Sylvia's Scenario

Of all the years we've been doing Super Bowl parties, I realized that I have not posted the recipe for the Super Bowl cookies that I always make.  The above photo are this year's cookies which were easy since both teams had the same colors.  I always make the cookies to go along with the two teams that are playing.  Sometimes the teams have intricate logos which are challenging.  If I was a professional cookie maker who used royal icing, the cookies would turn out perfect but I still use the old fashioned buttercream frosting because of the taste.  You can't beat the taste of buttercream on a good sugar cookie and these two pair so well together that I just can't bring myself to switch to royal icing.  Our friends prefer taste over looks, for good reason.  The cookies still make for lovely table decorations for a party.    Here are previous Super Bowl cookies from past years.  Can you guess what teams were playing in the Super Bowl? ...

We are starting our New Year on a spicy note, specifically with  Chicken Curry with Sweet Potatoes  that I made for dinner last night.  We forget how tasty some of the recipes are on my blog and this one is a favorite.  On New Year's Eve, we invited my friend to dinner who lives in the neighborhood and I made my  Chinese Chicken Salad  and  Won Tons .  Knowing my menu, she brought some Vegetable Egg Rolls with Peanut Sauce that was like a rolled up salad with the most delicious peanut sauce that was finger-licking good.  I especially had fun using my new dinner plates on New Year's Eve that Lauren gave me for Christmas from my favorite Seattle shop called Watson Kennedy . These dinner plates are their beige cabbage plates and I love them.  Setting the table brings such simple pleasure and joy when I get to use my new dinner plates.  It was a lovely, quaint evening sitting by the fire talking and getting ca...

I made several "new" recipes for Christmas dinner this year and after taking a poll, this was people's favorite item of the whole dinner! I know they don't look like much but these potatoes were amazing. They were like Twice Baked Potatoes only no skin. I wanted a potato dish that was flavorful enough that you could eat them plain with no gravy or anything on them and BINGO, these were it. And I wanted some that I could make ahead of time.  That was the theme of my Christmas dinner - Make Ahead.  On Christmas, you don't want to be spending all your time in the kitchen when you're hosting a Christmas party.  I want to be able to join in the fun!  We had ten people here for Christmas which is a small number for my family so thus, I felt like experimenting a bit.  We had our usual Mustard Crusted Beef Tenderloin   along with horseradish and mustard sauces, another new recipe for peas that was a hit, a green salad with pears and apple and pomegranate dress...

Wishing all of you the most wonderful holiday season, from our family to yours. 

I am still recovering from Thanksgiving and the food overload!  It was quite the delicious Thanksgiving this year.  Bruce's sister, Lynn, came for Thanksgiving since she had business to attend to this week in Seattle.  She arrived Wednesday before Thanksgiving when I made that most delicious  beef stew  from Ina Garten's cookbook, Back to Basics.  For dessert on Wednesday, I made another recipe from her cookbook, Cooking for Jeffrey, called Pumpkin Flan with Maple Caramel and it was amazing, thus I'm posting it on my blog.    I guess you could say I'm stuck on Ina Garten right now who is commonly known as the Barefoot Contessa.  I watch her cooking shows while I do my twice daily knee exercises and it really gets me in the mood to cook.  Bruce has been doing the cooking around here lately because my knee rehab has been taking me so much time.  I'm still going to physical therapy twice a week and also massage therapy twice a wee...