White...

White Roses...White chocolate...and a very White Christmas...I moved the sparkly black/white centerpiece from the dining room table to the coffee table in the living room this weekend. After seeing on another blog (I'm sorry, I forgot which one) that you could make floral vases from ornaments I knew I wanted to give it a try. I found 4 large silver ornaments at Goodwill along with some clear glass candle holders to balance them on, then I added some inexpensive white roses from the grocery store and I have been enjoying them since Friday. I love a non-traditional look once in a while but the dining table is in the midst of a more traditional Christmas makeover.




Today, we tried a new Christmas snack idea shared with me by my hair stylist. White chocolate covered Puffcorn...they are good but we both agreed we like the caramel covered version better.
We are in a winter storm warning until Friday night so I am afraid we could be in for a very White Christmas!

Taste...

I always tell J that food tastes better on a pretty plate so last night I set a pretty table to see if I could convince him :)
Black and white are not the traditional Christmas colors but there is something so elegant about the combination to me...
so I decided the centerpiece needed a little sparkle as well as a little love (in the form of our kid's Christmas cards) to complete the table...

J arrived home to candlelight, fresh popovers and a steak dinner...
First thing he asks is why the table is set for four...hey, hon...it looks better on the blog with four place settings...but don't the popovers taste better on a pretty plate?

His answer...if you say so :) Gotta love him...he let's me endulge in dishes even when he would be just as happy eating off a paper plate!

A special thank you to everyone who took part in yesterday's chocolate event! It was a blast and fun to see all the fun things that were done. I know I will be saving most of the recipes. Your participation was appreciated :)

National Chocolate Covered Anything Day...

Put "eat chocolate" at the top of your list of things to do today. That way, at least you'll get one thing done. (Author Unknown)

Info from this mostly unknown holiday from the Holiday Insights website.
"When : Always December 16
Chocolaholics rejoice! Its a great day to indulge, binge, "pig out", and otherwise consume to excess, your favorite food....chocolate. We believe the timing of this day, during the holiday season, couldn't be better.

Today, we get to enjoy our beloved chocolate by covering something...just about anything... in a generous amount of chocolate. Pour, spread, or drizzle chocolate over cakes, cupcakes, pies, pancakes or waffles, nuts, raisins, even ants (yes, some people actually eat chocolate covered ants!). We will let you decide what is too extreme, and how much is too much, if any.

As chocoloaholics, we shouldn't need any added incentive to enjoy our chocolate. In the giving spirit of the holiday season, make sure to give or share some of your favorite chocolate covered treats today."

Please join me in celebrating this mostly unknown holiday by sharing some chocolate love in the MckLinky Blog Hop at the bottom of this post. I hope to find amongst the entries some new recipes for creating fun treats, new ideas for chocolate gifts and new virtual friends who share my love of blogging with lots of photos :) Most of all - I wish us all virtual sugar highs with the sights of good food with no calories! HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Like most holidays this chocolate day snuck up on me faster than I realized and I am ill prepared for being the hostess. I had big ideas and lots of things planned but no time to pull them off during this busy season of holiday gatherings. I will add a couple more chocolate posts as time permits because I still have family favorite recipes to make and a bunch of good ideas to try from the CDKitchen website's suggestions for the holiday. Today, I present the goodies made by myself, my daughter, Jayme and my daughter-in-law, Tammy as we spent a day baking, dipping and covering all good things in chocolate.

I thought it would be fun to host a blogger chocolate celebration because I had the perfect chocolate dishes to use.
They offer great advice though with more healthy fruit pictured...
but holidays are a time to indugle!
Tammy brought this idea to our goodie making day, a family favorite on her side. Ritz crackers spread with peanut butter, topped with a second cracker and dipped in white and milk chocolate.
My son, Nathan, requested the chocolate covered sunflower kernels and chocolate covered cashews. Son-in-law, Scott, thought we needed chocolate covered peanuts as well!
Jayme requested cake balls and cake pops from Bakerella.com and she will be adding a linked entry on the pops from her own blog soon.
My choice on what to make were the chocolate and caramel covered pretzel rods from the blog My Kitchen Cafe. Click HERE to see the recipe and be awed at how perfect her's looked compared to mine :) But taste matters more to me than looks and these are SO GOOD!
Not all of our creations were covered with chocolate (more like topped) but they all involved chocolate somewhere in the recipe and it was a wonderful family bonding day :)
After a long weekend of fun away with family it was good to come home...
and try some chocolate wine.
I will be adding more links myself to the blog roll below but I am really looking forward to all the chocolate goodness shared by fellow bloggers...LET THE PARTY BEGIN!

Life is like a box of chocolates - you never know what you're going to get. Forrest Gump in "Forrest Gump" (1994)




I could give up chocolate but I'm not a quitter.

Sentimental Chocolate...a guest post

My sister, Renae, loves chocolate as much as I do and the following is a guest post (since she does not have her own blog) with words and photos by her.

I'm rather sentimental so I chose to join the holiday in honor of loved ones. The plates belonged to my mom & stepmom.

Peanutbutter bon bons in memory of Mom. She also made wonderful divinity.....boy that would be good chocolate covered as well!
Sponge candy & candy drops in memory of Dad.
Almond windmill cookies in memory of my grandmother.

Chocolate covered prunes in memory of Ann, my stepmom & in honor or my mother-in-law, Selma.
Chocolate covered sesame almonds as a special treat for my husband.


Thank you Renae for participating! Your post brought back lots of memories especially the sponge candy :)

If any other non blogging family members want to particpate - email some content...hint, hint.

Barnesville Potato Days...

My first taste of an unusual food dipped in chocolate was potato chips while visiting Barnesville Potato Days with my sister and her family many years ago. A small town that hosts a huge celebration brought lots of fun for all. One of the local churches has an annual fund-raiser during the celebration called the Chocolate Festival and crowds are lined up out the door to pay the $5 admission fee which entitles you to "all you can eat" chocolate treats.
Chocolate covered potato chips learned at the Chocolate Festival.
The sweet and salty combination is fantastic and this year I am seeing them commercially made in several stores.

when in doubt...

It has been "one of those weeks" and a busy weekend is ahead so J & I celebrated with a little chocolate tonight. It was good practice for all the goodies I want to try for next Wednesday's holiday. Hope to see you participate with me :)

A taste of Scandinavia...

Sorry for the lack of posts here in the kitchen :) I have been cooking but with early darkness setting in nothing is photo worthy these days.

Yesterday, I had a fun day visiting my sister and brother-in-law and we went to lunch at one of their favorite neighborhood places, A Taste of Scandinavia. The food was wonderful and Renae and I shared a savory & a sweet lefse treat. First up... it was filled with grilled chicken, red pepper, spinach, mushrooms, onions, asiago, swiss and mozzarella cheese and then grilled. YUMM! By the way the portions were huge - the photos are misleading.

After eating our wrap we shared a sweet lefse breakfast item...
it was filled with grilled cinnamon sugar apples, sliced bananas, strawberries and lingonberries and topped with powdered sugar and more lingonberries and on the sides were a cream cheese/whipped cream mixture with chocolate shavings. I can't even describe how good this one tasted! My brother-in-law, Dana, had the lutefisk dinner...no photo as I was too busy drooling over our lefse treats and avoiding the sight and smell of the lutefisk altogether :) Dana said it was good as an every 2 year or so dinner :)
Renae & Dana recommended their favorite almond bar for dessert but I was too full so we got it to go for Jeff & I to sample. We both gave it a thumbs UP!

We went somewhere fun in the morning and it will be the subject of my Mosaic Monday post on my Garden blog but while there we saw this sign...
a good reminder to not forget the party next week to celebrate National Chocolate Covered Anything day! I hope everyone who reads this joins in, click on the pink icon on the sidebar for more info.

A Taste of Scandinavia (3 Twin Cities locations)
Marsha - Thumbs UP
Jeff - Thumbs Up to the almond bar