Martha Giddens Nesbit provides a contemporary take on Savannah food and parties with a casual appeal. Photographed in and around beautiful historic and modern homes in the city and at Tybee Beach, these great party dishes enhance traditional and fun Savannah celebrations. Chapters include a birthday dinner, christening party, oyster roast, Christmas dinner, and more. What constitutes a southern party? Like many of her peers (including Paula Deen, with whom she collaborated on four cookbooks), food writer Nesbit considers any occasion a great time to celebrate. In her first cookbook, the author selects many of the usual holidays, from St. Pat’s to New Year’s, as well as some new nonevents—a salute to Gullah cooking and an oyster roast. Although her book’s title is somewhat misleading, since menus are a simple grouping of several entrées with sides, appetizers, drinks, and desserts, the 150 recipes are, for the most part, easy to follow, especially when combined with elegant color photographs. Select crab cakes (no filler, please) and tomato pie as traditional southern dishes—with the unexpected fillip of pesto and tomato terrine and a hot chicken salad casserole. Added to her dishes are both tips (use chicken recipes if you don’t know people’s tastes) and a comforting ongoing dialogue (“It’s hard to spread mayonnaise over cheese,” or “When you can make a perfect lemon meringue pie, you are a GOOD COOK”) that will make any home chef feel like an instant low-country expert. --Barbara Jacobs "'Savannah Celebrations' includes some of our city's favorite dishes, and I know you'll love Martha's uncomplicated, delicious recipes as much as I do!" ----Paula Deen, best-selling author and Food Network personality "Nobody knows coastal Southern fare like Martha, which is why I'd recommend, no, insist, that you put Savannah Celebrations on your go-to bookshelf." ----Mary Kay Andrews, New York Times best-selling author of Savannah Blues and Deep Dish Martha Nesbit has been cooking and writing about food in Savannah, Georgia, for more than three decades. She is familiar with the city's fanciest soir�es-balls, weddings, and coming-out parties-and she's also been privy to intimate at-home celebrations where simple, delicious food is served in the splendor that only a Savannah setting can provide. This book is a collection of 16 of those special Savannah-style dining fetes, with more than 150 tried and-true Low Country recipes that have been perfected through years of trial and error. Only the best dishes are included here, from the christening party's Tomato Pie to the birthday dinner's Coconut Pound Cake and the Gullah meal's Spicy Deviled Crab and Okra and Tomatoes. Nesbit focuses on ingredients that are easy to find and easy on the pocketbook. She pulls together the entire menu so that you don't have to worry about how the dishes will taste or look side by side. Every menu is a winner! Featured alongside photographs of picturesque Savannah homes and scenes, these parties, menus, and recipes will inspire every reader to plan a simple celebration at home. "Savannah Celebrations includes some of our city's favorite dishes, and I know you'll love Martha's uncomplicated, delicious recipes as much as I do!" -Paula Deen, best-selling author and host of the Food Network shows Paula's Home Cooking, Paula's Party, and Paula's Best Dishes "Martha Nesbit's cookbooks are the touchstone-not just for superb Southern recipes, but for all sorts of food cooked with love and imagination. Nobody knows coastal Southern fare like Martha, which is why I'd recommend, no, insist, that you put Savannah Celebrations on your go-to bookshelf." -Mary Kay Andrews, New York Times best-selling author of Savannah Blues and Deep Dish Martha Giddens Nesbit served as food editor, food columnist, and restaurant reviewer for the Savannah Morning News for twenty-five years and has been a regular food columnist for Savannah Magazine since 1998. She has collaborated with Paula Deen on four cookbooks. She lives in Savannah with her husband.