How to feed a hungry crowd at Christmas

 

 I'm a big proponent of planning ahead for any holiday, occasion or visit.  I'm always looking for ways to plan better and more intelligently.  

One of my favorite bloggers is Yvonne at Stonegable, and I have saved a ton of her ideas to share with you all.  Her post How to Feed a Hungry Crowd at Christmas is worth its weight in gold and could be easily adapted to feeding a crowd any time of year, especially when one has out-of-town guests staying in the home or nearby.  I intend to use some of Yvonne's ideas when we have family visiting for two weeks in August.  I think it could simplify things nicely.

I encourage you to read Yvonne's post for yourself, but I will share a few of her ideas that I gleaned.  A coffee bar to start the day, along with some pre-breakfast snacks and nibbles, sounds like a really good idea.  In a perfect world, one could adapt that idea for summer by making it a smoothie bar, but I don't have the space, the blender, or the wherewithal for that, so I would just use our existing coffee bar with its k-cups for coffee, hot chocolate, and spiced cider.  I can also make sure I have plenty of ice cubes prepared and ready for making any of these beverages iced.

This idea might work out very well during the family visit in that the snacks could tide us over till lunch, allowing us to bypass an actual breakfast on days we are headed to the beach or a car trip to a touristy destination.

For days at home when we might have a regular breakfast, we could make it a hearty brunch with meat, eggs, and potatoes, etc.  Then skip lunch and serve a midafternoon appetizer spread, maybe with iced tea or lemonade.

Yvonne suggests that Christmas supper be a meal in a bowl, maybe with sourdough bread on the side.  So for summer, I am thinking main-dish salads like macaroni with tuna, chicken salad, chef's salad, etc.  And also with sourdough bread on the side.  If we wanted dessert, it could be a cookie tray (my hubby is already baking and freezing cookies and fudge for the family's visit) and possibly some good ice cream.

Wow, I am so impressed by how this post has helped me to come up with some great ideas for our family's August visit.  I will talk these thoughts over with my local daughter, and we'll come up with some potential menus.

Hope Yvonne's ideas are useful to you as well!

"What do the two of you do with all those cookies?"

 

Inquiring minds seem to ask this question every year.  Yes, that is a wooden glider on our screened front porch, stacked with many cookie containers and a couple of fudge tins!  We live where it gets very cold in December, so this is a workable way of storing cookies for the season.

My hubby started working on Christmas baking in November.  By November 25, he had already made three batches of Heavenly Delight fudge, along with double batches of Secret Spice Cookies, Chocolate Spritz, and Chocolate Mint Crisps, and a large batch of Whipped Shortbread.  By Christmas he had made Lemon Shortbread Thumbprints, Macaroon Kisses, Peanut Blossoms, Lemon Spritz, Christmas Tree Spritz, Eggnog Logs, Sacher Torte Cookies, and Gingerbread Men.  I had made Chocolate Nutters, Christmas No-Bakes, Chocolate Orange Cookies, and possibly another kind.  I forget.  Most of his varieties were double batches.  There were several kinds I had hoped to make that there just wasn't time for.

Hence the question: What do the two of you do with all those cookies?

Well, we do share a lot of them with other people.  Some wing their way to family in Nevada.  Several people on our list get a special, personal plate of their very favorite cookies.    Like the plate below of lemon shortbread thumbprints.

We give cookie plates to several of our neighbors.  (The plates below are examples from previous years.)  If we hear that a friend or family member is stopping by, we prepare a cookie plate for them to take home.  And Mr. T has been taking a cookie tray whenever he goes to his volunteer job at The Wilds of New England.  I took a plate to the staff at my dentist's office.

We take a cookie and fudge tray to Christmas dinner, where it is often all the dessert that's needed.  Below you see a partially depleted tray.

And below you see how it might have looked before anyone had dessert.  This was last year.  Just have to brag on Julia, who made those amazing caramel thumbprints, which taste even better than they look.

And she made them again this year, but this photo is from 2021.

We also served a cookie tray when our two older granddaughters came on Tuesday for their Christmas with us.  Christmas No-Bakes are one of their favorites.  Below is an older version.  This year's were simply drizzled with white chocolate, but I didn't get a picture.  Truth to tell, I'd forgotten about the marshmallow variation.

And of course, when we are invited to a Christmas party or there's an event at church or elsewhere, a cookie and fudge tray comes along with us.  There have been several such events this year.  Below you see a cookie tray and then a cookie and fudge plate, both ready to head out the door for Mr. T's work Christmas party.

And that is what the two of us do with all those cookies!

A Christmasy napkin fold to try now!

Continuing to browse my Pinterest boards for Christmas in July inspiration, I again turned to my  Christmas Hospitality board where I spied this pretty napkin fold from Jen Schmidt at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam.  Below, you see Jen's pretty fold.  At top, you see my rather miserable attempt and wonky fold.  I didn't really want to link to a project without having at least attempted it myself.  I don't have any solid color cloth napkins so I chose to use this red Pioneer Woman napkin, one of a set gifted me by Vee a few years back.

This fold is called a Pinwheel Napkin Fold and looks a little bit like a poinsettia.

I thought that it could also work for summer parties, since pinwheels in patriotic colors are everywhere.  Some of these pinwheel folded napkins in red, white and blue could look very nice!

A party idea to file away for Christmas

I turned to some of my Pinterest boards to get some ideas for Christmas in July posts.  On my Christmas Hospitality board,  I found this practical and fun idea by Ashley from Under the Sycamore:  Come and go, but bring cookies.

Am I glad I pinned this!

Some years ago I saw an idea for just having a cookie and eggnog, or cookie and punch, party, and I liked the simplicity of it.  This idea from Ashley is even nicer.

She planned a simple "come and go" party and asked everyone who came to bring a plate of cookies.  Now I've done open houses, and I've done cookie swaps, but this simple idea seems to top them all.  Come when you can, leave when you must, but just bring a plate of cookies.

Ashley and her kids decorated before folks came

Screenshot from Under the Sycamore

and they provided cocoa, hot cider, lattes, and paper goods.   She shared that paper snack trays worked perfectly for serving the cookies, rather than paper plates. 

Screenshot from Under the Sycamore

Pretty sure I've seen this type of snack tray at the Dollar Tree in the past, especially in summer.  It might be worth a look there to see if they have them right now.

Really, this is just a perfect get-together for the season, isn't it?  Most people are going to bake (or buy) some festive cookies anyway.  How hard is it to arrange some on a plate and take it along to a come-and-go gathering?  It's hard to imagine what Christmas entertaining is going to look like come December.  Much as I wish it will be just as it's always been, I know that could be unrealistic.  A party like this would facilitate getting together but in smaller groups. 

I'm going to be putting a simple party like this on my December calendar, I think.  What about you?

Chocolate Cherry Hot Cocoa

Image by candoyi from Pixabay

If summer follows in spring's chilly footsteps, it's even possible we could have some snow this month.  There was snow on Mother's Day weekend, so anything is now officially possible!  History tells us that one year in New Hampshire, there was a frost in all twelve months.  If we happen to get a cool evening in July, that would be a good time to try out a new cocoa recipe well in advance of Christmas hospitality.  

This wonderful-looking hot cocoa recipe comes from A Cultivated Nest and is for Chocolate Cherry Hot Cocoa.  It reminds me of the long-ago days when my mother would make hot cocoa for us and our friends after a chilly afternoon sledding out in the sloping fields of my childhood.  She usually stirred it up from scratch in the same way that this recipe is made.  We always had marshmallow fluff on our cocoa, however, which would be much too sweet in this recipe.  The whipped cream is the perfect topper!

Photo from A Cultivated Nest

Why not give this recipe a try on a cool summer evening -- or just file it away until the holiday season?  It would be a festive treat to share with friends!

Festive Cheese Log

This photo is of a similar cheese log and is from Taste of Home.

Here's a favorite recipe of mine that would be great for New Year's Eve or anytime you're asked to bring an appetizer.  It travels well and you only need bring along a cheese spreader and a box of crackers!

I found this recipe in Ken Haedrich's Home for the Holidays years ago and have modified it somewhat.  The little bit of jalapeno flavor is very nice, but the jalapenos can be omitted if you don't have them or don't care for them.  This takes a bit of time to put together, since you need to take time to toast the nuts, but I still consider it easy and quick.  And there is nothing like the convenience of making an appetizer ahead to pull out of the fridge when needed.  Here's the recipe:

FESTIVE CHEESE LOGS

2 cups pecan or walnut pieces
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
8 ounces grated sharp Cheddar cheese
4 ounces crumbled blue cheese
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley (or use a couple tablespoons of dried parsley flakes if you must)
2 tablespoons finely minced onions (the dried will work; use 2 tsp.)
1 or 2 minced garlic cloves (optional)
1/4 cup minced pickled jalapeño peppers (optional)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Toast the nuts: Spread them on an ungreased baking sheet and place them in a 350º oven for 7 to 10 minutes until nicely toasted. Watch them carefully. When they’re done, transfer them onto a large plate and let them cool.

Put the three cheeses in a large mixing bowl and work them with the back of a wooden spoon until blended. Add the remaining ingredients (except the nuts), and mix them with a spoon or your hands until everything is evenly blended.

Chop the nuts with a hand chopper and work 1 cup of them into the cheese mixture. Cover and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

When the 15 minutes are up, put a large piece of wax paper on your work counter. Spread the nuts on the wax paper.  (If you happen to have more fresh parsley, that also looks pretty mixed in with the nuts, so you might like to chop a bit more and add to the chopped nuts.) Divide the cheese mixture into two portions and place one portion on top of the nut-covered wax paper. Using your hands, shape the cheese mixture into a log, rolling and pressing it into the nuts as you shape. Wrap it in plastic wrap and follow the same procedure to make a second cheese log from the remaining cheese mixture. (If you prefer to make a cheese ball, scoop the entire cheese mixture onto the nut-covered wax paper and shape it into a large ball, again rolling and pressing it into the chopped nuts as you shape.) Wrap the cheese ball or logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 30 minutes before serving.

Makes 2 cheese logs.

This recipe has been a family favorite for years, and it always goes over well at events I take it to. It's nice because you can make it well ahead of time and keep in the fridge until you're almost ready to use it. Just pick up a box or two of crackers and you're all set. I took this to a gathering in early December and took along the snowflake-shaped Ritz® crackers to accompany it. I like to make the logs rather than a cheese ball because they stay neater looking -- just slice and serve.

Mulled Cranberry=Orange Juice

Here's a warm, delicious holiday beverage!  I just made this again for our simple cookie swap on Tuesday evening.  As you might guess by the above image (which I found on the ever-helpful Pixabay), I failed to take a picture of it.  When I mentioned this drink in my post about the cookie swap, a reader asked for the recipe.  I had to go back and look: it was 2007 when I posted this.  So in my view it is high time for a repost.  Here it is, with an update or two:

MULLED CRANBERRY ORANGE JUICE

1 orange
12 whole cloves
a cinnamon stick
1 cup water
2 quarts cranberry juice cocktail -- I used the kind without sugar that is 100% juice.  It includes other juices, obviously, but that's preferable to sugar.
1/2 cup golden raisins (optional) -- I have never used these
1/2 tsp. ground cardamom -- again, can be optional if you don't have it.  I didn't. 
3 Tblsp. fresh lemon juice (bottled will work)
3 Tblsp. brown sugar

Use a vegetable peeler to peel off thin strips of orange peel from the orange. Set the orange aside. Put the peel in a small saucepan with the cloves, cinnamon stick and water. Bring this mixture to a simmer; cover and simmer over low heat for 20 minutes.

In a larger saucepan combine all of the remaining ingredients. Cut the orange in half and squeeze the juice into this larger saucepan. Using a strainer, strain the liquid from the spice/peel mixture into the larger saucepan as well. Add the lemon juice and brown sugar.  Heat the mixture in the large saucepan over low heat until it is hot. May be kept simmering over very low heat and ladled out as needed.

(For the cookie swap, I tried making this in a slow cooker and it worked beautifully.  About 2 hours before serving I put the cranberry juice into a 3-quart slow cooker and set it on high.  Then I proceeded to peel the orange.  I simmered the peel with the water, cloves and cinnamon stick for the 20 minutes as specified.  Then I strained this mixture into the slow cooker and added the juice of the orange, the brown sugar and the lemon juice and let it all cook on high until ready to serve.  Then I turned off the slow cooker and it stayed plenty hot enough.)

If you want to be fancy, pour the mixture into mugs and top each one with an orange slice with a whole clove or two stuck in the rind.

Save the cranberry juice bottle to store any leftover beverage.  It reheats well by the mug in the microwave.

This recipe came from Cook & Tell, my favorite cooking newsletter. I discovered this beverage recipe a dozen years ago and it became an instant favorite of mine to serve to guests at holiday time.  I still love it. 

A simple cookie swap

As readers may remember from previous years, our church usually plans a Christmas fellowship for ladies each year.  It has looked different ways over the years.  We've held it on an evening at church or at someone's home.  Last year we tried a brunch on a Saturday morning.  Some years we've done a craft project; for the past quite-a-few years we've had a Yankee swap.  Always there has been good food and fellowship.   But this year we didn't have time to plan a Christmas activity due to the fact that our ladies had a tremendously busy fall.   Four funerals were held at our church between the months of September and early December.  In every case the church ladies provided food for a family luncheon following the service.  We're a very small church and currently without a pastor (and hence, without a pastor's wife!) so all of the ladies had to pitch in and do what needed to be done.  That left no time (and little energy) for planning anything else.

One lady had the idea of hosting a simple cookie swap in her home and broached it to the rest of us.  Many could not come for one reason or another: illness, work, impending travel and so on.  We decided that we would go ahead with it anyway and I volunteered to host the swap at my home as it's a more central location.

The swap was last night and was a lot of fun, very relaxing.  We had about a dozen ladies and girls in attendance and we basically just ate yummy food and chatted.  There were yummy cold drinks like creamy eggnog, and cider.  And wonderful hot drinks -- mulled cider, and a cranberry orange hot drink that I just love making.  We had hearty appetizers -- cheese pizza, little  barbecue sausages, a cheese log and crackers, a hot pizza dip and tortilla chips,  seafood quiche squares and more. 

For the cookie swap itself we kept it very low-key.  No competition as to the fanciest or best-tasting cookies or whatever.  We just had everyone bring two dozen cookies and, after sharing about the cookie we chose to bring and the recipes, we simply filled containers with the cookies as desired, and everyone went home with a nice variety.  Below are some of the cookies.

Espresso-filled spritz cookies by Julie, mint chocolate and Christmas tree spritz cookies by Rhonda, no bakes by Kim, little jam tarts by Heather, cranberry orange shortbread by Carrie.  All delicious!

 I brought these jam-filled shortbread cookies.

All in all, a delightful evening and a form of Christmas hospitality I highly recommend!

Christmas conversation starters from Skip to My Lou

A page from my tattered Trim the Christmas Tree Little Golden Book

 Wouldn't it be fun to have some really interesting, meaningful conversations, that the kids could also take part in, around the dinner table on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day?  A few years ago my hubby and I took a little getaway in August and visited a Christmas shop in the area we were visiting.  I found a neat little round box of Christmas conversation starters and purchased it.  I actually remembered to bring it out and use it on Christmas Eve that year, but have forgotten it until now.  This year the grandkids might enjoy it even more, now that they are older.

If your family could use some help getting a fun conversation going, check out this idea from Cindy at Skip to My Lou.  She has some free printable Christmas conversation starters that you might like to use.  The questions are printed in the center of pretty green and red wreaths, so they are pretty and festive as well.

Or, you might like to just take this idea and make up some interesting conversation starter cards of your very own.  It could be really fun to personalize them to suit your own family yet still make the questions general enough so a guest of any age could answer.  This would be an easy project to do for Christmas in July and have all of your conversation cards ready for the holiday dinners!

Quote of the day

A scene from one of my favorite Christmas fabrics, now made into a throw

Recently I finished reading Homemade Hospitality, a book by Barbara Sims.  She devotes several chapters to the blessings of extending hospitality around the holidays, particularly Christmas.  And she suggests getting ready for Christmas as soon as Thanksgiving is over.  She writes:

"On the day after [Thanksgiving], I can hardly wait to finish my morning coffee sipped from a china Christmas mug.  The Christmas season officially arrived last night when I pulled those [Christmas] plates off the top shelf in the china cabinet.  Today is special.

"I will decorate the Christmas tree.  The shopping is done  (well, almost), and wrapped packages will be retrieved from where I stored them last summer ...

"If all goes well (and I have a little help from my husband), by bedtime tonight I may have candles in the windows, nativity scenes on the tables, and even stockings by the fireplace.  Once the house is decorated, the Christmas spirit just creeps in and I begin to relax.  Now I look forward to enjoying the season, baking fruitcakes, having friends over, visiting in their homes, and rejoicing in the birth of the Savior."  ~ Barbara Sims, Homemade Hospitality

I think she's onto something here.  For years, I thought people who put their tree  up right after Thanksgiving were really rushing the season.  But this year we started decorating earlier than usual, and I did notice that once the house looked pretty and festive I started to relax as far as enjoying the season went.  (We won't discuss my rush to finish and mail handcrafted gifts, which is another story entirely.)  So next year, I may follow Mrs. Sims' lead and decorate even earlier!

Wonderful idea for entertaining friends

Yesterday I happened to be glancing through one of my favorite Gooseberry Patch Christmas books, Simple Joys of Christmas.  You can read my review of it here:  Simple Joys book review, and I'm sure you will see why it's one of my favorites.

The book includes memories as well as recipes and some entertaining ideas.  This idea came from a lady named Pat Crandall.  She wrote:  "During the first week in December I send invitations to friends to join me for a Christmas tea.  I ask each of them to bring a Christmas story, poem or personal remembrance to share.  After we spend time enjoying one another's company, then we go to the dining room where everyone can make an ornament to take home; afterward we have dessert and coffee.  We all love spending time together and for me, this is one way I can show my friends how much I appreciate them."

I love this idea!  For some time now I've wanted to do something for the ladies in my Sunday School class at Christmas time.  One year I gave them each a handmade ornament and a poem I'd written, but I have really wanted to have them over and show hospitality to them in my home.  I've considered various ideas -- a brunch, a cookie exchange, etc. -- but all seemed too complicated and time-consuming.  I wanted something simple yet special.  This gathering sounds as if it would be just right. 

If you are interested in obtaining a copy of Simple Joys of Christmas, it is (sadly) out of print, but I found reasonably priced used ones on Amazon.  You can go there directly or use my affiliate link:  Simple Joys of Christmas.  If you, like me, love Christmas and vintage things, I am sure you would enjoy this book.