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Holiday Magic Moments!
It’s that special time of year
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Celebrate the season with your family and friends. The holidays are about creating memories and sharing your happiness with the world. There are so many amazing things you can do. We thought we would feature some fun activities that are guaranteed to sweeten up the season.
It’s Party Time: – but Keep It Simple
- Plan a tree trimming soup ‘n salad party
- Invite your friends to go caroling
- Make “Gifts from the Heart” for sharing
……….Like sauces, jams, vinegar, breads, relish, butter, cookies - Host a holiday open house for neighbors
……….Make some cookie cutter sandwiches and lots of cookies
Here’s a simple holiday menu your guests will love.
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Stuffed Butter Lettuce Salad with Warm Salad Streusel
A beautiful head of lettuce unfolds into a bowl of fresh salad
About the Recipe: The tender Butter Lettuce head is filled with chilled mini cucumbers, balsamic cherry flavored cranberries, walnuts, red onions, and bits of soft lettuce leaves. They are dressed in a balsamic berry flavored dressing and topped with warm crisp goat cheese salad streusel. It looks so elegant, but it’s easy to prepare.
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Gyro Soup with Tzatziki Sauce
Opaa! It’s a Grecian delight!
About the Recipe: This soup is a tasty twist on the classic Greek Gyros, and it’s a perfect way to warm up those chilly winter days. All the popular Greek favors combine in a Gyros flavored beef broth, topped with a “cool” Tzatziki Sauce, and served with crispy flatbread triangles. So Delicious!
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Pecan Bourbon Butterhorn Cookies
Meltaway, buttery, easy-to-make, crescent shaped cookies
About the Recipe: Bohemian butterhorn cookies are an ethnic favorite family recipe. They are filled with a buttery flavor and shaped like little curved crescents. Some recipes use twice as many pecans, so more chopped nuts can be added if desired. Before serving, we always dust them lightly with extra confectioners’ sugar.
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Drake Hotel Chicago – Holiday Tea Party
Holiday Tea at the Palm Court in the Drake Hotel
It’s holiday fresh, colorful, fragrant, spirited, and steeped in history! It’s the Palm Court at The Drake Hotel in Chicago. Imagine drinking tea like celebrities, Winston Churchill, Princess Diana, Empress of Japan, Walt Disney, Aretha Franklin, and Mohammad Ali, did when they had afternoon tea there.
Tea is served in individual tea pots accompanied by the traditional three- tiered tea tray filled with an arrangement of gourmet artisanal finger sandwiches; delicious from scratch breads and scones; and dainty petite fours with delicious preserves, lemon curd and English double Devon cream. There is also a tea service for children called little Prince & Princess Afternoon tea service. Elegant harp music fills the room and joyful Twelve Days of Christmas Carolers let the holiday spirit flow. You will find yourself surrounded by lavish Christmas decorations and enjoying irresistible holiday pastries.
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We had a chance to talk to Leslie Burch, the Assistant F&B Manager, who told us about the Drake Hotel’s long history of Afternoon Tea.
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Sweet Butterscotch Tea Cakes
A little cake-like cookie topped with an almond glaze
About the Recipe: These cookies are the perfect partner for a hot cup of tea or coffee. Rolling them thicker will make them more cake-like and thinner dough makes the cookie crisp. The glaze dresses them up for holiday serving, topped with a few simple toasted almond slices and a dash of green sprinkling sugar.
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Easy Puff Pastry Danish Crisps
Top them with your favorite jam or jelly
About the Recipe: These pastries remind me of the old-fashioned puff pastry crisps that were sold in our local bakery. You can serve them without adding jam, but we love to add jam or a fruit spread right before serving.
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Build a Gingerbread House – See It through the Eyes of a Child
- Buy a kit and make everyone part of the construction crew
- Bake gingerbread and design your own house
- Go to a gingerbread decorating activity
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Cheekwood Gardens Gingerbread Decorating Party
It’s Gingerbread House Decorating with Lots of Frosting and Treats
We kicked off the holiday season by traveling to Cheekwood, a 55-acre estate located in Nashville Tennessee that houses the Botanical Garden and Museum of Art. It was all about family and enjoying the excitement with Gabby, a second grader, for a full-of-fun and tasty decorating party. Everyone received a premade gingerbread house and a big tube of creamy frosting. At the front of the room were bowls overflowing with favorite candies, pretzels, cereals, crackers, and tiny cookies, where we could select anything we wanted. Huddled around a round table, we rolled up our sleeves and started to create our own gingerbread house, yard, garden, paths and even gingerbread people. Of course, Gabby was the main designer and director. As you can imagine, we had lots of frosted finger licking and giggling. When we finished, we sat down around the table and enjoyed our hot cocoa, coffee, tea and cookies and admired our delicious gingerbread masterpiece. And yes, they gave us a box to carry it home safely, starting the holiday season in sweet style.
Our original gingerbread house decorated by Gabby and Family
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Before we left, I had a chance to ask Natalie Levine, the organizer of the event, about Cheekwood and past Gingerbread activities.
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Red Hot Chocolate Crinkle Cookie
Crispy on the outside; soft cake-like inside
About the Recipe: This unique cookie has a crusty candied peppermint crust with blushes of red velvet colored, soft cake inside. If you eat one when they are warm, it will almost have a molten texture. These are a popular holiday cookie and are perfect for peppermint lovers.
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Holiday Shortbread Nibblers
It’s the perfect little bite
About the Recipe: Butter is the star in this recipe. It’s a great cookie to serve on a snack plate or place into a jar. Since they are so small, you can easily eat 4 or 5. The bonus is that they are very easy to make. We love to freeze a bag or two as special treats since they can be frozen for about 3 months.
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Visit Chicago ‘s Magnificent Mile and Munch Pizza at Bongiornos
At the beginning of December, we traveled to Chicago to visit the German Market and walk down Michigan Avenue, ablaze with its own lightshow, colorful stars. and reindeer. Musicians stood on street corners playing holiday music, and other volunteers, wearing Santa hats, rang bells for the Salvation Army, asking people to donate some money to help others and support local projects. Walking down the city streets, one discovers the true meaning of this holiday season.
Bongiornos Pizzeria
A little way from the crowded street, tucked away from the noise of the street, is an Italian restaurant called Bongiornos, a place that serves real Italian styled food and a delicious pizza. It’s here you can find your inner child as you watch the Italian cooks whirl around pizzas and prepare those treasured cannoli treats. A rainbow of gelato flavors lines an old-fashioned ice cream case. This is a restaurant that shows us how important it is to continue to share family traditions, and a place where even new friends can find an Italian hug.
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Entrance to Bongiorno’s Pizzeria from River Plaza Lobby
We stopped to talk to Deanne Bongiorno, who always seems to have a warm welcoming smile, and asked her about their popular Italian pizza.
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Red, White, and Blue Chippers
Inspired All-American favorite cookie
About the Recipe: Celebrate the holiday with this all-American cookie that’s filled with a salute of red, white, and blue. The popular flavored brown and white sugar dough is overflowing with white chocolate, crunchy pecans, and bits of sweet dried cherry and blueberry bits.
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Mini Cheeseball Veggie Candles
Cute and clever little spirited cheeseballs
About the Recipe: Crunchy nuts cover the soft creamy center, filled with an herb or spicy cheese combo. Each cheeseball is topped with a small carrot or celery veggie stick and topped with a dot of mustard.
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Easy ‘n Elegant Pappardelle Pasta Supper
Circles of Italian flavor for small dinner party
About the Recipe: This dish looks like it took hours to make, but it was finished in an hour. The Italian sauce is blended with mushrooms, adding a delicious umami flavor. The croutons soften but remain a little crisp, providing that extra garlic crunch along with snappy peas. Tender pasta noodles dressed with light buttery Parmesan cheese is a winning combination.
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Spicy Beer Battered Veggie Bits
Deep fry favorite veggies; serve as an appetizer
About the Recipe: Beer batter makes a light crispy coating for cauliflower and other vegetables. Then drizzle with hot honey sauce for a spirited snack. Add your favorite spicy pecans or other nuts, some crackers, and cheese chunks for a welcome assortment of holiday appetizers.
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Special Holiday Breakfast – Celebrate Friendship
The group is called MUGS and means Bring Your Own Mug Group. It’s an interest group of the Purdue Women’s Club. The goal is to make friends and make a difference.
Purdue Women’s Club – Mug Group
The group meets every month at a member’s home and only brings along her own cup. Members take turns being a hostess. There’s no program, speaker, china, silver, or hassle. The hostess provides a pot of coffee, a few goodies and the rest of the time is dedicated to conversation and getting to know one another.
We talked to Jackie Ralph, the chairman of this group, and asked her about organizing a group to celebrate friendship.
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Mrs. Murry’s Old Fashioned Moravian Kolacky
Old-fashioned sweet rolls with hidden cheese/ raisin layer
About the Recipe: An old-fashioned yeast sweet roll that is filled with baker’s or farmer’s cheese and then topped with thick sweet fruit pastry filling. It’s sprinkled with buttery lightly spiced streusel and after baking, sprinkled with confectioners’ sugar. The double filling is a wonderful surprise.
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Apple Walnut Oatmeal Cookies
An inspired, heart-warming, comfort cookie recipe
About the Recipe: Just one taste of these warm apple walnut oatmeal cookies will leave you wanting just one more as you pass the cookie plate. They have a delicious homemade taste, flavored with bits of apples, a touch of cinnamon, the texture of soft oats, and creamy chips of butterscotch
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Chocolaté Coconut Crème Cookies
Fancy holiday, gluten free sandwich cookies
About the Recipe: Rich coconut cream filling, flavored with a touch of rum and pineapple, are tucked between two gluten free chocolate lovin’ brownie cookies. It’s a real high style elegant cookie to help celebrate the holidays.
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Spicy Beef Barley Bean Soup
It’s Granny Annie’s prize-winning beef recipe
About the Recipe: This hearty soup is perfect for the cold winter days. Filled with nutritious vegetables and easy-to-make barley, it has a lightly spiced beef flavor mixed with red beans.
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