Christmas Dinner with the Fam

Christmas Dinner with the Fam I just wanted to share with you our typical Christmas dinner with the fam. For our family the Christmas meal normally means roast beef and a turkey breast roast for those family members that don’t eat red meat. With the roasts we also serve sides of pan roast potatoes (there…

Christmas Morning Breakfast Roll

Every year my mom makes a Christmas morning breakfast roll. She makes a slight variation of the roll each year, sometimes going back and re-creating the recipe from a past year… she has notes of all variations of this recipe dating all the way back to 1977. The one pictured features orange honey, orange zest,…

Christmas Punch

Christmas Punch When we were catering we used to cater the monthly luncheons for a local women’s club – the Monday Club of San Luis Obispo. One of the traditions that dates back to the start of the club is to serve punch during the club’s social hour between the meeting and the lunch. We…

Orange Cookie: VIRTUAL COOKIE SWAP

Gotta love how my family loves holiday baking! Here is a recipe for an Orange Cookie from my cousin Win. Hope you all enjoy. ORANGE COOKIE 3 cups all-purpose flour 2 tsp. baking powder ¼ tsp. salt 6 oz (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened ½ cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated salt 3 large eggs…

Orange Honey Baklava: Favorite Family Christmas Food

When I was little, every Christmas my Nana would fly out from the East Coast and stay for two weeks. It was always a magical time, and was always bummed when the every other year would hit and she’d stay at my cousin’s house instead of mine when she’d come West for her visit. One…

White Chocolate Macadamia Cookie: VIRTUAL COOKIE SWAP

This recipe for a White Chocolate Macadamia Cookie with Apricots is brought to you by my friend Tracy from San Diego, CA – she’s originally from Hawaii, thus the love for cookies with macadamia nuts at the holidays. WHITE CHOCOLATE MACADAMIA COOKIE 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour 1 tsp. baking soda 1 tsp. salt 1…

Wholesome Gingerbread Cookie: VIRTUAL COOKIE SWAP

This recipe for a wholesome gingerbread cookie comes from my cousin-in-law Ella down in San Diego. She makes these Wholesome Gingerbread cookies for her family every year. These gingerbread cookies are made with carrot juice, whole wheat flour, and ground flax. Not only do they look yummy, but they taste good too. I hope you…

Holiday Baking Flashback

HOLIDAY BAKING FLASHBACK This holiday baking flash back brings you back to my days as a caterer with 24/7 access to a commercial kitchen. I just can’t explain the joy of being able to bake off all my gingerbread cookies at once. This is the first year in 7 years I won’t have access to…

Peparkaker Cookies: VIRTUAL COOKIE SWAP

This is a recipe for Peparkaker Cookies (from my cousin Win). He believes it came from our Nana (out fathers’ mother) – and I wouldn’t be surprised. She had a habit of making certain recipes for different family groups. I have no memories of her making this for my family, but probably because we were…