With decades of experience turning out perfect turkeys, the experts at Cook's Illustrated are no strangers to pulling off a great holiday meal. In All-Time Best Holiday Entertaining, we have gathered 75 spectacular, foolproof recipes from our extensive archives to help you confidently prepare memorably festive feasts for years to come. Celebrations call for meals that impress, and with thousands of meticulously tested recipes to our name, guaranteeing that perfect outcome is central to what we do at Cook’s Illustrated. In this definitive collection, we have gathered the absolute best dishes for making your next celebration memorable, stress-free, and, above all, delicious.
Let Taste of Home help you plan your holiday parties and menus with this idea-packed cookbook. There are wonderful appetizers and beverages, company-worthy entrees, delectable breads, an array of sides and best of all dazzling, divine sweets—cookies, candies, cakes, pies and more. Included is classic fare, as well as updated twists on old-time favorites. CHAPTERS Intro Festive Appetizers & Beverages Holiday Parties Joyful Brunches Christmas Dinner Menus Merry Entrees Jolly Sides Glorious Breads Yuletide Cookies Heavenly Desserts Candy Sampler Special Gifts of Food Thanksgiving Gathering Indexes Recipes Caramel Cashew Clusters Chocolate Hazelnut Truffles Apple Cider-Glazed Ham Cheese-Topped Roasted Vegetables Colorful Gazpacho Salad Herb-Crusted Prime Rib Old English Trifle Raspberry Lemon Cake Yorkshire Pudding with Bacon and Sage Asiago Chicken Spread Calzone Pinwheels Cherry-Brandy Baked Brie Hot Spiced Wine Shrimp Wrapped in Bacon Warm Pomegranate Punch Cranberry-Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix Orange Pear Jam Cracked Pepper Cheddar Muffins Rustic Pumpkin Bread Almond Pistachio Baklava Caramel Apple Cheesecake Frozen Peppermint Delight Holiday Walnut Torte Au Gratin Potatoes ’n’ Leeks Carrot Cake Doughnuts Overnight Raisin French Toast Golden Roasted Turkey Maple-Oat Dinner Rolls Sausage Raisin Dressing Brown Sugar Cutouts Cherry Kisses Cranberry Shortbread Bars Dark Chocolate Butterscotch Brownies Raspberry Sandwich Spritz 7 WINTER PARTIES The seven winter parties will be organized into 7 themes, with menus and holiday entertaining ideas (e.g. A snowflake invitation) for each. Festive Open House During the busy holiday season, it can be challenging to pick a time and date to get-together with all you friends. An open house allows people to stop by during the day when it’s convenient for them. Let your open house go for 4 to 6 hours and you're sure to enjoy a casual time. Recipes include Roast Beef and Pear Crostini, Apricot Chicken Wings, Grape Juice Sparkler, and Warm Spiced Nuts. Cocktail Party Bring on the bubbly! A spirited evening of festive cocktails and bite-size appetizers awaits. Set up the bar with cranberry mixers and deck the buffet with shrimp and crostini, it’s time to mingle and be jolly with old friends and new. Recipes include Fast Coconut Shrimp, Goat Cheese-Pesto Crostini, Bubbly Cranberry Mixer, and Orange Razzletini. After-Caroling Warm-Up Welcome friends and family inside for a post-caroling meal. This make-ahead feast will be ready to greet you from the cold. Recipes include slow-cooked Round-Up Chili, slow-cooked Tuscan Pork Stew, Rosemary Garlic Focaccia, and Truffle Hot Chocolate Holiday Movie Night Coming to a living room near you, Miracle on 34th Street, A Christmas Story, and more. Gather the gang, pass the pizza and cuddle up with a batch of chocolaty fudge cups for screenings of your favorite holiday classics. Recipes include: Pizza Rusticana, Tijuana Tidbits, and Coconut-Almond Fudge Cups. Tea Party No matter how cold it is outside, a hot cup of Chai or a tangy cranberry tea makes it easy to enjoy the warmth of the season. Guests will be served platters of tea sandwiches and petite pastries, as well as poppy seed scones and Vienna Triangles to add a traditional touch to a memorable and merry tea party. Recipes include Vanilla Chai Tea, Petite Apricot Pastries, and Turkey, Gouda & Apple Tea Sandwiches. Let It Snow Celebration If the flurry of holiday duties has you flustered, and the snow’s a fallin’, call up some friends for an afternoon of skiing, sledding, snowshoeing and ice skating. Afterwards, warm your bellies with some hearty fare. Recipes include Shredded Pork Sandwiches, Slow-Cooked Applesauce, and Snowmen Cookies. Lunch with Friends Let’s do lunch! Because there's no better time to show your appreciation for your closet chums than during the holiday season. You can offer a delicious soup, salad and sandwich with a sophisticated holiday twist. Recipes include: Roasted Red Pepper Bisque, Spinach Festival Salad, and Grilled Cheese Supreme.
This unique book for six to eight year olds, tells two stories at the same time. The boy describes his best holiday ever but the illustrations reveal a series of hilarious disasters. Enjoy how children and parents sometimes see things differently.
Christmas is a time for entertaining and for the host that means hours spent planning, shopping and decorating the house. With a good guidebook in hand, the work of holiday entertaining can be one of the joys of the seasons.
A Cozy Take on Meals Will Have You Stoking the Home Fires! Author Ashley Rodriguez has focused her career on teaching people the importance of a good meal at home, first with Date Night In, a relationship cookbook that brought the romance back to home-cooked meals at home. For her next book, she's turning the focus outward. Let's Stay In is all about effortless hospitality, meaningful family meals, and an appreciation for the magic of meals shared with others. Families, neighbors, friends, and loved ones will find a different kind of love around the table together, connecting over memorable meals. The recipes walk you through every meal of the day with delicious breakfasts, easy lunches, inviting dinners, and Ashley's signature incredible desserts: Breakfasts of Red Lentil and Chickpea Stew with Poached Eggs, Breakfast BLTs, and Spiced Raisin Scones Midday meals of Zucchini, Gruyere & Basil Quesadillas, Ricotta, Speck and Plum Salsa Tartine, and Ivy's Split Pea Soup Table-groaning dinners of Steak Tacos with Radish and Pickled Onions, Oven Baked Risotto with Squash and Rosemary Candied Walnuts, and Grilled Leg of Lamb with Green Sauce Sweets and drinks like Blood Orange Poppy Seed Upside Down Cake, Guava Coconut Punch, The Easiest Pear Tart, and Cardamom Cream Soda Ashley is a natural teacher, and the recipes flow off the page as effortlessly as the conversation at a great meal. She practices what she preaches, too, making time to bring her busy family and loved ones together for meals as often as possible. Staying in can become an easy habit to adapt, helping to center each person at an inviting table. It's the easiest kind of aspirational cooking and gathering, helping home cooks of any level to say "let's stay in!"
There’s nothing like the holidays. They bring out the best, and sometimes the worst, in everyone. Luckily, Neil Pasricha is here to remind us that not only are the holidays great, but there’s actually even more to celebrate than we realize. From Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa, to other holidays throughout the year, such as Mother’s Day and Thanksgiving, The Book of (Holiday) Awesome will show you why holidays are…AWESOME. • Making the first footprint in fresh snow • When the in-laws leave • Waking up and realizing it’s Christmas • Just barely wrapping a gift with that tiny scrap of leftover wrapping paper • When they finally stop playing Christmas songs on the radio • Knowing “Kwanzaa” is worth more Scrabble points than “Hanukkah” or “Christmas”
In this update of a beloved classic, more than 200 recipes and 125 photos showcase all the best of the Christmas season. Whether entertaining family and friends, looking for new cookies or cocktails, or bringing food to a party, there's something for every home cook in this one-stop compendium for the merriest--and busiest--holiday of the year.
Everyone can enjoy another great new year of the best new recipes, tastings, and testings handpicked by the editors at America's Test Kitchen This annual best-of-the-best collection of recipes, tastings, and testings has once again been carefully selected from the hundreds of recipes developed throughout the last year by the editors of Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country magazines and from the new cookbooks The Perfect Pie, The Ultimate Burger, How to Cocktail, Bowls, Mediterranean Instant Pot, Everything Chocolate, and Easy Everyday Keto. The 2021 edition offers a wide array of everyday-to-sophisticated foolproof recipes ranging from Double-Decker Drive-Thru Burgers, Sweet Potato Crunch, and Eggplant Pecorino to Roasted Beef Chuck Roast with Horserdish-Parsley Sauce, Oven-Steamed Fish with Scallions and Ginger, and Whole Roast Ducks with Cherry Sauce The book ends with a chapter of impressive desserts including Fresh Plum-Ginger Pie, Chocolate Pavlova, and Caramel-Espresso Yule Log. All of the year's top ingredient tastings and equipment testings are also included.
