Tuesday's Table: Two Weeks to Christmas!

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Welcome to Tuesday's Table, where we get together to fill up our table with food, drinks and entertainment.  For the next 3 weeks, we're looking for holiday-themed recipes and ideas.  Have you got some great recipes for a pot-luck?  Shopping strategies?  Decorating ideas for office parties?  Bring them all over and share them here!

Lots and lots of creative stuff last week.  And another tough choice.  This week I am loving this White Chocolate Santa Mix from Melissa over at Melissa's Cuisine.  So cute for a holiday party!

Thanks for sharing Melissa - grab a button here!


I'll feature my favorite entry from this week on next week's post.  I hope you bring your favorites!

Only a few guidelines:

• Please share as many links as you like, but only if you haven't shared them here before.  
• Add a link back to Tuesday's Table (or grab a button above!) so others can join in the fun.  
• Sign up for my email reminder here.

No other requirements, but visit the other links here, and I'd love for you to follow me too!

And now, for this week's link party - remember, holiday recipes and ideas!

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Mountain Dew Apple Dumplings

A friend of mine shared this recipe with me.  Apparently I am out of the loop, because this recipe has been around a while (which I found after checking the internet for information about it after we devoured it for dessert).

I have to say, I was skeptical.  Mountain Dew?  On top of pastries?  But, because the recipe looked so easy, I thought I'd give it a try.  And wow - really, really good!  And the recipe was really easy.  I initially thought it would be too much sugar, especially with the Mountain Dew, but, although it was sweet, I didn't think it was overly sweet.  Just right actually.



Mountain Dew Apple Dumplings 

Ingredients:

• 2 cans of Pillsbury Crescent rolls
• 4 Granny Smith apples 
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 1 cup melted butter
• 1 can of Mountain Dew soda pop
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

Quarter and peel apples.

Wrap each quarter in a crescent roll.  This doesn't have to be perfect.

Place in 9" x 12" baking dish (because I only made a half-recipe, I used an 8" x 8" glass baking dish).

Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon over rolls.

Drizzle melted butter over all, and then pour can of Mountain Dew over all.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes.

Yum!

Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.  You'll enjoy this.  I'm totally confident of that.

Thanks Della!

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John Williams is the Man!

Our third fabulous concert in as many weeks.  We saw John Williams conduct the San Diego Symphony - they played a number of his famous compositions, from Close Encounters to Harry Potter to Star Wars.  Fabulous show!

They played the theme from Schindler's List too, and John Williams told the story about when he first began working on that project.  He said that he went to Steven Spielberg's house to watch the movie, after which, they would talk about the music.  After he saw the movie, he was so moved, that he needed to walk around for a bit to compose himself (so to speak).  He came back and said to Steven Spielberg "You need a better composer for this movie.  I'm not good enough."  Steven replied "I know, but they're all dead."

The show was really wonderful - he did four (!) encores!  The last was The Imperial March (Darth Vader's theme) and it was fantastic!  I highly recommend seeing him if he comes to a symphony near you.

Star Wars fans may enjoy this tribute to John Williams.

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Christmas Greens

Can you believe it is only 18 days until Christmas?  Where does the time go?

One of my favorite things at Christmas is flowers.  I started these a few weeks ago, in the hopes that we will have lots of paper-whites and amaryllis flowers when Christmas gets here.

And of course, lots of poinsettias.  Loving Christmas colors!

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Cookie Time: Peanut Butter Blossoms

Time to get started on those Christmas cookies!  I bake lots of cookies to give as gifts to friends and co-workers this time of year, and it is always a challenge to properly plan the baking and packaging of all of it.

I don't have a lot of free time this time of the year (I am sure I am not unique here either).  I can't bake them all at one time, so I bake them in stages.  These Peanut Butter Blossoms store really well, so I like to bake these first.

{unfortunately, these are also some of our favorites... and they tend not to last long even though they store well.... unless I hide them well}

Here's how I make these classic holiday favorites:




Peanut Butter Blossoms

Ingredients:

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup chunky peanut butter
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• candy kisses

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Cream sugars, butter and peanut butter. Beat in eggs, milk, and vanilla. Sift flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to peanut butter mixture and mix well.
3. Roll into balls and roll in sugar. Bake on ungreased cookie sheets for 8 to 10 minutes. Take cookies out and press candy kisses in the center of each cookie and bake for another 1 to 2 minutes. Cool on wire rack.
4. Makes about 4 dozen

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Ornaments: Santa Bubble Lights

I've been collecting Christmas ornaments since I was a little girl.  I get them when I go on vacations and when I go to a special event.  I add to collections each year - like the White House Christmas Ornament Collection, which is wonderful!  And, because people know I like ornaments, I get them as gifts.  They've got great memories attached to them.

As a result, I've got many treasured ornaments from throughout the years.  I thought I'd share them with you over the next several weeks.  The first one I'd like to show you is one of my most recent acquisitions - these Santa Bubble lights:

They were a gift from my godfather last year.  I'm lucky to live near him (more or less) and, though we don't see each other as often as we'd like, when we do get together, we have a wonderful time.  He is Santa.  Really.  He even belongs to a Santa club and goes to Santa conventions.  (Did you know there was such a thing as a Santa Convention?)  He brought me these vintage lights because he knows how much I enjoy Christmas, and I absolutely love them!  The lights have liquid that bubbles when it heats up - very cool.

Definitely one of my treasured ornaments - thanks Godfather!

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Tuesday's Table - Countdown to Christmas!

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Welcome to Tuesday's Table, where we get together to fill up our table with food, drinks and entertainment.  For the next 4 weeks, we're looking for holiday-themed recipes and ideas.  Have you got some great recipes for a holiday party?  Favorite Christmas traditions?  Decorating ideas for small spaces?  Bring them all over and share them here!

Wow - we had some great ideas last week!  Choosing a favorite was crazy difficult.  For today, I couldn't resist these Mini Chocolate Chip Blondies from Jennifer over at Peanut Butter and Peppers.  I've always loved blondies and these look wonderful for the holidays!

Thanks for sharing Jennifer - grab a button here!


I'll feature my favorite entries from this week on next week's post.  I hope you bring your favorites!

Only a few guidelines:

• Please share as many links as you like, but only if you haven't shared them here before.  
• Add a link back to Tuesday's Table (or grab a button above!) so others can join in the fun.  
• Sign up for my email reminder here.

No other requirements, but visit the other links here, and I'd love for you to follow me too!

And now, for this week's link party - remember, holiday recipes and ideas!

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Chicken and Dumplings

We had chicken and dumplings for dinner tonight.  That's great comfort food.  We had a sort of chilly day here, a bit cloudy, and we were very busy.  Seemed like a good day for comfort food.

Here's where you'd think I would put in a lovely picture of our finished dish.  Unfortunately, I had a camera malfunction.  I did manage to get this shot of one of the ingredients:

Scorpion peppers.  OK, probably not the first thing you think of when you are thinking comfort food.  Since they are 20 times hotter than habaneros.  That's a pile of hot.  I like some heat, and added one to our chicken and dumplings.  And it was lovely!  I put it in fairly early in the process, which allowed a lot of the heat to dissipate.

Anyway, in case you'd like the recipe... without pictures... (and I don't even have leftovers to recreate the dish for a photo...) here you go:



Chicken and Dumplings

Ingredients
Chicken:

• 1 (2 1/2-pound) chicken, cut into 8 pieces
• 2 quarts chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or a scorpion if you are daring!)
• 1 1/2 cups frozen corn
• 1 1/2 cups frozen peas

Dumplings:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Ice water

Directions:
To start the chicken: brown the chicken pieces in a large pot.  Add the chicken broth and cayenne, and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Simmer the chicken until it is tender and the thigh juices run clear, about 40 minutes. Remove the chicken from the pot and, when it is cool enough to handle, remove the skin and separate the meat from the bones. Return the chicken meat to the pot. Keep warm over low heat.

To prepare the dumplings: Mix the flour with the salt and mound together in a mixing bowl. Beginning at the center of the mound, drizzle a small amount of ice water over the flour. Using your fingers, and moving from the center to the sides of the bowl, gradually incorporate about 3/4 cup of ice water. Knead the dough and form it into ball.

Drop the dough into the chicken by spoonfuls.  Do not stir the chicken once the dumplings have been added.  Cook uncovered for about 10 minutes, then cover and cook for 10 more minutes.

Carefully remove the dumplings from the pot and put into bowls.  Add the frozen corn and peas to the pot and stir, simmering until the vegetables are cooked, about 3 minutes.  Ladle over the dumplings and serve!

Delicious comfort food.  And a hot harvest.  Now, to figure out my camera issue....

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Trans-Siberian Orchestra Concert

One of our Christmas traditions, at least since 2002, has been to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra's Christmas show.  If you don't think you know TSO, here's what wikipedia has to say about them:

Trans-Siberian Orchestra (TSO) is an American progressive rock band founded in 1993 by producer, composer, and lyricist Paul O'Neill, who brought together Jon Oliva and Al Pitrelli (both members of Savatage) and keyboardist and co-producer Robert Kinkel to form the core of the creative team. 

Since then, TSO has sold more than 9 million concert tickets and over 8 million albums. The band's musical style incorporates classical, orchestral, symphonic, and progressive elements into hard rock and heavy metal. The band has released a series of rock operas: Christmas Eve and Other Stories, The Christmas Attic, Beethoven's Last Night, The Lost Christmas Eve (the final installment of their Christmas trilogy), and their two-disc Night Castle. Trans-Siberian Orchestra is also known for their extensive charity work and elaborate concerts, which include a string section, a light show, lasers, pyrotechnics, moving trusses, video screens, and effects synchronized to music.

You may not think you know them, but you've almost certainly heard their song "Christmas Eve in Sarajevo" which has been on numerous commercials and which is the song that you've probably heard with the highly decorated houses with synchronized lights and music.

They put on a wonderful show - a combination Christmas story and rock concert.  Though the story was different this year (different than it has been for at least the past 10 years... which I haven't decided if I liked or didn't like) the show was just as wonderful and quite a spectacular light and pyrotechnic event!

The first part of the the show is narrated (so that you know the Christmas story they tell).

Lots of Christmas music adapted for a rock show.  And lots of lights.  And fire.

They send a couple of the musicians up on platforms in the middle of the audience!

And more lights!

Something I always like - a couple of the most popular musicians spend some time playing in the audience.  It's pretty impressive to see them run through the crowd while still playing (one is guitar and one is electric violin).

And here's just a few of the many (many!) buses and trucks that support the band.

Thanks for the great show TSO - we'll see you next year!

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A {Few} Years Ago...

... on this very day, I got my very first look at the world.

What a ride it's been so far!

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Tuesday's Table - Countdown to Christmas!

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Welcome to Tuesday's Table, where we get together to fill up our table with food, drinks and entertainment.  For the next 5 weeks, we're looking for holiday-themed recipes and ideas.  Have you got some great recipes for a tree-trimming party?  Decorating ideas for Christmas?  Cookie swap party recipes and ideas?  Bring them all over and share them here!

Wow - we had some great ideas last week!  Choosing a favorite was crazy difficult.  For today, I was most intrigued by these Lemon Basil Cookies from Tumbleweed Contessa.  They sure look delicious!

Thanks for sharing Tumbleweed Contessa - grab a button here!


I'll feature my favorite entries from this week on next week's post.  I hope you bring your favorites!

Only a few guidelines:

• Please share as many links as you like, but only if you haven't shared them here before.  
• Add a link back to Tuesday's Table (or grab a button above!) so others can join in the fun.  
• Sign up for my email reminder here.

No other requirements, but visit the other links here, and I'd love for you to follow me too!

And now, for this week's link party - remember, holiday recipes and ideas!

Pin It