Thanksgiving Caviar Display

My most prized culinary possession is my caviar staircase! I was searching through my photos from previous Thanksgivings to post some additional recipes from my Thanksgiving repertoire, but when I found this picture, I just had to share!

Thanksgiving is my FAVORITE holiday, and it is the only day each year, unless we have a spectacular cocktail party, which we have not done in years, when the staircase appears. This glass staircase is from TRU in Chicago, my favorite restaurant, second only to Picasso in Las Vegas. I fell in love with the staircase the 1st time I dined there, but after multiple experiences, I had to have it. They shipped me one from Chicago and now it is the premier appetizer at my Thanksgiving Day feast.

Most would claim Beluga Caviar is the best, but my preference is Osetra. It is priced between Beluga and Sevruga. I find it to be  little more briny than the Beluga and slightly sweeter. Sevruga is my least favorite of the premium caviars. It seems to have a smokey taste, in my opinion. Unfortunately, with the restrictions on Russian Caviar imports over the last few years, the costs have risen dramatically. American sturgeon is a joke and anyone who says otherwise is fooling themselves. I have tried to serve it, and I’d rather eat the flying fish roe from the grocery store than American Osetra. But, I digress…..

The staircase has 8 “steps” and the way it is used at TRU is to serve all three caviars, along with creme fraiche, capers, egg yolk, egg whites, diced red onion and sour cream. *mouth waters* Since I only serve one type of caviar, I double up on the caviar and sour cream. I made my own blinis once, but given how extensive my menu is (as you will see in upcoming posts), I now purchase them instead at Di Bruno Brothers when I buy my caviar.

Every year when I pull the staircase from the cabinet, it puts a smile on my face!

Do you like caviar?

 Annual Cookie Party

We love Halloween in our house, I mean who doesn’t? I have 3 children and have always considered having a traditional costume party for Halloween, but never got it done. As many of you may already know, we are big bakers in our house and I always made Halloween cookies with my children at Halloween. That really means the children lasted 10 minutes, gave up, and I baked alone for hours. So, eventually I stopped making cookies at Halloween.

We are very social and spend a lot of time with friends throughout our community.  A problem arose when my youngest was around 4 or 5. Every family we “hang” with has a son and daughter the same age as my oldest two children, which left my youngest out of the loop. So, I decided to have a Halloween cookie party and invite only families with children my youngest daughter’s age. Unlike my normal affairs, I kept it simple: Appetizers, Chili w/ fixings, hotdogs w/ fixings and salad. (recipes for dinner under separate posts.)

The concept for the party is simple. We bake the cookies in advance, make icing and the kids go to town. This has become my second favorite night of the year, next to Thanksgiving, and I had to share this concept with all of the other moms out there. The little ones look forward to it all year long!

Rolling dough is a family affair, until the kids vanish

We make 5 or 6 shapes of cookies

Cutout cookies

Simple icing for cookie decorating

Icing

Confectioners Sugar

Milk

Flavoring (option) I use orange or lemon

Food coloring

Pour confectioners sugar into large bowl. Slowly add small amounts of milk. Be careful not too add to much or it will be liquid. The consistency should be thick, yet spreadable.  If it becomes too this, add more sugar. Divide desired portions into new bowls and add food color and flavoring.

I buy lots of plastic cups for icing

I spread the cookies out across table, along with orange, white, black, green, yellow, and purple icing, paper plates and lots and lots of paint brushes.

Center stage; cookies, icing and Halloween White Trash

Awaiting guests

The cookie decorating lasts about 30 minutes, and then they are off! My son hosts a haunted house while I clean up and prepare for dinner. Needless to say, with each year the party gets a little larger, and a little larger. The children are getting older, and yet a good time is had by all! I believe at last count, I have 35 children attending next Saturday night! YIKES!

Happy Halloween!

The Jewish Delicatessen & Restaurant
Route 202 Valley Forge Shopping Center — King of Prussia, PA 19406
DELI – 610-265-3265 www.michaelsdeli.com

HOLIDAY ITEMS

Stuffed Chicken Breast
Baked Half Chicken
Brisket of Beef Au Jus
Kugels (Sweet, Potato or Spinach)
Kasha Varnishkas (Bows)
Gefilte Fish
Red Horseradish
Homemade Chicken Soup
Matzoh Balls
Potato Pancakes (Latkes)
Holiday Cakes
Jewish Apple Cake
Challah (Round Plain or Raisin, Twist Plain or Raisin)
Assorted Sweet Trays (Made to Order)

Brisket

Complete Dinners

Choice of: Gefilte Fish – or – Chopped Liver
Matzoh Ball Soup
Brisket of Beef Au Jus, Stuffed Chicken Breast
Half Chicken, Oven Roasted Turkey Breast or Broiled Salmon
String Beans, Carrots and Kugel
Challah Dinner Rolls and Butter
Holiday Cake – Complimentary Condiment Tray

$22.00

“Break the Fast”

Complete Fish Trays (Made to Order)

Belly Lox and/or Belly Nova, Kippered Salmon, Cream
And Chopped Herring, Jumbo Whitefish Filleted, Whitefish Salad. Served with Your Choice Cheese.

This Also Includes:
Lettuce, Tomatoes, Green Peppers, Greek Black Olives Cucumbers, Onions,Pumpernickel, Assorted Bagels.
Of Two Cheeses.

$19.95 per person

2011
Rosh Hashanah
Wed. Eve 9/28

Yom Kippur
Fri Eve 10/7

Break-Fast
Sat. Eve 10/8

Complete MENU at a glance

This cole slaw is so easy with a Caesar spin. It is perfect with grilled chicken or any other BBQ grub. Pictures are not the best, but I wanted to get you this great recipe in time for the holiday!

Caesar Coleslaw

1 cup of mayonnaise

1/3 cup fresh lemon juice

Anchovy paste (to taste) I use about 1 1/2 TBLS

3 garlic cloves minced

A 2 pound head of Savoy Cabbage

16 green onions, thinly sliced

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Black pepper

Whisk together the 1st 4 ingredients in a small bowl. Season the dressing with black pepper and maybe a pinch of salt. (If it needs salt, you probably do not have enough anchovy paste in it.)

Thinly slice cabbage

Mix sliced cabbage and sliced onions together in a large bowl and toss with Caesar dressing. Top with Parmesan cheese.

Voila!

It’s that simple, and yet so delicious!

The entire borough of Conshohocken has a coordinated New Year’s Eve

Spend New Year’s Eve in Conshohocken

CountdownConshohocken.com Details New Year’s Eve Activities in Conshohocken

(Conshohocken, Pa) – Eleven restaurants and bars are coming together for New Year’s Eve in Conshohocken and West Conshohocken for Countdown Conshohocken presented by E&J Gallo Winery.  The participating venues will offer everything from tango lessons, live music, dining, dj’s/dancing, champagne toasts, a “We Hate New Year’s Eve” party and the opportunity at one restaurant to smash all their plates at midnight.  Participating restaurants and bars include:

• 8 East
• Flanigan’s Boathouse
• The Great American Pub
• Guppy’s Good Times
• Gypsy Saloon
• Isabella
• M Bar Lounge
• Pepperoncini
• Stella Blu
• The Stonerose
• Trattoria Totaro

CountdownConshohocken.com is coordinated by MoreThanTheCurve.com and the Philadelphia Nightlife Society.  Sponsoring the promotion is Londonbury at Millennium, an upscale apartment community in Conshohocken.  Accommodations for the evening are available at the Residence Inn by Marriott in Conshohocken.

CountdownConshohocken.com is presented by The E&J Gallo Winery.  The E&J Gallo Winery is celebrating its 77^th year and is the leading family owned wine producer in the United States. The Gallo Family represents over 60 brands made in 10 different countries Globally. The Gallo wine brands represent a strong value while producing World Class Quality.

Countdown Conshohocken is the second joint marketing campaign in 2010 conducted by Conshohocken and West Conshohocken’s dining and nightlife establishments via MoreThanTheCurve.com.

For specific details about the menu and/or activities at each participating venue visit CountdownConshohocken.com.

Contact:

Kevin Tierney                                    215-962-5372

MoreThanTheCurve.com             Kevin@morethanthecurve.com

Everyone loves a gingerbread house! I don’t know about you, but the houses that I make at home with my kids, are usually a big FAIL, but they love the thrill of the “build.”

This year, why not let the experts at the Royal Pantry at A Taste of Britain help you create the perfect holiday house while having a wonderful family day at their Gingerbread Workshop. Their fabulous bakers will lead the activities, and they supply the gingerbread, creative decorations and candies plus beverages and snacks for all to enjoy!

When: Saturday, December 11th ~ 11:00 or 3:00

Where: A Taste of Britain ~ 503 West Lancaster Avenue, Wayne, PA

What: Build a gingerbread house in this lovely British shop and enjoy seasonal refreshments.

$45 per house

—————————————————————————-

Winter Wonderland Holiday Tea

On Sunday, December 12th they will be holding their Full Service ~ Winter Wonderland Holiday tea from 10:00AM – 6:00PM.

$28 Adult includes a complimentary mimosa or Champagne Spritzer and $18 Child

Full Menu HERE

For either event~ Call for reservations:

610-971-0390

Pumpkin Margarita Test Run Photo!

I apologize for the photo, but  I wasn’t planning on doing a blog post! Every year I have a “signature cocktail” at my Thanksgiving Feast, this year it will be a pumpkin margarita. I posted the above photo from my cell phone on twitter and facebook and I had requests for the recipe, so this is the easiest way to circulate that!

It was delicious, but a little thicker than I had hoped so I would recommend adding a little club soda before shaking.

Pumpkin Margaritas

2 oz. Tequila (I use Patron or Cabo Wabo)
1 can Pumpkin puree
½ cup Brown sugar
¼ cup Sugar
1 Tbsp. Cinnamon
1 pinch Nutmeg
2 cups Water
½ oz. Triple Sec
½ Lime juice

Club soda

Make pumpkin simple syrup by combining pumpkin puree with brown sugar, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and water in a saucepan over low heat. Stir for 20 minutes. Remove from heat, cool, and strain. Combine the juice of half a lime, tequila, triple sec and 2 oz. pumpkin simple syrup. Add a little club soda to thin. Shake well and serve on the rocks.

Please add a comment later on how yours turned out and if you changed anything!

Enjoy!

My 2009 Thanksgiving table

I LOVE THANKSGIVING!!!! Truly, I love it! Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday. If you knew how many pictures of food, table settings and, well, food, I just went through from last year, you would realize just how much I love this holiday! Each year I try to change up the menu a bit to make it different, but some things remain the same. I prepare a big gourmet mac and cheese for the 1:00 football game. There are appetizers beginning at 4:00 and dinner at 6:00, followed by my home baked pies, truffles, candies and pumpkin cheesecake.

My table setting sets the tone for the day, so I stress over my flowers each year. Also, I have favors at each person’s seat. For years I just had chocolate turkeys, but they were $5 a piece and I always had more than half left behind. Last year I found cute turkey decorated tissue packs. In 2008, I found great leaf shaped book marks. This year I will be doing…oh…. I can’t tell you! You’ll have to wait until Friday to find out!

Thanksgiving Table

My table also has place cards to eliminate the chaos of seating, since we have a different group each year, and there are children involved. As you can see above, last year I threw out the traditional paper cards and made cookies with everyone’s names. They were a big hit!

Turkey Cookies for place cards

Writing in icing…not as easy as I thought!

It was well worth it. The children loved them and the adults appreciated the effort. I am sad to say that this year, I return to paper! My schedule is packed and I will be lucky to get done what I can!

I am trying some new things this year for appetizers. I’ve added a smoked trout pate and sausage pinwheel appetizers to my mix. I also always have home made roasted peppers, antipasto platter with 3-4 cheeses, fig jam, and Italian cured meats and olives; caviar served on one of my favorite serving pieces, a caviar staircase from Tru, Chicago; stuffed mushrooms; colossal shrimp cocktail; crab dip and homemade candied nuts.

For dinner I serve Molasses Glazed Turkey. I purchase my turkey fresh, and always plan to blog about buying fresh, local birds, and like this year, I run out of time! My stuffing is chestnut and sage, and I am actually nervous because I usually order my chestnuts weeks ahead, and don’t have them yet! This year’s side dishes also include Jackson Family corn pudding, mashed potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, the best creamed spinach, caramelized brussel sprouts with shitake mushrooms, green bean casserole (yes that one), homemade cranberry sauce and turkey shaped cranberry sauce.

Jellied Cranberry Sauce cut into Turkeys

I bake all of my own breads and like the bread basket to be an array of different colors. I have ordered a large turkey shaped sourdough in the past, but this year I have enlisted Conshohocken Bakery to create one for me so it doesn’t cost me $50! It is really just the “back splash” for my bread basket. I them bake corn bread, sweet potato and zucchini bread and the favorite…..sweet potato biscuits.

Dessert is ridiculous, but I have to do it. (Because I am out of control and cannot stop myself, not because we need it!) I make a pumpkin pie, pecan pie, coconut custard pie, apple pie and pumpkin cheesecake. I try to make each pie different in appearance and special. This year my 9 year old daughter begged for a key lime pie too, so guess what……

Cookie cutters cut leaves for crust

Desserts

Dessert is served

Thanksgiving is the perfect day to bring family together. The families that eat together, stay together ~ somebody profound said that!

Happy Thanksgiving!

A Taste of Britain in Wayne

Recently I stumbled upon A Taste of Britain on Twitter. The name sounded familiar because there used to be a tea room with a similar name in Chestnut Hill. My mother loved that store. She would take my sister and me there during the holiday season for tea. When they closed, we started trying out a new place a year, but nothing else ever suited her. Could it be that they had re-opened in Wayne? I had to find out!

Interior adorned with a beautiful tin ceiling

As it turns out, they are not the same, but that is fine by me. This A Taste of Britain is far more charming than the cramped quarters of the place I was thinking of in Chestnut Hill, and apparently more so than it’s original location in Devon as well! The other notable difference is that they serve a full menu in addition to tea sandwiches. They serve chicken pot pies, Cheshire clubs, a Ploughman’s platter, as well as, lots of salads and homemade soup.

Scone, clotted cream, lemon curd, and preserves all made in-house.

Owner, Tara Buzan started with the business at Easy Elegance Catering before purchasing both the catering business and the restaurant 6 years ago, at the age of 27. She expanded the business to Eagle Village Shops (formerly Spread Eagle Village) on RT 30 in Wayne, a year ago. There is outdoor dining and a large indoor dining room with a small private dining room as well. They close on Sundays for private parties and have just started dinners Thursday through Saturday.

Tea sandwiches

The atmosphere is quaint with lots of wood and a beautiful tin ceiling. They mix and match china intentionally to add an eclectic feel. Although, They import English candies and novelties such as British tea pots and for the holidays crackers and advent calenders, the focus is local when it comes to food. They purchase their produce from local farms and Sugartown Smoke House supplies their smoked fish.

I know where I’ll be having tea with mom this year!

A Taste of Britain

503 West Lancaster Avenue

Wayne, PA 19087

610-971-0390

Since the old saying goes, “everyone is Irish on St. Patty’s Day,” but you were like me and you always thought you either didn’t like corned beef and cabbage, or that you would never know how to make it, let me tell you differently.  It is so easy to make, and one of the most delicious meals you will ever have.  For starters, when you buy the corned beef (packaged in supermarkets), enclosed is a seasonings packet and directions.  So convenient!  Don’t forget to buy some green cabbage.  Then go to your favorite bakery and buy a loaf of Irish Soda Bread and you have all of the makings of a fabulous Irish feast.  Of course, depending on your alcohol preference, you can make it even more “festive” by having  a few pints of Guinness.  Follow the directions for the corned beef and for the last 15-20 minutes of cooking the corned beef, add the head of green cabbage, cut into wedges.  Then remove the meat and let stand for 15 minutes.  Drain the cabbage and keep warm.  Cut the corned beef into thin slices against the grain and remove to a platter.  Add some prepared horseradish and whole-grain mustard, or hot English style mustard…and ENJOY!!!   Any way you look at  it, whether you are Irish or not, corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick’s Day should be a tradition for all!!!  And for those of you who might want to know what “Erin go Bragh” means, it is usually translated as “Ireland Forever!”

Now, for those of you who absolutely MUST be out and about on this auspicious date, here are some of our local establishments that will be preparing some of their own variations of many delicious Irish favorites.

Place’s to Party

CHICK’S TAVERN Food and drink specials all day; Ham and cabbage platter; Shephard’s Pie; Guinness $6

MaGERKS Half price Hot Corned Beef and Cabbage Sandwiches; $4 Irish cheesesteaks; $2 green beer; Blackthorne performing at 7:00 PM.

McGILLIN’S OLDE ALE HOUSE Serving hearty Irish dishes-Shephard’s Pie, Irish Stew, Bangers and Mash which pair perfectly with McGillins 1860 IPA.

IRON HILL BREWERY, WEST CHESTER Dry Stout Release Party 2:00-7:00PM PAYG Irish Red Ale and Irish Food

FADO AOH Pints & pancakes in the AM- Free pancakes and no cover before 11am! Live Music with Ireland’s own, the Crazy Folkers all day.

FINNIGAN’S WAKE Sean Fleming “Hooligans” (day); “Split Decision” (night)

SPRING MILL CAFE Irish Music and Irish Beer Tasting