Today is a big day for me.  I can finally share with all of you a project that I have been working on for the last three months.  It’s been hard doing all of it quietly as I am not very good at keeping things to myself when I am very excited about something.  But I just did not want to spoil the surprise… and let’s face it, I was a bit scared to jinx it.  Now that it is done, I can say it.  I have written my very first eBook: Manu’s Christmas Menus.  Wow, that felt good! 😉

So what is it about?  As the title suggests, the eBook contains 20 original recipes, divided in 4 menus, to help you bring Italy to your table this holiday Season. The recipes follow my blog’s structure, so they all contain step by step pictures and tutorials.  All of the recipes in the eBook have never been published before (so you won’t find them on the blog) and are quite representative of what Italians would serve for Christmas and New Year.  You will find some traditional dishes and others with a more modern twist.

As I say in the eBook’s introduction “The idea of this eBook came about almost a year ago, when my parents were visiting us for Christmas and we were planning our holiday menus. We usually sit down together and write down 4 different menus: one for Christmas Eve dinner, one for Christmas Day lunch, one for New Year’s Eve dinner and one for New Year Day lunch. It is quite a process as everyone has to be pleased and not everyone likes the same food. But it is also a lot of fun and a moment we share as a family. The same feeling of “sharing a moment together” continues throughout the meal preparation, as we all contribute to it. Back in Italy, holiday meals would have many people seated at the same table, so it is customary to divide the work among family members: nonna would make pasta, aunty would make the appetisers, mum would make meat, dad would whip up a dessert and so on. Dividing tasks in the kitchen is also a way not to get too tired and still be able to enjoy your day/evening.

Italians have quite elaborate meals at Christmas time. We do serve at least 4 to 5 different dishes per meal, sometimes more (it depends on how many people we have to feed and divide the work with!), so I have created 4 menus with 5 dishes each. If you are not used to eating this much (or have a smaller family) you can simply choose 2 or 3 dishes per menu. If you decide to go “the Italian way”, remember that while Italians cook up a storm, we do not serve huge portions of each dish. It is all about “tasting” and enjoying different flavours without getting too full.”

I thought I should also give you, my dear readers, a preview into the eBook.  This is the table of contents, so you know what recipes are included:

Click here for a PREVIEW of the eBook.

And here are a couple of pictures, for your eyes only:

Writing the eBook was not as easy as I thought… actually, the creative part of it (developing the recipes, testing them, taking the pictures and even writing the recipes) was a lot of fun.  The hard part was formatting my Word document to be converted into an eBook (both in epub and kindle versions).  For that I must thank my husband Clint for all his help and hard work.  I would have probably stopped at the pdf version without his help.

I would also like to thank all of my readers for all your support and love.  Manu’s Menu is almost 3 years old (already!) and I feel blessed to have met so many wonderful people along the way.  You guys make all the fun (but hard!) work worthwhile!

As mentioned, Manu’s Christmas Menus is available in 3 different formats: pdf, epub and kindle.  Follow the links below to purchase your copy in your preferred format.

PDF

Epub

Kindle

Buy it now and be prepared for the Holiday Season!  Spread the word and let me know what you think!

Disclosure: Unfortunately, I could not keep the price of the kindle version the same as the other 2 versions because of Amazon pricing and royalties policies.