22 Dec, 2008
Our first holiday dinner was relatively simple, and as such, the main course had to be pretty good. My photos of the meal are horrific, as I was prepping the dishes and doing the final cooking and slicing and nearly forgot to take snapshots with my camera. I don’t like to take…
22 Dec, 2008
The nuances of seating your guests at a formal dinner at home is more complicated than it seems. It appears to be a throwback to a previous century, but table assignments do often make a difference to the conversation at the dinner table. While we often tell our guests to come dressed…
22 Dec, 2008
We had our first sit-down holiday dinner last week. We have only two planned this holiday season, down from the usual 5-6 meals with say 10-12 guests. This first dinner we decided to use our blue tablecloth as the base color for the setting, and everything pretty much took off from there….
21 Dec, 2008
You may think I am just “pulling your leg,” but I am not, our Christmas tree, which was cut a couple of months ago, is actually growing… Cut and bundled up just as the weather in the Northwest United States was getting chilly, these trees were then packed into a refrigerated container and…
21 Dec, 2008
I have had a hankering for rhubarb for the past two months. There is just something so appealing about a rhubarb dessert, usually a wonderful mix of tart and sweet, with a unique pale burgundy or pink color, and a flavor that is so distinctive… I waxed poetic about locally grown rhubarb…
20 Dec, 2008
Originally from Vienna, very elegant and a family favorite…
20 Dec, 2008
A good friend sent this link to a video that was absolutely hilarious. But perhaps more hilarious were the resulting witty barbs and emails that went flying back and forth from the group of recipients (all males) as a result… If you want a really good laugh, click on the link and enjoy!…
19 Dec, 2008
Panettone for Maria Maffia
Maria was 94 when she passed away a few years ago and she loved panettone which I made for her during the holidays. To the end she retained her sense of humour and her kind, forgiving nature, and lived independently within very limited means but always with a deep enjoyment…