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Paula Deen Celebrates!: Best Dishes and Best Wishes for the Best Times of Your Life | 
| Author: Paula Deen
Creator: Martha Nesbit
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
List Price: $26.00
Buy Used: $6.80
You Save: $19.20 (74%)
New (43) Used (39) Collectible (4) from $6.80
Rating:  40 reviews
Sales Rank: 7267
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 240
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 7.3 x 1
ISBN: 0743278119
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.568
EAN: 9780743278119
ASIN: 0743278119
Publication Date: October 10, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: ex library nice reading copy
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
Fans of Food Network star Paula Deen enjoy her unpretentious Southern-gal persona as much as her easy, what's-not-to-like recipes. As a writer of four other cookbooks, including The Lady & Sons Just Desserts, restaurant owner, and purveyor of her own product line, she's also something of an entrepreneur. In Paul Deen Celebrates! she offers 170-plus recipes arranged by menus for traditional holidays and other, sometimes whimsical celebrations like Elvis's Birthday and Movie-Watching Pizza Party in Bed. The recipes, which are often Southern-rich, range from the more traditional, such as Shrimp Etouffe, Muffuletta Sandwiches, and Macaroni Salad, to the innovative, including Collard Green Wantons, Grilled Chicken Pita, and Scallop and Bacon Pizza. Her sweets include the likes of Old Fashioned Banana Pudding, Gooey Toffee Butter Cake and Margarita Mousse. Offered also are decorating tips, and "Paula's Pearls of Wisdom" like "treasure today's moment's because they will tomorrow s memories." Deen's dishes couldn't be more approachable and will doubtlessly inspire many holiday menus. Readers should know, however, that she regularly calls for convenience products like cake mixes and canned soups, whose use (by now something of an American tradition in itself) can do little to make homemade food taste as good as it otherwise might. Paula Deen Celebrates! should, however, excite Deen's many fans, who, along with the attractive formulas, receive lots of "back-story" on the author's own celebrations, life, and mostly good times. --Arthur Boehm
Product Description
Beloved Food Network personality, restaurateur, and author Paula Deen loves a party, and in her latest book, Paula Deen Celebrates!, Paula shares with fans old and new how she celebrates a year's worth of holidays and special occasions. Now anyone can share in the down-home celebrations Paula, her husband, Michael, their kids, and extended family enjoy at their beautiful home in Savannah, Georgia.What better way to start off the New Year than with a New Year's Eve Brunch with friends -- at midnight! This colorful celebration includes Crab and Spinach Casserole and Baked Tomatoes, and finishes with a quintessentially southern Hummingbird Cake and Irish Coffee. Welcome St. Patrick's Day, Savannah style, with Lamb Stew and Green Grits Pie. The centerpiece of an Easter dinner is a Peanut Butter-Glazed Ham, accompanied by Spinach-Swiss Casserole, Squash Boats, and flaky Butterhorns, with a bonus recipe for Ham Salad that makes eating leftovers a treat. Looking for a reason to party, south-of-the-border style? Try Paula's Cinco de Mayo Fiesta menu, with Macho Nachos and a cool and creamy Margarita Mousse. Paula honors the memory of her mother, and all the other women who have blessed her life, with a Mother's Day Tea of dainty sandwiches and irresistible cookies served on her best china, and fathers get their due with a Father's Day Boating Picnic. The Fourth of July is the perfect occasion for an Outdoor Grill Party and Low-Country Boil, and if what you want is a quiet evening at home, pop a movie in the DVD player and chow down on your choice of Paula's savory and sweet pizzas. Gather the family to watch some football and savor Jamie's Cheeseburger Pies, and give family and friends the gift of a sweet treat at the holidays with Paula's Icebox Fruitcake or Peppermint Bark. Her Christmas feast starts with Cranberry Holiday Brie and stars an impressive Standing Rib Roast, with Twice-Baked Potato Casserole. The show-stopping dessert is Paula's butter-laden Coconut Pound Cake glazed with coconut syrup and covered with icing and toasted coconut! Paula brings you into her home, her kitchen, and her heart with family stories and photographs. This time, her husband, Michael, sons Jamie and Bobby, and brother, Bubba, chime in to share their memories, too. Decorating and serving ideas will inspire you to use what you have to carry through a theme to make the most informal meal special. And Paula shares her most private thoughts in a special feature -- Paula's Pearls of Wisdom -- which you'll find with each menu. Paula Deen Celebrates! is Paula at her very southern best. Join her in making and sharing her best dishes for the best times of your life.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 35 more reviews...
 Excellently Appropriate Selection of Events and Recipes. Buy It. October 12, 2006
B. Marold (Bethlehem, PA United States)
52 out of 70 found this review helpful
`Paula Deen Celebrates', by Food Network star and home cooking matron, with assistance from "Savannah Magazine" columnist, Martha Nesbit expands Ms. Deen's franchisee in a most logical and expected manner, by being a collection of recipes appropriate to twenty-one (21) favorite occasions to celebrate with food.
Among all the various different cookbook styles, the special occasion menu book seems to be the one most useful for the largest number of people next to your basic encyclopedic reference cookbook such as `The Joy of Cooking' and `James Beard's American Cookery'. And, Ms. Paula has, to my lights, done a better than average job at providing both an excellent selection of occasions and recipes for those occasions.
Her rather idiosyncratic selection of events is:
New Years' Eve Brunch
New Years' Day Good Luck Meal
Elvis's (sic) Birthday
Valentine's Day
President's Day
Big Easy Mardi Gras
My Wedding Anniversary
St. Patrick's Day
Easter Dinner
An Easter Egg Hunt
May Day Pink and White Party
Cinco de Mayo Fiesta
Mother's Day Tea
Graduation Potato Bar
Father's Day Boating Picnic
Fourth of July Outdoor Grill and Low-Country Boil
Movie Watching Pizza Party in Bed
Thanksgiving
Sunday Afternoon Football Party
Homemade Christmas Gifts
Christmas Dinner
One thing that immediately strikes me about the choice of recipes is the emphasis on coordinating food colors and personal traditions, to the total disregard of seasonal availability. For example, for the New Year's Eve Brunch, one dish requires fresh tomatoes and another requires fresh blueberries, both of which are out of season in late December. That's not to say they are unavailable, it's just that they are expensive and not at their best, but price be darned! Paula will have her traditional favorites, come heck or high water.
Paula's recipes are written in exactly the same way you have come to expect from her earlier books, with just enough information for a knowledgeable amateur cook. That means a total novice may now and then be at a bit of a loss, as when Paula gives instructions for butterflying a beef tenderloin. A teaching cookbook would include a series of diagrams on how to do it. A teaching book by someone like Jacques Pepin would include additional instructions to get the greatest possible area of meat exposed to the rub being applied to the meat. Similarly, a recipe for shrimp and lobster bisque, done by someone like Jasper White (of '50 Chowders' fame) may take three for four pages and start with some live lobsters rather than steamed lobster tails. But then, Paula's recipes here, just as her endearing presentations on her show imbue the auditor with a great sense of confidence that `you too can cook a great homemade meal to entertain your family'.
There is no question that these recipes and menus will appeal most to natives of the southeastern United States, from Virginia to Georgia to Mississippi, to Kentucky, but there is nothing that will turn anyone else off of the recipes.
There are also several recipes that seem to be included for pure whimsy. My two favorites are Elvis' banana and peanut butter sandwich and the `turducken, a chicken, stuffed into a duck, which in turn is stuffed into a turkey. Thankfully, there is a company that does this feat for you, and Paula provides the web site for same. To think that just five years ago, this notion was totally unknown to the foodie nation. Just one of the things for which we have to be thankful to the Food Network (sic).
One caveat may be that Paula's style of cooking does not appeal to me as much as some others, such as the Mediterranean styles from Italy, France, Spain, and Morocco, and the Pennsylvania Dutch style. I am also not entirely pleased with some small aspects of her cooking, such as the use of self-raising flour. In spite of those personal tastes, I really think Paula has hit the nail on the head in putting together an excellent book on entertaining menus and recipes. Like Jamie Oliver, she succeeds more than many in communicating how good food can engender warm feelings `en familia'. I especially like her lower than average list price which, when discounted, will make buying her book almost painless, especially once you use one of her delightful menus.
I will also note that Paula could use a better copy editor. Her English usage and sentence structure are fine for talking in front of the camera, but they give the feeling of stumbling over words, especially prepositions, when you see them on the printed page. I also think she would have done well to cash in all the effort expended to create her `Paula's Pearl's of Wisdom' and `Brandon's Decorating Tips' for one more holiday. I think Halloween would have appreciated some attention from Savannah's own Ms. Deen!
 Did not make the cut for my southern shelf December 4, 2006
Myrna Minkoff (New Orleans, LA)
11 out of 28 found this review helpful
The recipes in this book are typical of Paula's tasty, but overly rich, and unhealthy style of cooking. I am not a health nut and do not wish to eliminate cream, butter, sugar, and bacon fat from my diet. But I do wish to use them judiciously rather than without restraint. It really is a no-brainer to cook something that tastes good using these sorts of ingredients with a heavy hand.
This book suffers from editorial carelessness. It is full of awkward, sometimes obscure, writing.
Anyone with an interest only in the food and not in the personality should be warned that this book devotes a lot of space to Paula and her family.
It did not seem worthy to me for inclusion in my considerable cookbook collection which includes numerous important southern cooks such as Edna Lewis, Bill Neal, James Villas, Frank Stitt, Patrick O'Connell, and others.
 I'm enjoying this book. Easy recipes! April 26, 2007
Lin (Puget Sound)
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
This book is full of very easy recipes to make.
I rated this book with a "4" rather than a "5" only because I wish Paula had added a few more color pictures. But other than that, it's a fun book to read and as stated earlier, the recipes are easy and fun to make.
I like the fact , especially, that the ingredients that Paula uses are easy to find. In other words, I don't have to travel all over the country looking for ingredients, when duplicating any of Paula's recipes---for this I give this book 5 Stars!
Also, her adorable personality comes through so nicely. (She writes like she talks--FUN STYLE,FUN LADY!).
PS: Please note that Paula loves butter. Those of us that watch her TV show know this, as she is very open about her "love of butter". So plz do expect that many of Paula's recipes include butter. However, if you are watching your weight and counting your fat intake, I would advise to just cut the butter portions ,and that Paula's recipes will still hold-up well.(I've tried this method and it works).
For those of you that love butter and are thin enough to be able to eat it often, then this cook-book will not alter your regular cooking style.
Either way I think that any cook will find this cookbook helpful!
Yet another "Hey Y'all" Paula Deen Must Have Cookbook March 2, 2007
Shannon L. Yarbrough (St. Louis, MO USA)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
Although this book shares a lot of the same recipes as Paula's last book, "Paula Deen and Friends," I bought it anyway because this one covers holidays and special occasions. Ever wanted to have a party like Cinco De Mayo, but had no idea what to serve besides chips and salsa? Then this is the perfect cookbook for you. Lots of new ideas and old favorites.
As always, Paula's recipes are simple and easy to understand, and just as easy to prepare. She is a cook that everyday Americans can relate to who uses ingredients that you probably already have in your pantry at home. This cookbook is a must have for the home entertainer!
True Paula Fan! December 6, 2006
B. Seidl (Georgia)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
After reading a previously posted review I am wondering why someone who isn't a Paula fan would even bother buying her book as that reviewer was definatley not a fan of Paula. For those of us who are TRUE Paula fans this book is another example of Paula giving us her true southern hospitality. Yes, there are recipes that come from her shows, but isn't that what a cookbook should do for any food network star? I mean unless you want to download the recipe each time you use it. There are also new versions of old favorites. But the point of the whole book is to use it as a menu planner for celebrations. Paula's personal history in the book only lets you get to know her more and gives personal insite on a woman who is so loved in the city of Savannah that if someone bad mouths her you are run out of town. So be warned those who wrote bad reviews...you won't be getting and best dishes, hugs and kisses from Paula any time soon with your cranky attitudes. Also, I have had the honor of meeting Paula in person on numerous occations and also being on her new show Paula's Party, what you see is what you get with her. She is warm and caring and her over the top way of doing things is just who she is, so if you want a boring food network star...go watch the Barefoot Contessa or Giada.
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