Sylvia's Scenario

It's Christmas Eve, the stockings are hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there .  More presents kept magically appearing under the tree throughout the day today.   Isn't that what Christmas is all about?  Presents and then more presents… We did open a few tonight but we usually wait until Christmas morning to open our present.  We had Christmas Eve dinner with family members we won't see tomorrow  so we opened presents with them and had another mini feast.   We started with the festive  white cranberry spritzers   This is the Christmas I will remember as my Whole Foods Christmas because once again I stocked up with a few items to include in our Christmas Eve feast including these Parmesan Crisps. These are an appetizer that were a big hit at our office party so I included these again.  All the Christmas cookies were put out tonight including the  russi...

Our Christmas party was a success again this year.  Last year was the first time we served a dinner at our house and it ended up being such a fun time that we decided to do it again this year.  No need trying to talk in a noisy restaurant (and coming home with a sore throat from yelling as you try to talk).  We try to make it relaxing by serving the plates restaurant style -  bringing out one by one to the table as Bruce and I fix each one in the kitchen. It's actually sort of fun pretending we're a fancy restaurant.  Good food, good drink and good company = fun Christmas party. As I said in my previous post, I haven't had many days off work leading up to this party so I picked up some of the food from Whole Foods.  The appetizers were a big hit.  I got some Roasted Asparagus Wrapped in Prosciutto  and Crab Cakes with Dipping Sauce  I highly recommend both of them. Our festive beverage for the ...

I especially love setting the kids' table for the Christmas party and this year I found some really cute items for it. There are only two children coming so they get their own little table next to ours. They each get a little snow globe with a gingerbread man that I found at Hallmark. Too cute and perfect for the setting. These snow globes just came out this year so run to your nearest Hallmark and get one.  The other item I found was at See's Candies which work as a special treat to go along with their party favor for the kids since all the adults will be getting  almond roca . It's the famous See's Candies sucker with a cute Santa decoration.  You can choose any flavor sucker you want, I chose mint flavored.  I set them in a decorative plastic goblet I got at Target a few years ago that we put our almond roca in as gifts.  I had a few left over, I really liked them that year. They look very inviting at the place settings and the kids are...

It seems like we just had Thanksgiving and now it's time for another LIST! And I don't mean the kind saying if you've been naughty or nice. I mean the kind telling you that you've got to get organized. I'm having two dinner parties at my house within the next six days so it's time to stop lounging around and get going on my list. I love my lists, what can I say. I am a list person. I remember when Christmas meant buying gifts for everybody in the family and Bruce and I both have large families. I can't imagine that we bought that many presents for everyone. No wonder I had lists…multiple lists! Then Bruce's family decided to draw names every year so now we each only buy one present for a family member. My family could never all agree how to de-stress the gift-giving issue so we never changed anything. Over the years Bruce and I decided to just give people our homemade almond roca and jam that we make every year. That keeps it easy and ...

I've been on a cookie making marathon lately.  I guess you could say this is how I get in the Christmas spirit.  I usually only make three kinds of Christmas cookies - the three that are my favorite.  I made  russian tea cakes  which are a tradition in our family. This recipe   makes 8 dozen which may sound like a lot but it's really not.  These melt in your mouth!  Then I made my favorite  chocolate snowflake cookies , always a treat. So, tonight I dug out the old cookie press. Do you have one of these? You can make cookies that are all kinds of cute little shapes. Now the bad news.  When I use my cookie press for Christmas cookies, I always use the same shape…the Christmas tree.  Why?  I just like the way they look!   I have used other shapes but they don't look as cute as the Christmas tree. However, I decorate them with all different colors, not just green.  It's fun to find diffe...