Christmas party report-out

The last three weeks flew by and I didn't have a chance to post anything about our Christmas party (or Christmas for that matter).  It was so much fun and everyone was in the holiday spirit.  The entire day with people bustling about, jovial laughing, glasses clinking, and all the delicious food smells made me that much more excited for Christmas.

The party was a potluck which is wonderful for two reasons.  I don't have to break my back to provide enough food for everyone and I get to taste everyone else's cooking.  Some highlights from the food brought by others were the cheesy baked grits, BBQ green beans, spinach dip, and potato salad.

Our traditional Christmas cookies, pecan crescents, nutted thimbles and almond rocca

I prepared desserts for the party. I made lavender lemon bars and ginger oatmeal cream pies along with all the usual Christmas desserts I make.  Once again the flourless chocolate peppermint patt

y cake flew off the table.  I should have made two of those.

The pretty candy cane cake was delicious and gorgeous.  Such a  treat for anyone who loves candy canes. I tried my hand at homemade old fashioned fudge this year since it's one of my absolute favorite holiday treats.  After plenty of frustration I was able to produce two batches, one salted dark chocolate and the other mint chocolate.  Everyone seemed to enjoy it because it was gone rather quickly!

Making old fashioned fudge at this high of altitude proved more difficult than I imagined.  

I don't have any photos of the real food, mostly because it flew off the platters.  I made two rosemary roasted pork loins, two batches of curried chicken rolls and two batches of scalloped potatoes.  As well as smoked salmon dip, and roasted red pepper and goat cheese terrine.  I'll be honest, it wasn't enough.  I should have had a few other main course selections because they didn't last on the table more than ten minutes.  Maybe something easy like lasagna or a rice dish.  Even a pasta salad would have added something hardy to the table.

But the drinks were flowing and no one seemed to complain of the food going so fast.  It was nice because it was an open house so people trickled in all afternoon with dishes to add to the table.

I have so much fun planning the drink menu for parties now.  People enjoy the details and like to have instructions for a pre-planned cocktail.  I really had no idea how much people would enjoy the cocktail I chose.  Now I know to prepare for twice as many ingredients for the drinks.

 Non alcoholic spiced fruit wassail.  A fun option for something kid friendly and festive. If people wanted they could add a dash of bourbon or rum.  But I think it tasted great all on it's own.  It was super easy to make and I omitted any additional sugar in the recipe.  For a drink that combines three store bought fruit juices, it definitely doesn't need any extra sugar.

Spiced Fruit Wassail from Of Tide and Thyme cookbook
2 1/4 cups pineapple juice
2 quarts apple juice or cider
1 cup lemon juice
2 cups orange juice
a little cheesecloth bundle of cinnamon bark and cloves tied up tight (1/2 cup bark or a few cinnamon sticks and 2 Tbsp whole cloves)

Just add all the ingredients and let it simmer with the spices for a few hours.  Be prepared for this to go quickly.  I doubled this recipe and I should have doubled it again!  The kids loved the red and white striped straws.

Cinnamon apple martini.  This was a huge hit among the adults, men and women alike.  I came up with this recipe because I ordered two pounds of cinnamon red hot candy for Christmas.  I knew I wanted to create a cocktail that used these spicy candies I just didn't know what it was until three days before the party.  As I searched online, I realized I would never have just the right ingredients for some of the cocktail recipes I was finding.  But I wasn't deterred.  This is what cooking in Ethiopia is all about-substitution.  So, I used what I had and it was simple and delicious.

Ingredients for Cinnamon Apple Martinis
1 bottle vodka
1 and a half cups cinnamon red hot candies
1 bottle of cranberry apple juice
ice

Two days before the party I poured the vodka over the red hot candies in a decanter and let them dissolve. Swirl and stir the candies from the bottom often.  You could pour the candies straight into the bottle of vodka to make it even easier.  Just use a funnel.  After almost all the candies were dissolved, I strained the cinnamon infused vodka over a fine mesh strainer to remove the waxy like candy coatings that were left in the alcohol.  You're left with a lovely red sweet cinnamon vodka.

Sara's Cinnamon Apple Martini
1 shot cran-apple juice
1 shot cinnamon vodka.

Shake with an ice cube and serve with the ice.  The colder the better. Serve in short martini glasses.  I like stemless just because they can serve as a pretty glass for lots of cocktails, not just martinis.  I loved this drink for the flavor, but also for the festive red color.  Gorgeous!

Hot Chocolate bar.  This is such a fun concept and I could have done so much more when it comes to options for this drink but I decided to pay tribute to one of our favorite decadent desserts we enjoyed in South Africa.  Thick hot chocolate served with a scoop of chocolate ice cream.  It's really quite simple.  Soft peppermint sticks and peppermint Schnapps for the adults made the drink more holiday festive.  This was a huge hit for the kids.  Those peppermint sticks went quick!

I cheated on this drink and used pre-made cocoa drink powder and just added water.  I made it nice and thick and added vanilla to the mix.  The pot sat on the stove simmering during the party so people just had to bring a mug to the kitchen and get a ladle of cocoa and a scoop of ice cream.  Pure decadence.

The gingerbread people kits were a hit and I think it saved some mess and heartache from the parents about this or that.  All I had to do was life the box of kits outside and let the kids have-at it.  One mom helped snip the ends of the frosting bags with scissors but after that, I didn't hear any issues.

We had a silly white elephant gift exchange and 24 people participated by bringing a gift.  I ended up with a lovely latte style coffee mug which seemed unbelievable after seeing a can of boiled peanuts opened as well as a umbrella hat and a dust pan.  Justin came away with a new mop!  HA!  I liked how the game brought everyone at the party together.  Lots of our friends from all sorts of different places in Addis all got to know one another better when you're stealing one another gifts and laughing at the hilarity of some of them.  Such fun.

All in all, the party was a success, thanks to all our enthusiastic friends who brought good food and plenty of wine.  What a way to kick of the holiday party season!

Spooky Halloween treats and crafts with kids

It's Fall Break this week so all three of my girls are home with me.  This makes my life infinitely sweeter but infinitely more chaotic.  In preparation for our Halloween party this weekend, I have a list of things to accomplish every day.  It helps to break up the cooking, baking and crafts so I'm not up all the night for two nights before the party.  Having the girls home gives me a few more road blocks to getting the list done.  But we're working through it!

The girls are mostly a big help.  So far we've made orange popcorn balls on a stick for super kid friendly snacks, lolly pop ghosts, and spooky Halloween drawings for a diorama.  It's our second year for making these adorable meringue ghosts.

I used this basic popcorn ball recipe only adding orange food coloring with the butter and vanilla.    Next time I'll make it a darker orange because once you stir it in, the orange sort of spreads out and doesn't look as bright when on the kernels. But, I also used more than 9 cups of popcorn since I don't see the need in making the snack too sweet. Addie and Bella had so much fun helping with the popcorn balls.  They did a great job molding them.  You have to go quickly so the syrup doesn't entirely cool or else the popcorn won't hold together.

I added a thick craft stick and a Halloween bag with a tie so they won't get stale before kiddos get to munch on them.

 Did you ever have Ed Emberly's drawing books as a kid?  We had some and I remember how awesome it was to follow his step by step instructions for drawing some pretty intricate stuff.  My mom found Ed Emberley's Big Orange Drawing Book and sent it to us for our Halloween crafts.  Addie grabbed the book, paper and popsicle sticks and just ran with it.  She's so creative.  I especially love the haunted mansion.

 Lolly pop ghosts are a super easy kid craft for Halloween.  We use Tootsie Pops, facial tissue, bakers twine and a black marker.  This year I dug up some googly eyes which were a lot of fun.  Check out the clever ghost on the left who has a spooky pirate patch for an eye.