Crafty Christmas
Last night I had a few friends over for a little Christmas celebration. I hesitate to even call it a party, because I only invited three people and one couldn't make it because her daughter was sick. We got together, ate good food (if I do say so myself!), worked on our needlework projects, and chatted. There was even a mini White Elephant exchange. It was lovely. So lovely, in fact, that we chatted until almost eleven without noticing!
Here's a photo of my finished buffet with all the food on it:
From left to right, I had a platter with carrots, cucumber and naan to dip in hummus, chicken salad on mini croissants, deviled eggs, grapes, butter toffee almonds, fruit salad in clementine cups, peppermint wafer cookies, mushroom turnovers, and punch. Can I tell you how hard it is to find a non alcoholic punch recipe that doesn't contain pineapple juice, sherbet, or apple juice/cider??? I don't particularly care for any of those flavors, so let me tell you, I was all sorts of scouring the internet. I checked my vintage cookbooks, but back in the fifties they specialized in booze. Seriously, a punch recipe will read like this:
1 fifth of bourbon
1 fifth rum
1 fifth gin
1 can frozen orange juice
dash of bitters
Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but still. SO MUCH BOOZE. The one I ended up using was a can of frozen lemonade, a can of frozen orange juice, 7 oz frozen sliced strawberries, 1 liter of ginger ale and two thinly sliced limes. It was good - flavorful without being too heavy or super sweet, and the ginger ale gave it a nice bit of fizz. I'll be making that one again!
The chicken salad and deviled egg recipes came from this book:
I picked it up this weekend at the Goodwill for three dollars. It was going to be a white elephant gift because seriously, molded salad and aspic photos in glorious 1967 color??? COME ON! It's awesome. Well, when I got home and decided to peruse the photos, I decided it was just too awesome to give away. After I made the chicken salad and the deviled eggs, it's spot in my library was cemented forever. That chicken salad was amazing - simple, with nothing weird or fruity in it. Just plain old chicken salad without being the teeniest bit bland like it can be. Good stuff. The deviled eggs were the best I've had in a long time too.
After a while, the party came down to this:
Signs you are getting old - everyone ends up around the piano at a party. Never mind that none of us were what you'd call "musically gifted," we had a good time anyway.
Some of us more than others!
Here's a photo of my finished buffet with all the food on it:
From left to right, I had a platter with carrots, cucumber and naan to dip in hummus, chicken salad on mini croissants, deviled eggs, grapes, butter toffee almonds, fruit salad in clementine cups, peppermint wafer cookies, mushroom turnovers, and punch. Can I tell you how hard it is to find a non alcoholic punch recipe that doesn't contain pineapple juice, sherbet, or apple juice/cider??? I don't particularly care for any of those flavors, so let me tell you, I was all sorts of scouring the internet. I checked my vintage cookbooks, but back in the fifties they specialized in booze. Seriously, a punch recipe will read like this:
1 fifth of bourbon
1 fifth rum
1 fifth gin
1 can frozen orange juice
dash of bitters
Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but still. SO MUCH BOOZE. The one I ended up using was a can of frozen lemonade, a can of frozen orange juice, 7 oz frozen sliced strawberries, 1 liter of ginger ale and two thinly sliced limes. It was good - flavorful without being too heavy or super sweet, and the ginger ale gave it a nice bit of fizz. I'll be making that one again!
The chicken salad and deviled egg recipes came from this book:
I picked it up this weekend at the Goodwill for three dollars. It was going to be a white elephant gift because seriously, molded salad and aspic photos in glorious 1967 color??? COME ON! It's awesome. Well, when I got home and decided to peruse the photos, I decided it was just too awesome to give away. After I made the chicken salad and the deviled eggs, it's spot in my library was cemented forever. That chicken salad was amazing - simple, with nothing weird or fruity in it. Just plain old chicken salad without being the teeniest bit bland like it can be. Good stuff. The deviled eggs were the best I've had in a long time too.
After a while, the party came down to this:
Signs you are getting old - everyone ends up around the piano at a party. Never mind that none of us were what you'd call "musically gifted," we had a good time anyway.
Some of us more than others!
Miss M told you so @ 12:44 PM
4 Comments:
I love your posts. They warm my heart
Helen (little bit outside London)
I think you could call it a party, and a good one at that! It was really fun, Sara. Thanks for having it! You are an excellent hostess, and everything was lovely and delicious. Your house looks amazing, too! You put a lot of love into everything you do, and it feels nice to be there. :)
Very nice table, love how everything looked, you could work throwing parties at people's houses! thanks for sharing!
What a fun party. The food looks AMAZING!
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