These recipe books raise the standards for your favorite holiday tastes By NANCY STOHS
nstohs@journalsentinel.com Posted: Nov. 24, 2007
Look no further than your nearest bookstore or favorite online book vendor for fresh ideas for your holiday table.
Following are short synopses of some of this year's newly published holiday cookbooks.
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"Pillsbury Holiday Baking" (Wiley Spiral Bound, $19.95). This book from the company behind the million-dollar bake-off targets the holiday season stretching from October through December. Sweet and savory recipes are included for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Year's.
More recipes than the purist may like call for Pillsbury products such as crescent roll dough or tubes of refrigerated cookie dough, but that should please the cook in a hurry - and there are plenty of true from-scratch recipes to lure more accomplished hosts.
A generous number of gorgeous color photos add eye appeal. One recipe per page and a spiral-bound format make the book easy to use.
Sample recipes: Sweet Potato Streusel Muffins (Kwanzaa), Praline Cream Puffs (Hanukkah), Eggnog Crème Brulee (Christmas).
• "Hometown Recipes for the Holidays," from the editors of American Profile (William Morrow, $18.95). Year-round holidays (19 in all) are addressed in this collection of "cherished family recipes" from readers across the nation.
Recipes are organized under traditional headings (breakfast, soups, etc.) but tagged with holiday icons (there's a key in the front of the book). An index in the back groups recipes by holiday.
Color photos for 45 of the 250 recipes are grouped in two sections in the middle of the book.
The names and cities of contributors are listed with all the recipes; some have "test kitchen tips" as well.
"Doable" and "family-friendly" describe most recipes, which include Gramma Tillie's Cheese Potatoes, Carolina Chicken and Collard Greens Stew.
American Profile's grand-prize contest winner, and one of nine recipes from Wisconsinites, was Cranberry Cake with Hot Butter Sauce from Phyllis Willink of Baldwin.
• "Christmas with Paula Deen," by Paula Deen (Simon & Schuster, $23). In this pocket-size collection, subtitled "Recipes and Stories from My Favorite Holiday," the chipper TV host and cookbook author spills her plain-spoken Southern charm into Mama's Divinity, Magnolia Lace.
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