Sylvia's Scenario

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...

Merry Christmas!  We are in full Christmas-mode around here now.  Last night, I made gingerbread men and I think I finally found a recipe that I really like.  I've mentioned before that I like my cookies soft moreso than crunchy and this recipe makes a very soft and chewing, not-too-strong gingerbread and I love them.  Don't they look cute?  The grandkids will love them.  I left some  plain in case the kids are in a decorating mood next time they come over.  Either way, even the plain ones are delicious.  I also made ahead some of my infamous  sugar cookie  dough in case the kids want to make cut-out Christmas cookies, too.  My kitchen is always prepared for any type of cooking/baking activity, you can be sure of that, especially this time of year.  Last night, Bruce made his fifth batch of almond roca  while I fiddled around with my new gingerbread recipe.   I've already made (more than one batch of) my usual Ch...

I realized last weekend when we had Bruce's Mai Tai recipe that I've never posted it on my blog.  After 5 years of blogging, I have almost all my favorite recipes posted.  This is by far the best Mai Tai recipe you'll ever need.  It is from a bartender at one our favorite Hawaiian hangouts back in the 80's called Tom Bombadil, a pizza joint in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.  Their Mai Tai's were killer!  Over the years, someone in Bruce's family got the recipe.  His family went to Kailua-Kona regularly because his parents had a condo there.  His parents finally sold it 2005 after many decades of enjoying this spot in paradise. Tom Bombadil was replaced with another restaurant long ago but their Mai Tai recipe lives on.  You need a lot of ingredients for this recipe. It's like a special occasion drink and takes some thought to make one. Thank goodness you can only drink one of these since they have 5 different types of alcohol in them.  Y...