Martha's Holidays 2005 (The Holiday Collection)

Martha's Homemade Holidays begin with four amazing possibilities for Christmas dinner, including one for standing rib roast and Yorkshire pudding (the segment welcomes renowned chef Anne Willan), another for seafood salad (with calamari, mussels, and lobster), the third a baccala ravioli dish that could be too good to be true (both the seafood salad and ravioli come courtesy of chef Mario Batali), and the last a duck-and-pomegranate meal (by chef Dan Silverman) that thoughtfully reduces the fowl's typical fattiness. Desserts include the basics on making chocolate truffles and gingerbread people, while decorating hints accentuate the simple and colorful. A section on Hanukkah is devoted to making embossed bags full of candy, and a dish called zalabia that has its origins in 165 B.C.

Martha's New Year Celebration has loads of fun with appetizers, including a shrimp cocktail made simply and with good ingredients, and an antipasto platter that could feed a small army. The grilled curried shrimp looks irresistible, and there's a helpful chapter on bar snacks, including how to make fabulous-looking pretzel sticks with varied toppings. The "Party Drinks and Cocktails" section includes essential info on chilling champagne, but Martha also delights in concocting White Cosmopolitans (white cranberry juice and ice-cold vodka), Passion Fruit Champagne (pour the bubbly right over a spoonful of the fruit's pulp), and Snakebites (hard cider and ale). Lots of party fun for the whole family, including a confetti trick sure to delight, newspaper party hats, kids' bubble-jumping (a likely hit), and balloon decorating. --Tom Keogh