Holiday Party Recipes

Hosting parties is one of my favorite things to do and I recently had a holiday cocktail party.  Many people asked for my recipes so I'm sharing many of them here along with pictures!

Let's start with the all important bar.  A well stocked bar makes for a great party and the whiskey punch was a big hit on this snowy night.  I usually let people try it before I let them know the ingredients because it's deceptively simple.  Empty a can of frozen lemonade into your punch bowl.  Then use the can as a measuring tool to add one can's worth of whiskey and two of seltzer. Mix and serve! 

Then comes the savory buffet...

• Deviled eggs
• Spicy stuffed mushrooms
• Spanakopita
• Mini Reuben sandwiches
• Smoked salmon cucumber boats
• Sweet potato and pecan purses (I substituted goat cheese for blue)
• Pears with blue cheese and prosciutto 
• Smokey and sweet kielbasa bites
• Antipasto skewers (not pictured)
• An assortment of dips and crackers (not pictured)

And not to be outdone, the sweets!

Almond wedges

Linzer cookies

Mini gingerbread cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese frosting

Pecan pie bites

All of which were accompanied by apple tart and eggnog panna cotta which escaped the camera. 

Parties are a great time to make memories.  But they also come with many memories built in.  The punch bowl was a gift from my friend Kristen and the drink tub a gift to Jake from my mom.  The flowers on the table were sent to me by my future mother-in-law.  The copper chafing dish was handed down to me by my grandfather.  I repurposed centerpieces from friends' weddings and showers as additional decor.  A cross-stitch piece of the twelve days of Christmas that my grandmother made hung in the window.  I remembered the last time I made those deviled eggs was for a lovely late summer picnic Jake and I had in Gloucester.  And the last time I wore the sparkly dress was to dinner after our engagement.   

I love the holidays and all the memories they bring, all the chances to spend with the people you care about.  Which is exactly why I love hosting a good party.  May your days be merry and bright and filled with delicious noshes and good company.  Merry Christmas everyone!

Friday Inspiration - 5 days 'til Christmas (gift guide for foodies!)

Okay last minute gift buyers, here's some options for the food lover in your life.  Amazon Prime and expedited shipping are your friend!

For The Baker 
Stonewall Kitchen has a huge variety of baking mixes, including gluten free options.

Red Velvet Whoopie Pie Mix, $8.95

For The Cheese Monger
Murray's Cheese offers monthly cheese clubs as well as gift baskets

Gift of the Mongers, $120

For The New Yorker 
Chelsea Market Baskets provide a variety of big apple treats, both sweet and savory.

Nosh Above and Beyond basket, $159

For The Tea Drinker 
What goes better with tea than honey?  The Savannah Bee Company offers a wide variety of flavors and honey products that anyone would enjoy.

Tea Lover's Gift Set, $25

For The Booze Hound 
The Boston Shaker is that great little neighborhood (located in Davis Square) that also sells and ships online.  Their huge variety of bitters is the first, but certainly not the only, reason to visit.

Scrappy's Bitters gift pack, $24

For the Chocolate Lover
You've heard me rave about L.A. Burdick's drinking chocolate before; now you can enjoy it in your own home!

Drinking Chocolate Collection, $87

Friday Inspiration - 12 days 'til Christmas (Gift Guide!)

So today I'm mixing it up.  In case you're in need of a last minute Christmas gift for someone with an appreciation for aesthetics I thought I'd provide you with a short gift guide to amp up the inspiration without losing any of the pretty. 

Open heart studs by Marc Jacobs for $42

Dip Bowls from West Elm for $4

Note cards from Rifle Paper Co. for $18

Glass pine cone ornaments from Crate&Barrel for $10.95

 

 

 

Friday Inspiration - 19 days 'til Christmas

It's the first Friday Inspiration in December, and for that I bring you a Blue Christmas.  Inspired by Elvis (sort of) and Christmas by the shore.  We spent last Christmas by the water, but this year we're back inland celebrating the holiday in my childhood home for the very last time before my parents become shorebirds permanently.  Don't forget to "like" my board, or I'll have to make a terrible pun about feeling blue...

Blue Christmas board by Sara. See more Minted.com

Friday Inspiration - 26 days 'til Christmas

This will be my first Christmas as an engaged lady.  I still remember the first tree we bought after we moved in together and how much it meant to me.  Jake carried the tree all the way up to our little apartment on the fifth floor and for me it represented everything about being a family and having a home together.  This board is about that feeling, that you can be "home" for the holidays in a new place all your own. So find your sweetie, give them a kiss under the mistletoe, and "like" my board!  Less than a month 'til Christmas!

new home for the holidays board by Sara. See more Minted.com

Friday Inspiration - 33 days 'til Christmas

It's a very vintage Christmas!  When I was younger I had the Molly American Girl Doll and I loved her stories of wartime Christmas celebrations. This is an ode to trimming the tree and looking forward to your loved ones coming home for the holidays!

Vintage Christmas board by Sara. See more holiday cards

Click the link above to help me win prizes.  Santa knows who's been a naughty or nice blog reader!

Friday Inspiration - 40 days 'til Christmas

It's the second installment of your Friday Inspiration and today we're pretty in pink!

This board is full of so many things I love: antique ornaments, glittery anything, and a slightly less traditional spin on a Christmas poinsettia.

Clink the link below the image and "like" my board and I promise I'll love you forever.

Pink Poinsettia board by Sara. See more holiday photo cards

Friday Inspiration - 47 days 'til Christmas

Too early for holiday inspiration?  Never!

I'll be counting down the days in an advent calendar of pretty, so check back every Friday for the latest design!

First up, a snowy board in honor of the first time snow has showed up in the ten day forecast. 

Let it Snow board by Sara. See more holiday cards on Minted

Click the "Let it Snow" link above and "like" my board to help me win prizes!

The Christmas of Unique Gifts

I have so many thoughtful, wonderful people in my life.  This year they bowled me over with unique Christmas gifts that I know I'll have for a lifetime.

Jake got me this beautiful stained glass window.  It's special to me for so many reasons.  It's a New York City skyline to remember the city we fell in love with and where we made our first home together.  He also commissioned it from my brother who made it by hand.

And Pam made me this amazing quilt out of all my old running shirts!  It reminds me of the off-track relay we ran together and came in last, the horrible race in the mud and rain in the Bronx, and our first ever invitational at Windham as freshmen mere days after 9/11.  She had to scheme with my mom to get all these shirts and then she turned them into this warm, sweatshirty quilt that I've had over my lap every day since I got back to Boston.

I love my gifts, and my boyfriend and best friend, dearly but now the pressure is on for each of their upcoming birthdays!

Amy's Beautiful Gingerbread House

We've already seen my sister's beautiful cakes and this Christmas she didn't disappoint with a beautiful gingerbread house.  It even includes snow dusted trees, a stone chimney, and candles in the windows.

But the best surprises were inside.  There was a licorice rug, a decorated Christmas tree, and even presents!

She also made beautiful sugar cookies: Swedish horses, golden sleighs, and embellished rocking horses. Her trick?  Patience and a tweezer.

Holiday Party Sweet Treats

I made a different treat each day leading up to the party.  In total, I made 233 cookies, enough for everyone at the party and Santa.

Sunday: Hugs pretzels 
Just lay out square pretzels on a wax paper lined cookie sheet and top each with a Hershey's Hug.  Put them in the oven at 170 degrees for about four minutes and then top with an M&M.  Salty and sweet and so easy. 

Monday: Chocolate Dreidels
More time-consuming than the pretzels, but not much harder - Attach a Hershey's Kiss to a marshmallow with chocolate, then insert a thin pretzel rod into the other side of the marshmallow.  Coat the entire "top" in chocolate, chill and then pipe on the Hebrew letters

Tuesday: Linzer Cookies
These cookies require a special cookie cutter that does the bottom cookie and the top cookie with the shape cut out of the middle.  You'll need to make equal numbers of each type, but I never end up counting correctly.  Make the cookies according to the recipe below and then fill them with blackberry preserves.

Ingedients:
Zest of 1 lemon
3/4 C. ground alnuts
1 C. sugar
3 1/2 C. Flour
3 sticks of butter, softened
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. salt

Blend together ingredients, roll dough and cut cookies, bake at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes or until cookies are golden brown, fill with delicious jam.

Wednesday: Iced Sugar Cookies
I love playing with colorful sugars, so I did the star of David cookies in blue, gave my snowmen black hats and did red stockings and green trees.  I also did striped candy canes and used peppermint frosting instead of vanilla to imitate the real thing!

Thursday: Italian Rainbow/7-Layer Cookies
These little squares, the colors of the Italian flag, come from making three very thin cakes and stacking them with layers of apricot jelly and topping it with a layer of melted chocolate.  

Friday: Cherry Walnut White Chocolate Chip Cookies
The best thing about this recipe is the touch of salt you can taste in the cookies, plus the fabulous chewy texture.  You can add whatever mix-ins you like.  Originally this was a recipe for chocolate chip cookies.

Ingredients:
2 1/4 C. Flour
2 large eggs
2 sticks of butter, softened
1/2 C. sugar
1 C. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Blend ingredients.  Add desired mix-ins.  Drop tablespoons of dough onto a cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown on the edges.  Mine took about 14 minutes, but some people's ovens take only 8-10 so I'd watch them carefully. 

Holiday Party Decor

I promised you more about my holiday party decor and here it is!  You already saw the centerpiece of it all, my tree, but I added lots of other festive details to get our place party-ready. 

I tied red satin ribbons to these adorable wreaths with pine cones and hung them on either side of my sliding glass doors. 

My grandfather sent me this needlepoint piece of the 12 days of Christmas that my grandmother made many years ago.  Christmas is all about family and traditions, so it was nice to have this handmade piece as a reminder of those things. 

I bought these fabulously glittery ornaments at the dollar store and Target and then one day when I came home Jake had artfully displayed them in our martini glasses alongside our lit garland.  They're so pretty and festive and sparkly, I'll keep them until New Year's Eve!

Holiday Party Feast

Happy holidays!  You already saw the invitations, and now here are the fruits of my holiday party labor!  In this picture you can see the prosciutto wrapped asparagus, the salmon mouse filled cucumber boats, hummus, and my beautiful copper chaffing dish filled with kielbasa in an apricot mustard sauce.  

The salmon boats were a big hit so I'm posting the recipe for you to try.  It's great in the cucumbers, but also tasty spread on, you guessed it, a bagel!

Ingredients: 

4 oz. Smoked salmon, chopped

1/2 C. Greek yogurt

1/4 C. Red onion, chopped

2 English cucumbers

Fresh dill

Combine the salmon, yogurt and onion in a food processor and pulse into just blended. Peel, halve and seed the cucumbers.  Cut cucumber halves into 1.5 inch pieces and fill with your salmon mousse.  Top with sprigs of dill.  

Above, you can see most of the rest of the spread including spinach dip with crackers and veggies, chicken satay with peanut and duck sauce, and a basket of biscuits - some have fig jam and gorgonzola inside while others have garlic and mozzarella.  

There were also mozzarella ball and grape tomato skewers, artichoke dip, and a selection of cheeses that didn't make the photos.  I made the table more festive with red candles, my lantern, two poinsettias and a tulle and ribbon table runner.  But more on the decor to come!

Happy Holidays from The Network

This is me, my co-workers and the Board of the National Network of Abortion Funds.  Every day women call us and our Funds when they are short on the money they need for an abortion.  They've already asked everyone they know to borrow money and sold everything of value that they own, from their text books to their wedding ring to their diaper bags for their children they already have and love.

A couple days ago we got a letter in the office from a woman who was about my age.  She had recently lost her first child at a very young age and was continuing to pay off the cost of the funeral home.  She had left an abusive relationship and was struggling to get her life back on track.  She was incredibly grateful that we were able to help her pay for her abortion.  But we didn't pay for it.  People like you did.

For many women and teens, a small amount of money is all that separates them and the life they imagined for themselves; it's all that separates them from being able to make their own decisions about their lives and their health and having to carry their pregnancy to term.

I really believe in what I do and in what we all do together at the National Network and that's why I gave a gift this year, to be there for women in need.  Maybe if you're in a position to do so you'll click here and join me too.  I promise you there will be women around the country who will be very grateful.

Holiday Party Excitement

In addition to my tree, the other holiday cheer in my life revolves around my upcoming holiday party.  I have an elaborate menu planned out and I promise there will be pictures and recipes to come.

But first things first: the invitation!  I have been wanting to buy real paper invitations for a long time now and I finally decided this was a great time to splurge.  Let me tell you, the enjoyment I got from them was worth every penny.  From the "oooh fancy" remarks when we asked for people's addresses to send snail mail invites, to merrily addressing them in my new gold paint pen, to the excited reaction when people got them in the mail,  I never knew I could find so much joy in paper! (Okay I suspected, but now I know.)

Decking the Halls with Christmas Memories

I love Christmas and I love having a real tree in my home.  I really believe that every tree can tell a story, and here is mine.  

This Santa is an Annalee doll; we've always had them in my home and when I think about Christmas I always remember my flannel sheets, Christmas blanket and my Annalee elf that wrapped around one of the posts of my bed.  On the right is an antique ornament, one of many that have been in our family for what feels like forever and are now split between me and my siblings.  

I was the first child.  It's pretty clear from these ornaments my grandfather made out of my photo.  Also, I received about a million different bear ornaments since people called me (and sometimes do still call me) Sara Bear or Sara Bear-a

Some of my early hobbies: violin and ballet

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             My donkeys!  The first because I'm an eternal pessimist and because we went to Disney World. The second to represent my 2004 summer in Boston and my progressive values.  Also a foreshadowing of my most recent move!

Hand-blown glass ornament made for me by my little brother.

One of my favorite ornaments in the bunch. I bought this to represent Jake and my first Christmas together in our own home.  

And if you happened to be wondering "Where are the bagels?" you just found one!  My classic order was a toasted sesame with scallion cream cheese. Mmmmm mmmm good.