Archives for November 2006

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to be doing some posts under the heading Keeping Holidays Simple. Everyone likes to entertain, but with the holiday craziness, we still need to keep our wits about us so we can fully enjoy the fesitivies. That’s the impetus behind the Keeping Holidays Simple series you’ll be reading here; I’ll be popping it in from time to time.

Apptizers and pre-dinner munchies have always been a favorite part of the meal, for both me and my mom. Whether we’re planning the menu ourselves, or even just getting take-out, that part of the meal always gets as much focus as the main course and side dishes, sometimes more. When we order dinner from the “chicken and rice man” (aka Chinese takeout), I very rarely choose an entree. Instead, I opt for a few appetizers. Same thing with Indian food.

Appetizer parties are a great timesaver if you want to entertain during the holiday season, but keep your time with your guests, instead of in the kitchen. When entertaining, there are a lot of appetizers that you can make ahead and freeze, saving you valuable time. Appetizers are also easy for guests to eat, requires less plates and utensils and heck, is just more fun!

But if you have an appetizer party, what do you do about dessert? There are lots of different ways to go. You could keep the “just pop them in your mouth” theme and do platters of cookies and brownies and such, or you could make mini desserts. Or…. for something more fun, definitely out of the ordinary and something you won’t see at every other party you go to, how about a Hot Chocolate Bar? I saw the idea in a magazine recently and it is too cute to pass up.
Arrange thermal carafes of hot chocolate with stacks of mugs, and do-it-yourself accompaniments, like chunks of white, milk and dark chocolate, marshmallows (of course!), cinnamon sticks, candy cane sticks, fresh whipped cream and liqueurs like Kahlua, Baileys and Godiva. Fun, festive and everyone’s not doing it. Go set the newest trend in motion.

Until tomorrow…

A year ago today… last day of vacation.

OK folks, this is going to be a quick post because I am beat. Beyond beat. We’re 0 for 3 this week … The Husband has a sprained knee, I went to the doctor today and have tonsillitis and Nicholas is still suffering through bronchitis. Never a dull moment in the Sweetnicks household, but ’tis the season. ;) Now onto food for a minute…

Although I am fully taking the time to enjoy Thanksgiving (no blithely skipping past holidays here!), this is the time of year where I start looking for gift giving ideas, particularly the small homemade food sort that I can give to neighbors, mailman, teachers, UPS guy, etc. I came across a recipe yesterday for Maple-Glazed Walnuts from Ellie Krieger of FoodTV Network. It took just seconds to whip up a batch last night and would look very cute in a small glass jar with a mini spoon attached, bedecked with festive ribbons. I’m looking for a nut recipe that’s more to the crunchy side, and this isn’t, but this one is perfect for serving over ice cream. For a simple gift idea, buy a set of four pretty ice cream dishes, a container of jimmies and make a batch of these and package it up nicely in a basket with a big festive napking. Easy, right?

Until tomorrow…

A year ago today … sigh … still vacation, and given the torrential downpours we’re having tonight, Bermuda is looking mighty fine.

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I cannot believe Thanksgiving is next week already – where the heck has time gone? You know what kills me though? The fact that it’s not even Thanksgiving yet and people already have Christmas decorations up! Honestly. I get that retail feels the need to do it, but regular homeowners with white Christmas lights up and blinking already? Geesh. People, slow down!

I finally took a few minutes to plan out the Thanksgiving menu for next week, and think I have it all covered except for dessert. I’m keeping some of the same things as last year, particularly because I remember it being a very relaxed day, and I’m all for that these days. I’m definitely open to any dessert suggestions you have — fire away!

Now speaking of Thanksgiving, Rachael Ray did a recent episode all about throwing kids’ parties and decorating for them, and her guest had some fabulous ideas that I am going to use. She used a frisbee for a plate (great parting gift), two coloring book pages taped together as the placemat, a bright colored washcloth as the napkin and Cooties (remember them?) as the napkin ring. How cool is that? I might win a Very Cool Mom Award… maybe, just maybe.

Until tomorrow… c’mon, fess up, whatcha making for Thanksgiving?

A year ago today… sigh … vacation, arrival in Bermuda.

That, my dear readers, is a boy with bronchitis. Poor Nicholas. He’s had this nagging cough for over a week now, and after many, many doses of Pediacare, I took him to the doctor today. He’s got the sniffles a bit too, but no other symptoms.

I’m glad I took him because as soon as she listened to his chest, she immediately said, “bronchitis.” Poor baby. While we waited for his prescription to be filled at the pharmacy, we loaded up on the essentials … a how to draw Dora and friends book, a mega pack of crayons, Rice Krispie treats, a Hershey Bar, Dora soup.

He hasn’t been sleeping much the past few days, because the cough has been waking him up many times during the night, but now, he’s finally crashed. Poor baby. Off to watch him sleep, one of my favorite things to do.

Until tomorrow…

P.S. Dinner tonight? Spinach Cheese Squares and No Peek Casserole. Yum.

Double-post alert … second Sunday post below.

A very fun-filled, family kind of day. We got bagels and had a picnic in the park for breakfast and then went to two farms, making sure to spend time outside before the rain arrived. One of the farms we went to has animals that you can feed, and Nicholas was dying to go. They got some new animals in recently, including this adorable baby cow – check out how big her eyes are (and the eyelashes were amazing!). I keep calling her a her, although I suspect it might be a male, given the two little stumps beginning to form on her/his head … too pretty to be a boy! Susan, what do you think?

There was also a llama (or maybe an alpaca? I get them confused sometimes) sharing the pen with the baby cow. The llama was a little skittish and took awhile to warm up to us, but once she (yep, they’re all going to be girls today) saw we had carrots, she deemed us safe and worthy. Her teeth cracked me up and, again, those eyelashes! I would love to take the baby cow home, but methinks The Husband would object.

Tonight we had dinner at The Newlywed Neighbors’ house. As soon as we walked in, the delicious smell of hot steak wafted through the air. Rounding out the meal with a mixed salad, mashed potatoes (perfect comfort food – love them!) and green beans, it definitely hit the spot.

I promised to bring dessert tonight, and made one of The Husband’s favorites, Gooey Butter Cakes. There are a bunch of varieties of the Gooey Butter Cakes (a Paula Deen recipe), but oddly enough, this original version is the favorite amongst The Husband, my Dad and The Brother-in-Law, confirmed chocoholics that they are.

Speaking of chocolate, knowing that The Newlywed Husband likes chocolate, I also made something else (scroll down for tonight’s second post to see what else I made). And that picture of Darth Vader below? That’s The Newlywed Neighbor Husband having fun on Halloween. Unfortunately we didn’t get nearly as many kids trick-or-treating this year as in the past, but the kids that did come definitely got a kick out of him joining in the fun; I promise to finally post Nicholas’ picture tomorrow. ;)

Alright, all for tonight. Until tomorrow…

A year ago today… dinner with the other Neighbors.

And speaking of Susan, her pup from Farmgirl Fare starts off a very small group this weekend:

Frankie and Fred from Experimentation of Taste hide out from the rain:

Princess, from Free Range Living in Canada, celebrates a birthday in style:

The trio from Dispensing Happiness in Tennessee take in a lazy weekend:

Simba from Up a Creek Without a PatL:

And last, our lovable Eli at the park today. We took a bunch of pictures for a calendar I’m putting together (details to follow later in the week) and by the end, he had had enough of posing pretty for the camera:

When I get an e-mail asking if I want to review a new-to-the-bookshelves cookbook, I don’t need to be asked twice. The big fat Baking: From My Home to Yours cookbook landed on my porch with a thud. And when I say big and fat, I mean it.

Now, truth be told, although I love to bake, if I saw this cookbook on my own, I most likely would have passed it up, because at first glance, the recipes look long, really long. Long take-all-afternoon recipes are just not my style. Sure, I’ve got plenty of them in my library and my tried-and-true pile, but I keep those types of recipes at a minimum. Believe me, I’m not in the Sandra Lee camp either, just somewhere in the middle. While I like for a recipe to have that cooked-all-day taste, I’m not going to cook all day. All that being said, while the recipes in this book may look long, truth be told, they weren’t really. Well, ok, some are, but there’s a happy medium. There’s snippets of conversational pieces intermingled with the recipes (i.e., “don’t worry if the batter looks grainy”), that while that takes up space, it doesn’t take up your time (and the reassurances and things of that nature are nice to have, because I was worrying about the grainy texture in the batter I made!).

That aside, this cookbook will still get a happy, big, fat spot on my bookshelf and will definitely get used – I might have missed out on this one had it not been for the opportunity to review it. A whopping 528 pages, it’s one of those all-purpose cookbooks that has its place. No matter what you’re looking for, you’ll find it here, and it’s a great go-to source, even filled with anecdotes throughout, and that’s usually my favorite part.

The author is Dorie Greenspan. You might recognize the name from the best-selling book, Baking With Julia, and a plethora of others. She’s also been featured in Elle Magazine and the New York Times plenty, and remains a contributor to Bon Appetit. If you don’t know her, you probably know her work as she’s seemingly everywhere.

We went to dinner at The Newlywed Neighbors house tonight, and I promised to bring dessert. I made one recipe that is a favorite of The Husband’s, Gooey Butter Cakes, but knowing that The Newlywed Neighbor Husband is fond of chocolate, I wanted to make sure to include something that had that as an ingredient, and turned to this new cookbook.

Once I spied the recipe for Quintuple Chocolate Brownies, the search was over. With cocoa, semisweet, bittersweet and white chocolate, how could it go wrong? Well, it didn’t. Though I will say, even after refrigerating for twice the recommended time, they didn’t cut very neatly, but they were fudgy, chocolatey and downright delicious. There was more than a hint of either cocoa or the bittersweet chocolate in the brownie though, so when making again, I might experiment with a slight change.

The picture on the cover of the book is Devil’s Food White-Out Cake. You’ll also find recipes for Pecan Sour Cream Biscuits, Midnight Crackles, Granola Grabbers, Ginger-Jazzed Brownies, Brownie Buttons, World Peace Cookies, Cocoa Almond Meringues, Tiramisu Cake, Peanut Butter Torte, Peppermint Cream Puff Ring, Tarte Tatin, Thanksgiving Twofer Pie, Honey Almond Fig Tart and hundreds of others.

Happy reading!…

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During the week, I spend most of the day at my parents’ house, mom-sitting. Although she is home from the hospital, she still can’t really stay home alone, at least not for extended periods of time, so I’ve been spending a lot of time there. It’s also been a great time to catch up on my magazine backlog – I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel. Earlier in the week, I was reading an issue of Fresh magazine (an import), and a soup recipe caught my eye. Generally mid-November would be perfect soup weather, but, of course, the last couple of days, it’s been in the 70s. Go figure.

Anyways, back to the story. I spied a recipe for Camembert and Champagne Soup. How can you not gravitate to something like that? Very simple to make, it’s smooth and creamy, but not overly rich. It was just right. Rachael Ray made a recipe recently that looked divine … Really French, French Bread Pizza, oozing with dark, golden sauteed mushrooms and melty cheese. This one is from her new cookbook, 2, 4, 6, 8: Great Meals for Couples or Crowds. Even though I’m the only one in the house that will eat mushrooms, I made it anyway, sending the kids over to The Newlywed Neighbors with half of it. And lastly, Nicholas has been on a major salad kick this week, and who am I to ignore that? I wanted to make a Greek salad for him, since it’s one of his favorites, and found the perfect recipe … Chopped Greek Salad with Feta and Olives. He gobbled it up.

Tomorrow … baking.

Before I go, remember those Lean Cuisine insulated lunch tote bags that I mentioned back here? I wasn’t paying attention to how many I ordered and ended up with 2 extra. If anyone is interested, drop me a line. They’re $10/each, including shipping (and half the money went to the Susan G. Komen Foundation). They’re very cute and no longer available. If you look on the Lean Cuisine site, the ones I have are pictured on the far left.

Until tomorrow… 

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I love the holidays, plain and simple. And really, who doesn’t? Even more so now that I have a child. It’s all completely different when seeing everything through Nicholas’ eyes.

I can quickly spout off a million other reasons why I love the holidays, and, of course, spending time with family and friends being first and foremost. But what else is in my Top 10? The onslaught of holiday magazines.

Regular readers already know I’m a bit of a magazine addict. There’s no denying it. I make no apologies as there are far worse (and expensive!) things I could be addicted to. But holiday magazines? Talk about a weak spot! And this year, there is w-a-y more of them than I’ve ever seen in past years. We’re barely into November and I’ve managed to find a dozen already. And that’s not including the holiday appetizer ones (particular favorites) that come out this time of year. Mercy me.

So, c’mon, confession time. What makes YOU weak in the knees?

Until tomorrow…

A year ago today…cinnamon hits the Supper Club.

So I came upstairs last night, intending to watch a few minutes of TV before coming back to work. Before I knew it, I was out cold, still in my clothes. It’s been a long week. I’d say I was burning the candle at both ends lately, but I’m convinced my candle has more than 2 ends. I’ll be back tonight. Until then…

OK folks, you might have seen his plea for help in the comments section yesterday … help out the fella. Show The Neighbor Husband alternatives to Sandra Lee. He’d be forever grateful, and so would we!

Here’s the skinny: The past couple weekends that we’ve gotten together for our dinner with The Neighbors, we’ve done a soup and sandwich thing with munchies, keeping it easy. The Neighbor Husband has been taking over the sandwich portion of the meal and wants suggestions. I know you guys can help him – let’s show him just how much. Have a favorite recipe you’d like to share? Have something that will leave him (and us) hungry for more? This is your big opportunity to show him ways beyond good ‘ol Sandra Lee, but in her immortal words, “Keep it simple.”  

A year ago today… my new sink!