[.ca] Great Parties: The Best of Martha Stewart Living (ISBN 060980099X)

From Amazon.com:
While this book is very much in the style of Martha Stewart, the parties that it depicts were planned and executed by other folks. There's a Louisiana lunch at a stately home outside Baton Rouge, complete with maquechoux oysters and pecan-crusted catfish; a garden harvest party, with mountains of vegetarian delights served in an East Hampton garden; a Vietnamese-Thai feast in a garden by the Sacramento River, with the signature flavors of Southeast Asian cooking--lime, ginger, lemongrass, chile paste--gracing spring rolls, chicken, and fish; a soul-food brunch given by an interior designer in Harlem that includes collard greens, gumbo, and sweet potato tarts. Details such as how to make lovely, lotus-like napkin folds are illustrated in "Good Things" sidebars. From the down-home barbecue in a horse arena in Marfa, Texas, to the Polynesian fantasy picnic on the beach in Maui, the key to a great party, says Martha, is caring--"about people, originality, the most attractive settings, and lovely, finely honed, time-honored traditions." And let's not forget food.

The Subtitle of The Book Says It All:
I'd love to throw one of the parties in this book, but I can't figure out how to get my guests to dress in the perfectly appropriate style. One person in a gingham check outfit that would be perfect for the Fourth of July picnic would simply ruin the Thai-Vietnamese feast. Until I get a more malleable group of friends, I'll just have to stick with the suggestions in "Swell" by Cynthia Rowley and Ilene Rosenzweig. That being said, I highly recommend that everyone buy all of Martha's books -- it greatly alleviates the depression that will befall you when you invariably attend a function that follows her instructions to the letter. Somehow the perfectionism seems less than perfect when you know it has been cribbed directly from Martha!

Get's the juices flowing!:
Now I know that we can't all go to Texas to have an authentic Tex-Mex fiesta, but the ideas are great none the less. Who care's if no one comes dressed the part? This book is all about themes. Themes that you can manipulate and call your own. Each party is beautifully photographed and the recipes are delicious. They even offer her infamous "Good Things" as a sidebar for many of the parties. Don't let the perfection overwhelm you. This book delievers.

Dreadful. Our party was almost a fiasco:
We planned a wonderful dinner party for 100 guests at our waterfront home. I hired the best chef & event planner I could find and told them to follow this book. They said they many of the things just would not work or would take forever. We were saved at the last minute by a very resourceful neighbor who attended finishing school, graduated from Wellsley and has a third home in Switzerland. My husband was furious and threw the book away.

Delicious Recipes and Clever Ideas:
As we all know, Martha can be a bit anal when it comes to many things, I have to admit I really like her cookbooks. The recipes are easy to follow and most of the time, tasty. The entertaining ideas are good, however, I've never been able to follow one completely as I simply don't have the time to do it all. Perhaps if I were a wealthy at-home wife I could...but in that case..wouldn't I have someone do it _for_ me?