Tag Archives: holidays

Easter

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Easter dessertsEaster is one of those easy family holidays that Easter treatsgives you lots of bang for your buck — if Christmas is the stress-inducing standard then Easter falls somewhere above Valentine’s Day but below birthdays. Well, that’s my opinion today anyway, when I’m a few years past midnight hours of frantically finishing Easter dresses for my two daughters and managing the Easter-morning chaos of baskets and eggs before church. At least the food is still easy, with Easter bake sales everywhere. I found these goodies at the Empty Bowl luncheon this past week sponsored by the Salvation Army Auxiliary in Florence, Alabama. From works-of-art cakes worthy of Easter dinner to peanut-butter fudge for munching as you did more shopping, there was something for everybody. Hope everyone has a stress-free and photo-op-filled Easter weekend, with chocolate bunnies for all!

A Week of Spring — Easter Candy

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Easter candyWelcome to day No. 3 in A Week of Spring. I love Easter Easter candycandy! Well, not really the candy part — I’ll take a bar of deep rich dark Green and Black’s over a milky chocolate bunny any time — but the oh-so-cute and whimsical spring-time packaging always makes me smile. And who wouldn’t? Fresh Market has an overflowing abundance of Easter candy this year and I can’t help but picture adorable Easter baskets filled with Easter Candyall sorts of sweets and treats. I think it’s the fascination of boxes and wrappings and what-wonderful-things-could-be-inside that’s so intriguing. And I probably have passed that on to my Easter candydaughters, who are in their 20s but still delight in candy-laden Easter baskets … although they rarely eat it all.  Since they’re vegetarians, we’ve banished Peeps but anything with caramel, fudge, peanut butter or vanilla creamy goodness at least gets a nibble. We’ll see if my 1-year-old grandson carries on the family tradition — I’m betting one bite won’t be enough for him! Come back tomorrow for day No. 4 in A Week of Spring.

Music

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CD mixes -- The SmithereensMy husband is the best CD mixer ever. I think it stems from his CD mixes -- Art Garfunkelwide-ranging curiosity about all things pop culture. He’s open to every music genre and has an encyclopedic knowledge of who recorded what and when, where and with whom. He even made tape mixes back in the olden days — not easy! But now he’s got CDs and computers and iTunes and he comes up with some brilliant mixes. (In fact, five years later people still say that the mix he created for our wedding favors was the best. Ever.) So you can guess what my Valentine’s present was: A lovely, lovely mix of some beautifully quirky love songs. Like The Smithereens’ “A Girl Like You” and Art Garfunkel’s “I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever).” There’s also “Message of Love” by The Pretenders, “This and That” from Michael Penn,Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris’s “This Is Us” and some Fleetwood Mac, Bruce Springsteen and Van Morrison plus a song I’ve never heard, “Renaissance Eyes” by Don Dixon. This CD is a keeper. My husband, too.

Valentine’s Day Gifts

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See's Red Satin HeartSee's best Valentine's candyForget eggs Benedict and mimosas — the contents of a See’s Candies Red Satin Heart make the best Valentine’s breakfast. Ever. My favorites are the lemon and raspberry truffles, the luscious and buttercreamy Bordeauxs and the milk molasses chips. Yes, indeedy. I’m telling you that See’s is the most-accessible best candy ever. Your local mall probably has a See’s kiosk set up this weekend — it’s the one with the six-deep crowd gathered around it today. Be a Valentine to yourself and indulge. Just save the Rum Nougat and the Dark Chocolate Butter for me, please. Visit http://www.sees.com for more.

My son-in-law, a high-school art teacher, is one of the best artists I know. He does pottery, drawings, prints, etchings, Jason Behel artworkJason Behel artworkphotography and just about anything else he decides he wants to explore. He’s a big, bald sort of scary-looking guy who you’d never suspect could create such beautiful and whimsical art work. Such as this Valentine’s Day card he made for his wife/my daughter. He made it from heavy cardstock and treated the outside to resemble a piece of finely worked leatherwork. When you “unlock” it, the card opens to reveal an intricate cutout scene of their little Jason Behel artworkfamily — the two of them and their 10-month-baby who’s also known as Cutest Grandbaby Ever and Capt. Adorable — and a heartfelt message. It made my daughter tear up. And ask him why he’d made her arms so long. A minor detail (and she does sort of have long arms). Anyway, I wish I had a tenth of this talent. Also, I wish that they could move right next door to me and he could spend all his time doing art that would sell for enough money that would make them comfortably happy and they could take care of their families and we could all sit around all day eating See’s candy and being extremely grateful for our good fortune. Also, I wish everybody a happy Valentine’s Day — which seems a little more attainable.

Valentine’s Day

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Last minute Valentine's Day giftsToday combines two significant calendar dates: Friday the 13th and lingerie for Valentine's DayValentine’s Eve. And that makes sense, because it surely will be bad luck for any man who forgets how important tomorrow is. I’m not sure why Valentine’s Day shopping is so tough for most men. I mean, it’s shopping. It’s buying something pretty and sweet and lovely and romantic for your pretty and lovely and romantic sweetheart. How hard can that be? Luckily, my husband is a good sport and he answers all our why-did-my-husband-buy-me-a-new-Dustbuster-for-Valentine’s-Day questions in my column in the TimesDaily today, http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20090213/ARTICLES/902130309

Valentine’s Day

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Heart cookies for Valentine's DayIn an effort to demonstrate to my husband that I can be responsible Praeventia cookiesand frugal, I’ve stayed out of Target recently because I can’t go there without spending at least $50 — even when I had no intention of buying anything. (But it’s all cute stuff I’ll probably most likely need sometime maybe! And at a fantastic price!) But over at http://www.suburbanmatron.com/, Becky’s obsession hunt for the new Orla Kiely line got me curious, so I wandered into our local Target purely for research purposes and to help out a bloggy Orla Kiely friend. And she’s right: There’s disappointingly little of the Orla Kiely things available — a few storage boxes and closet organizers. That’s too bad, since her prints are so fresh and cheerful and springlike. I would have loved to have loaded up my cart with the Melamine dishes that look so wonderful online but are backordered several weeks. But it was not to be. (Insert here the sound of my husband sighing in relief.) So I was forced to wander around and buy look at other things. That’s how I found my new favorite snack: Praeventia cookies. Am I the only one who’s never heard of these?They’re made from whole oats and other good-for-you things — red wine, cocoa, green tea, orange zest — and come in handy pouches so you have to think before you devour the whole box. Plus, they’re satisfyingly tasty and crunchy. The best part? The shape! I’m telling you, those little hearts just make you smile to look at them. They’re perfect for Valentine’s Day, too. I found them in the cookie aisle at my Target and I’m going back for more. Just don’t tell my husband.

Valentine’s Day

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valentines-day-0161It was Valentine’s elegance when my friend Susan hosted valentines-day-018cooking club. She and her daughter-in-law are the most creative people I know. They excel in using simple everyday items in innovative ways. Like these table decorations. Mixed in with the shiny heart garlands are vintage costume jewelry and clear goblets filled with water and topped with upside-down silver Christmas-tree balls for some metallic reflection.They then tied everything together with valentines-day-020red and white linens. And see those white cards on the table? Those were our place cards. Susan had written “What I love about you …” descriptions for each of us. We had to read them all and guess which one went to which person. Fun, fun, fun! Valentine’s touches were valentines-day-025everywhere, like the red ribbon Susan tied around the cake stand to highlight the heart-topped petit fours. Now, I know that up North petit fours are what y’all call those little torte-like cakes, but here in the South (well, at least my part of it), petit fours are tiny two-bite-sized cupcakes with melt-in-your-mouth icing decorated with colors and themes of your choice. The best come from Victorian Tea Room in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. No occasion around here is complete unless there are Victorian Tea Room petit fours. Visit http://www.victoriantearoomcatering.com, tell them Cathy sent you and you valentines-day-030valentines-day-0191might talk them into shipping you some. Susan even gave us extras in the Valentine’s candy boxes she gave us that also has miniature fudgy brownies and heart-shaped mini pink chocolate-chip cookies. Almost too pretty to eat. Almost. She got the boxes at our local big-box arts and crafts store, but almost everything else was what she had on hand. We were all impressed and felt special and pampered. We also immediately assured our newest member most of our cooking-club meetings are not like this. In fact, when it’s at my house everyone’s just happy I remember to vacuum up the cat hair. But we’re glad we’ve got people like Susan to show us how it should be done.

Photo Gifts

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photo-books-003It’s not Valentine’s Day yet but you know you need to think photo-books-0061about those other gift-giving occasions coming up — weddings, graduations, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and family reunions. Want to earn fame as the best gift-giver ever? Two words: Photo books. Our older daughter and her husband gave us two for Christmas, and they top my grab-in-case-of-fire list (daughter and her husband as well as photo books, of course). I had seen these done as wedding albums but honestly never had considered them for anything else. What are photo books? They’re hardback bound photo-books-0041books printed with your own photos — your own personal photo album. My daughter said she got the idea after she photo-books-0052was bemoaning a small budget for gift giving and I told her all we her family wanted was more photos of new baby Capt. Adorable. After that, because she is young and techno-savvy and up on all sorts of cool stuff, she knew exactly what to do. There are several  sites that offer photo books (Kodak, Apple and HP do — search on “photo books” for more) . Liz chose Walgreens (http://photo2.walgreens.com/storepage/storePageId=MemoryBooks) and was pleased with the results. She had great fun, she said, designing layouts and playing with the photos but if that’s not your thing you can make it as simple a process as you’d like. Prices range from $10 to $50 and up, depending on your choices.  She did one on our beach trips — Capt. Adorable’s first tastes of sand and surf — and one on his first six weeks. Everybody who sees these just melts and says, “These are wonderful! I want to do this.” And you can.

Valentine’s Day

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chocolate-rose-0011Making chocolate roses is a simple yet impressive Valentine’s Day chocolate-rose-0031project that I promise you can do. Because I did it, and believe me, that’s saying something. Chef and caterer Emily Kelley, of Florence, Alabama, demonstrated this recently for local American Association of University Women members. To make the dough, add 1/3 cup clear corn syrup to 10 ounces melted semi-sweet chocolate. Stir until doughy. On wax paper, flatten into circle and let harden between wax-paper sheets. To make roses, peel away wax paper and cut circle into triangles. Use one triangle for one rose. Pull pieces of dough from triangle and roll into balls. Using your hands, flatten balls into thin circles. For center stem of rose, roll one circle jelly-roll style. For rose petals, fold and shape chocolate circles around stem. Make these whenever you want, store at room temperature and use them to decorate your fabulous Valentine’s dessert. Or they can be your fabulous Valentine’s dessert — they’re completely edible and taste sort of like Tootsie Rolls. White chocolate and peanut-butter flavored baking morsels would also work, although Emily was unsure about corn-syrup ratios with those ingredients.

Valentine’s Day Gifts

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christmas-with-the-gingers-016Sarah — my friend who’s a super cook, former caterer and an Episcopal priest — christmas-with-the-gingers-017gave bottles of cranberry homemade liqueur for Christmas presents this past holiay season. So lovely! I thought they’d make great Valentine Day’s gifts, too — the red is such a gorgeous deep color.  The recipe is from Cooking Light and needs to be started three weeks ahead of time, so this is the perfect weekend to gather supplies and get started. Since cherries and raspberries are the traditional red fruits associated with Valentine’s, I wonder if you could use those instead of cranberries. If anybody tries that, please pass the results along! Sarah put the liqueur in these very cool bottles and added the cocktail recipe — delicious! 

Ingredients

  • 2  cups  sugar
  • 1  cup  water
  • 1  12-ounce package fresh cranberries
  • 3  cups  vodka

Preparation

 Combine sugar and water in a medium saucepan; cook over medium heat 5 minutes or until sugar dissolves, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, and cool completely. Place cranberries in a food processor; process 2 minutes or until finely chopped. Combine sugar mixture and cranberries in a large bowl; stir in vodka. Pour vodka mixture into clean jars; secure with lids. Let stand 3 weeks in a cool, dark place, shaking every other day. Strain cranberry mixture through a cheesecloth-lined sieve into a bowl and discard solids. Carefully pour liqueur into clean bottles. Note: Liqueur can be stored refrigerated or at room temperature for up to a year.