Ready for some magic? I had a fairy garden party with some girlfriends a month or so ago and it went rather well, I think. I may have gone overboard with plants and containers, but that just meant that people could have more than one garden if they wanted to! Some of the plants were indoor plants and others were outdoor plants and I tried to get ones that I hadn’t been able to kill yet, or were marked as easy care or good for terrariums. Here’s what the table looked like. I apologize for the cut off end. I was attempting to take a pic and it was super duper sunny, so I couldn’t totally see.
For supplies, we had rocks, glass bead fillers, moss, gravel, and sand. We had just all purpose potting soil too for the actual dirt. I went to the thrift store to find containers and bought a few at other stores as well. I even got a mini bathtub from one of the craft stores that I love and I’m probably going to go back and get another one for me. The teapot is my friend’s that she brought. I used my tiered treat stand to display all the accessories and it made me so happy!
For accessories, I found little fairy garden items like bridges and tiny yoga frogs, mini furniture, and some mini fairy houses too. We had shells, rhinestones, and mirrors, and shiny rocks galore. We had some houses you could paint too, but I don’t think anyone painted one.
I found a variety of containers. The thrift store must have gotten a set of wedding table centerpieces in because they had about 6 of these really big glass vases that matched. You’ll see some of the other ones throughout the post. I only had the little ones on the table. We had a bunny yard ornament, left by the prior owners, and it had a broken bit in it. My friend T made the cutest and most charming terrarium with it! Some of the other odder containers were a lamp shade (far left, white round dish,) a mini bathtub, and a chipped mixing bowl.
My friend donated a bunch of aloe starts and I had a couple of philodendron and spiderwort plants that I had started in my office. I bought a couple of succulents, a pepperomia, a mini nerve plant, a croton, and a purple thing that looked super fun! There were some others just marked “Terrarium assortment.” Basically anything I thought I might not kill. Outdoor plants included vistas, marigolds, alyssum, lobelia, something named “Gnome Pink,” and a coleus.
I did switch out butter for oil because it was 7:30 AM and I didn’t have thawed butter or the will to go find it in the freezer. The muffins were a little overbaked, but they tasted good! The Cathedral bars were the stuff of dreams and now I want to make a pan again. I might get mobbed at work for it though, if I was nice enough to share. I did not take a picture of the snacks!
Here are some close ups of the terrariums. Some of these are from friends, as my phone overheated and got cranky. I hope you enjoy seeing them!
I had a Disney trip planning day with a few friends and K2 made all Disney inspired foods for us! They were all delicious and very fun.
Cheshire Cat Tails- puff pastry chocolate chips, and vanilla pudding with a vanilla glaze.
Oreo Mickey!
Belle’s Enchanted (Apple) Rose Tarts
Sully and Princess Cupcakes- I completely forgot to try these, but I am sure they were delicious!
Glass Slipper cocktail- Elderflower, blue curacoa, and something else- pop, I think?
“Not Hei-Hei” Chicken salad is in the crossiant. Hei-Hei is the chicken from Moana. Also, Ariel’s pearl cookie. There were also fishcakes, but I did not have those.
And of course, it wouldn’t be a Disney Party without “The Grey Stuff” from Beauty and the Beast. This grey stuff is Oreo Pudding and it was lovely. The Husband also enjoyed it!
Why hello! Are you ready for tea? Perhaps with a spot of something stronger? Or maybe some genteel gossip? Then do come in! No boys allowed though! This was ladies’ only. We kicked the Husband out to K2’s house, where he had a perfectly manly time blowing things up in video games.
One of my favorite historical romance series, the Bridgerton Family, by Julia Quinn was made into a Netflix show and I was super excited by it. I did like the first season better and did not enjoy the second season as much, although I think I understand why they changed the story so much from the book. The costumes are gorgeous and I really enjoy the modern music played by string quartets. It’s a nice mix of fantast and more modern sensibilities without losing the core elements of romance. However, you didn’t read this post for my thoughts on the series, you want to see the boozy tea! Say no more! on to the pictures!
Here you can see grandma’s singing teapot, which charmed everyone! My friend K3 made soda bread from a family recipe and it was lovely. Another friend brought fancy chocolates. Those are strawberry marshmallows in the fancy bowl, which was my grandma in law’s. In the very corner of the picture, you can just see our pickles for the evening! The last time I went to the plant store, I found a pickle plant! It’s a type of trailing succulent and it has little bristles like cucs do before they turn into pickles! Also, look Mom! One of the spider plant babies I stole at Christmas!
My friend K3 made cucumber sandwiches as well and they were lovely! I have a cucumber in my fridge that I really need to use probably pretty quickly and I think I might make myself a tea lunch with it soon. K2 made egg salad and we had a couple of kinds of crackers for it. Also, a better view of the pickle plant and a spider plant I didn’t steal from my mother.
K3 also made cherry orange biscuits at my house for the party, K2 brought the macaroons and made the Cosmo cupcakes! My friend L made the brownies. We had strawberries and cream as well, and gluten free scones.
These are store bought eclairs. I have no desire to make them, as they are fiddly. These are the perfect size for my tray too. Which I bought day of the party because I had to get supplies and Aldi has the weirdest selection of non-grocery items ever. Had I gotten myself a cart, I probably would have also bought the mini buffet server for parties.
We also had these amazingly delicious Italian almond cookies- I think they were amaretti cookies. I’m going to have to get some more from the store or learn to make them. My friend C who brought the chocolates, also brought a delicious gluten free strawberry cake, but I didn’t get a few things in a picture, unfortunately.
Now, you absolutely cannot have a Regency era tea party without lemonade, but since this was a boozy night, we spiked it. Naughty of us, I know, but it was delicious! K2 brought homemade strawberry simple syrup and I had a really smooth gin that my younger brother brought as payment for a sewing job. So we had spiked strawberry lemonade, as well as regular spiked lemonade- in the corner of the picture. The strawberry version is below.
It was hard to pick a favorite! I also made two tea based cocktails, served in a teacup of course! To simplify recipes, we just used two and both used gin. There was a spiked lemonade in the book made with strawberry green tea, but I just added gin and simple syrup to the regular lemonade. The tea based cocktails were both Mar-Tea-nis. We had a hibiscus roobios one and an Earl Grey one. I made both the teas ahead and chilled them. My kitchen counter looked like a mad scientist’s workshop for a while with all sorts of teas steeping. K2 had Red Berries Iced Tea which I happily drank the rest of all weekend.
I made the drinks light and followed the recipe from my Tea Cocktails book (Tea Cocktails: Unique and Delicious Tea- Infused Cocktails by Abigail Gehring.)
The picture below is the hibiscus roobios mar-tea-ni. This felt a little bland for me. I think I needed more simple syrup in it, but didn’t want to cover the taste of the tea. I don’t know if I would make it again.
The Earl Grey mar-tea-ni was much more to my taste. My brother sent me a recipe that included infusing the gin and I may still try that one, but didn’t have time before the party. I had some lemon with it and used a regular simple syrup instead of a honey simple syrup, but I think it worked either way.
I would definitely drink this again! I’m excited to try some more of the tea cocktails from the book, but need to track down some ginger tea, if I don’t already have any. Also, I may need a bigger booze cupboard shortly. Or need to make drinks with the tiny bottles of flavored vodka I have taking up space. Hmm. Maybe that will be a future party experiment and blog post.
I’ll leave you with a picture of the absolute perfect tins that I bought right before the party. Behold my cake tins! When I tell you I have a desire to replicate the cakes and store them in their tins, I’m sure you’ll understand why.
Don’t they look delicious?! Anyway, I hope your night is as sweet as this party was and if you’re into Regency era romance, definitely check out the Bridgerton books and show.
Hello! Such a belated post, but I still wanted to share. I’ll combine Lunar New Year and Valentine’s Day, since we celebrated them on the same weekend. We had a small game night with some friends this year for Lunar New Year which turned out to be super fun! I think part of the reason I enjoyed it so much was that I was finally able to relax because I only cooked a couple of things and tried really hard not to beat myself up over not making everything. We held it potluck style, so everyone brought something. That way we got to try a bunch of different dishes, but I wasn’t chained to the stove all night. I ended up developing a really awful migraine the day of the party and so spent two hours attempting to nap it off and lost a lot of prep time. But the world didn’t end and everyone got enough to eat.
I was so busy eating and having fun that I forgot to take a picture of the whole table, but I’ll tell you what we had at least. We had: Egg Drop Soup, Fried Rice- veggie and chicken, veggie lo mein, and fortune cookies, of course. I made bao- pork and chicken and 5 spice fried donuts. There were also egg rolls, but they were pork, and we had enough food, so didn’t end up serving them.
These were baked chicken bao. A friend asked me for the recipe on social media and I had to laugh because I made my own chicken filling and used a steamed bun dough, but then baked it, guessing at the time and heat. They turned out really good! If I was going to follow a recipe though (ha! but it could happen!) I would use the Woks of Life recipe. They have a veggie recipe and a chicken one too, I think on the website. Here’s the baked pork bun recipe though, to get you started. https://thewoksoflife.com/chinese-bbq-pork-buns-cha-siu-bao/
I made traditional steamed pork buns as well. Some of our friends have an exchange student currently and he made my little Scandi heart just burst because he looked so excited about all the food and just ate everything. He’s very fun to cook for! I also found out that he knows the krumkaker recipe and since a friend from work gave me a set to make them, I’m totally stealing him one day to help me learn to make them. (So excited!)
Here’s a picture of our mantel decorations. It’s really fun to try to make them cool without repeating too much. I think I’m going to have to get some more décor soon. My paper lanterns are looking a bit shabby and we can’t have that! It’s bad luck! The little hanging lanterns in the picture are thick felt actually, with little gold paper scrolls in the middle. I had ordered a felt dragon too, but I didn’t get it until the day after, so we will have something fun and new next year. We forgot to get singles from the bank for the red pockets, so we used $1.50 in quarters (because 6 is a lucky number) instead. I’m sure my younger brother appreciated it at least. That’s at least part of a laundry load!
Here’s a picture of some of my plants! We had the Lego piece up near by, but I forgot to grab a picture. The white plant stake in the cactus is a serotonin molecule. 🙂 Everyone needs a little extra some time. The winter themed table runner is one I made and I love how it turned out. It just needs two little snowflake buttons. K brought me the little plant in the pink pot for Valentine’s Day and it is still alive!
So on to Valentine’s Day! We typically don’t do much, although this year, we did get each other presents. The Husband gave me a really cool canvas garden tote this year with tools that were so fancy I had to look them up to see what they were. Of course, I was super excited about them, but paused, looked at him and said suspiciously “This is so I stop leaving my tools over in the garden overnight, isn’t it?”
“It was part of the reason,” he said, but mostly it was so I would have proper tools to work in the garden. We have hand me down tools from a relative which work great, but I don’t have that many and we definitely needed duplicates of a few. I gave him a book of weird maps. There’s a bunch about video gaming and how far it’s spread, another about the internet, and all sorts of other ones. It’s very fun to look at!
Since Valentine’s Day was on a Monday this year, we both worked a full day, and both of us completely forgot what we had planned for dinner. We had canned soup and biscuits because we were both forgetful. I did try to get the cheese biscuits to have hearts on them at least!
The next day, I made our Valentine’s day steak dinner with butter herb noodles and stir fried bok choy, carrots, and mushrooms with Asian seasonings. It was really good!
We had heart shaped lava cakes for dessert! They came with raspberry sauce, but I would have liked a little more of the sauce. Excuse the terrible picture. We were probably playing our game at the times.
Well, I hope these pictures made you smile! Have a great day!
Hellooooo out there! I’m still here! I had some bad depression episodes and am still pulling myself out of the hole a bit. It made it really hard to have any motivation to do anything other than read silly things and pet the dog. Part of my coping skills for these were to try to do things as normally as I could and that meant that I made Christmas treats for work again! We did have an Epiphany party, but it was super tiny. We were okay with this, as I couldn’t find the table cloth- I put it “somewhere safe” while we were setting up the Christmas decorations and I’m sure will find it again as we put them away. I did have people sign a strip of white fabric though, as I’m going to add a white border and a red border on it to make it fit our table a little better. So when I find it, I’ll add that on for this year.
I didn’t get as many treats made for work this year as I thought. The new staff at work was super excited to be there for this tradition and I got lots of good feedback.
The surprise hit of the year was the gluten free ginger cookies. I got the most compliments on them and am going to send the recipe out to the staff as a whole because I had a bunch of requests for it. It is also nut free and can be made dairy free too, so essentially can be both gluten free and vegan.
The second batch of these were thicker. I think I must have messed up the ratios somewhere. They both had crystallized ginger in them, but the second/party batch also had Chinese 5 Spice in them instead of just ginger. https://smallfarmbiglife.com/gluten-free-ginger-cookies/
I made marshmallow fudge as well and I was told someone hoarded it in the kitchen and was jokingly telling everyone that it was horrible and that she would “save them all from it.” I don’t think anyone believed her because the entire tin of it was eaten up by the time I went home. I was glad I had kept some back for the Husband, who also liked it. https://tastesbetterfromscratch.com/perfect-chocolate-fudge/
I made these orange cranberry snowballs too, which I didn’t like- they were too dry, but our Practice Manager loved them. I like trying new combinations of flavors. It’s fun to see what people will respond to and what they don’t like. These weren’t as sweet as most cookies are and people liked that they were a little bit unusual. The orange and cranberry combo was a seasonal hit, of course! https://thegoldlininggirl.com/2016/12/cranberry-orange-snowballs/
The last cookie I made for work was these pistachio thumbprints filled with bittersweet chocolate ganache. They were made using pistachio pudding mix! They were definitely green and apparently made the Husband uncomfortable on a visceral level. He wouldn’t even try them and he likes pistachios! I used mini chips in them. they had a powdered sugar frosting for the top originally, but I had a bunch of melted chocolate already and think they were better this way. These were from A Quilter’s ChristmasCookbook.
Of course, for the party, I made all sorts of things! Knowing it was going to be small, I didn’t go as big with recipes as I normally would.
They were yummy! I would definitely make them again.
Next up is the pickle tray and relish tray, of course. I made homemade dilly beans and squash pickles for the table. Both recipes were from my Small Jars. Big Flavor Canning book.
I didn’t get many pickles this year, although I did have a bunch of cucumbers because I had two jars of pickles burst in the canner. I was pleased with both of these pickles though!
We had Rulle. My favorite years are when I get to eat it twice at Christmas! This batch did not hold the shape as much as I would like, but it was super tasty. And I had just enough to not waste any.
I wasn’t going to make a cake, but I had leftover sparkling wine jelly and mascarpone whipped cream (side note, who is this fancy person with this in their fridge… I feel like this isn’t actually me,) and it’s traditional to have a filled cake on the Scandinavian Christmas Table. Plus, I said something about it to one of my friends from work and she got super excited because I was going to make a white cake. So here’s my fancy Christmas Cake. I opted to leave it undecorated to celebrate the snow (Hahahaha! You know I just didn’t have time or ideas for decorating, right?) It was delicious!
Here’s the whole table with the things I didn’t get individual pictures of: Peanut Butter Balls, clementines, Caramel Chocolate chips, crab dip, sandbakkels, the second batch of ginger cookies, and the blackberry almond cookie cups. The sandbakkels and the cookie cups were from my Modern Scandinavian Baking book by Daytona Strong. The cake is from the Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook. We also had fruit soup, but it was on the stove and I think I did not get a picture. (The elbow in the corner belongs to another K named friend I think she’d be K5? Too many Ks.) the truck in the upper corner is actually a cookie jar! A friend gave it to me a couple of years ago and I was finally able to have room to use it.
The Husband and I knew we’d probably be wanting actual dinner, since we didn’t think people would be coming all day, so I made this yummy Swedish Meatball Pasta Bake. You make the gravy and cook it like a casserole. It was actually something I think we’ll make for our Christmas years by ourselves. I didn’t have the make the Husband gravy this way and it reheated very nicely and kept the meatballs moist, even though I over broiled them slightly. Not the prettiest, but tasty! https://thebeachhousekitchen.com/swedish-meatball-pasta-bake/
I didn’t quite make it to 25 Treats this year, but I’ve definitely been feeling the urge to keep baking, so I think I might be in a better mindset than before. Hopefully that spirit will continue to be uplifting all year. I hope your year is filled with little comforts and joys, just like our party!
Covid has really put a crimp in our social life. Zoom isn’t the same and I’m online so much for work, that I really have little desire to be on it for social events too. Although it is very nice to see family over Zoom! We decided we really wanted to try something new for the fall party, so we sent people on an Unexpected Culinary Journey.
A mix of luncheon and afternoon tea
How did this work, you might ask?
We put a big red plastic tote on the porch to protect against package eating squirrels. Sidebar: Did I tell you about Steve the Stupid Squirrel’s latest misdeed? He ate into a package from my Mom that had peanut butter balls in it! The mail person left it on the porch with some other packages.
Let me tell you, we had words, although he didn’t look repentant. You do not want to get between me and Mom’s peanut butter balls. I’ll throw hands. 😤 We’re now even more in a war. Stupid Steve Squirrel.
Anyway, back to the actual story. I made a ridiculous amount of food, but actually got to give most of it away. I mailed four packages with delicious treats (and ducky pjs to the Brother.) Then I told people to show up and they would get a container of delicious food from some of the 7 Hobbit meals. A Hobbit Tasting Box, if you will. We actually had a lot of responses, including from some friends from college that we hadn’t seen in quite a while and the Husband’s aunt and uncle came too!
When people got here, they were very polite and masked up for us, which I appreciated greatly. We had everyone’s food labeled and they picked times, so that there wasn’t an overlap. Our three Covid bubble people actually hung out for a bit, so that was fun too. Piggy was very excited to meet new people in the yard, although she was disappointed that she didn’t get to eat the foods.
We didn’t end up eating things from all the meals, as we were too full! The Husband and I continued the Hobbit recipes into this week and I’ll probably make some more this weekend.
Since the movie was starting at 11 AM for Elevensies, I made these honey pear muffins, along with some chocolate banana bread, and deviled eggs.
I do have to say, I texted K2 the day before indignantly saying that I was “offended on behalf of tastebuds everywhere” as the recipe said you “didn’t have to add any spices.” 🤨 Obviously this would not do, so I added Penzey’s Baking Spice into the flour mixture. They were yummy, so I do think you need some good fall spices in there.
There are a bunch of literary food recipes around and I did a lot of research to find some of them. The Wizard’s Cookbook has four or five, but they required ingredients I didn’t have and I was trying to be frugal. I tried some new recipes, including this fun pork pie recipe from A Feast of Starlight.
I was told they were delicious. They used a hot water dough, which made me feel like I was on the Great British Baking Show. It was pretty easy to work with, I found. We didn’t use the mashed potatoes, as I was making these for luncheon with a light salad. K2 let me put her to work and she made these leek and potato cakes for me. They were yummy! https://picklebums.com/leek-and-potato-cakes/
I think I would add more cheese and more spices next time. K2 provided a lovely salad for our luncheon. I was proud of myself for letting her help me, so I wouldn’t be too run ragged.
I was apparently too busy eating, so I didn’t get good pictures of all the cookies, but these cookies I called the Arkenstone cookies. I used my Nordic Ware cookie stamps in star shapes and was very pleased with these cookies. They were extra delicious with a dollop of cream.
We had Earl Grey Shortbreads, which were delicious with cream as well, little apple butter tarts with the leftover pork pie dough, and apple butter crescents for breakfast. The apple butter was a gift from my friend from work, who’s name also starts with a K. (I’m gonna have to give them all nicknames to keep them straight. At this rate, if I talk about a friend, you could probably safely assume their name starts with K. 🙂 ) Here’s that recipe: http://herbakinglab.com/best-british-earl-grey-tea-shortbread/
These Strawberries and Cream Cookies were mostly to go into the giveaway boxes to represent Tea Time, but there were enough of them to keep as well. They were decent, although I wanted more flavor other than just cookie dough. https://www.acozykitchen.com/strawberry-cream-cookies/
I bought myself a Tomte (mischievous Scandinavian gnome like creature) shaped cookie cutter for my birthday (the cookie stamps were from my birthday too,) so I used that to make glazed gingerbread dwarf cookies.
The glaze was thinned out brown sugar cinnamon frosting from a different recipe. It was way too sweet on the other cookie recipe (coming at a later date), but worked perfectly on the gingerbread. I didn’t like the gingerbread after a couple of days. It got soft and not as nice. I don’t know that I’d make this particular recipe again. I liked the Peppernus cookies better that I made last Christmas. I used this recipe: https://themondaybox.com/gingerbread-fall-leaves/
I’ll wait while you either gasp in horror or laugh hysterically. They look like poop. And not just poop, poop with gross bits. 🥴 This is what they looked like after I baked them.
At this point I stared aghast at them again and then burst into hysterical laughter while the dog and the Husband wisely stayed in the living room until I got myself under control. Then I re-read the recipe and discovered that I had probably left out at least a cup of flour. After adding that in, I made another pan, which resulted in still flat cookies, but ones that held their shape. They were so problematic, I ended up throwing out the entire batch, except what I could salvage for my parents and the Brother. They all liked them, but I was so mad at the recipe for making me waste all the ingredients, that I will never make them again. They’re in the recipe box of doom along with the fudge that makes me want to hurl. ( I can hear my Mom now- “Lin-ne-a, we do not talk about hurling in public! We say we ‘do not care for that particular item.’” She tried, but occasionally I’m still not fit for polite company.)
It was a really fun way to get to see people and share food. A bunch of people who came actually went home and watched The Hobbit too, so that was nice. Piggy napped like a boss the next day. She partied too hard! I’m already plotting how to make the Epiphany party work. It may involve a traveling tablecloth and cookie tray. 🙂 We’re attempting to figure out how to make a Covid safe candy slide, just in case we do get any kids for candy on Halloween too. If not, we’ll at least amuse ourselves. For now, enjoy this picture of a zonked out party Pig and have a lovely night!
Hello from our house to yours! We had our Covid bubble friends over today and I realized how much I missed entertaining! We had been doing at least one event a month with multiple sets of friends and I think I’m going through pandemic fatigue and social withdrawal.
We do have a distance movie watching party planned. This year our fall movie is The Hobbit and I really wanted to keep something going, even if it was going to be really different. The plan right now is to offer an “unexpected culinary journey” box of snacks for people to come pick up and then take home and watch the movie. I have a couple of people who I will probably be mailing their boxes. I’m looking forward to it! The Husband thinks I might be a little weird, but I have had some interest in it already. To prep for it and boost our decor, I bought this fun Michigan/Middle Earth themed picture. It’s from an Etsy shop called Home Squirrel, which is located in Marquette!
Isn’t it adorable? It’s a fun touch to our decorations. Tomorrow will be the day to try and switch out the outdoor decor and finish off the indoor part as well.
In the meantime, I thought a look back at my favorite parties might cheer me up a bit. Hopefully it helps spark some fond memories in you too!
Our Epiphany parties are, of course, some of my favorite parties! It’s so fun to bake and cook and welcome people in to start the new year off in style! I took pity on my Dad and didn’t feature the rulle picture. 😉
My Christmas tomte collection is growing. Don’t ask me why the ones on the left are all facing extremely left. I have no idea!
Lunar New Year started off pretty small, but got very big very quick. My favorite part about this party is that my family celebrates it and the Husband’s family doesn’t, despite there being a connection to Chinese culture. It’s been fun to look at the different cultural aspects of the holiday and incorporate them into our life. I still love the Lego set that I found unexpectedly!
Harry Potter! I’m glad we’re taking a break from this one this year, even though I loved the decorations we had. I’m saddened that the author, J.K. Rowling has had some unfortunate attitudes this past couple of years. Choosing to celebrate the good parts of the series, including messages of hope in darkness, friendship, curiosity, and the real life struggle of good vs. evil, helps me remember our party with good thoughts. Plus, I got to buy a ridiculous amount of candy!
The Tea Making party seems like it was so long ago! I enjoyed having girlfriends over to watch movies and make our own tea blends. Maybe I can recreate this one with just a few ladies!
Our very first Hobbit Party! Fancy took over the chair by the fireplace and would whine at people who dared to sit in it until they got up and moved. I remember being so nervous that no one would get it, or it was too dorky. The food picture was the Afternoon Tea table. Luckily, we have excellent friends who went right along the nerd journey with us!
I really did miss our summer party this year. If I remember correctly, this Caprese had garden basil and garden tomatoes. It is always fun to get together with friends when it stays so light out. More time for conversation and laughter.
My parents and grandparents all instilled the gift and the desire to be hospitable in me and I know it’s suffered during the pandemic. I didn’t even know if my coworkers would feel comfortable eating homemade food this summer and have only brought in a few things. We can’t see our friends, like we used to, and it’s wearing on both of us. It is helpful for Piggy to be able to decompress with just us and a very select few people, but man… I miss party conversation. Jokes about not having enough cookies, pickle trays, and friends threatening to steal whole platters of cookies. I also miss getting to try new recipes that people have made and laughing as I attempted to find a spot for them on the table.
We both miss our game nights too! We have a rotating group of friends who switch in and out. Our dining room table doesn’t fit a ton of people comfortably, but we make it fun anyway. Now, when we can have game nights again, we’ll have comfier chairs at least, with the Star Trek seat cushions I made.
No pictures from game nights, as we were always having too much fun. The thing I like best about them is that I can be myself with coworkers turned friends and friends who put up with all us weird mental health worker types. We all have such weird and mostly dark senses of humor. I like it a lot.
I really hope the distance Hobbit party works out! I really need to feed people again. It might not be quite the same, but I’m excited to try it out.
Let me know how you’re handling connecting with people too! I’d love to hear some other ideas. I’ll leave you with a peaceful Piggy dumpling as advanced payment!
It never fails with parties. I make several towers of cookies and treats and not very many people come. But if I make less, lots of people come and they I don’t have enough cookies! It’s a struggle. This year the weather was bad too, so some of our regular crew couldn’t make it. It was lovely to have the people who were able to come though and we had some new guests as well. Everyone was charmed by the tablecloth story as usual and we did pretty well on eating up leftovers. We still have cookies though…
I was excited to try pepperkaker this year and have them actually work! The last time I tried them, they went horribly wrong and I cried. This year, they were a hit and I figured out some tricks for the dough. I used this recipe from Outside Oslo- http://www.outside-oslo.com/norwegian-christmas-cookies-pepperkaker/
So the trick for me was to let the dough warm up just a little and then just wale on it with the rolling pin. Once it started getting too sticky, I would put it back in the fridge. The recipe makes a lot though, so I would halve the recipe next time. They are delicious! This particular recipe doesn’t have black pepper in it, so I would be interested to try one with that added. I eye measured the spices and so probably had some of the proportions off, but they were a hit at the party.
They are pictured here with the Tahini Blossoms which were from the Better Homes and Gardens cookie issue from 2019. People were surprised to find out that these weren’t peanut butter blossoms! They have a nice nutty taste. They did take some extra prep work. You had to chill them, make the dough into balls, and then freeze the balls for a while to prevent spreading. I don’t think it helped that much because they still spread a bunch. They weren’t my favorite, but were liked in general.
The top cookies on this plate are Malted Butter Riches, which were pretty plain. I didn’t have a chance to make the frosting for them, so I might have liked them better with it instead. They were one of the Retro Recipes from the BHG magazine. I was intrigued by the name, but probably wouldn’t make them again. Also from the magazine were the Linzer hearts on the bottom. My friend sent us home from our visit with sugarplum jam, which was delicious sandwiched in between the cookies. We also had sandbakkels from this recipe: http://www.outside-oslo.com/norwegian-christmas-cookies-sandkaker-sandbakkelse/
I really enjoyed reading Outside Oslo, by the way, and have several other recipes that I want to try. Lingonberry cake is high on my list, but I will need to order some lingonberries.
Last, but not least, on this plate are Cranberry Spiced Shortbreads. I didn’t end up making the eggnog icing, but the cookies were still good. They are from Sally’s Baking Addiction. https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/cranberry-spice-cookies/
We, of course, had to have peanut butter balls.
It wouldn’t be Christmas/Epiphany without them!
We also had some dairy free, gluten free, and vegan cookies this year. On this plate were the gluten free/dairy free Almond Spritz Cookies and the Vegan chocolate chip. I was surprised to find vegan chocolate chips from Nestle at the store. I taste tested a few of them and they weren’t too far off what I was expecting. You know I’m a huge chocolate snob too, so if I liked them, they had to be good.
I don’t remember tasting a vegan chocolate chip, so I couldn’t tell you how they tasted, but they were on the table with Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip and people were eating them both up, so they must have been good. The Almond Spritz had a grainy texture, which is sometimes an effect of the gluten free flour. My gluten free blend is nut free, which I learned is not always the case. I was glad to be able to offer them to my friends with different dietary needs though.
On this plate, we have chocolate banana bread and Nissu. The chocolate banana bread was from one of my cookbooks. I want to say Baking Unplugged, but I’m not entirely sure. It was pretty good.
Of course, we had to have a pickle and veggie tray!
We had homemade dilly beans and spicy pickles. Fancy charmed everyone into giving her carrots. 🙂
Another traditional item was the Rulle. It was delicious! I had freshly ground allspice this year again, which made a big difference, I think.
We tried a new savory item this year, in addition to the crab dip and meat, cheese, and cracker tray. These are ham and cheese crescent rolls.
We had a panic moment the night before trying to figure out another savory item to have, as we thought we didn’t have enough. I do tend to focus more on the cookie part. I made the crescent dough because I’m an overachiever when it comes to hospitality. We also had a balela bean salad, which was vegan and fancy. Also, delicious. I ate it for lunches and didn’t have to share after the party. https://reluctantentertainer.com/balela-salad/
So like I said, it was a smaller party, but definitely worth the work. Fancy was in heaven with children and adults to rub her belly. We had the guest room set up with the Husband’s loose Legos and a book of Lego Christmas ornaments. Fancy kept shooting worried glances down the hall, as she could hear them, but not see them. We didn’t get any actual Christmas ornaments, but did get some pretty neat towers.
Next year, I might try to reign it in foodwise…
Ha! Who am I kidding? I’ll see you at the Epiphany Party 2021 post wild eyed, battle weary, covered in sugar, and holding 4 pounds of butter clutched to my chest.
