Christmas Party

We had my brother and his family over for dinner on Christmas. We served festive food.

Dinner:

Here is a picture of how the table looked, before we put the turkey out.

Instead of a vegetable tray, we had a veggie tree. I got the idea online. I used a styrofoam cone for the base and used toothpicks to secure the veggies.

I thought the kids would get a kick out of this penguin appetizer. I'd made it before and I think I originally got the idea on pinterest. The penguins were made with olives, cream cheese and carrots.

When I was a kid, we would often have cheeseballs with crackers around Christmas. So, I wanted to keep up that tradition. I got a jalapeno bacon cheese ball from Safeway and dressed it up to look like a snowman with chocolate chips and a carrot nose.

For the main course we had turkey, honey mustard, cranberry sandwiches. I formed the bread into a wreath shape and put a bow on top after it had finished baking. Here is a link to the bread recipe. I used all the ingredients and made one big loaf instead of 3. I baked it for 15 to 20 minutes.

This picture was taken before we put the turkey and lettuce out on the table.

Dessert:

For dessert we had a frozen peppermint ice cream / brownie dessert. It was topped with whip cream to look like snow, and a candy cane / gum drop to look like the north pole.

Memory Game:

After dinner we played a holiday version of the game "Memory." I put this game together last year for a cookie exchange party I hosted. Here is a link to the holiday game details. I added more ideas this year and gave less candy, since there were fewer people and I didn't want to load the kids up with too much candy. Here are some of the prizes I gave.

Santa's sleigh

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse

 

 

 

 

 

 Angel Food

Live Nativity

We went to see a live Nativity that the church put on in West Salem this year. It was outdoors. We walked along a path with stations. Each station had scriptures from the bible about the Saviors birth posted and read out load. Actors were in the distance. At the end of the path we came upon the "Stable" with Mary, Joesph and the baby Jesus (doll.)

"Angels" (young women) sang hymns in the background. There were animals too. They even had a camel and all the kids wanted to pet it.

Cookies and hot chocolate were served inside the church.

 There were a few rooms that displayed artwork. One room had pictures of the Savior and the second room had nativity scenes made out of different materials. There were people playing beautiful music on the piano in the rooms. I really felt the spirit while we were there and we both were so glad that we went.

My husband and I were introduced to a Walter Rane painting while we were there, that we had never seen before. It was of the Savior in 3rd Nephi, where he blesses the little children. It was so touching. Here is a link to the picture.

There was another picture on display of Mary holding the baby Jesus that I really liked too. It was a piece by Liz Lemon Swindles. Here is a link to the painting.

Christmas Lights + Hot Chocolate

I love traditions, especially Christmas traditions. One of my favorites is driving around, looking at Christmas lights, while drinking hot chocolate / steamers. We do this every year.

As you're heading into town from South Salem on Liberty, there is a church that goes all out with their light decorating. They even have Christmas music playing. We got out of the car and walked around a little bit this year so the baby could see the lights and while we were there we noticed that Santa was there too.
We all enjoyed the lights.

Grinch Themed Date

I love this time of year, Christmas time. We celebrate Christmas all month long and this year I've been trying to think of festive dates to incorporate into the season. So, here is the first one...a "Grinch" themed date.

I listened to the Grinch story on youtube to refresh my memory, before planning our date. I was reminded that the "who" people like to celebrate Christmas with a feast that includes: who-hash, who-pudding, and roast beast.

I wanted to recreate the "who" feast, but I also wanted to put something out on the table that would scream the Grinch (not literally.) That way my husband would know what we were doing when I surprised him with a table full of green food.

My husband loves quesadillas, so I thought to make Grinch ones using spinach tortilla wraps and an edible ink pen to create the face. The hat was made with sour cream and a roasted red bell pepper. I've included the full recipe and instructions at the very bottom of this post.

Who-Hash:

I seasoned hash browns with chipotle powder, garlic powder, and salt. I added red and green bell peppers to be festive.

Who-Pudding: 

I used pistachio pudding to create the who-pudding.

Roast Beast:

For the roast beast I made roast beef pinwheels using the spinach wraps, chipotle cream cheese, roasted red bell pepper, mango, green onions and cilantro. Here is the recipe I built on.

Here is a table of the book/movie inspired food that we had.

 The font I used is free and it's called Grinched. I did have some problems with it. The spacing was off so I had to cut and tape the words closer together on some signs.

I played the Grinch song for our date too. My husband was actually singing the Grinch song on the morning of our date. I thought I had given the surprise away somehow, but found out that he didn't know I had planned a Grinch themed date for that evening.

My husband was really impressed with the Grinch quesadilla. He said that it was 110% Grinch. He thought it was very artistic and that I should put it on pinterest.

I couldn't talk him into watching the Grinch movie, because we have seen it so many times and he didn't want to watch it again. That was okay though, because I wasn't super excited about watching the movie either. We went out and got a Christmas tree instead.

Grinch Quesadilla Recipe

Face

4 Spinach tortilla wraps (will make 2 Grinch quesadillas)

1 can black beans

1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp chipotle powder

1 Tbsp salsa

1-2 chicken breasts

cheese

edible ink pen

Eyes

Yellow bell pepper

olive

Hat

roasted red bell pepper

sour cream (pipe it on)

Enlarge this image on your computer. Trace the face and eyes onto a piece of paper from your computer screen. Cut out the image. Place it on the tortilla, use an edible ink marker to trace the face on the wrap. Cut the tortilla with scissors. You'll have to draw the face details on, free hand.

Quesadilla Filling

Drain and rinse black beans. Mash the beans and season them with cumin, chipotle powder and salsa. Cook and cut up chicken. Put bean mixture on one tortilla and back at 350 for 5 minute. Add chicken and back for another 2 or 3 minutes. Add cheese and top tortilla (Grinches face) and cook for 2 min.

Thanksgiving Themed Date

I thought it would be fun to celebrate Thanksgiving a few days early, alone, with my husband. We'll get together with my side of the family on the actual holiday.

It seems like every year, around this time, my husband will suggest that we make a turkey cranberry wreath. It's a Pampered Chef recipe. Anyway, I decided to stuff the filling inside this roll recipe and make them look festive...like turkeys. 

I'm pretty proud of myself for coming up with this cute turkey idea, well...except for the feather idea, that came from the ever popular turkey melon appetizer. My husband thought they looked very pinteresty.

To decorate the turkeys face, I used chocolate chips, a carrot and red bell pepper. The actual head is a small roll I baked. Most of the parts were secured with tooth picks or shish kabob sticks.

Here is a picture of the filling that was stuffed inside the rolls. The flavor combination is really good. Oh, I should tell you that I use 3 Tbsp of cranberry sauce instead of dried cranberries. I add an extra Tbsp of honey mustard and I think that is all of the adjustments I make.

For dessert, I made cookies that look like corn. I used this cookie recipe. The corn cookie idea came from pinterest. For the leaves, I used green gum drop like candy instead of fruit roll ups though.

 

We had an appetizer too. I dyed hummus orange with food coloring and made it look like a pumpkin. I served it with chips that look like thanksgiving fruit baskets.

 Here is a picture of what the table looked like. Well, minus one turkey roll.

Here is a picture of the two I made for our date.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Norwegian Dinner Date

I love  traditions, especially holiday traditions. Lately, I've been thinking about how it would be fun to learn more about the holiday traditions of other countries. Then I came across some pins on pinterest for a Norwegian Christmas meal. There was mashed rutabaga, sweet and sour cabbage, and a delicious looking pastry called skolleboller.

The pastry is really what sold me on having a Norwegian themed dinner date, because they looked fantastic and cardamom is in the recipe, which is one of our favorite spices.

The pastries can be served in smaller cookie sized portions or in larger doughnut sized portions.  They are baked with a custard filling, then they are covered in a sugar icing and coconut topping.

The smell of cardamom sugar filled the air while they were baking. It was a heavenly aroma. I thought they turned out great, but I think a cream cheesy danish filling might be better. My husband liked them too.

For dinner we had mashed rutabaga, sweet and sour cabbage, and sausage (we used tofu.)

The dinner was interesting. The mashed rutabaga was very similar to mashed potatoes and the sweet cabbage was very similar to purple cabbage.

Recipes
Mashed Rutabaga Recipe
Sweet & Sour Cabbage Recipe (I omitted the bacon/flour/water. I used red wine vinegar instead of regular vinegar and added a 3 Tbsp of canola oil.)
Skolleboller Recipe

Ratatouille Themed Date

Ratatouille is one of our favorite animated movies. It has a lighthearted fun storyline that makes me laugh every time I watch it. I like the music and how it's set in Paris too.

For our date, I surprised my husband with this french movie inspired dinner. I had french music (Alizze) playing in the background. We waited until the baby went down before we watched the movie.

Dinner:

I wanted to serve ratatouille like they do in the movie, but I thought it would make a better side dish. So, I bought cordon blue at Roth's grocery for the main dish.

This is how the ratatouille looked before I covered it in cheese. I've included the recipe for it below.

Here's a close up of what it looked like with cheese.

For dessert, I made macarons using this recipe. The cookies are hard to get right, and mine weren't perfect, but I liked the flavor and texture.

 Just this week, before our date, my husband quoted the movie saying, "if I don't love it, I don't swallow." I thought it was so funny/ironic and it made me think to print out the quote and put it on the table for our date.

The date was suppose to be a surprise, but my husband guessed the theme of it when he saw sliced veggies on the counter. I'm not surprised, because I've made ratatouille before, when I was trying to eat more veggies.

The flavor combination between the ratatouille and cordon blue was fantastic. I will definitely make this dinner again. Here is the recipe for the ratatouille I made.

Ratatouille
3 large red potatoes, sliced
1 yellow squash, sliced
1 zucchini, sliced
2 Tbsp oil
2 Tbsp mustard (I used spicy)
1/2 tsp salt

Mix everything together. Put veggies in a single row in the oven. I baked them at 400 degrees and turned them every 10 minutes until they started to brown. When they finished baking, I put them in a glass oven safe bowl, covered them with a cheddar cheese blend and baked the dish until the cheese had melted.

Note - You can cook the veggies at a higher temp (450 to 475.) Just check them often so they don't burn. I cooked them at 400 degrees, because I was cooking them with the cordon blue in the oven.

Inception Themed Date

Inception is one of our favorite movies. It's a little complicated, but the unique and creative story line really sets it apart from other movies, in my opinion. It had been awhile since we had seen the movie and I felt like it was time to watch it again. I knew my husband would enjoy an "Inception" themed date, so I surprised him with one.

Here is a picture of the movie inspired food I made. I had the soundtrack playing in the background.

The movie is all about dreams. People can share dreams and the person who creates the dream world (maze) is known as the architect.

I thought it would be fun to create a food maze. I used bite size pieces of pizza for the project. I thought about using larger slices, but it would have made the maze too big. My idea for this particular maze came from here (Wikipedia.)

In the movie, dreamers can go into different layers of dreams, which is referred to as a "dream within a dream." Time is faster in the dream world and speeds up with each layer. The characters in the movie go down 4 dream layers to do inception.

For our date, I made a dessert to represent the "dream within a dream" idea. It was a circular peanut butter rice crispy treat. I tented batches of it with food coloring to create layers. See recipe below...

 

A totem is a small object used by the characters in the movie, to tell whether they are in a dream or not. I used chocolate kisses to make my totems (one on top, one on bottom, glued together with chocolate.)

The quote hanging above the food table is pictured below. Here is a video link to that part of the movie. This video clip may seem odd if you haven't watched the movie. So, I'll explain...dreamers have to die or get a "kick" in order to wake up from their dreams.

One of the props in the movie, is a pinwheel and we happen to have a pinwheel at home. The baby plays with it. I thought it would be fun to put it on the table, but I forgot. I ended up bringing it out during the movie though.

My husband guessed the theme of our date after reading the quote above our table out loud. It was fun to see his reaction. Then we enjoyed the dinner and watched the movie later on that night.

Rice Crispy Recipe
Each layer was made by heating up 2 cups of marshmallows in the microwave for 45 seconds, then adding 2 Tbsp of peanut butter, a few drops of food coloring, and 2 cups of rice crispys.