Customer Reviews

Southern Living Christmas Cookbook: All-New Ultimate Holiday Entertaining Guide (Southern Living (Hardcover Oxmoor))

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I got this cookbook last year and made 7 recipes out of it for a Christmas Eve open house. Every single recipe turned out perfectly and was beyond delicious. I'm not sure what went wrong the with recipes that S. Robinson tried but my experience was the absolute opposite of hers.
Here's what I made:
Buttery Blue Cheese and Walnut Spread (served in a bread bowl-yum! I don't even really like blue cheese and I loved this dip)
Gingerbread Bites with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting (my neighbor couldn't even speak when she tasted these because they were so good-and she still talks about them a year later!)
Pear and Goat Cheese Tarts (Gourmet and foolproof, these are excellent hot or cold-they might make you cry, they're so good)
Sparkly Cranberry Scones (so easy to make it's silly-I have used all kinds of different fruits in this recipe and they turn out perfectly every time)
Chocolate Mint Cake with Ganache Frosting (Oh. My. God. I messed up the recipe and doubled the butter and it was still one of the most delicious things I've ever eaten in my life!!)
Peppery Cheese bread (Savory and delicious, it was easy to make and even tasted good warmed up the next day)
Brown-Sugar Pecan Coffee Cake (decadent and delicious, we had this Christmas morning and I couldn't stop eating it even though I was still full from the night before)
I have to note that I am not an extremely experienced cook and although it took me a lot of time to make all of these, they weren't difficult.
I can't recommend this book enough. I also bought the Willams Sonoma Holiday Entertaining book and it just sat forlorly on the shelf, while this book got heavy use. I have about 30 more post-it notes in it on the recipes I still want to try!

I purchased this book and planned a week's worth of menus for Christmas company around these menus. Fortunately, for me and my guests -- they were detained because of snow, and my husband and I were the only ones to eat the food. I made eight recipes -- cookies, pie, bread, salads, salad dressing -- food one should not be able to mess up. Without exception, the cooking times were way off (not just oven variances), the ingredients did not blend well, and the cookies, pie, and bread were bland or the textures not pleasant. Did the authors actually test these recipes? I'm not sure. Buy another book; this one was pretty but totally unmemorable.

I have always been very pleased with books from Southern Living and have the complete Christmas with Southern Living set. However, I felt very disappointed with this cook book, it is advertised to be new but the recipes seem to be years old and not up to date. Also many of the recipes have cream of whatever soups in them which is not typical of Southern Living. This book just did not seem to be the high quaility I expect from Southern Living.

This book is a must see if you are having the holiday dinner at your house. Appetizers to Desserts. This book is broken down by specific meals ie breakfast, bruch etc with menu's included. You also get quick supper ideas and 5 ingredient 15 min ideas gifts. Great year round book.

Boy, do I ever love these books! Each year this time I always start looking for both these Southern Living books for Christmas, as well as the Gooseberry Patch books. Not sure which of the two is my favorite, they've all been mostly wonderful and I cook from them throughout the year. This one I liked in particular because it is broken down into menus. And, when you're in a hurry, that sure helps out a bunch! If you don't buy it for any other reason than for the coconut cakes on the front cover, it's money WELL spent! Wow, what a great recipe! Even went out and bough a special pan to make them. Yum! I don't know how Southern Living keeps from running out of ideas each year, but this one's definitely a keeper! I'm off to order the new 2009! It probably won't help my sagging cabinet shelf either - too many cookbooks already! Oh well! Highly recommend!

I own several other cookbooks (including Rachael Ray) and this one is by far my favorite. The recipes I have tried have been fantastic! One in particular, the beef ravioli in basil-cream sauce, was restaurant-quality. There are also lots of recipes for healthy vegetable dishes, something I am trying to make more of. It's not just for Christmas either, I use this all year round. The only drawback I have found is that it is laid out by "menu" and not by dish type, but that is not a big deal to me. I have even passed on several of the recipes to my friends. Highly recommend!

The recipies are easy to follow, do not require a lot of ingredients, and most of the ingredients are things that you already have on hand. Since the ingredients are common, if you do need to buy them, you will use them again for a lot of other recipes.

I love the recipes int his book, most of them are easy and quick to put together, and so many delcious recipes! Bought a second one for my daughter, she loved it!

I like it very much. I have enjoyed it. I look at it often.I am sure
that i will use many times.

My mom had used this cookbook durning this last holiday season and I read the entire thing. I loved the way they organized the recipes by menu for entertaining purposes so much that as soon as I got back from the holidays I ordered one for myself!