An Old-Fashioned Christmas by Ellen Stimson
Sweet Traditions for Hearth and Home
About the Book
Genre: Cooking / Memoir
Publisher: Countryman Press | Nov 2015
Format: Hardcover | 288 pages
Rating: 5 of 5
With its trademark snow, piney forests, sleigh rides and wood smoke curling out of village chimneys, New England was practically invented for the Christmas postcard. It’s got your Christmas goose and the maple syrup with which to glaze it. It’s most of the reason author Ellen Stimson made Vermont her home. Here she shares recipes that have been in her family for generations, mixes up a cocktail or two, and invites readers to make their own traditions.
Part memoir, part cookbook, An Old-Fashioned Christmas is filled with food, fun, and holiday memories from the Stimson family. It’s all tied together with gorgeous photos not only of the food, but also the holiday decorations and beautiful Vermont scenery.
The author has included dozens of her own family recipes: Some simple and some a little more challenging (for me anyway) and many accompanied by color photos of the final dish. Recipes for Loaded Mashed Potatoes, Deviled Eggs, and Apricot Horns are calling out to me to be added to the Thanksgiving Day menu. A few dishes I am looking forward to trying are Decadent Mac ‘n’ Cheese, Root Beer Pulled Pork, and Buttermilk Fried Chicken. There is much comfort food here, not only for the holidays, but throughout the cold northern winter.
This is much more than just a recipe book. It’s about family and traditions – celebrating old ones and making new ones. I especially enjoyed the seeing the photos of the family’s Christmas ornaments featured in each chapter and reading the stories behind them.
This is a book to treasure and one that I will be referring back to again and again.
About the Author
Ellen Stimson is a bread-and-butter homecook…possibly more butter than bread. Her table is usually overflowing with friends, family, and folks who have come just to listen to her stories. Some of those tales made it into her bestselling memoir, Mud Season. She cooks and writes from a farmhouse in Vermont.
For More Info:
Goodreads | Author’s Webpage | Facebook | Twitter
Giveaway – US and Canada
Thanks to the publisher, I have one copy of An Old Fashioned Christmas to give away to a reader with a mailing address in the US or Canada. To enter, fill out the form below on or before November 21st. I will draw a random winner who will be notified by email.
For a bonus entry, leave a comment telling me about a favorite holiday recipe or tradition.
[Giveaway has ended]
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For a list of tour stops click HERE.
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Source: Review copy from TLC Book Tours
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Under My Apple Tree 
That book sounds wonderful! I’d like to try the root beer pulled pork. Each member of our family gets to pick one dish – no matter how elaborate or simple – for our holiday dinner.
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My favorite tradition as a child was to go around town looking at all the big Christmas light displays. I still enjoy that today.
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Love christmas and cookbooks, this is a book I could read over and over again. ty
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The book sounds wonderful! It’s difficult to choose one favorite tradition, but one of my favorites is decorating the tree, and then enjoying it in quiet moments.
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This book embodies everything that I love most about Christmas – family times, food, and traditions. I love it!
Thanks for being a part of the tour.
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My favorite holiday tradition and recipe is apple cake as a wonderful treat and latkes with roasted veggies.
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Our tradition for Thanksgiving and Christmas is to have way too many dishes to choose from — yes, that means mounds of leftovers, but we like being able to have tons of sample dishes on our plates. I try to make one new dish each year — some make a reappearance and some do not.
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