Goin' To California

Christmas was a blast with Reno family, now I am off to CA to see LG family and start cleaning out my grandmother's house. Weird. Christmas Eve the turkey turned out wonderfully and my stuffing (first time ever) was a massive success! And my sister-in-law brought her big book of Christmas carols and we had a big post-dinner sing-along/dance party (we sang, the little guys danced). Our friends brought a chocolate cake they made out of one of the Ina Garten cookbooks, and it was kind of ridiculous. A pound of butter and a  pound of chocolate and it was still kind of dry. Tasty though.

Christmas morning we went and watched the kiddoes open presents. I got a high-tech flashlight and some  fancy smelly lotion (surprisingly nice), as well as a vacuum wine cork thing (from the wine drinkers) and a fleece that didn't fit, boo. Matt got me the Jack Spratt books (funnier than Thursday Next, in my opinion) and this awesome print:

which will be the first thing on the wall in the new house. I got him an awesome Van Halen shirt and some  CDs, but the biggest excitement was his coffee press, which he adores. The relatives all got homemade apple butter and other tasty perishables wrapped in a nice dishtowel from Williams Sonoma, we'll see if they get used. Hope everybody had a lovely Christmas and got nice stuff (but not too much stuff)! I'll be back for the weekend...

Have Yourself A Merry Little Pagan Winter Celebration?

I may have posted this before but it is another of my favorites and vaguely holiday-related so Merry Christmas everybody! Off to baste the turkey!

More Pictures! Holiday Roundup.

Homemade swag.

Nerdiest swag ever. It's a tiny tuba.

This is my awesome tree. I paid  more to get it from the Boy Scouts instead of the grocery store but then they trimmed the trunk for me and loaded it in my car without getting needles everywhere. Also it is a much nicer tree than I have ever had before and has hardly shed at all in almost two weeks! No idea how the fancy decor bloggers get such good tree pictures, however I imagine it has to do with proper lighting and big white walls to shoot against instead of busy red brick and speakers. Now I remember why I am not a fancy decor blogger.

Hungarian ornaments. Oddly enough I have a heart and an umbrella. They were from one of my sisters, years ago.

Hummingbird from my aunt. He has a matching peacock buddy, too. You can also see my beloved cranberry wood garlands in the background. I think these are so pretty, I got two last year and had to get two more this year because I love them so much (and they are pretty short).

My oh-so-festively decorated mantel. If I wasn't getting ready to move I would acknowledge that it needs bigger art or something as everything is slightly too uniformly short. But right now it just has to hold all the holiday cards. There is some hand-me-down silver garland action here too. Not as cool as the cranberry  garland. Also tiny felt trees from my sister and silver candlesticks from the in-laws.

 

And this is my centerpiece. Every year it gets a different combo of ball colors, but the dish is always the same. It is a random wedding gift from I-have-no-idea-who and once a year I bust it out and fill it with balls. 

Now back to cooking!

Pictures! Also, Recipe Roundup And Peppermint Bark Recipe!

This is peppermint bark. It is pretty simple to make. I melt a bag of milk chocolate chips in the microwave (30 seconds, then stir, repeat 3-4 times until there are no chips visible). Spread it in a foil-lined cookie sheet and put it in the fridge until it hardens. Put six standard-sized candy canes in a bag and bash them with the bottom of a pint glass (or other convenient hitting implement) until they are a mix of small chunks and powder, nothing bigger than about 1/2 inch. Melt the white chocolate just like you did the milk chocolate, then before you spread it on, stir in the candy cane bits and spread away. Once it has all hardened, break it into chunks and enjoy! It may not look like much but it tastes like pepperminty heaven!

 Bourbon balls from Cookbook's recipe. No Nilla wafers here! Tempering chocolate is still not my forte but they taste a lot better than they look!

 

Honey caramel nut bars via Sunset magazine. These need to cool COMPLETELY before you try and cut them. Not as in wait until they're just warm. Like, the next day. 

 Nuts with sea salt, garlic powder and Italian spices. Easy, but these need a lot of olive oil or all of your spicy goodness will fall to the bottom of the bowl once they've cooled off. So sad. Until you get to the bottom of the bowl... These are ridiculously tasty when they are still hot.

 Snappy little gingersnaps. Yum.

I Swear Pictures Are Really Forthcoming

So the party Friday night was generally a success. And I slept all day yesterday, just about. We missed a couple of people because a storm blew in Friday afternoon and they decided to stay in. But the overall turnout was still great! People brought candy and cookies and little pesto cheese pinwheels. Also vodka, tequila, wine and beer. We always end parties with more booze than we start them. I am drinking leftover cider with gingersnaps right now.

In a hierarchy of homemade popularity we had :
bourbon balls,
peppermint bark,
my grandmother's korozot (nothing like the recipes you find on the internet, hers is WAY better)
gingersnaps,
hummus (had to explain how to make it at least twice)
nut bars (should have sprung for cashews instead of subbing in walnuts)
roasted red pepper/artichoke dip (didn't need to compensate for not using marinated veggies by adding too much garlic, whoops)

We killed the soft cheeses and the Irish cheddar (mmm, Trader Joe's I love you) and still have a solid chunk each of gouda and apricot stilton (to serve for Christmas Eve, not eat all up). I have been sending visitors away with care packages of cookies and am doing my best to defend the rest of the candy for specific recipients. Also somebody brought some candy cane taffy from Whole Foods and it is shockingly good. It's like saltwater taffy and so pepperminty and delicious! The big bowl of veggies was almost completely cleaned out (and now I am craving more radishes), as was the antipasto platter (Matt was so sad to not have any leftover salami). The secret smash hit was TJ's pigs in blankets. They were a late addition and stuck to the pan coming out of the oven but once people spotted them they disappeared in minutes. Overall it was a great party and I am still tired!

Next up, Christmas dinner!

Recipe/Spread Pictures Pending

I want some action shots of the spread tonight before I post some how-tos. So probably tomorrow. The second cookie option turned out to be these and in retrospect I should not have cheated and subbed out the salted cashews for some walnuts I had on hand. Matt called them hippie cookies and I think that's why. The cashews would have  made them richer. Although the shortbread is nice and buttery. They aren't super-sweet either.

Next time, not more sugar, but a little more in the spice dept. and no cheating on the expensive nuts. Then they will be worth popping that Benadryl for.

Flash Of Genius

No, not me. The person who designed the functional Christmas tree stand I now own. Pictures to follow shortly. I used to think it was just me having trouble getting the tree up. This new stand makes it clear I was completely incorrect on that front. It took about 5 minutes and there wasn't ANY swearing.

Also my house is so full of candy I am not sure what to do about it. Oh yeah,that's right. Make another batch of bourbon balls.