The Christmas Table: Recipes and Crafts to Create Your Own Holiday Tradition

I have several of Diane Morgan's cookbooks, and I have just added The Christmas Table. The book is visually stunning, with gorgeous colored photographs. Even better, it is filled with wonderful recipes, from traditional favorites like prime rib (done here with a salt and garlic crust) to inventive, contemporary offerings (whole roast salmon with farro-herb stuffing). There's a chapter on holiday brunches and another on Christmas gifts from the kitchen. But the real reason I keep buying Diane Morgan's books is because the recipes work! They are well written and easy to follow, and even the most complicated ones are explained clearly. This is a lovely gift to give for the holidays. My lucky sister will be getting one this year.

The Christmas Table is my new favorite book for holiday entertaining and family dinners. The photography is beautiful and makes any reader want to try so many recipes. My personal favorites are the Whipped Garnet Yams with Pecan Praline Crust (yum!) and Overnight Cinnamon Bread Custard especially for Christmas morning. I recently had a radicchio caesar salad in a restaurant and the recipe in this book is so much better. If you like to cook and want simple, clear recipes with everyday ingredients, you will love this book.

I am a very big fan of Diane's books she always makes me think and try new things. Her recipes work, they come out as advertised and never disappoint. Christmas Table like Thanksgiving Table before it will become my second holiday cookbook bible, as the seasons approach my wife and I take the Thanksgiving book down and start our planning, we will do the same with this one. If you consider cooking a hobby, like to try new things and truly enjoy the process, as well as the results AND you want to please everyone at your table, including yourself this is the book for you. ENJOY!

Do not buy this book if you are Sandra Lee aficionado or if you prefer quick and easy recipes that offer convenience, not taste. I have a number of Diane Morgan's books and I could not wait for Christmas to try new dishes in this book. I love her recipes because they always come out and because following her directions I manage to turn simple ingredients into something wonderful and amazing. For example: roasted carrots and parsnips with fresh dill, p. 102, roast loin of pork stuffed with apricots and dried plums,p. 87. ( Inadvertently I cut the hole for stuffing pork loin with dry fruit a bit too wide, so instead of alternating apricots and plums I used apricot and plum next to each other, followed by plum and apricot and so on, when sliced the pork looked like a work of art, and tasted divine. The only problem- all was gone in one meal, next time I will buy more pork.) This weekend we are having Short Ribs Bourguignonne. p.98

Two enthusiastic thumbs up, with or without sugarplums on them, for Diane Morgan's The Christmas Table. The photography's luscious; the writing crisp and informative; the organization helpful; and the recipes easy to follow and delicious. It's not yet Christmas, and it's already a holiday favorite.