The smell of pumpkin pie and roasting turkey on Christmas morning.  The scent of cinnamon buns mingling with the pine from the tree. The heavenly aroma of French vanilla mingling with the tangy scent of cranberry and orange. Would you like to recreate these memories with your holiday cooking? There are great cookbooks and blogs out there just waiting to spice up your holiday menu.

Reader’s Digest’s Marialisa Calta sums it up this way:

Even people who happily protest that they don't cook, cook during the holidays. Maybe it's the memory of Nonna's panettone, or an attempt to recreate Mom's latkes that does it, but sooner or later even the most recalcitrant cook will don an apron in celebration of the holidays.

Publishers understand this, so each fall a new crop of brightly colored holiday cookbooks appear for the December harvest. Some concentrate on party menus, some on baked goods, some on craftsy projects designed to satisfy one's inner Martha Stewart. Many are filled with unmemorable recipes, with photographs of small blond children wearing reindeer-patterned sweaters and gamboling in the snow, and with overwrought prose on the meaning of the season. But some are keepers, becoming as much a part of a holiday tradition as, say, eggnog, or the annual fight between spouses trying to string lights on a tree. ---Read her suggestions here.

Well known cookbook author Delia Smith shares some wonderful Christmas pudding recipes on her site.  Martha Stewart shares her holiday secrets in her cookbook.

Bella Online Cookbooks

Katie and Company

Seeds of Knowledge Kitchen

Holiday Cooking Blogs

From Our Home to Yours blog

Robust Holiday Cooking

Linda Sue's Low Carb Recipes

A special treat from Linda Sue's website:

JOSIE'S CREAMY EGG CUSTARD

4 eggs
2 cups Carb Countdown milk or heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup granular Splenda or equivalent liquid Splenda
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg or cinnamon

Whisk all of the ingredients, except the nutmeg or cinnamon well; strain into a shallow baking dish. Set the dish in a larger pan filled with water to go up side of dish 1 inch. Bake at 325º 45-60 minutes or until set. Chill well before serving and sprinkle each serving with nutmeg or cinnamon.

Makes 4 servings
Do not freeze

Made with Carb Countdown milk:
With granular Splenda:
Per Serving: 155 Calories; 9g Fat; 12g Protein; 6g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 6g Net Carbs

With liquid Splenda:
Per Serving: 143 Calories; 9g Fat; 12g Protein; 3g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 3g Net Carbs

Made with heavy cream:
With granular Splenda:
Per Serving: 501 Calories; 49g Fat; 9g Protein; 7g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 7g Net Carbs

With liquid Splenda:
Per Serving: 489 Calories; 49g Fat; 9g Protein; 4g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 4g Net Carbs

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For more info:  Contact Robin at Bookandblog@yahoo.com