise muffins and the way to make that restaurant favorite, warm, fallen chocolate cake, at home, with only a few minutes of preparation.

The Best Recipe also gives you useful tips on purchasing cookware (based on extensive test kitchen evaluations), including pie plates, food processors, standing mixers, chef's knives, skillets, vegetable peelers, and Dutch ovens. We also explain the science of cooking (how to cream butter and why, how baking powder works, the difference between semisweet and bittersweet chocolate) and offer tips on purchasing canned chicken stock, canned tomatoes, flour, butter, and dried pasta.

The editors of Cook's Illustrated have performed thousands of hours of kitchen testing to bring you a cookbook that not only provides the best recipes but also tells you how they came to be that way. Let The Best Recipe become your one-stop cooking school and your favorite kitchen reference.

Pillsbury Holiday Baking: Treats filled with cheer for a magical time of year

Pillsbury Editors

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 2.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Perk Up Your Holidays with These Great Recipes!

October through December is the time to break out the mixing bowls, baking sheets and oven mitts and start whipping up festive treats and desserts. From playful Halloween "critters" and themed cookies for the Kwanzaa party to special Christmas breads and luscious New Year's treats, Pillsbury makes it easier than ever to create delicious baked goods and liven up celebrations with your family and friends.

Organized by holiday, Pillsbury Holiday Baking features 150 tasty recipes for both sweet and savory baked goods, including lots of "Extra Easy" recipes that take 30 minutes or less. Illustrated with 50 inspiring color photos and sprinkled with helpful kitchen tips and gift ideas, it delivers all you need to bake up a season's worth of crowd-pleasing holiday treats.

Open the book and find:

16 Halloween recipes, including a Frankenstein Cake and Bugs in a Blanket

29 Thanksgiving recipes, including Mystery Pecan Pie, Pumpkin Cheesecake and Cornmeal Sage Scones

43 Christmas recipes, including Christmas Ornament Cookies,a Tree-Shaped Brownie Torte and a Spinach Dip Crescent Wreath

22 Hanukkah recipes, including Hanukkah Rugelach andCherry-Almond Torte

20 Kwanzaa recipes, including Black Forest Tart andFresh Pear-Date Bread

20 New Year's recipes, including Rich and Easy Tiramisu Dessertand Crescent-Crab Purses

500 Cookies: The Only Cookie Compendium You'll Ever Need

Philippa Vanstone, Susannah Blake

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

A "must-have" for anyone who enjoys diversity in dessert 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 14 people found this review helpful.

A compact compendium of five hundred recipes for cookies drawn from all over the world, Philippa Vanstone's 500 Cookies is organized with separate chapters devoted to classic cookies, teatime cookies, cookies for kids, chocolate cookies, celebration cookies, wholesome healthy cookies, cookies for special diets, cookie bars, dessert cookies, and savory cookies & crackers. An informative introduction and a thoroughly "user friendly" index round out this remarkable collection of delicious cookie treats that range from Scottish Shortbread; Polenta Crescents; Chocolate Spice Cookies; and Cinnamon Stars; to Applesauce Cookies; Chewy Almond Cherry Bars; Cream Cheese Cookie Slices; and Blue Cheese Crumbles. Along with the list of ingredients and "kitchen cook friendly" instructions, each cookie is also illustrated with a color photograph. 500 Cookies will soon prove to be a family favorite on the cookbook shelf as it showcases traditional fare with exotic offerings suitable for any and all dining occasions from after school snacks to elegant dining occasions.

Editorial Review:

500 Cookies is a delicious gift book, chock full of recipes and basic techniques, information about equipment, ingredients, and even troubleshooting for the best cookies in the world! Complete with mouthwatering images and ideas for gift packaging and labeling, you’ll be inspired to create the crispest, chewiest, most delectable and yes—healthful—treats to enjoy with your family or to give as gifts. This fascinating book contains a wide variety of recipes, including those for the classics, fun recipes for kids, sophisticated teatime recipes, and even wholesome, healthy options. This collection features 500 sumptuous recipes from around the world and is truly the only cookie book you’ll ever need! 500 Cookies is a perfect gift for anyone who wants to recall the warm, comforting memories of fresh baked cookies. Perfect for birthdays, bridal showers, Mother’s Day, housewarming, holidays or any gift-giving occasion. A sweet gift!

Thanksgiving 101: Celebrate America's Favorite Holiday with America's Thanksgiving Expert

Rick Rodgers

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 27 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Getting ready for your first turkey or dissatisfied with the dry results you got last year? Not to worry--"Mr. Thanksgiving," Rick Rodgers, is here to teach Thanksgiving 101. And he ought to know. For the last eight years he has been traveling the country to teach his class as the media spokesperson for Perdue Farms, an industrial giant among turkey producers.

Before getting to what he calls the "Main Event," Rodgers has advice about how to plan ahead and coordinate the labor to make the day itself more enjoyable. He opens with sections on appetizers and beverages (Glittering Spiced Walnuts, Spicy Cheddar and Pecan Balls, Bloody Marys and Ramos Fizzes) and soups and salads.

The "Main Event" is everything, absolutely everything, you would want to know about buying, thawing, prepping, and roasting a turkey. You needn't look any further. There's a long question-and-answer-style section that anticipates any questions you might have. Then it's right on to everything from Perfect Roast Turkey with Best-Ever Gravy to Holiday Meatball Lasagna.

Follow all that with sections on stuffings and dressings, side dishes, yeast and quick breads, desserts (there's more to do with that pumpkin than make pie--how about Pumpkin-Walnut Roulade with Ginger Filling?), and leftovers (Turkey Tetrazzini), and you can see how Rick Rodgers's Thanksgiving 101is the cookbook equivalent of one-stop shopping for your holiday meal. --Schuyler Ingle

A Kitchen Witch's Cookbook

Patricia Telesco

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 29 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

knowing what to cook 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This book has been so helpful in the holiday seasons. I have been able to find recipes for all to enjoy. Some may be put off my the name of the book, but it's what drew me in. Magic is in everything we do every day.

Ummm...did we read the same book? 1 out of 5 stars.
1 of 4 people found this review helpful.

First of all, I have to say that this is the first Wiccan cookbook I have ever bought. I hated it. I hated everything about it. The recipies were unusual, but nothing, not even one, that sounded good enough to try cooking. The "magic" included here is suspect at best. I will try another cook book for Wiccan's but not one of hers. The whole tone of the book was actually kinda snotty, not at all like most kitchens witchs are.

It's A Good Book, But.... 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book was my introduction to the whole idea of kitchen witchery, and of using food for magickal purposes. As such, it will always occupy a special place in my heart. Additionally, some of the recipes are quite good, and have found a permanent place in my repertoire. I am particularly fond of the Americana Pasta (I think that's what she called it - I always refer to it as "Patriotic Macaroni and Cheese") and the Blue Moon salad dressing. In fact, unable to find a source of borage with which to garnish the aforementioned mac and cheese, I was inspired to grow my own, and thus discovered a delightful new addition to my garden.

All that said, however, there are several things I found less than perfect about the book. I agree with the person who complained that she'd borrowed too many holidays from too many traditions. I will go further and say that I wish the recipes had been better organized. If I wanted to look up recipes for, say, prosperity, I had to check the index and then flip to recipes scattered throughout the book. Also, as I experimented with various recipes, I noticed that in many of them, the author seems to have been more concerned with making the numerology of the ingredients work out than with the actual result. Unfortunately, cooking just doesn't work that way. A dish needs what it needs, and you can't use more or less just because you'd like the numbers to work out to the appropriate numerological meaning for your purpose.

Since first purchasing this book many years ago, I have become a fairly competent kitchen witch in my own right. I rarely refer to this book anymore, as there are better books if one simply needs to look up the magickal correspondences of various foodstuffs (Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Wicca in the Kitchen is a must-have in any magickal kitchen), and if one is simply looking for something tasty to prepare for dinner or whatever, there are simply scads of cookbooks on the market that have much better recipes from a purely food standpoint, not to mention such online sites as Epicurious.com and the Food Network's website.

Still, once in a while it's fun to take it down and browse through it, and maybe even try something new or find a recipe that accomplishes some kind of magick that is relevant to my life at that point.

If you are completely new to the idea of kitchen witchery, and of using food to make magick, this book is a great introduction. If, however, you already have experience in this area, I'd recommend skipping it, or at the very least, checking it out of the library first to see whether you find it useful.

Holidays: The Best of Martha Stewart Living

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Nobody knows the holidays like Martha Stewart, and here she gives you all the information you need to have a spectacular Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Eve. Martha and her crew provide you with a hearty Thanksgiving feast featuring Quail with Brussels Sprouts and Shallots, Garlic Roast Potatoes, and Roast Fennel. Later she offers up a tasty but simple family breakfast for Christmas morning and a sumptuous Christmas dinner centered around a Loin of Venison with Red-Currant Bordelaise and Roast Capon with Wild Rice Sourdough Stuffing. The lower-key New Year's Eve dinner of five dishes may be more appealing to kitchen novices.

Even if you're not planning a huge party, you'll still find the book useful for more simple ideas--chapters on homemade gifts, gift-wrapping, and wreaths and garlands provide easy-to-follow directions and lots of advice. The chapter on cookies features 23 different classics, and another chapter offers recipes for six pies plus tips on their assembly and even a list of "our favorite baking apples." Throughout the book you'll find interesting sidebars and beautiful photographs to tempt and inspire you. Maybe you're a new convert, maybe you missed one of the fabled Martha Stewart Living holiday issues, or maybe your copies are too dog-eared to read anymore--Holidays: The Best of Martha Stewart Living will help you make your holidays spectacular. --C.B. Delaney

Happy Holidays from the Diva of Do-Ahead: A Year of Feasts to Celebrate with Family and Friends

Diane Phillips

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

No kitchen should be without it! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Diane Phillips' Happy Holidays cookbook has become one of my favorites (and I have a collection of about 200 cookbooks). I love to cook for friends and family, but also like to be able to spend time visiting with them. I've tried three of Diane's complete meals (appetizers through desserts) and have not only found every recipe to be delicious and attractive, but was able to do the majority of preparation well ahead of time. Although I'm retired, it's great for working folks also because you can do a dish every couple of evenings, freeze or refrigerate them, depending on the dish, and just add the last minute touches on the day of your dinner. I've gotten rave reviews on each of her 'feasts' and look forward to cooking more of them.

Editorial Review:

This book is the follow-up to the successful Perfect Party Food. Happy Holidays from the Diva-of Do-Ahead brings the same how-to and do-ahead approach to creating menus for 12 holidays-with special emphasis on Thanksgiving and Christmas-as well as tips on recipe variations, decorating, and serving. Featuring a beautiful 16-page color photo insert, this is the perfect book for anyone who wants to take the stress out of entertaining and enjoy the holidays with family and friends.

American Classics: More Than 300 Exhaustively Tested Recipes For America's Favorite Dishes

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Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Derived from the pages of Cook's Illustrated magazine, American Classics (part of the successful Best Recipe series) offers 300 formulas for a soup-to-nuts trove of American standards--everything from clam chowder, mashed potatoes, and fried chicken to brownies, carrot cake, and lemon meringue pie (which required 28 tryouts before the "best" was achieved). The book goes far to realize its mission with exhaustive "what-we-were-looking-for-and-how-we-got-it" investigations; tons of useful asides on techniques, ingredients, and equipment; great how-to illustrations; and the recipes themselves, which are precisely thought through and clearly rendered. All in all, even a cursory dip into the book takes readers into the very heart of cooking.

How does it work? Let's take the recipe for Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, a simple dish but one that's frequently botched. First, the problem of achieving the right filling distribution: "Tradition ... suggests that the cheese be cut into thin, even slices for easy melting," say the authors, but this can be problematic as "cheese planes don't work well on soft, rubbery cheeses" and cutting with a knife "requires patience, practice, and a relatively hard block of cheese." After a number of slicing failures, the authors opt for "the common box grater ... which is quick and efficient." Next, the bread: "Some like it soft and some like it firm," but even so, a supermarket brand gets the nod. Testing a full range of fats reveals salted butter is best for "superior flavor and its ability to turn bread deeply golden," and so it goes through the choice of skillet (heavy gauge with a flat bottom) and the correct cooking temperature (no more than medium low). An exemplary recipe for grilled cheese sandwiches follows.

If all of this sounds obsessive, it is. More compelling is the fact that this approach helps readers understand the parameters of any cooking task, thus educating their tastes while also providing true technical empowerment. And the dishes really are keepers. --Arthur Boehm

Steaks, Chops, Roasts & Ribs

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A fine whole tenderloin of beef is a great piece of meat to roast and serve on a special occasion, and is expensive enough it could give one pause at the open oven door--that great What If, as in what if I don't really know what I am doing. The editors of Cook's Illustrated magazine have settled the issue. It's all right here in Steaks, Chops, Roasts, and Ribs: Where the tenderloin can be found on the beef, whether to buy it untrimmed or not, how to roll and tie it for uniform roasting (including a sidebar on how to tie the butcher's knot), the best temperature at which to roast this cut of meat, and the length of time you can expect to wait beside the oven door. Having tested the process with 11 tenderloin roasts, these editors tell you all you need to know to get the results you want.

Steaks, Chops, Roasts, and Ribs opens with meat basics. If you know where a specific cut of meat comes from, you have a leg up on how best to cook the meat. Pork, lamb, veal, and beef are all covered. The buying information leads to a section on cooking basics. And then into the chapters. This isn't a book based so much on the kind of meat as on what you want to accomplish with any meat. The chapters cover steak (cooking outside and indoors), chops, cutlets, ground meat, ham, roasts, and more--polus there's a chapter on Rubs, Sauces, Salsa, and Gravy.

The pace is moderate and the information is thorough, both about the product, the technique, and the truth by experience about the tools you need to achieve success. There are hundreds of helpful line drawings and pages of color photos. And most important of all, 300 recipes that have been tested and retested by the people who invented the test kitchen. Steaks, Chops, Roasts, and Ribs is the meat eaters insurance policy. --Schuyler Ingle