to custard or not to custard

I love dinner parties.  I love scouring the internet and poring through cookbooks to come up with the perfect menu that is both easy and impressive.  And holiday dinner parties are even better.  More special.  More glittery.  But holiday dinners are my mom's domain - she's the matriarch of the family so holidays are always celebrated at her house.  I was raised Unitarian Universalist and while we celebrate Christmas, Christmas Eve was always an afterthought.  We don't go to church, we don't have gobs of family to visit, we open presents in the morning, the big dinner with roasted meat is on Christmas Day.  Christmas Eve was for reading 'Twas The Night Before Christmas and that's about it.  So I created an event out of Christmas Eve dinner as something to do - and as a reason for me to be in control of a holiday dinner.  What can I say?  I like being hostess.

I have my menu all planned out.  Brie & crackers to start (probably heated up with pears and/or almonds on top, though not en croute).  Crab & spinach lasagna, roasted Brussels sprouts and a green salad for dinner.  And a pear tart tatin with vanilla ice cream for dessert.

And that's where the custard dilemma comes in.

I have an ice cream maker.  My sister got it for me for Christmas a few years ago and I love it to death, but have only made ice cream once.  I hate making custards and apparently I didn't have everything cold enough because it froze up too hard (though still tasted great).  But I have this ice cream maker!  I should use it!

So I did some research.  If I chill the base properly and let it age in the fridge for 24 hours, it should mix up properly and not become a brick.  If I serve it after freezing for just a few hours, it should be fine either way (though my leftovers will possibly still be rock-hard).  If I add some gelatin or anywhere from a teaspoon to a tablespoon of vodka, it should help it stay scoopable.

But there's still the problem of having to make a custard.  Then I found this recipe from Williams Sonoma (I always have luck with their recipes).  Philadelphia-style ice cream made without eggs.  Oooooooooh.

After more research, I learned that this is how Breyer's Natural Vanilla (the type with the bean specks) is made.  And my sister and my mom really like Breyer's.  But I like Ben & Jerry's and Haagen Dazs better, both of which are made with eggs (and thus probably a custard). 

I don't know what my brother-in-law prefers so am going to assume he's like my niece and would be happy with either.

So should I make the Philadelphia-style ice cream?  Or should I buy a custard-based (or French-style) one?

Making my own ice cream will have to start tonight with freezing the machine and all that.  It will be one more thing for me to do on Christmas Eve day (though really, I could prep the lasagna the night before).  Buying a pint would be a heck of a lot easier and probably will taste better, but it won't be as rewarding.  But I'm often too ambitious and end up running late when entertaining.  Would be nice to be able to not have to spend the whole day cooking.  Or rearrange my freezer to make room for the machine.

I can't decide.  I'm going grocery shopping tonight and will decide on the fly.

my sister's Christmas tree

I love my sister's Christmas tree.  She just put it up this weekend and it's so very pretty.  She put pictures up on her blog, but I think this tree needs to be spread across the internet even more - it's definitely the best one I've seen.

I think my favorite part is the shape of the tree itself.  They went with a fir instead of spruce and it just has a more natural tree shape.  More like something you'd find in real life instead of on a Christmas tree farm.

Alison and I picked our holiday colors years and years ago.  She is blue and silver, I'm red and gold.  As we started collecting our tree decorations, we both mostly kept to these colors and it makes for a coordinated, but not overly perfect tree.  On her tree, there are different shades of blue, brushed and polished silver, and coordinating colors of lime and purple.  It makes for a nice base so the childhood, handmade and gift ornaments stand out - not like sore thumbs, but like special additions.  It's a tree with a giving heart that can accomodate the new and the old, the pretty and the tacky.

These shortest days of the year need extra sparkle.  Putting up lights, shiny ornaments, garlands and trees add a different energy to your house and make everything just a little bit magical. 

my holiday happy hour

This past weekend was my Annualish Holiday Happy Hour.  I skipped one year and reserve the right to skip one in the future, but I do love hosting this party.  It's always the first Saturday in December and it's officially a happy hour so that I'm not competing with other parties (though if you want to stay until midnight, I won't complain).  I want e'ryone at my house!

It's also a great reason to make sure my house is decorated early and well.  I even string lights outside around my deck and along my clothesline.

Possibly my favorite part of the decorations, even though it's so cold that you can't really experience it.  I do keep the lights up year-round and the clotheslines ones didn't die over the summer!  The ones on the deck did, but were easy to replace since the thumbtacks were still in place.

I do a spread of heavy appetizers, changing up the menu each year.  This year it was mini pulled-pork BBQ sandwiches, toasted baguette slices with cheeses and meat, crudite with dill dip and a big bowl of peppermint Oreos.  Then beverages are wine, beer, homemade eggnog and something non-alcoholic but still festive.  I kinda loved my non-alcoholic beverage choice this year that I made totally on the fly so am going to share with you!

Cranberry Punch

Ingredients:

Light Cranberry Cocktail

1 1/2 cups water

1 1/2 cups granulated Splenda

Diet Gingerale

Directions:

Pour the cranberry cocktail into a pitcher.  Heat up the water and stir in the Splenda until combined.  Add to the cranberry cocktail and taste.  Should be a little too sweet.  If it's not sweet enough, heat up some more water, add some more Splenda.  Right before serving, add the gingerale.

So freaking easy.  I heated up the water to help the Splenda dissolve.  You could easily use sugar instead, but in addition to one pregnant lady, I also had at least one hardcore dieter. 

For my eggnog, this year I went raw.  I usually make cooked eggnog, but I HATE HATE HATE making the custard.  Did I express my dislike for this process enough?  HATE HATE HATE.  I always overcook it and either end up with chunky nog or strain it and end up with overly boozy nog.  Plus it just takes freaking forever.  Raw nog?  So easy.  My new favorite.  This recipe is pretty good, though I think it calls for too much alcohol.  I skipped the brandy and did just two cups of rum and let it sit overnight, but it was still crazy strong.  I think maybe doing 1 1/2 cups would be perfect.  Next time.

I forgot to take pictures of the inside of my house, but the set-up was pretty much the same as last year.  I did, however, take a picture of my groaning fridge:

I would say that 95% of this was stuff intended for the party.  Craziness.  Especially since about 1/4 of the folks who RSVP'd yes ended up not being able to make it last minute or had to leave early. 

But it was a good party full of special people and it made me so happy that I have this tradition of opening my house to my friends!

Christmas at the Mint Green house

Snow came early in Maryland this year - just in time for my almost-annual holiday happy hour.

Here's a few shots of my house all covered in snow. It was so pretty!



I hung lights in my backyard - fat little round bulbs along the clothesline and little warm-LED rounds along the deck and around the window.

My party started at 5pm so I had to take the pictures while it was still daylight, but you can get the idea.



Back inside it was warm and cozy.

I've learned that it's good to have food in multiple locations so people don't bunch up too much. During the party I rotated food. The long aluminum dish on the coffee table held cut-up CPK thin-crust pizza and when that was kicked, I put the baked brie down for it to be devoured.

And do you like the gold ribbon in the corner? Yeah, that's to cover up the painted-over wallpaper because I haven't put the molding back up. And everyone complimented me on it!

New things to check out:
1. the large painting above the dining table.

Found this in my mom's cellar and almost didn't look at it. I'm so glad I did! The water is the same color as my walls and the size is just perfect. I hung it at the same height as my salon wall (well, it's maybe 1/4 or 1/2" off, but whatevs). It's very important to me to have things at the same height. I feel like it adds order and when you have really bright turquoise walls and tons of stuff on them, this helps keep it all in balance.

2. new foam for the couch.

I bought it the day before at JoAnn's and though I measured carefully, it still ended up too wide and too short. Luckily the amount I needed to cut off to make it narrow enough was enough to add to the edges to make it long enough. And inside my slipcover, one can never know.

3. new pillows for couch and orange chair.

Bought these at Pier 1 on sale. I had seen them at the end of the summer and loved them, but not at full price. $12 each? Done. 4. the orange chair, of course! I originally thought I'd move it upstairs after the party, but I really like it where it is and how it helps define the living room area.



Here's the other side of the room. Fake garland up around the window and my mom's lamp in the corner. She gave me permission to paint it white! Yay! But I'll save that project for the new year.



Here's the room without the flash so you can see the lights and candles sparkle. I love how the walls turn almost purple without the overhead lights. Watching TV in the evenings I usually have just these lights on and it's just so warm and friendly.

You can also see how I've transformed my crappy little Target bar. A bright red tablecloth pinned tightly, a planter filled with ice and I've got a bar!

I had pretty good attendance at my party - only a few people couldn't make it because of the weather, which meant I had about 20 people in my little house! It was loud, crowded and really fun.



My tree fits snugly in the corner next to my TV and a table runner acts as its skirt. There's still enough room to open up the closet to get out the ladder or extra folding chairs.



Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah and Joyous Yule!