This is also one of those books that needs to be perused during the year as well, not just at Christmas. Another simple recipe with only three ingredients: "Party Parma Ham Bundles"--prosciutto is wrapped around bite-sized morsels of goat's cheese and figs. Just in time for Christmas, Nigella Lawson has brought us a wonderful Christmas gift in her new cookbook Nigella Christmas. The chapter on desserts (titled “Joy to the World”–if I wasn’t hooked already, this would have done it) includes recipes for a yule log, fruitcakes, and mini minced pies.

It includes everything from scrumptious Christmas cakes and puddings, to quick and easy homemade presents (biscuits, preserves and other standbys) and edible tree-decorations, recipes for feeding friends and family over the holiday season with minimum stress and maximum enjoyment (cook and freeze ahead or slow-cook in the oven), as well as Christmas party food and drinks.If you feel in need of some real seasoning this holiday, then get this book for yourself, well in advance of Christmas. It is a very dense and dark cake - almost like the texture and consistency of a chocolate brownie inside. Everybody else should just go to the library, check this out, and spend a pleasant afternoon (preferably one in July) drooling and dreaming (Lawson's accompanying essays are quite charming). Some fun ideas for food gifts, a nice tone about holiday prep, and some nice menus, with one nod to a vegetarian dish and a couple gluten free.

In true Nigella style, Kitchen is about the food we eat now, the way we eat and live today; feel-good food from the most important room in the house. I love listening to Nigella Lawson when she is an occasional guest on NPR; I imagine many tv-watching cooks enjoy her program on the Food Network as well. My mother always served her Brussels Sprouts with a lot of buttered chestnuts (and cooked and peeled her own). However it scores highly on being incredibly easy to make and it tasted like a mature Christmas cake without any maturing! This was indeed quite easy to make in advance of the big day and it kept well wrapped in baking parchment and tin foil in a baking tin, as instructed by Nigella.The "Three Seasonal Salads" with their unique and colorful uses of ravishing red fruits and vegetables make you want to take your fork to the page. I loved the sound of this but actually found the cointreau overpowered the drink and couldn't really taste the Earl Grey. My only negative was that the vinegar flavor is quite strong but it's not so pronounced when eating it with other foods.

CookbookCorner, as you know, usually features just one book and one recipe, but — to celebrate seasonal abundance — I bring you a special Christmas CookbookCorner, with a pick of 6 books and 11 recipes! The cake itself was very moist and although the chocolate flavour wasn't overwhelming, it left a nice aftertaste and added an extra dimension.Nigella states that while she "can't fashion wreaths or fold napkins", she does have a knack for making relishes and chutneys.