Category — Holiday

We’re about one-third of the way through with the appetizer recipes, so how about a cute beverage idea for your next holiday gathering?

By far the most popular part of the annual party was this setup of desserts and shots. Let’s zoom in…

The Lighted Christmas trees with Ornament Shots were the bomb! I had purchased the round ornament shot glasses last year in the Target Dollar Spot but had yet to use them. Then Marissa sent me the TikTok idea of hanging them on these simple lighted trees. It’s a winner!

I’ve linked the trees and shot ornaments below. As for the shots themselves, do whatever you’d like. The most popular at our party was the Rum Chata & Fireball shot, which tastes like Cinnamon Toast Crunch. So good! I also made Bailey’s Irish Cream shots, Cranberry-Tequila shots, and Skrewball Peanut Butter Whiskey shots.

This recipe may be one you want to have in your back pocket and wait to make. Why? Because it is for deviled eggs.

Eggs! What is happening with eggs!?! If you live in a cave or maybe you’re a vegan and don’t know but there is a world-wide egg shortage. They are hard to find in stores and may cost up to $10 a dozen for organic right now!

The Avian flu is the cause. It is predicted to last into the first month or two of this year. I believe the shortage hit right around the time of our party (12/18/22). I don’t think Peggy, who made this recipe, had a problem, but it would have been an issue a week or so later. These devils are darn good, so how about you bookmark this and save it for Easter?

A little whiskey, a little bacon, who wouldn’t love it!?! Laura made this delicious pot of gold.

This recipe comes together easily, once you have the 8 shallots peeled and chopped and it makes a lot. Plenty to bring to a party and plenty to keep for yourself. The original recipe calls for paprika, but I prefer smoked paprika. Be sure to follow the recipe when it tells you to remove from the heat before adding the whiskey. No one needs a surprise flambe.

April make this yummy dip. It was a big hit and it is full of protein to keep the party going. The recipe and the photo come from Taste of Home.

*** As an added bonus to these potluck recipes, I’m adding a Little Known Amazing Random Fact at the end of the post. I found these on a page I follow on Instagram and I can honestly say, I knew none of them! Be sure to check them out and let me know if you knew any.

Tuscan Sausage & Bean Dip

• 1 pound bulk hot Italian sausage
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 cup dry white wine or chicken broth
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
• 8-ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1 package (6 ounces) fresh baby spinach, coarsely chopped
• 15-ounce can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 cup chopped seeded tomatoes
• 1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
• Assorted crackers or toasted French bread baguette slices

I hosted my annual Christmas Appetizer Potluck on Sunday, December 18th. Marissa, Jeff and Max had arrived the afternoon before. I was pretty upfront with my friends/guests that this was as much the annual gathering as it was a “Come Meet Max!” Party.

I took not one photo of the food or beverages that night. In fact, the photo above of Max and Tram is the only photo I took. Poor Max is so tired. He did his best to stay up and meet everyone. Such a sweet little trooper.

Since there are no photos of the food, I’ll be lifting the photos from the websites I found the recipes on. This one is from Inspired by Charm.

In case you don’t recall how my Christmas Potluck works, I send out the invite and when I have a good idea of how many will attend, I send out an email with the selection of recipes to choose from with links to each recipe. It’s a strictly enforced, “first come, first served.” Each guest “replies to all” with the recipe they will be making. This year was a new record – 70% of the guests responded within 4 minutes of that email going out!

Stay tuned in the days to follow, there will be another dozen recipes along with the super fun and festive cocktails I served. And the best part, there are photos of those! Thanks to my girl, Mary, who took some great pics! Thank you, Mary! xoxo

Below is my son, Connor’s, recipe choice. So cute!

Before I get to today’s post, I want to give you a heads up about next week. My friend, Ronnie, had an ingenious idea for a new feature. On March 31st, she challenged me to help her create a dish with what she had on hand in her pantry and refrigerator. She gave me a list of four items and asked for a menu idea. She said, “… just use your experience and wealth of knowledge to come up with a plan.” She’s right, with all of us doing our best to STAY HOME, shop less and use what we have, this is the perfect time for such a challenge.

So yeah, challenge accepted!

On Monday I will share what Ronnie’s items were, what I suggested she make with them, and exactly how she could go about doing that. I’ll also share the photos of her process and her finished dish and exactly how she did go about doing it.

Between now and then, if you would like to send me a Pantry/Refrigerator Challenge – PLEASE DO!

Please shoot me an email at [email protected] with a list of what you have on hand and I will come up with a plan for using those items to make a dish/meal. Then you make the dish/meal and send me photos of the process and the finished dish to share here. This will be FUN!

NOTE: Please type Pantry/Refrigerator Challenge or something similar in the subject line so that if it goes into my spam folder, it will catch my eye and prevent me from tossing it in the trash.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming….

Ann asked me to show the colored and filled eggs from yesterday’s post. Ann, my pleasure!

There will only be three of us for this unusual and unprecedented Easter Sunday, so only three of the eggs were filled with egg salad.

The remaining six hold mini spring bouquets sitting in my collection of pretty egg cups.

Yesterday, I received an email from eagle-eyed reader, Jennifer, after she spotted something unusual in one of the photos from my New & Improved Zucchini Bread post.

Can you see what it is that she spotted and had a question about?

If you love fresh greens in your home during the holidays as much as I do, you need to run, don’t walk, okay just drive, to Trader Joe’s.

They have their red cedar garlands available and just like all the holiday stuff at TJ’s, they won’t be there long. And speaking of long, they are about 8 feet long and cost $7.99. Shop around and you’ll learn what a deal that is.

If you’re saying to yourself, “But Linda, if I buy them now as you suggest, they will be like peanut brittle by Christmas.” Nope, not if you treat them right. Here is what I did last year and they looked good right up to Christmas day.

I brought them home and soaked them in tubs of water for about 36 hours. Then I spread them out, undercover in the shade to dry for another 12 hours. I turned them over and let them continue to dry for another 8 hours.

Next, I sprayed them thoroughly with a magic product called Wilt Pruf. You can find it on Amazon. Then I hung them up over doors and windows and used them down the center of my holiday tables. I didn’t blog about this last year because I wanted to make sure the Wilt Pruf worked. Since it did, I’m sharing now.

I purchased my red cedar garlands on Wednesday. I also snagged this sweet swag, took off the bow and it is soaking along with the garlands. Everything is done soaking, so I’ll be drying them for the next 24 hours, then spraying them thoroughly. They will be hung over the weekend. Get yourself to Trader Joe’s before I decide I need more!

It’s crazy how often you can post when you have content! Here is the third recipe from Labor Day 2019.

I would absolutely love to have a big shrimp boil one of these days. It’s such an iconic east coast summer meal.

But here in the desert, in the summer, even the thought of standing outside while shrimp boils and then standing over the steaming masses of food poured out in front of you sounds absolutely torturous and horrendous. Maybe in the fall!

Something like any one of these images is the dream. Have a bunch of friends over and just dump it all out for the taking on a long table covered in paper.

This Fall. For Sure!

In the meantime, I made this attempt at a touch of the “shrimp-boil” flavor for our Labor Day BBQ.

Along with the Corn and Shishito Salad I posted yesterday, I made burgers for the guys on Labor Day. I used a one-half pound of 80/20 ground beef for each patty. So yeah, they were BIG burgers! If you’d like to make them more manageable, use about a quarter-pound of beef per patty.

But this recipe is really about the great zippy basting sauce that consists of sweet chili sauce and sriracha. The sauce really makes these burgers sing. Added bonus: Half of the sauce gets mixed with mayo … truly addictive stuff!