Deen - Paula Deen Celebrates!

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eBookNews.SimonandSchuster.com ALSO BY PAULA DEENPaula Deen & Friends: Living It Up, Southern Style (with Martha Nesbit) The Lady & Sons Just DessertsThe Lady & Sons, Too!: A Whole New Batch of Recipes from SavannahThe Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cookbook SIMON & SCHUSTER
Rockefeller Center
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www.SimonandSchuster.com Copyright 2006 by Paula Deen
Photographs 2006 by Alan Richardson
All rights reserved,
including the right of reproduction
in whole or in part in any form. Photographers Assistant: Roy Galaday
Food Stylist: Michael Pederson
Assistant: Susan Vajaranant
Prop Stylist: Debrah E. Donahue
Assistant: Jayne Altaffer S IMON & S CHUSTER and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc. cm.
1. cm.
1.

Holiday cookery. 2. Menus. I. Nesbit, Martha Giddens. II.

Title.
TX739.D44 2006 641.568dc22 2006050457 ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-7811-9
ISBN-10: 0-7432-7811-9
ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-8856-6 (eBook) Anthony, Michael, Paula, Jamie, Bobby, Michelle. This is to my whole familymy old and my new family.
To my old family, thank you for your unwavering love and support. To my new family, thank you for embracing me and my family, allowing us to become one.

First, I would like to acknowledge my cookbook collaborator, Martha Nesbit, who has helped me translate my family favorites into recipes that can be enjoyed by others. Thanks to Brandon Branch, my personal assistant, for sharing his ideas for decorating for my celebrations, and to executive assistant Theresa Luckey and personal assistant Michelle White for handling all of the details of my professional life, as well as for assisting in the details of my personal life! Thanks to Russell Keutcher, merchandise manager for The Lady & Sons, who worked with Martha to get all of the old photos identified and sent to New York. Thanks to my agent, Barry Weiner, for believing in me, and my literary agent, Janis Donnaud, for her literary expertise. Once the cookbook is sent to New York, a whole bunch of folks take over up theremost important, our editor, Sydny Miner, who is just the smartest, nicest editor anyone could ever have.

Helping Sydny was her assistant for most of the book, Sarah Hochman, who has just been promoted (congratulations, Sarah!). Also, Jackie Seow, the art director; the people who contributed to the photo shoot for the inserts: photographer Alan Richardson (he also shot the jacket), photographers assistant Roy Galaday, food stylist Michael Pederson, assistant food stylist Susan Vajaranant, prop stylist Debrah E. Donahue, and Debrahs assistant, Jayne Altaffer. Also, designer Ellen Sasahara, production editor Sybil Pincus, copy editor Suzanne Fass, production manager Michelle Lomuscio, publicists Tracey Guest and Alexis Welby publisher David Rosenthal, associate publishers Aileen Boyle and Deborah Darrock, president Carolyn Reidy and CEO Jack Romanos. Thank you, friends and family, including my restaurant family, for your patience.

Paula Deen Celebrates!Hey, yall! In my last cookbook, Paula Deen & Friends, I introduced yall to a few of my girlfriends because I wanted them to share with yall how they put together menus for entertaining. Paula Deen Celebrates!Hey, yall! In my last cookbook, Paula Deen & Friends, I introduced yall to a few of my girlfriends because I wanted them to share with yall how they put together menus for entertaining.

In this book, I want to share with yall how I celebrate holidays and special occasions at my house along with my family. I need to tell ya up front that my first preference for entertaining is definitely casual, but thats not to say that when the old girl has to, she cant put on the dog. When Michael and I were planning our dream house on Turners Creek, on Wilmington Island near Savannah, we wanted our home to be inviting. I wanted all my guests to feel like they were being embraced when they came in. I really love large rooms, and fewer of them, rather than a lot of smaller rooms. Our downstairs consists of our master bedroom and bathroom and walk-in closet, a laundry room, a living room, a morning room, a foyer, and a huge kitchen that has two farmhouse tables in it.

At one end is an antique table that seats twelve people; at the other end is a small table that seats four people. Michael and I sit at the smaller table when its just the two of us, and when we have family and friends in, we go to the long table. When Michael and I were building our kitchen, there were a few things that we just didnt want to do without. I had become so accustomed to commercial deep fryers in the restaurants that I felt like I just couldnt have a kitchen without one of those. I also felt like I couldnt cook without a convection oven like the ones we used in the restaurants. So, into my kitchen went two commercial piecesthe big convection oven and the deep fryer.

I have a five-burner drop-in cooktop on my island, and then under the ventihood, I have another four burners, and two ovens and a double-size griddle for when I have the family over and Im making pancakes or grilling sandwiches. So, I have really made my kitchen very user-friendly, and the way my kitchen is set up, a lot of us can get in there at the same time and were not stepping on each other. Outside, we have Michaels smokehousereally an open-air kitchen. Its got all of his barbecue grills, and a long counter for holding lots of food and lots of dishes. We like to throw Low-Country boils there, and barbecue our chickens, grill briskets, cook steak, and smoke ribs. We always like company around us because weve found its easier to cook for a crowd than to cook for just the two of us.

Inside or out, I love to celebrate with family and friends and just stand around and chitchat and cook. And theres just nothing like cookin and eatin out by that water. It just gives you a huge appetite. The important thing to me about this new book was the recipe selections. I didnt want yall to feel like you were seeing recipes that you had seen over and over and over again. Of course youll find my favorites, but at the same time I wanted to give yall fresh, new recipes to add to your files.

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