Sylvia's Scenario

 I noticed recently that our neighborhood grocery store, Metropolitan Market, had Seville oranges.  When we visited Nick in Spain, there were orange trees everywhere and the city of Seville was known especially for their orange trees.  Nick lived one hour south of Seville so we were very familiar with the oranges.  I couldn't believe it when I saw them in the grocery store here.  The thing about Seville oranges is that they are really sour and if you want to eat them, you must make orange marmalade so that's what I did.  I remember when we picked one off the tree in Seville to eat, we had to immediately spit it out because it was so sour!  That was hard because the trees are EVERYWHERE in Seville and they looked so inviting.  I thought we just got an orange that wasn't ripe because the trees near Nick's house had super sweet oranges. He had a park behind his house and we would pick the oranges and throw them over the fence into his pool. The kid...

We just returned from a Hawaiian vacation this week so for Valentine's Day this year, I decided to make Chocolate Covered Macadamia Nuts with the macadamia nuts I brought home with me.  I made them just like I always do using this  recipe  with the addition of Valentine sprinkles such as  these.   I put them in clear treat bags such as  these  and tied them with a cute Valentine ribbon; an easy, fun, yummy and quick Valentine gift. I took seven bags over to my sister's house who hosted a Valentine's dinner party.   My brother-in-law will often prepare a really nice dinner for us ladies on Valentine's Day and all the men will wait on us and we even get cute little presents.  My kind of evening.  That is why I decided to contribute my Chocolate Covered Macadamia Nuts for everyone because I know what a festive evening this turns out to be.   My sister, Barbara, does such a good job decorating and setting a beautiful dinner table f...

I haven't done a New Year's Resolution in a couple of years but I think I have one this year.  I've been pondering what makes for a festive holiday season with lots of holiday spirit and what makes for a stressful holiday season.  Everyone wants a low stress holiday season with lots of fun times and memorable moments, of course, and I feel fortunate that that’s how mine has been.  For me, I know the most obvious reason is because we haven't traveled anywhere.  It’s been really nice staying home to relax and enjoy the holidays.  Our last trip was in September for Bruce's birthday but we haven't gone anywhere since.  I get in a good routine when I’m home and I have a nice, low stress frame of mind.  My diet is more healthy and I exercise regularly.  I'm not going to say that my New Year's Resolution is to not travel, however.  There's more to it than that.  We also had friends and family come over for dinner parties more than usual so the...

 Merry Christmas from my family to yours.

I've been feeling like one of Santa's elves lately busy working in my workshop.  It's always a big push to get our boxes mailed off to Japan to Nick's family and the grandkids and then once that's done, it's another big push to get all the almond roca  mailed out to everyone.  In-between all that, it's wrapping presents and putting them under the tree.  My dinning room or workshop looks like this: It's a good thing we aren't having anymore dinner parties...!  All I have to do now is get ready for Christmas and that seems like the easy and fun part.  We've gone to a few holiday events around town in-between all the preparations like at the Public Market they call Magic in the Market.  Just being at the Market is fun in and of itself but it's extra special at Christmas with all of the festivities happening. It's my favorite place of all Seattle.  And we are fortunate that it is so easy for us to get there because we just take the water taxi...

The holidays are in full swing now and we had our first little holiday gathering tonight with two of  Bruce's golf buddies and their wives.  We invited them over for dinner and I served this new drink called Holiday Limoncello Spritz.  I prepared it ahead of time so it was ready to serve when people arrived.  It's nice to offer such a festive beverage to your guests at a holiday party to set the tone.  With a drink as beautiful as this, your guests will be in the party spirit in no time.                                         I got this recipe from   Drinks with Danica  who has the most beautiful drink recipes. I love the garnish of rosemary, cranberries (or you can use pomegranate seeds) and lemon which are perfect because it is made with limoncello which acts as an alcoholic simple syrup, of sorts. But it also has pomegranate juice and Prosecco ...