CHECK IT OUT

Even if you can’t trace your lineage to Betty Crocker or Julia Child, you

may want to concoct something fabulous during this century’s final

cooking season. For inspiration, check out the festive fare in holiday

cookbooks at Newport libraries.

There are imaginative menus for seasonal parties, from a New Year’s Day

open house to a Christmas tree-trimming buffet, in “Bon Appetit

Holidays.” Mouth-watering photography brings step-by-step instructions

and recipes for seasonal goodies to life in this guide for joyful

entertaining.

Arranged similarly by holiday but concentrating on pies, puddings, breads

and cookies is “Beatrice Ojakangas’ Great Holiday Baking Book.” Included

are freezing tips, background about annual celebrations and more than 250

recipes for goodies designed to make 21 holidays memorable.

You can learn how to bake traditional year-end favorites with “Holiday

Baking,” from the Williams-Sonoma Kitchen Library. Find recipes for mocha

buche de Noel, eggnog tart and festive challah in this lavishly

illustrated cookbook.

Look for instructions for preparing 40 other enticing desserts in

“Perfect Pies and Tarts,” from Anne Willan’s “Look & Cook” series.

Written for novice cooks as well as those who want to expand their

repertoire, this step-by-step volume features color photos of

ingredients, cooking equipment and every stage of each recipe.

If you’re a plan ahead type, learn how you can turn your freezer into a

pantry in “Bake and Freeze Desserts,” featuring 130 cakes, pies, cookies,

brownies, bars, ice creams, terrines and sorbets you can prepare now and

serve in December.

Transform another kitchen fixture into a dessert-making aid with

“Desserts From Your Bread Machine,” rife with sweets you never thought

you could make in a machine.

It wouldn’t be Christmas without cookies, and you can find a treasury of

recipes for 75 tantalizing tidbits in “Joy of Cooking Christmas Cookies.”

From simple, one-pan bars to piped and pressed production numbers, this

volume by the folks who gave us “The Joy of Cooking” features a range of

temptations for both inexperienced and practiced bakers.

There are unusual ways to present cookies for entertaining and gift

giving in ‘Sugarbakers’ Cookie Cutter Cookbook.’ Organized by month, this

guide to every aspect of the cookie cutter art features such classics as

gingerbread and molasses cookies for November and cookie ornaments in

myriad holiday shapes for December.

For Hanukkah celebrants, there are 270 recipes that feature tradition

with a twist in “The World of Jewish Cooking,” a new book by acclaimed

author and chef, Rabbi Gil Marks.

For others who want to wind down the year in high Louisiana fashion,

there’s “Emeril’s Creole Christmas,” a dazzling volume with instructions

for such unusual delicacies as lobster cheesecake with Christmas caviar

sauce, chicken and andouille strudel, and crawfish Quiche.

* CHECK IT OUT is written by the staff of the Newport Beach Public

Library. This week’s column is by Melissa Adams, in collaboration with

Sarah Rosenblum.