A Little Nightmare

Gentle Friends, we were at Walgreens yesterday looking for a string of light... I know we're nuts...  and of course, there were only the scraps of seasonal things left in the aisle, no lights BTW, and I found this really great thing... a little sign for the Season...

... I haven't bought any "new" decorations for a long time, excluding live pine, boxwood, and cedar, but this little sign HAD to come home with me!  I love the film and think YES it is a Christmas film, and it is also a Hollwe'en film... it spans the seasons!!  The little goblin Hallowe'en lantern sits out all year but at Christmas, he gets a little pine.

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There you go sports fans, thanks again for stopping by do stop again. Stay Safe!

Good Thoughts! Good Words! Good Deeds!

edgar

We Need ... A Little Christmas....!!

Gentle Friends, last week while we were out downtown we happened to go into the Swarovski store and they already had...

... the 2018 Christmas Snowflake!! So I had to get one to add to my "snowflake" ornament collection.  You may remember that I collect both these crystal snowflakes and the Gorham sterling snowflakes.  This year's snowflake is nice and simple and I think really pretty.   My mom started me and my siblings on these years ago and I've just kept up the yearly acquisition.  It's nice when Christmas rolls around and the tree goes up to put some of them on the tree and remember......

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There you go sports fans, a little sentimental Wednesday!! 

Thanks for stopping by do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar

A Little More Christmas of 2017.... Part II

Gentle Friends, Sunday, Christmas Eve  I finished up the Lane Cake... HERE's the recipe I used... and here's a snap of the finished cake...

 ... I had never made one before, and I was leary of the minimal amount of frosting that it called for so I made a full batch....and I ended up with lots and lots of extra fluffy white and what does on do .... you try to use it up....so I made some silly decorations with a jury-rigged pastry bag..... I couldn't find my real one.... and here's...

... the remnants in the kitchen sink.  Making this frosting brought back some really great memories as it was my mom's go-to recipe.... 7-Minute Frosting.  I had never tried to make it before but she made it all the time and always at Christmas for the Birthday cake.

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I also made the mushroom filling... 

... for the main event for dinner the next day....  here's the menu...

Christmas Dinner 2017

Beef Wellington 

(click for the recipe)

Roasted Winter Root Vegetables

Holiday Rice Pilaf

Parker House Rolls

Lane Cake

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Then on Christmas Day, it all came together......

... here's a better shot of the flower arrangement Rico made for the table...

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That's about it for today sports fans, I'll wrap up Christmas tomorrow, hopefully.  

Thanks for stopping by do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar

A Look Back at the Christmas of 2017..... Pt 1

Gentle Friends, the next couple of posts are of our Christmas Holidays....

with quite a few snaperoos..... so here goes..........

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The Friday before Christmas found us at....

... our wonderful SF Flower Market.  We were having a few friends over for Christmas Lunch and so we had to get the house ready and what better way than with a load of flowers....

.... as usual, there was quite lot to choose from...

.... and lots of Christmas stuff was still available...  

these bay and pine garland were really lovely and smelled great!! 

 ... there was even lots of early tulips...

... these berry branches are super and I love them, but with the dogs, we never get any since they drop all over the place and I don't want to take the chance on a poisoning.... but I still really like them!!

... we had decided on red and white roses and this bunch was a nice starting off point for ideas....

.... there are lots of variations of color and tons of roses...

.... and all sorts of mixed bunches of flowers.... some worked... and some really didn't... 

 we usually buy just bunches of flowers and Rico creates the arrangements .... 

it's easier and we get what we really want !!

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This year I wanted to take Rico out to a Christmas Tea at Lovejoy's.... so I made a reservation and Saturday we headed over and it was very relaxing...  

.. the tea room was decorated for Christmas...

... one of the fun things about Lovejoys is the fun use of mix-matched china for all the tables...

... there are lots of choices for eats with tea, we got two"Queens Tea's"...

... with each "Tea", you get a pot of tea... I got a lovely Citrus based tea that was full of spice and peel, it tasted like Christmas in a cup, delicious!!  Rico got the lavender and vanilla, another delicious black flavored tea...

.. with our Queens Teas we got a couple of little sausage rolls...

... the food is served on tiered trays...

... with each Queen's tea you get a choice of two tea sandwiches, I chose pear/stilton and smoked salmon/cream cheese, Rico chose the special salad sandwich and chicken walnut salad... you also get warm crumpets, scones, green salad and caraway cole slaw....  after a long leisurely tea we headed home and I got started on the preliminary cooking  I needed to get done for Christmas .....

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With friends coming around and with two cakes to bake I got started.... 

one of the snacks I wanted to make was some sugared peanuts.... easy and tasty

...  it's a two-part process, stir raw peanuts, water, and sugar then....

when all the water is evaporated you roasted them stirring occasionally until dry and crunchy.

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There were two cakes I needed to make, one for the coffee hour after Midnight Mass and the second one a Birthday cake for Baby Jesus.  I've talked about the Birthday cake before in other Christmas posts there has been a birthday cake every year since I can remember at my family's Christmas table.....I've made all kinds of cakes and this year the Birthday cake I chose to make was a Lane Cake.  

...so, I wanted to get started and make the fruit/nut filling for the cake.  

The cake I made for after Chrismas mass...

...was a glazed Rum cake...

....  along with the Sugared peanuts, I made up some Spicy Nuts and Bolts (Chex Mix).

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I think that will wrap up today's post.  Thanks for stopping by do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar

A Little More Christmas....

Gentle Friends, our Christmas started off with a visit to the Flower Market Christmas Eve morning so that Rico could pull together one of his table arrangments for Dinner on Christmas Day.... 

here's the result....

... I failed to get a better picture before dinner so here's the best shot I have.... made up of roses, lilies, nandina berries, pine, juniper, laurel leaves, and some super variegated cabbages, it was another tour-de-force al la Rico!!  and the table was all the better for it!!

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We attended Midnight Mass (at 10 pm) and it was a lovely, we got home around 11:30 pm and it was off to bed.... the next morning we had a sour cream coffee cake and some sausage pinwheels... we had some friends coming over for Christmas Dinner so I got moving on that meal mid morning.....

Here's the table before we sat down.....

...  to eat at around 4....  the menu was...

Baked ham

Dinner rolls

cranberry /dried cherry sauce

green beans with toasted almonds

mashed potatoes 

Melon Pickle

... and as the tradition in my family I had made a Birthday cake for baby Jesus...  this year it was...

... my take on a traditional Sugar Plum Cake with a cream cheese frosting, 

which we served with a nice champagne....

... the cake was deliciously moist if a bit crumbly, but everyone enjoyed it and was a total winner!!

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There you go sports fans, some highlights from our Christmas by the Bay. 

Thanks for stopping by do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar

The Last of the Christmas Decorations

Gentle friends, this past weekend end we were running around and found ourselves over on Fulton Street and near St Ignatius Church and the Carmelite Convent and thought we'd stop and see what there might be to see.......  I've Posted at length about both of these lovely spaces HERE.......

..... inside the Chapel we were met with a a lovely creche .....

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...the Christmas decorations over at St Ignatius were just lovely....... here are some snaps

....  it looks a bit dark because I turned off the flash to get the really dramatic lighting.....

.... this advent wreath and candles was free floating and suspended from the ceiling...standing there it gave me the jitters just thinking about the ladder you would need to get the wires tied off.....

.....  these trees were just enormous and so effective along with the mounds of poinsettias....

... for the most part they used living and dried  plants and foliage, but the columns were wrapped in silk garland... there must have been just miles of the garland ......

.... near the crossing transept there was a 3/4 sized Nativity, I had to use the flash here so the picture is on the hot side.....It was a really lovely way to close the Christmas weekend.  

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 That about wraps up the week.  We are staying in tonight and have a New Years lunch to attend tomorrow, but other than that I'm headed for a quiet weekend of taking down the Christmas tree.....  Have a safe evening and a wonderful new Year!!!

Take care,

edgar

.... and a few more decorations.....

Gentle Friends, we hit the road to go shopping Saturday and one of the places we needed to go was over to Japan Town and the large shopping center there.....  here are a few snaps...

... there were lots of simple decorations, but this shop really went all out .....

... all over the two malls there were these decorated tress...and yes it was leaning,

I couldn't find one that wasn't.....

.... here is a close up of the cranes.....

.... and more cranes...  it is a great place to shop and even the parking was easy when we arrived, we we were leaving the parking garage was filled up to capacity.

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That's about it for today sports fans, only a few more sleeps until Christmas, most everything is done, wrapped and sent...

Take care,

edgar

Some Christmas Decorations Downtown

Gentle Friends... I had to do some shopping downtown last night... and I took my camera along....

 ... I usually park in the Mission Street Garage and walk up to Market street.....  

this is Market looking West...

 ... from the 5th Floor Macy's windows looking down  onto Union Square...

sorry about the reflections...

 ... Macy's has a great area every Christmas called Holiday Lane... full of trees, ornaments and Santa...... Here are some of the dozens of trees....

 ....  I like the sparseness of the branches on these ...

 ... this tree was far more turquoise, and pink than the snap makes it out to be.... 

I did not care for it at all!!

 ..... I walked along Geary Street and got this snap from across the street looking up at the tree in Union Square....

 ... the tree in Neiman Marcus.....

 ..... one of the Macy "fancy schmancy" windows....  gearing up for New years Eve I imagine...

 .... a Macy window that is far more my speed...  there are a series of Peanuts windows that also have cute pets from the Humane Society in them,  those windows were far to crowded to get any kind of decent snap, in fact I am surprised how this one turned out so "people free"....

.....  going back to the car I took another shot of Market street and some of the decorations.....

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I was on the early side when I was there since I went from work to downtown, it's about a 5 minute drive....  and the crowds just start to grow later in the evening, and this weekend it will be a total zoo down there... I knew I couldn't deal with any of that.....but it was fun last night and I am basically done with shopping for Christmas!!  WooHoo!!

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There you go sports fans, thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful weekend!!

Take care,

edgar