Friday, December 4, 2015

TLC Book Tours Book Review: An Old Fashioned Christmas

About An Old-Fashioned Christmas: Sweet Traditions for Hearth and Home

  • Hardcover: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Countryman Press; 1 edition (November 2, 2015)
With its snowy streets, pine forests, sleigh rides and woodsmoke curling from the chimneys, Vermont was practically invented for the Christmas postcard. And no one celebrates the season better than Ellen Stimson, author of the best-selling Mud Season, and now the author and home cook behind this cozy new collection of holiday magic.
From warm drinks for the first snowfall to treats for furry friends, from indulgent snacks for carolers to a traditional menu for Christmas day, An Old-Fashioned Christmas will keep you and your loved ones eating, drinking, laughing and baking all through the holiday season.
Anyone who loved Mud Season will remember Stimson’s hilarious and heartwarming stories of life in her small Vermont town—and An Old-Fashioned Christmas brings her trademark touch to holiday memories new and old. Readers will be inspired to begin their own family traditions like the Stimsons’ annual Christmas Adventure, the collection of nostalgic tree ornaments, and of course, the legendary Christmas party attended by friends and family from all over. This is a book you will return to year after year.
A guide to celebrating Christmas in proper Vermont style—from sleigh rides to country stores—rounds out this deeply personal and completely delicious collection. The 98 homey recipes in this book will soon become annual favorites for your family too, including:
Maple Pecan Cookies
Root Beer Pulled Pork
Maple, Fennel, Sausage and Cheddar Meatballs
Chestnut Mousse
“I’ve been a little uneasy about Christmas for a long time and now I shall stop. ‘A festival of debauchery’. I like that idea. A big party. Cut out the stuff you don’t enjoy. And a whole raft of stimulating recipes. And a good snowstorm. Wonderful——Garrison Keillor
Add to Goodreads badge
Purchase Links
Amazon | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble
Review: I absolutely love this book. This isn't the type of book you read cover to cover. It is the type you flip through when you have a few minutes. Its a mixture of stories and recipes and all sorts of wonderful things.  Its not quite a coffee table book and its not quite a cookbook. It really is somewhere in between, and that place is a wonderful somewhere.

Oh and I have to gush about the cover. This is actually one of my dreams, to be pulled in a horse drawn carriage at Christmas. Yup that's a bucket list cover for me.

The Maple Pecan cookies are on my to bake list this year and I took her advice the last time I made mashed potatoes too. Yukon Gold and butter and you don't even have to take the skins off the taters! Yummo!

I was reminded of a fictional book in Sheila Robert's Christmas On Candy Cane Lane. It was a book on how to make a perfect Christmas. I can almost see this being one such book. Actually this book can be a guideline for making your own Christmas memories.

I loved the stories Ellen shares here, particularly about her deviled eggs and the story about their dog. But for me, the best part are the recipes and the pictures of the food. (I'm not a fat girl for nothing...I love food).

This is the type of book you can revisit all through the holiday or winter months or anytime you feel the need to feel Christmasy.

Rating: 5 flowers





1 comments:

Heather J @ TLC Book Tours said...

I love books like this that include stories and recipes in such a readable format. This is a book I'd love to have out to browse around the holidays.

Thanks for being a part of the tour!

 
Blog Design by Use Your Imagination Designs using images from the Tea Time kit and the Saturday Night kit by MK-Designs