title: The 12 Days of Christmas Cookbook: The Ultimate in Effortless Holiday Entertaining
author: Marla Tipton
description: <div> This book is not only a keeper, but also a wonderful gift for someone you know that loves to try out new recipes. As I flipped through the book I noticed that most ingredients can be found in the kitchen pantry or definitely at a nearby grocery store. I highly recommend "The 12 Days of Christmas Cookbook." I promise you won't be sorry!<br><br></div> (Irene Watson <i>Reader Views</i> 2010-08-01)<br /><br /><div>Divided up into twelve sections, this book is subtitled and professes to be "The Ultimate in Effortless Holiday Entertaining."...the recipes are all straight forward and the ingredients familiar throughout the book. One particular note about this book is that it assumes the cook will take the shortcut of adding ready-made ingredients to the dishes. (For example, some of the soups and breads assume that you will start with some canned good of varied types.) I rather appreciate that because I dislike when I read, "vegetable stock" in a recipe and then read "go to page X for recipe."<br>&nbsp;It's fun. It's festive. It's yummy.</div> (Carrie <i>Reading to Know</i> 2010-11-19)
zlib_text: Begin Reading
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  Chapter 1
  It was that crazy period between Thanksgiving and Christmas when work
  overflowed, time raced, and there wasn’t enough light between dawn and dusk to get everything done.
  Still, our gang of four, what we call the Women’s Murder Club, always had a spouse-free holiday
  get-together dinner of drinks and bar food.
  Yuki Castellano had picked the place.
  It was called Uncle Maxie’s Top Hat and was a bar and grill that had been