Sylvia's Scenario

Merry Christmas, everyone! We are having a low key morning this Christmas day since I am working.  This is going to be a mostly Whole Foods-kind of day.  If I don't have time to cook, then our meals consist of mainly foods from our favorite grocery store.  It's the closest to homemade that I can buy.  Breakfast started out with a delicious Apple Pear Cranberry Crostata. I opened Lauren's present earlier that were these beautiful drawings of my mom. She used her artistic skills on this present for sure and I love these! The past few years she has given me presents where she has uses her artist background and I love her presents so much.      I will be framing these and putting them up where I can view them daily. Bruce opened my present and now plans to go skiing today while I go to work.  He plans to go up to  Bogus Basin , our local ski area, about 50 minutes away from our house.  ...

It's Christmas Eve, what is your Christmas Eve tradition?  We are child-less this Christmas since Nick and Sachiyo are in Japan and Lauren is in Seattle so we are just relaxing.  Our biggest tradition over the whole Christmas season is giving gifts of Bruce's homemade  almond roca  to all our friends and family. Many people comment how they want to learn to make it so this year we hosted an almond roca party where we showed people how to make it.  Each guest got a copy of the recipe with room to take notes. Bruce made a half batch which takes half the time and is much easier to make than a full batch. Bruce loved being the center of attention and he got lots of company as he patiently stirred the mixture to the hard crack stage. Of course, I provided many yummy munchies for everyone including the popular  pomegranate mojitos . As the almond roca got closer to 300 degrees  ...

If you want an appetizer that looks festive, this one will definitely work for you, plus they are a tasty combination of pesto, roasted red peppers and feta cheese.  They are easy to serve and easy to eat. Those are the kind of appetizers I like.  For our Christmas party, I like to serve small little tidbits of a variety of items that aren't too filling that always includes some vegetables and lean meats or cold cuts, the usual crackers that include rice crackers for those who avoid gluten and freshly cut cheeses, along with a platter of our   Christmas cookies  just because they look Christmas-y. This year, I bought some olives from those olive bars you always see in the stores and put them on a wreath of fresh sprigs of rosemary for the holiday look. I saw this on Pintrest and thought it looked perfect for our party.  Mine was too full of olives and didn't really end up looking like this one.  I knew I'd be too distracted during the ...

I discovered the perfect drink last night for this holiday season and it's the Pomegranate Mojito.  I mixed these babies up for our annual Christmas party and they were a big hit.  I always like to feature one special mixed drink at parties along with the usual beer and wine and the pomegranate mojitos were perfect.  They fit the bill for looking festive as well as tasting delicious. I figured out how to make a big pitcher full so when guests ordered one, I just needed to add the rum and garnishes and it was complete.  Here's how to prepare a big batch for you next holiday party: Makes 10 servings 1-1/8 cup fresh squeezed lime juice 3/4 cup superfine sugar 80 mint leaves 7 cups of Pomegranate 7-UP (I make it by mixing 16 oz of pomegranate juice with 5 cups of 7-UP) 2 cups club soda white rum pomegranate seeds* mint sprigs lime wedges 1.  In a large pitcher, muddle the lime juice, sugar and mint leaves until the sugar is dissolved. 2....

Tomorrow night is our Christmas party and the desserts are ready.  I could easily eat dessert first which is why it is so easy to prepare dessert before I prepare anything else.  If we don't have anything else to eat at least we'll have dessert. I bought a tiramisu cake at Costco and decorated it so it doesn't look like a Costco cake.  Do you think it looks like a Costco cake?  I actually have a great recipe for  tiramisu cake  that I've made before but I didn't have time to make it for tomorrow so I bought one.  I also made some chocolate mousse for a couple of the guests who are gluten intolerant. I made a few extras in case other guest may want some.  So, we have plenty of dessert. Our main course is the delicious as always   mustard crusted beef tenderloin  which you cannot go wrong with.  Then, I'm going to make twice baked potatoes and roasted carrots and parsnips.  I have a very festive cocktail to make that I...

I finished my last batch of Christmas cookies tonight so I can check that off my list.  My favorite are the above  Russian Tea Cakes .  They just melt in your mouth.  Tonight, I made my favorite sugar cookie recipe for my   Spritz   Christmas cookies.  And for my chocolate fix, I can't go without my  chocolate snowflake cookies .  I'll put them out for our first Christmas gathering which is this Friday night when Bruce's office comes over for dinner. I started setting the table, which takes a couple of days. There's always something I forget so if I start early enough, I'll remember everything.  This year I made these cute name place settings.  Simple but effective. You can also see that each place setting has a little basket of  almond roca .  Bruce has made 3 batches so far to give out to his office-mates.  Plus, it makes for a decorative table setting,  anythin...