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.

St. Germain Cocktails

I've seen more and more specialty cocktail lists featuring drinks with St. Germain lately.  I had never heard of the concoction but I enjoyed all the drinks I tried with this intriguing sounding liquer.  St. Germain, I have since learned, is a French, elderflower spirit.  And it is delicious.  


Just this past weekend I had a Sparkling Pear cocktail at Sandrine's that was Grey Goose Poire, St. Germain, and cremant de bourgogne.  It had great pear flavor and none of the sharpness I expected from such a vodka-centric cocktail.  


In my exploration of paper and blogs I found this recipe for The Vieux Mot on http://ohsobeautifulpaper.com/.  

1 oz Gin
1 oz St-Germain
3/4 oz Lemon Juice
1/4 oz Sim­ple Syrup
1/4 oz Cointreau

Sounds yummy, no?  And then there's the Yellow Bicycle which is a half ounce each of St. Germain and Yellow Chartreuse with 4 ounces of Prosecco.  


A friend also gave me a tear-out of cocktail recipes from a St. Germain ad - what ingenious advertising!  It features such treats as the Elderfashioned which is 1/2 part St. Germain, 2 parts bourbon and 2 dashes of Angostura Bitters.  Or the classic St. Germain and Champagne, which in addition to being as simple to make as it sounds, also rhymes!  Add some Chambord and a blackberry for a delicious riff on a Kir Royale.  

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.)

New Year's Eve and My Addiction to Bad Movies

Why do I want to see New Year's Eve?  I'm not sure.  I should have learned my lesson after Valentine's Day.  But sometimes awful movies are awfully awesome.  Sex and the City 2 comes to mind.  I mean, I watch Jersey Shore people!

All I can think is "How cute!" and "How funny!" and "But what an amazing cast!" "Zac Efron is so dreamy!" And I know that's what they want me to think.  I know it's a ruse.  And yet...who wants to go with me?

Whaling Ships and Letterpress at Mystic Seaport

A few weeks ago I went to visit my parents in Stonington.  We went to Mystic Seaport where you can walk around a preserved maritime village and board the last remaining American whaling ship.  

This is the hull of the Charles W. Morgan, currently being restored.  It is the last remaining American whaling ship in existence and you can board and tour it even as it is being restored!

My favorite shop in the village was the old printing press.  Can you see the cases of letters on the left?  All the large letters are in the "upper case" and all the small letters are in the "lower case."  You learn something new every day.  

They still do their own letterpress printing by hand here and they created these beautiful sheets about the Charles W. Morgan.  So authentic and so pretty!

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.  

Rick Perry Doesn't Know the Voting Age

I love a good train wreck so I really love this Republican primary.  

If only this was the dumbest thing to come from a Republican primary candidate.