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Holiday Cookbook
This is one present you'll definitely want to open earlythe first-ever holiday cookbook from Cooking Light magazine, the worlds most widely read food magazine. No one likes to scrimp around the holidaysnow you can stay on track and still dazzle friends and family with memorable holiday feasts and delectable treats. Share the joy with everything you need for seasonal cookingand lessfrom Cooking Light.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published June 22, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 20, 2012
For those who want the quick and dirty review, this book is extensive, but expensive and labour-intensive. I have not tried many of the recipes, but most look delicious and there are many colour photos. There are a variety of recipes and flavour pairing for all palettes, including an extensive collection of meatless dishes. But the book isn't laid out as well as it could have been. Recipes to try: peanut butter pie; beef ternderloin with parsnip-mushroom ragout; curried couscous, spinach, and roasted tomato soup; and baked eggplant with mushroom-and-tomato sauce.
This book contains over 500 recipes, and Cooking Light really does a good job of making rich, but seemingly light and healthy holday dishes. Most dishes have an accompanying colour photo and most dishes look delicious. But, due to te fact that this is a holiday book, most of the recipes involve multiple steps, lots of ingredients (some of which only a tablespoon or two is used), and take longer to make than your average recipe. Because of this this book's recipes can be quite pricey and I find that this paired with the time-factor leads me not to use this book very often. In this sense, it is a true holiday book, as I pretty much would only foray into the book for special occasion meal nights. I have tried about 10 recipes. Some were unbelievably delicious, some were good but not to my palette, and some were not so good.
The book is divided into sections as follows: our favourite holiday recipes, holiday menues (many different holidays are featured with an organized several-dish menu that even helps the reader plan out a time-line for execution), holiday entertaining (party recipes), holiday gifts, and then the majority of the book is divided by category: appetizers and beverages, breads, salads an soups, meatless main dishes, main dishes, side dishes, and desserts. There is also a guide at the end for all sorts of holiday entertaining questions. There is also an index by recipe and an index by subject. I laways enjoy a thoroughly indexed cookbook, especially helpful when one is as extensive as this one. Each recipe has a nutritional analysis, which I also like, especially for those who are buying this book because they really want to cook light. I really really enjoyed that there was a meatless main dishes section. And it wasn't tiny, either. I often like to cook meatless or just don't think of cooking with meat when I think of things I'd like to make for dinner. So many of the meatless recipes looked delicious and also harty. There were lots of different style of recipes featured in the meatless section. There are also lots of meatless recipes throught the book as well. This book really celebrates the idea of meatless meals without taking away from the other sectiond of the book. The book made me feel that holiday cooking could not only be meatless, but it could also be delicious and just as satisfying as meat-feature meals. This would be an excellent holiday recipe book for a vegetarian or vegitarian-leaning person, although it may not stand up as well to the vegan-minded cook.
I did like the way the book was laid out in concept. It was nice to have the holiday menues section if you wanted to just work with a pre-planned menue, or a section just for gift ideas. But then in practice, I find this frustrating. When I want to make a salad from this book, I immediatly just go to the salads and soups section. I don't think of going elsewhere and in this way I'm sure I "foregt" about some great recipes featured in the event-based sections. Or if I vaguely remember a recipe from one of those sections that sounded good, I have to go digging around a bit to find it, and I don't like that. I like an ultra-functional cookbook. When I want top find a recipe, I want to find it now. I don't like the idea of owning a cookbook with delicious recipes that I miss and don't end up making because the book is not laid out to it's best.
There were so many styles of recipes and different flavour palettes that I am confident that anyone could buy this book and find a multitute of recipes that they would use for special-occasion cooking. There were also a variety of recipes in regards to cooking skills. There were many simple recipes, but most recipes seemed to need moderate or more expert-style cooking abilities. This wasn;t necesarily due to complcated techniques (although there were recipes with complex techniques), but a good chunk of the dishes involved recipes within recipes and often they all had to be timed to come together. I found myself manning a few pots, pans, or multiple cook-surfaces for one recipe.
I'd say this book is a definite buy for someone who really goes all out for holidays or entertains a lot and likes to put a lot of effort (and is okay with spending a bit more) into their recipes. This is a great book for vegetarian-minded cooks. This is definitely a book I look at when I want to make a special occasion meal, so it stays in my roster, but not a book that I would turn to every week. Some of the recipes I really didn't like or didn't like considering the cost and effort that went into the dish. But of the recipes that were great they were FANTASTICALLY great, so mind-blowingly mouth-tastic that I couldn't think of giving it away due to low use because I know that through the years I'm going to find other absolute gems.
This book contains over 500 recipes, and Cooking Light really does a good job of making rich, but seemingly light and healthy holday dishes. Most dishes have an accompanying colour photo and most dishes look delicious. But, due to te fact that this is a holiday book, most of the recipes involve multiple steps, lots of ingredients (some of which only a tablespoon or two is used), and take longer to make than your average recipe. Because of this this book's recipes can be quite pricey and I find that this paired with the time-factor leads me not to use this book very often. In this sense, it is a true holiday book, as I pretty much would only foray into the book for special occasion meal nights. I have tried about 10 recipes. Some were unbelievably delicious, some were good but not to my palette, and some were not so good.
The book is divided into sections as follows: our favourite holiday recipes, holiday menues (many different holidays are featured with an organized several-dish menu that even helps the reader plan out a time-line for execution), holiday entertaining (party recipes), holiday gifts, and then the majority of the book is divided by category: appetizers and beverages, breads, salads an soups, meatless main dishes, main dishes, side dishes, and desserts. There is also a guide at the end for all sorts of holiday entertaining questions. There is also an index by recipe and an index by subject. I laways enjoy a thoroughly indexed cookbook, especially helpful when one is as extensive as this one. Each recipe has a nutritional analysis, which I also like, especially for those who are buying this book because they really want to cook light. I really really enjoyed that there was a meatless main dishes section. And it wasn't tiny, either. I often like to cook meatless or just don't think of cooking with meat when I think of things I'd like to make for dinner. So many of the meatless recipes looked delicious and also harty. There were lots of different style of recipes featured in the meatless section. There are also lots of meatless recipes throught the book as well. This book really celebrates the idea of meatless meals without taking away from the other sectiond of the book. The book made me feel that holiday cooking could not only be meatless, but it could also be delicious and just as satisfying as meat-feature meals. This would be an excellent holiday recipe book for a vegetarian or vegitarian-leaning person, although it may not stand up as well to the vegan-minded cook.
I did like the way the book was laid out in concept. It was nice to have the holiday menues section if you wanted to just work with a pre-planned menue, or a section just for gift ideas. But then in practice, I find this frustrating. When I want to make a salad from this book, I immediatly just go to the salads and soups section. I don't think of going elsewhere and in this way I'm sure I "foregt" about some great recipes featured in the event-based sections. Or if I vaguely remember a recipe from one of those sections that sounded good, I have to go digging around a bit to find it, and I don't like that. I like an ultra-functional cookbook. When I want top find a recipe, I want to find it now. I don't like the idea of owning a cookbook with delicious recipes that I miss and don't end up making because the book is not laid out to it's best.
There were so many styles of recipes and different flavour palettes that I am confident that anyone could buy this book and find a multitute of recipes that they would use for special-occasion cooking. There were also a variety of recipes in regards to cooking skills. There were many simple recipes, but most recipes seemed to need moderate or more expert-style cooking abilities. This wasn;t necesarily due to complcated techniques (although there were recipes with complex techniques), but a good chunk of the dishes involved recipes within recipes and often they all had to be timed to come together. I found myself manning a few pots, pans, or multiple cook-surfaces for one recipe.
I'd say this book is a definite buy for someone who really goes all out for holidays or entertains a lot and likes to put a lot of effort (and is okay with spending a bit more) into their recipes. This is a great book for vegetarian-minded cooks. This is definitely a book I look at when I want to make a special occasion meal, so it stays in my roster, but not a book that I would turn to every week. Some of the recipes I really didn't like or didn't like considering the cost and effort that went into the dish. But of the recipes that were great they were FANTASTICALLY great, so mind-blowingly mouth-tastic that I couldn't think of giving it away due to low use because I know that through the years I'm going to find other absolute gems.
January 1, 2019
I loved this book, and would consider purchasing a copy in the future. I like the way the book is divided into sections for different holiday meals, and the photos are wonderful.
2019 Reading Challenge week 8. 2 books related to the same topic, genre, or theme: Book #2
2019 Reading Challenge week 8. 2 books related to the same topic, genre, or theme: Book #2
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews