The holidays should be a time for fun and family, but the planning can be murderous. Let Emeril guide you through it and help you kick it up a notch in high Louisiana fashion. Equipped with New Orleans traditions and over 100 recipes,  Emeril's Creole Christmas  provides complete menus down to the shopping lists!  Emeril likes a party and at the holidays he kicks it up a notch, with food that impresses and satisfies Corn Cakes with Caviar, Brandied Baked Ham with Sugarcane Sauce, Funky Stuffed Oysters, and Chocolate Truffles are just a few of the recipes that will make your celebrations memorable. Emeril also makes a gift a lagniappe of his very favorite dishes such as Quail and Sausage Christmas Gumbo and Lobster Cheesecake. And there are the stocking stuffers gifts from the Creole kitchen including Emeril's Homemade Worcestershire Sauce, Buttercream Mints, and Cocoa Rum Balls. Filled with beautiful color photography to celebrate the season,  Emeril's Creole Christmas  will be a gift to give yourself as well as family and friends. The holidays should be a time for fun and family, but the planning can be murderous. Let Emeril guide you through it in high Louisiana fashion. Equipped with New Orleans traditions and over 100 recipes,  Emeril's Creole Christmas  provides complete menus down to the shopping lists, for a Christmas Eve dinner, Christmas Day brunch, and New Year's Eve and Day suppers. Emeril likes a party and at the holidays he kicks it up a notch, with food that impresses and satisfies--Corn Cakes with Caviar, Brandied Baked Ham with Sugarcane Sauce, Funky Stuffed Oysters, and Chocolate Truffles are just a few of the recipes that will make your celebrations memorable. Emeril also makes a gift--a lagniappe--of his very favorite dishes such as Quail and Sausage Christmas Gumbo and Lobster Cheesecake. And there are the stocking stuffers--gifts from the Creole kitchen--including Emeril's Homemade Worcestershire Sauce, Buttercream Mints, and Cocoa Rum Balls. Filled with beautiful color photography to celebrate the season,  Emeril's Creole Christmas  will be a gift to give yourself as well as family and friends. It's time to celebrate Christmas the Creole way: Corn Cakes with Caviar, Sugarcane Baked Ham with Spiced Apples and Pears, Jiffy Pop Firecracker Shrimp (yes, you do make it with popcorn)--these are the dishes guaranteed to make your holiday season festive. Your guide to this Creole Christmas is Emeril LaGasse, renowned chef and owner of several restaurants in New Orleans and Las Vegas, and also the host of two television cooking series, The Essence of Emeril and Emeril Live . In addition to great appetizers, entrées, and desserts, Emeril includes some terrific stocking stuffer ideas--everything from his Homemade Worcestershire Sauce to a delectable recipe for Orange Pralines that are so good you might just decide to keep them for yourself. And if the recipes themselves weren't mouthwatering enough, the book is studded with gorgeous color photographs guaranteed to send you running for the kitchen--or your travel agent. Spend Christmas in New Orleans with Emeril Lagasse and laissez les bon temps roulez! Here are three new cookbooks from popular restaurant chef-owners. Peel and Silverton are the husband-and-wife team behind Campanile, the popular Los Angeles restaurant, and its adjunct, the La Brea Bakery. Peel is the chef, Silverton is the baker, well known for her desserts and delicious breads (Breads from the La Brea Bakery, LJ 5/15/96). They've already written about the simple food they like to cook with their kids (Mark Peel and Nancy Silverton at Home, LJ 2/15/94); now they present their favorite dishes from the restaurant, including earthy, flavorful, often Mediterranean-inspired food that is more sophisticated but not pretentious: Roasted Chanterelle Salad, Crisp Flattened Chicken with Wilted Parsley Salad, Rustic Cherry Pie. Although some of the recipes take time, they are clearly written and thoroughly accessible to the home cook. Recommended for most collections. [BOMC Good Cook Selection.] New York City's three-star Gotham Bar & Grill is known for Portale's flavorful, often visually stunning food; his elaborate, tiered, stacked dishes are often described as "architectural food," and the color photographs in his cookbook show why. This is elegant food to be sure?Roast Lobster with Beet Couscous and Baby Bok Choy, Duck and Foie Gras?and some of it is probably better enjoyed at the restaurant, but not all the recipes are complicated or extravagant, and the instructions are clear and often include advance prep suggestions. The headnotes, however, are rather stiff and pedantic, sometimes sounding more like a publicity release than anything else. For area libraries and other collections where chefs' books are popular. Lagasse (Emeril's New New Orleans Cooking, LJ 3/15/93) is the exuberant chef at Emeril's and two other New Orleans restaurants and one of the TV Food Network's most popu