Category — Holiday

You may recall that I used a bunch of pie pumpkins in my Thanksgiving table setting and on my kitchen island fall display. Soon after Thanksgiving, I roasted those pumpkins and froze the flesh – with the knowledge that I’d be making pumpkin soup for Christmas.

This recipe serves eight, so you will only need 2 small pumpkins, but since I had five to work with, I more than doubled the recipe.

For the garnish I used THESE sweet and spicy pepitas, but toasted pepitas (readily found at Trader Joe’s) work just as well.

[Read more →]

I found this recipe in an issue of Bon Appétit three or four years ago and tucked it away. When I stumbled upon it right after Thanksgiving, I knew it would be a perfect side for the pork roast I planned to serve on Christmas Eve. Not only because the flavors would complement the pork so well, but also because I had a kabocha squash and a butternut squash laying around that I had used in my Thanksgiving table decor. I’d also used several pie pumpkins in the decor that I’d already roasted and frozen for use in a pumpkin soup I planned to serve. It is so gratifying when you can use such gorgeous vegetables twice… first to decorate and then to eat!

Just as with yesterday’s post, this dish may also be prepared a full day in advance. Assemble completely in the baking dish, cover and refrigerate, then bring to room temperature before baking.

[Read more →]

This is one of the two side dishes we had for Christmas Eve dinner to accompany a pork roast.  I also served a pumpkin and chipotle soup. The soup, the second side, and the pork recipes will be posted in the next couple of days, but this corn pudding was, by far, the favorite dish of the night!

[Read more →]

Merry Christmas

I usually post a vintage image for each holiday, but for this Christmas how, about a photo recipe? Only a photo… no actual recipe needed.  I’ll be serving this during our appetizer happy hour today. Isn’t it pretty and perfectly festive? [Read more →]

Thank you for all your sweet comments about my Christmas dining room and “tablescape” which I posted yesterday. That’s right, I misspelled “tablescape” in my post title, and not a soul told me until sweet Amy finally left a comment at 12:30… which I didn’t find right away, so I wasn’t able to correct my error until 2:30. Embarrassing!  Please, please, please, always feel free to point out my mistakes and alert me to my missed spell-checks, I will sincerely appreciate it. Thank you, Amy! (of Amy’s Famous Taco Soup)

Now, how about we check out the rest of the house – all dolled up for Christmas? Come on in and let me fix you a drink from my sweet little “retro bar” set-up. First things first!

[Read more →]

This is my Christmas dining room. I was planning on showing you the whole house, but I took too many photos, so just the dining room for today.

I own more than a dozen patterns of dishes, but these are my holiday favorite. They were my parents’ wedding pattern. Over the years, my mother disliked them more and more. So when they divorced in 1981, she left them with my dad and he gave them to me. They are Mikasa Fine China in the Shasta Pine pattern. I love them, especially the square salad plate.

[Read more →]

If you usually receive a Christmas card from me, it should arrive today or tomorrow. And there is one person to thank for that… my friend, Tram Mai. There is no way I would have gotten it done if Tram had not had an ingenious party this past Sunday. (I’m a bad influence, I helped convinced her to name the party this… and I don’t mean the cute “mai” part, I mean the honest “s**t” part).

Yup, she invited friends over at 11:00 AM for a pot-luck “work” party. Bring whatever project you haven’t had time to do… or have been procrastinating on (that would be the cards, in my case) and get it done!

So I packed my cards, envelopes, Christmas letter, mailing list, and THIS Orzo Salad and headed over. While enjoying wonderful food, including a fabulous polenta-smothered mushroom and onion sauce made by Tram’s husband, Steve, I knocked out 75+ cards! All hand addressed, signed, stuffed, and sealed. The dreaded cards were the Achilles’ heel for the three of us, but we got them done.

[Read more →]

Bake Sale

Yesterday’s Les Dames d’Escoffier International bake sale at the Phoenix Public Market was a grand success! Yeah, we made $744.00!!!! Man, we can bake! But I must say, a whole lot of credit goes to Gwen, my sales partner, that girl can sell! I would even buy a beet from her, and I HATE beets!

I took pictures of the tables right after I set up my cake pops and by the time I got down to the end where I had set them up, there were only 5 left for sale! I was making a few sales down at the other end for a moment or two… but wow!

[Read more →]

Weekly Tip #10

I think I may have missed a week of “tip time”.  We did have “game time” last week though. To make it up to you, an extra tip this week.

Holiday Baking Special Edition

[Read more →]

Although it has taken me much longer than usual to get into the Christmas spirit this year, here is what finally motivated me to just “do it!”  It is an essay written by my daughter, Marissa, when she was in elementary school. It used to hang in my bedroom but was taken down quite a while ago.  Luckily, I ran across it yesterday, just in time. I hope it warms your heart, it certainly did, mine!

[Read more →]