Description:
As host of her own Lifetime TV show, Katie Brown provides easy and affordable advice on casual entertaining. Her Katie Brown Entertains offers readers 16 menus for as many occasions, plus table décor and other party projects, including invitations, centerpieces, and favors. Thus, for example, Lone Star: A Fourth of July Celebration offers easy recipes for such dishes as Skillet Corn Bread with Jalapeño and Pecans, plus instructions for projects like branded wooden place mats and napkin rings with a Stars and Stripes motif. Readers who enjoy craftwork in the service of homey entertaining plus basic yet winning recipes should welcome the book. Events are themed and include, in addition to the above, Kitchen Garden Lunch for Four, Book Club Dinner, and It's All About You: A Birthday Dinner for Six. Projects range from the simple, such as Spoon Soap Place Cards--you write guests names on wooden spoons and tie them to Mason jars containing glycerin soap--to the more ambitious, such as Stamp It, for which readers create rubber stamps (from computer mousepads) to decorate the sides of the dining table. If Brown's recipes confusingly list ingredients before giving quantities needed (as in, "celery: 1-1/2 cups, diced 1/2 inch"), instructions for both the dishes and the projects are clear and easy to follow. With anecdotal introductions to the projects and fully photo-illustrated features, the book should keep many hands busy and many guests happy with the work and food produced. --Arthur Boehm
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