Holiday Cooking - General & Miscellaneous, Holidays (Non-Religious) - Social Sciences

The Festive Table

Name: The Festive Table
Author: Ronni Lundy
ISBN: 9780865474925

by Ronni Lundy

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Overview

In this deliciously readable book, Ronni Lundy talks to people across the country who have come up with new ways to celebrate, whether they are continuing old traditions with a new twist, as in Chinese-inspired Rosh Hashanah, or making up traditions from scratch, as in a hotdish potluck to beat the winter doldrums. Lundy takes readers through the highlights of the year and an enormous range of cuisines, from a New Year’s tamale-making party in El Paso and a Chicago-style Polish Easter to a classic soul-food supper for Juneteenth and a Fourth of July Baltimore-style crab feast. Her mouth-watering recipes include smoked turkey empanadas with cilantro-coconut chutney, green tomato-corn soup, and peppermint ice cream.

Full of enthusiastic cooks and eaters, food lore, and holiday stories, The Festive Table provides inspiration for renewing celebrations in and out of the kitchen.

A delicious holiday sampler, covering everything from a Cajun Thanksgiving to a vegetarian Passover and a Mexican New Year, The Festive Table will inspire cooks to reexamine and renew their own celebrations in and out of the kitchen. More than 125 recipes.

About the Author, Ronni Lundy

Richard Manning is the author of Last Stand, A Good House, Grassland, and One Round River. He lives in Montana.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Suggesting that holiday tradition is what one makes of it, Lundy (Shuck Beans, Stack Cakes and Honest Fried Chicken) promotes the concept of adding one's own dimension to holiday fare. In the chatty text accompanying this collection of menus and recipes, she writes of friends who have improvised on family celebrations for festive meals, leading to some innovative and unusual twists for such holidays as Passover, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Kwanzaa and lesser-known ones to Americans such as Persian New Year. She offers a Chicken Soup with Tangerine-Zest Wontons for Rosh Hashanah, Blessed Salmon stuffed (with artichoke hearts, scallions, mushrooms and herbs) and grilled for Easter and Cajun Roast Pork with Eggplant-Rice Dressing for Thanksgiving. This paean to holiday meals as social celebrations featuring people from different cultures and customs is a pleasure to read. As they are intended to, the recipes, although sometimes of uneven quality (e.g., the size of eggs to use is sometimes stipulated, sometimes not), are likely to spark readers to try variations of their own. (Oct.)

Library Journal

Intrigued by the idea of how the changing concept of the family must be affecting the way holidays are celebrated, Lundy interviewed people around the country to find out what new or old traditions are important to them. A food columnist and cookbook author, she describes different approaches to Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July, religious celebrations, newer holidays like Kwanzaa, and such events as The Hotdish Doldrums Dance. Lundy writes well, and the recipes-from the people she talked to and her own files-are good and eclectic. A tamale party for New Year's Eve offers Green-Chile Cornbread, Fiery Guacamole, and lots of tamales; there's both a Cajun Thanksgiving and a vegetarian one; a midsummer "Pig Party" serves not only roast pig but also Jerk Chicken, Tropical Shrimp, and three kinds of ice cream for a real feast. Entertaining reading with lots of mouth-watering recipes, this is recommended for most collections.