My Mother's Southern Entertaining [Hardcover]

I have all three of Martha Pearl's cookbooks, including this latest, and I love them all. She's witty, she's opinionated, and she's sometimes hilariously dictatorial ("Don't be uppity about using canned salmon if you don't have fresh .... You really can't tell the difference" in this molded salad.) Martha Pearl's got some seventy years of experience giving parties, and y'all can tell she knows how to throw a party, southern-style! The recipes are very practically organized into complete (and I mean complete!) menus, each comprising seven or eight items, from the pre-dinner drinks and punches all the way to the desserts. Each menu makes for a lavish spread of elegantly simple foods that are just delicious. I have never tried a Martha Pearl recipe that wasn't utterly delectable. In addition to the customary holiday celebrations throughout the year, for which this book offers a wealth of good recipes and fresh ideas for entertaining, this book inspires me to want to give parties I never thought of before, like a Spend-the-Day Fruitcake Party (y'all bring your own dried and candied fruits to snip and soak, and luncheon will be served while y'all take a break at some point); a Gumbo Night; an After-Shopping Brunch (any excuse to throw a party!); a Tots' Jingle-Bell Party; etc. Martha Pearl's evident love for giving a good party is contagious. Having her recipes and party-planning tips is like having her in the kitchen with me, and she's like everyone's favorite grandmother: inspiring, dependable, and just delightful. If Martha Pearl comes out with a fourth cookbook, I'll have to have it!

Since my mother was from Connecticut and my father from Mississippi, they wisely decided to settle in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, as a cultural compromise with which both could live. Mother's New England basic cooking was good, but she often wished to be able to cook like her Southern sisters-in-law (until she would return from a visit South and discover a slightly wider waistline).

Regardless of whether you live in the North, South, East, or West, however, these are wonderful recipes that produce delicious food without the host having to hunt for exotic and expensive ingrediants.

More importantly, however, this book shows how good home-style cooking can re-connect neighbors in a community, something that modern culture sadly lacks. The format of the menu ideas for reaching out to others is inspirational, and could do a lot to bring folks together who have let frenetic life-styles erode relationships with family and friends.

Not only a GREAT cookbook, but one that demonstrates Christian love in action (Episcopal style). My warmest compliments to the Villas; I hope they read all these great reviews. (And don't worry about your waist-line--just take smaller portions and savor every bite.)

I have the other books she wrote and love her southern recipes and the great stories that are told about each one. Being a Southern gal myself, I so enjoy the recipes of my childhood. I have recommonded this book to many of my friends. Her books I go back to time and time again. And so far nothing I have made hasn't just melted in my families mouth.