'Tis the season for all things sweet at Barbara Adams' Beyond Wonderful (www.beyondwonderful.com) the online headquarters for holiday baking. Resident pastry expert Catherine Christiansen takes the lead with a scrumptious series of recipes perfect for gifts and entertaining. Catherine offers classics like sugar cookies, spicy ginger snaps, and macaroons, plus more elaborate delicacies such as dried cherry nut bread and decadent, candy-laden "monster" cookies.

Like all recipes in the Beyond Wonderful collection, Catherine's holiday specials feature tempting photographs and convenient links to step-by-step technical guidance. Novice bakers will particularly appreciate a detailed "how-to" lesson on the basics of rolling dough.

In addition to a bounty of holiday-perfect recipes for main dishes, sides and desserts, Beyond Wonderful (www.beyondwonderful.com) offers hundreds of classic and seasonal dishes for everyday and special occasions--all meticulously kitchen-tested. The site also offers an ever-growing library of engaging feature stories and monthly columns on wine, produce, baking and cheese from a panel of culinary pros.

About Catherine Christiansen
A Colorado-based chef and food writer, Catherine is a columnist and restaurant reviewer for the Boulder Daily Camera. She also writes about food, wine and restaurants for other local and national publications including Delicious Living and 5280, Denver's leading lifestyle magazine. Catherine develops recipes for Horizon Organic, the nation's number one organic dairy company, and works with a number of community-supported farms and local farmer's markets in developing recipes for organic produce. She is also a Chef Instructor in pastry at the Culinary School of the Rockies in Boulder.

About Barbara Adams' Beyond Wonderful
Beyond Wonderful launched in September 2004 from the San Francisco Bay Area; an internationally renowned center for culinary innovation. The brainchild of Barbara Adams, Beyond Wonderful delivers all the color, flavor, vitality and spice of this magnificent region in an ongoing culinary adventure from farms to markets to vineyards and beyond--culminating, of course, in the kitchen. For more information, contact via e-mail.