Andrea and Nate's Christmas Dinner Party

The best thing that has kept me from chowing down on ALL of these cookies..

is that I arranged sets for giving away- one to Andrea's last night

A set for Jeff's mom today

and a set for my mom tomorrow.

Since we couldn't "touch" those, minus a few samplings that I didn't photo, it was pretty easy to keep my hand out of the cookie jar so to speak. , I did eat one from all the different types I made to make sure they were delightful, but I didn't feel like taking a photo of "each one I ate" when I had taken so many photos of them otherwise for posts/recipes/etc. Today, I had the bourbon truffles and the chocolate windows- both are super rich and chocolatey.

Party Table:

So at the bottom is a cheese ball (Andrea used fat free cream cheese, pineapples, green onion, pepper, covered in walnuts) and cheddar with cranberries inside, to the right of that is banana bread, then soup, then pizza muffins, behind the centerpiece was Artichoke Bruscetta (fabulous!)On the far left was a bean dip, buffalo chicken dip ( Delicious), Apple Slices, Cheese Slices, and Crackers

My plate:

The artichoke bruschetta ( I have to get the recipe it was awesome) is in the middle- I had one more of these guys unpictured.

The buffalo dip, not too spicy but cheesy goodness, a chip with bean dip, cheese slices, the cheese with cranberries, cracker.

Unpictured: I split a pizza muffin with Jeff, I had a few more nibbles of Andrea's cheese "ball" and the cheese with cranberries (the cheesiness went well with my red wine, also unpictured was a total of 2 big glasses). Its funny because I am a huge dessert person, most nights I have something for dessert. I think the cheese was so satisfying ( as well as the company) and the fact that I had sampled my baking efforts with the chocolate windows, the chocolate bourbon truffles, etc. left me not wanting dessert! (gasp) Actually I tried a bite of the "Chocolate Sex Cake" that Andrea made, it was good but dare I say it, I was chocolated-out!

The good times began...
For the record this was fairly early and we were all still sober...

Andrea, Timmy, Me.

Brit stole my camera and took candid shots of two love birds ...

Jeff decided to go as.. Robert Goulet. It was not a costume party, he is just an awesomely funny and dashingly handsome person. Nate always asks him to do it, so it was a gtd (game time decision). If you do not know who Goulet is... check out Will Farrell's skits at SNL here: .

Andrea and Robert Goulet dancing, Hanz is admiring Goulet's moves.


Goulet, apparently he is a ladies man.
( jeff, rachelle, carrie, me, brit, andrea).

Fantastic night, we ended up staying over. I am definitely tired more than anything because I finally crashed at about 3 am- Lots of dancing, card playing, guitar Hero, lots of reasons to stay up and celebrate! We met Will's girlfriend (Lauren) and Nick's girlfriend (Carrie) for the first time and they are both very nice! I am hoping I remember their names so that is why I wrote them.

Cherry Almond Macaroons

The cookies I decided to make last night... Cherry Almond Macaroons

Original Recipe from Cooking With Paula Deen, 2005 :

2/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup AP Flour

4 egg whites at room temp.

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup sliced almonds

3/4 cup chopped dried cherries

4 cups sweetened flaked coconut

B-Healthy Recipe 2008:

2/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup Organic Whole Grain Flour

4 egg whites, semi room temp. ( with impatience)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup sliced raw almonds

3/4 cup chopped Frozen Cherries (Thawed in microwave, baked for a few minutes, cooled, chopped. ), I didn't feel like buying a $4 bag of dried.

3 cups Unsweetened flaked Coconut

Directions:
Preheat oven at 325, ( I used my toaster oven)... Nonstick spray my cookie sheet ( original says to grease or line w parchment).

Stir together sugar and flour.

In separate bowl, beat egg whites at high speed with electric beaters until foamy. Add mixture of sugar/flour 1 Tablespoon at a time while beating egg whites. Beat until stiff peaks form ( this never happened? I don't know why). I gave up.

Folded in vanilla, almonds, cherries, and coconut.

Dropped mixture by tablespoon onto prepared cookie sheet.

Baked until edges began to brown. ( original called for 15 minutes oven time, but since I use my toaster oven as usual- the sheet is smaller so it took just over 6 minutes).

Cool on wire rack. (I took pictures and then ate all of them)

.....just kidding, I had a few bites of ones that stuck.

sooooo good... jeff hates coconut. oh well. i will have no problem "gettin em gone"

Tree Trimmin Tuesday

The endive app went over very well! Jeff's stepdad Preston suggested some hot sauce so we all tried it out, the verdict was they were delicious either way!

I had a few of the endive with this mich ultra ( there's the hottest hot sauce ever and behind them is the empty plate!)

The Family Decorating ( Preston and Melissa - don't worry I am emailing you all the photos after I'm done posting here!)

hmmmm Dinnner: Pasta Figole Soup

Decilicious-ness is a bowl! I added some cheese and three small slices of bread. The bread was nice and crusty but soft and chewy inside, perfect!

After dinner I had this glass of merlot... Delicious as well.

I was mistaken and Jeff's mom had not yet started christmas cookies, but....Melissa brought these back from a cookie exchange!

I had this guy- he was peanut butter and then I'm pretty sugar it was covered in a ball of frosting. This is exactly what I would have wanted- I love frosting and I love peanut butter...

And then I had bites of a ginger softie ( melissa made it - it was fantastic) and i tried pieces of a few others, and that chocolate chip/pecan/raisin cookie (it's above the tree w/blue icing-)

Thanks for having us over as always Mom & Preston!

We went to Jeff's hockey game afterwards... The team lost but Jeff passed the puck really well! I was SO impressed! One of our friend's girlfriends came to the game so I had a great time chatting with her as well!