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Christmas 101: Celebrate the Holiday Season - From Christmas to New Year's

Rick Rodgers,

Ben Fink (Photographer)

Start date: December 30, 2012

Finish date: December 30, 2012

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Dec 30, 2012 Dolly rated it it was ok

Shelves: cooking-recipes, 2012, christmas, nonfiction

I saw this book available on my local library's catalog for ebooks, so I thought I would check it out. If anyone could use a basic Christmas cookbook,it is me. I am competent at making classic Christmas dishes, but I could use some simple tips and ideas for something new and yummy. That is what I was hoping for, but not what I got.

This is an overly didactic and preachy Christmas cookbook that gives the author an opportunity to preen about the good choices he makes and the perfect parties he thro I saw this book available on my local library's catalog for ebooks, so I thought I would check it out. If anyone could use a basic Christmas cookbook,it is me. I am competent at making classic Christmas dishes, but I could use some simple tips and ideas for something new and yummy. That is what I was hoping for, but not what I got.

This is an overly didactic and preachy Christmas cookbook that gives the author an opportunity to preen about the good choices he makes and the perfect parties he throws each year, while the rest of us schmucks fail miserably in comparison.

What? You say that I'm merely transferring my lack of hostessing and decorating skills into a frustrated and angry review of a good cookbook? Nyet. After scrolling through the recipes and reading his witty banter about the various topics, I am completely convinced that the author is as full of himself as you can get.

If you follow his perfect plan - making lists, procuring the finest ingredients, and hiring a caterer, maid, bartender, and parking attendant and coat checker, then you, too, can have a successful Christmas party. Oh, and you will probably need to get a bigger house with plenty of parking, too. Don't forget to send the invitations at least three weeks in advance and start writing your Christmas cards in October while you are winging your way cross-country for some glamorous event or another. Sheesh.

If only the recipes were easy, simple or appealing, then I could potentially forgive his self-satisfied excesses (although I doubt it.) Instead, they are complicated, fancy and way more sophisticated than I was looking for. Don't get me wrong -I love a nice hors d'oeuvre as much as anyone and I have nothing against fancy food, but I just don't cook that way.

If you are already a seasoned cook and baker and love to throw fancy parties, with extensive menus, then perhaps this book is for you. I think in that case it should be titled Christmas 501, since it certainly isn't an introductory cookbook - more like graduate level.

interesting quote:

"In fact, until the last 150 years or so, the Christmas season was abhorred by religious leaders because it was marked by heavy drinking and general misbehavior." (p. 49)
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Dec 15, 2017 Janet Morris added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2017-reads

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