Paula Deen Celebrates!: Best Dishes and Best Wishes for the Best Times of Your Life 
asked by alexis on November 29, 2006 4:54 AM
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 Etouffé, 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
Reviews
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As a long time fan of Paula Deen, I was looking forward to another wonderful cookbook. Not so for this one. It has repeat recipes and if you're a regular of her show, many of the recipes have been on the show. It has wonderful family stories, (which I don't need for a cookbook), and the layout and red font color is not cook friendly. Overall, it was not what I would have expected in a Paula Deen cookbook and therefore I rate this one a big flop! How many times can you publish gooey butter recipes?
reviewed by scoobie on November 29, 2006 5:03 PM
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`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!
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!
reviewed by glassysurf on November 29, 2006 6:49 PM
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Although a important part of the this book are the recipes, decorating and serving ideas are very inspiring. With the help of Paula Deen, you can make the most informal meal a special one. Get the book and stop just eating - start dining and entertaining.
reviewed by nat on November 29, 2006 7:00 PM