Happy Holidays

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Happy Holidays book cover images

December is the month of holidays from Hanukkah to Kwanzaa to Ōmisoka, the month is full. What they all have in common are festive celebrations full of family, fun, and food. Alachua County Library District has cookbooks, holiday decorating, and holiday gathering books, movies, and music CDs that are perfect for planning the holiday of your choice. Don’t forget there are other days to celebrate, such as Human Rights Day on Dec. 10. Or you could celebrate a literary holiday such as Jane Austen's birthday on Dec. 16. December is also Read a New Book Month. Why not try an Austen novel you've never read, a book about human rights, or use NoveList Plus to find your next great new read? Enjoy the books below for ideas on how to celebrate the holidays in style.

Vegan Holiday Cooking From Candle Cafe

by
Joy Pierson

The first vegan holiday cookbook from professional chefs, this gorgeous book elevates plant-based fare to a new level with fresh, inventive recipes that blend favorite traditions with a modern sensibility. When families come together for holidays and celebrations throughout the year, the need to accommodate vegans often arises. This book presents special-occasion favorites from acclaimed vegan restaurants Candle Cafe and Candle 79 tailored for the home table, including mains, sides, and wine and cocktail pairings. Rather than ho-hum meat-free alternatives, this book's menus and recipes are a festive indulgence. With dishes like Sweet Potato Latkes with Almond Creme Fraiche for Passover and Pumpkin Seed Crusted Tempeh with Oven Roasted Ginger-Maple Sweet Potato & Orange-Cranberry Relish for Thanksgiving, home cooks will be able to wow vegans and omnivores alike.

Holiday Cheer: Festive Inspirations for Your Best Season Ever

by
Good Housekeeping

Roast Turkey with Wild Mushroom Gravy. Apple Cider Braised Greens. Peppermint-Chocolate Layer Cake. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Get ready for festive entertaining and fun with more than 100 fabulous holiday recipes and more from Good HousekeepingCountry Living, and Redbook. These delectable suppers and treats, dazzling decorations, and delightful gifts to craft will bring a homemade yuletide touch to your home and family.

Modern Jewish Comfort Food: 100 Fresh Recipes For Classic Dishes From Kugel to Kreplach

by
Shannon Sarna

A satisfying collection of Jewish comfort food with classic dishes and modern variations. Comfort food varies from person to person, family to family, region to region. As the author of Modern Jewish Baker and editor of The Nosher, Shannon Sarna has always wanted to tell the story of the Jewish people through food and continues to do so here in her latest book. Modern Jewish Comfort Food showcases recipes and variations that have shaped Jewish cuisine from around the world--including immigration waves from Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, New York City, and beyond. Sarna shares many traditional dishes, and then provides exciting variations that will bring heartwarming comfort to the home kitchen. Her Basic Tomato & Pepper Shakshuka is cleverly interpreted into a deep-dish pizza; Classic Potato Latkes invite vegetable-focused variations such as Beet & Carrot and Summer Corn Zucchini, and a multitude of dumplings reflect the range of the Jewish diaspora. Sweets include two kinds of Israeli-Style Yeasted Rugelach, Funfetti Macaroons, and more, ready to complete the holiday dessert table. Modern Jewish Comfort Food will inspire home cooks to connect to Jewish foodways and explore the history of this diverse cuisine.

Cooking From the Spirit

by
Tabitha Brown

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Feeding the Soul, presents her first cookbook-full of easy, family-friendly vegan recipes and stories from the spirit, inspired by her health journey and love of delicious food.

The Instant Pot Holiday Cookbook: 100 Festive Recipes to Celebrate the Season

by
Heather Schlueter

Make holidays simpler and more delicious with these 100 celebratory Instant Pot® recipes! 
 
Holidays can be busy and stressful—but fortunately, your Instant Pot® can make preparing that special meal for family and friends so much easier. This official cookbook features 100 fabulous recipes for Thanksgiving and Christmas, along with an introduction full of tips and advice on using this must-have appliance. It goes from festive beginnings, such as appetizers, first courses, and welcoming drinks, to showstopping entrees, side dishes, dressings, and desserts. Plus, there’s a dedicated chapter for leftover makeovers! You’ll even find ideas for gifts from the kitchen that everyone will love.

Japanese Soul Cooking: Ramen, Tonkatsu, Tempura, and More from the Streets and Kitchens of Tokyo and Beyond

by
Tadashi Ono

A collection of more than 100 recipes that introduces Japanese comfort food to American home cooks, exploring new ingredients, techniques, and the surprising origins of popular dishes like gyoza and tempura. 

Move over, sushi.

It’s time for gyoza, curry, tonkatsu, and furai. These icons of Japanese comfort food cooking are the dishes you’ll find in every kitchen and street corner hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Japan—the hearty, flavor-packed dishes that everyone in Japan, from school kids to grandmas, craves.

In Japanese Soul Cooking, Tadashi Ono and Harris Salat introduce you to this irresistible, homey style of cooking. As you explore the range of exciting, satisfying fare, you may recognize some familiar favorites, such as ramen, soba, udon, and tempura. Others are lesser-known Japanese classics—such as wafu pasta (spaghetti with bold, fragrant toppings like miso meat sauce), tatsuta-age (fried chicken marinated in garlic, ginger, and other Japanese seasonings), and savory omelets with crabmeat and shiitake mushrooms—that will instantly become standards in your kitchen as well. With foolproof instructions and step-by-step photographs, you’ll soon be knocking out chahan fried rice, mentaiko spaghetti, saikoro steak, and more for friends and family.

Ono and Salat’s fascinating exploration of the surprising origins and global influences behind popular dishes is accompanied by rich location photography that captures the energy and essence of this food in everyday Japanese life, bringing beloved Japanese comfort food to Western home cooks for the first time.

Black Food

by
Bryant Terry

A beautiful, rich, and groundbreaking book exploring Black foodways within America and around the world, curated by food activist and author of Vegetable Kingdom Bryant Terry.

The Superfun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook: Entertaining for Absolutely Every Occasion

by
Isa Chandra Moskowitz

Bestselling author, vegan goddess, and comfort food queen Isa Chandra Moskowitz is back with her biggest book ever -- to prove that making festive vegan food for any occasion can be easy, delicious, and super fun.

Gone are the days of stressing over how to please family and friends with different dietary needs. Bursting with knock-your-socks-off, mind-bogglingly tasty vegan recipes for Cinnamon Apple Crepes, Cheeseburger Pizza, Biscuits and Gravy, Churro Biscotti, and so much more, The Superfun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook will make everyone at your table happy-even meat eaters and the gluten challenged.

Isa provides everything you need to get your party started, from finger food and appetizers to casseroles, roasts, and dozens of special sides. Then comes a throng of cakes, cookies, cobblers, loaves, pies, and frozen treats to make you feel like the best dang vegan cook in the world.

You'll start with New Year's, stop for Valentine's Day on the way to Easter and Passover, party down from Cinco de Mayo through the Fourth of July, and cook through Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and Christmas. And with more than 250 seasonal recipes, you'll mix, match, and remix for every celebration in between -- filling your life with holiday cheer the whole year round.

Soul Food Love

by
Alice Randall

Concerned about her own health, Randall turned to her daughter for help. Together they overhauled the way they cook and eat, translating recipes and traditions handed down by generations of black women into easy, affordable, and healthful-- yet still indulgent-- dishes. In exploring their family history, they also explore the often fraught relationship African-American women have had with food, and forge a powerful new way forward that honors their cultural and culinary heritage.

Fix-it and Forget-it Holiday Favorites: 150 Easy and Delicious Slow Cooker Recipes

by
Hope Comerford

What if you could prepare holiday feasts for friends and family without spending hours in the kitchen? Now you can. Take your slow cooker out of the pantry and put away the stress of holiday cooking and baking this year. Here are 150 slow cooker recipes that will wow your guests and free you up to spend quality time with loved ones. From Sweet Potato Stuffing to Raspberry Glazed Ham, Slow Cooker Turkey and Stuffing to Pear Butter, there are recipes here to indulge every palate and gorgeous full-color photographs to inspire any menu planner. Phyllis Good is beloved for providing recipes that are simple and made with ingredients you can find easily—if you don't already have them in your cupboard. Who has time to search for obscure, gourmet ingredients around the holidays? Holiday cooking has never been easier—or more delicious. Learn what size slow cooker to purchase, discover tips for easy prep and cleanup, and find scrumptious recipes such as: Dried Cranberry Pudding, Holiday Wild Rice, Christmas Apple Date Pudding, Pork Roast with Applesauce, Cheesy Sausage Dip, Gingerbread Pudding Cake, and many more!

Let's Make Ramen

by
Hugh Amano

A comic book cookbook with accessible ramen recipes for the home cook, including simple weeknight bowls, weekend project stocks, homemade noodles, and an array of delicious accompaniments, with insights and tips from notable ramen luminaries.

Homemade Holiday: Craft Your Way Through More Than 40 Festive Projects

by
Sophie Pester

Bring the magic of a handmade Christmas into your home with 40 projects for gifts, decorations, and homemade wrapping paper.

Save time and money with the festive craft projects in Homemade Holiday. Clear, step-by-step instructions guide readers to create fresh flower garlands, bake edible gift tags, make homemade bath salts, and paint authentic tree ornaments. With last-minute ideas and lots of inspiration, this book will help you wrap up gift-giving and decorating for the holiday season.

Crafts for Kwanzaa

by
Kathy Ross

Symbols of the African-American holiday of Kwanzaa-including harvest fruits and vegetables, the Kwanzaa cup and candles, and the mkeka mat-are the basis of many of the twenty projects in this unique book. Guided by colorful illustrations and using materials that are readily available, even young children will be able to make these easy crafts for a Kwanzaa celebration that is truly special

Wild + Free Holidays: 35 Festive Family Activities to Make the Season Bright

by
Ainsley Arment

Wild + Free Holidays is a great resource for parents to engage their kids’ creativity using festive, holiday-themed crafts, outdoor activities, and essays that celebrate the warmth of the season. Curated by Wild + Free families around the world, this full-color book is filled with creative and intellectually stimulating ideas and hands-on activities parents, educators, and caregivers can use to nurture their child’s curious spirit and imagination. With step-by-step instructions, lush photography, and family-tested and kid-approved activities, Wild + Free Holidays is a valuable guide to helping children spark wonder in the most wonderful season of the year.

Hanukkah

by
Julie Murray

Provides information about Hanukkah, explaining what it is, how it began, and how it is celebrated.

Cultural Traditions in Japan

by
Lynn Peppas

This book describes the different traditions and festivals celebrated in Japan today and how they are influenced by a love of art, nature, beauty, and ritual. Young readers will also learn how the Japanese people celebrate family occasions.

Holiday Inn

A song and dance man leaves showbiz to run an inn that is open only on holidays. A former partner joins him and the two find themselves competing for the affection of the same lovely lady.

Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire sing and dance their way into your heart in the sensational musical comedy Holiday Inn. Nominated for three Academy Awards, this special edition features 13 holiday songs by famed composer Irving Berlin, including "White Christmas" – one of the biggest-selling recordings in music history!

Double Holiday

by
Hallmark

Career-minded Rebecca's plans for Hanukkah don't go as expected when a promotion opportunity comes up at work. When the company CEO asks Rebecca and her insufferable office mate, Chris, also her main competitor for the promotion, to plan the company's Christmas party, she realizes they must overcome their opposing styles to succeed. Forced to work together on the party, Chris learns more about Rebecca and embraces her family's Hanukkah traditions, while she also begins to see him in a new light.

A Legendary Christmas

by
John Legend

Contents: What Christmas Means to Me (featuring Stevie Wonder, harmonica) -- Silver Bells -- Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (featuring Esperanza Spalding) -- No Place Like Home -- Bring Me Love -- Merry Christmas Baby / Give Love on Christmas Day -- Christmas Time is Here -- Waiting for Christmas -- Purple Snowflakes -- The Christmas Song -- Please Come Home for Christmas -- Wrap Me Up in Your Love -- By Christmas Eve -- Merry Merry Christmas.

It's the Holiday Season

by
Martina McBride

Contents: Santa Claus is Coming to Town -- Most Wonderful Time of the Year -- Winter Wonderland -- It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas -- Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer -- Happy Holiday / It's the Holiday Season -- Home for the Holidays -- Frosty the Snowman -- My Favorite Things.

Descriptions adapted from the publisher
By CarolineH on December 13, 2022