The Perfect Basket: Make Your Own Special-Occasion Baskets [Hardcover]

Diane Phillips (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1994

This unique guide for homemade and heartfelt gifts offers recipes and ideas for creating special occasion baskets. Phillips signature dishes include Carrot Cake Mix, Sundried Tomato Pesto, Creole Seasoning, Simmering Potpourri, and Pecan Rice Mix. Includes clear instructions for preparing and using mixes, plus suggestions for packaging. Illustrated gift tags.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Although nothing says "I care" more than a homemade gift, would-be donors should at least ensure that both talent and time are available to make presents from scratch. San Diego cooking-school instructor Phillips has compiled a fairly comprehensive array of gift baskets, all centered on a theme--from a new pet to a weekend breakfast celebration. Obviously, she's best at creating food ideas; her 30 container gifts, with more than 125 recipes in total, are easy-to-make luxuries, including some unusual dishes like candy cookie mix, wild rice soup, banana chocolate chip streusel bread, and beef brisket marinade mix, among others. The second half of the book--special occasion assemblages--is more routine, composed of simple lists and a sentence or two of explanation for each of 30 gift packages. Barbara Jacobs

Product Details

• Hardcover: 115 pages
• Publisher: Cookbooks; 1st edition (November 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688130313
• ISBN-13: 978-0688130312
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,046,242 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Welcome to my Amazon.com profile page. I'm the author of 14 cookbooks including the James Beard Award nominated Perfect Party Food. I travel and teach do-ahead entertaining and cooking classes all over the country and in the Dordogne region of France. Teaching is my passion and I love being able to do something that I love that includes meeting my readers and students all over the country. Check out my website www.dianephillips.com for my fall class schedule featuring my next book: Slow Cooker; The Best Cookbook Ever, information about La Combe en Perigord, travel tips, and do-ahead entertaining tools. Follow me at my blog: www.cucinadivina.blogspot.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not as expected, October 13, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Perfect Basket: Make Your Own Special-Occasion Baskets (Hardcover)

I am not saying this is a "bad" book. It has good ideas for making a gift basket. However, I was disapointed that there were no pictures. The book is pretty general. I suppose I picked the wrong book for what I was looking for. I am going to go back and look at the other books like this one and purchase another one or two.... It is a good book if you are just really looking for some ideas. I wanted something that was more geared toward making gift baskets as a business, this is more on a personal level.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not good!, April 30, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Perfect Basket: Make Your Own Special-Occasion Baskets (Hardcover)

I wished I had read the previous reviews before I jumped to buy this book. Unless you really know about gift baskets before you read this book, it's not very helpful or clear.

25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not Worth The Money, May 12, 2000

By 

CatheryneAThorne (Albany, NY, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Perfect Basket: Make Your Own Special-Occasion Baskets (Hardcover)

I did not find this book helpful. It did not show how to assemble a gift basket, had no pictures, no originality, and little information that was innovative. Neither did it offer any business tips nor suggested resources.