I like my holidays to be both elaborate spectacles and simple to manifest. How's that for being at odds with one's self?
Can a table groaning with elaborate dishes and dides ever be an easy task to accomplish? Sure, why not?
Give your Thanksgiving Day and dinner the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.
Susan Westmoreland, Food Director at the arbiter of American housekeeping, gives Delish.com the skinny on 9 best ways to streamline and enjoy your holiday. (via Delish.com)
photo courtesy of delish.com
We're moving the week before Thanksgiving, so I anticipate the first meals in our new home to be served on paper plates atop cardboard boxes.
I could care less!
We're moving into a great little house with a spacious backyard, an adorable side porch, and a fireplace! As long as the fireplace is crackling, I'm good.
But, I realize the rest of the world is scrambling for menu ideas.
Me too, even if I'm not going to go crazy trying to have everything in place day of.
Still, a woman can dream about the next big meal, the one where she's made that fab recycled wood table from ReadyMade, and everyone is gathered together to count their blessings. And on the table a beautiful glistening browned bird.
Oh, the sumptuous sides. Oh, the delicious desserts. Oh the stories we'll tell.
Heres'a holiday recipe round-up for making your own nostalgic moments.
Photo courtesy of The Food Network
Light the Yule log and drink up the nog with Christmas at Crystal Springs Resort.
The Grand Cascades Lodge, 3 Wild Turkey Way , Hardyston, has three options for Christmas Eve and Day. Dine at Restaurant Latour, which will serve its regular menu as well as holiday additions. The Crystal Tavern will have its regular and a special prix-fixe menus And the Springs Bistro will feature its regular menu plus holiday additions.
Kites Restaurant, located at Minerals Resort & Spa, 2 Chamonix Dr, Vernon, will be open both Christmas Eve & Day and serving a special Christmas menu on Christmas Day.
For more information and reservations call 973-827-1587 ext 3 or visit their website.
Out with the old and in with the new - year that is.
Crystal Springs Resort offers 9 different options for New Year’s Eve ranging from romantic dinners to family buffets to a one-of-a-kind tropical party in the Biosphere Pool Complex.
Celebrate with dinner at Restaurant Latour, Crystal Tavern, Springs Bistro or party all night at the amazing tropical Biosphere Party and/or an overnight stay at the Grand Cascades Lodge. For a family focus, with a little for Mom & Dad in the mix, try Minerals Resort & Spa. The family-focused resort offers a family party, dinner at Kites restaurant, late night parties and tons of children’s events.
A New Year’s Day brunch will be available at both hotels.
For information visit the website or call 973-827-5996 ext 3.
We at Eat. Drink. Memory. love Italian Notebook, the daily scoop on all things fabulously Italian for the holidays and every day.
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Meanwhile, check out what Italian Notebook has to say about the tradition of the Christkindlmarkt. 
Bolzano/Bozen, Alto-Adige - It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Bolzano/Bozen as tourists arrive from all over Italy for our traditional Christmas market, the Christkindlmarkt, a German-style Christmas market that isn’t typical elsewhere in Italy.
Towering above the market stalls is a giant Christmas tree with plenty of twinkling lights. There's a diverse selection of holiday ornaments to buy, including stars, gnomes and even some skiing reindeer as a little reminder that we’re in the Alps.
And then there are the sweets. There’s plenty to munch: cookies, lebkuchen (chocolate-covered gingerbread), Christmas stollen, and the local Bozner cake, dark and moist with nuts and candied fruit. Additional flavors of the local strudel make an appearance, too — try some tasty apricot along with the always-reliable apple.
To keep warm when the snow starts falling, sample the glühwein (mulled wine) or the Tyrolean hot orange punch (a personal favorite!), with or without added rum. The festivities run until December 23rd.
Buon Natale and Fröhliche Weihnachten from Bolzano/Bozen!
-- Contributed by Lee McIntyre (see bio), Freelance writer and photographer. Author of the book A Year of One a Days.
Secret Santa is so over-rated.
I'd much rather go to a party where cookies are the main event and everyone goes home with great goodies to enjoy.
Hosting a cookie exchange is as easy as whipping up a batch of your very best cookie bars.
The rules are easy. Invite a dozen or more friends over. Provide some simple snacks - nuts, fruit and cheese, a crusty French bread with an olive tapenade and some wine. Or serve some egg nog (spiked if you like).
Ask each guest to bring 4 dozen homemade cookies to swap with other guests. Since most cookie recipes make 4 to 5 dozen cookies, this is easier than it sounds. If you like, you can allow busy guests to bring bakery bought cookies.
Some cookie exchanges factor in some sort of contest or ornament exchange as well. This adds to the fun and really isn't very complicated.
If participants are exchanging ornaments, every guest brings one special ornament to swap with another guest. (Note: The host might consider having a few extra ornaments on hand so no one gets left out if someone forgets to bring an ornament.)
Prizes can be given for Best Cookie Overall, based on taste, texture, presentation, Most Creative, Outstanding Presentation, or Most Original Recipe, etc.
Be sure to have guests bring a container or plastic Ziploc bags to take home their cookies. The host may want to have extra takeaway bozes on hand in case someone forgets theirs.
Makes 3 dozen
I love Fruit Cake - not the hard as a brick stuff you could use for a door stop, but moist, rum-soaked, candied fruit and nut rich cake.
My early experiences with fruit cake were less than stellar - waxy, indigestible stuff bought from the store.
I really appreciated my Mom's dense and rich cakes, chock full of candied fruits. I know it comes as a big surprise that I loved the cherries best.
Fruit cake ought to be made a few weeks out from Christmas to allow for a good dousing with rum, but I usually wait until the ninth hour.
Fortunately, I have this really good fruit cake bar recipe adapted from Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk which makes up for my procrastinating ways. It makes a moist, rummy Fruit Cake Bar - perfect for parties or for shipping to your beloveds near and far.
makes about 4 dozen bars
HEAT oven to 300ºF.
1. Stir together flour and baking soda. Combine eggs, mincement, sweetened condensed milk, candied fruit, nuts and spiced rum in large bowl. Blend in dry ingredients.
2. Coat 15 x 10-inch jelly roll pan with no-stick cooking spray. Spread batter evenly in pan. Bake 40 to 45 minutes.
3. Cool. Glaze if desired with heated pureed apricot preserves.
Note: This recipe can be used to make a cake using a 10-cup fluted bundt-type pan and baking for 1 hour and 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. You can also make cookies using the drop method (a rounded teaspoon full approximately 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheets) or even cookies and baking for 15 to 18 minutes.The family feasts are finished and the parades wound down. We have gathered together to celebrate our blessings and the abundance in our lives.
This Thanksgiving and in the upcoming holiday season, please remember those who are less fortunate with a lasting Gift of Hope to the World Food Programme.
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