Post Christmas

Our Christmas happened later as usual, on the Sunday after Christmas.  This year it was just the four of us;  Kim and I and my daughter Vanessa and her husband Chris.  Or five of us if you want to count the baby boy.  (Which I do of course!)

(We're all soooo tired!)

Scarface continues to enjoy the Christmas tree.

Food was eaten.   I won't give you the full run down this year.  I made all appetizers again, it's one of my favorite meals.  And the winner was.......Endive Petals with Rosemary Chevre.   Delicious.  You can find the recipe here.  I wanted to use the red endive but it wasn't available.
Here is a super easy recipe for the candied pecans.

Another hit was the White Chocolate and Raspberry Trifle Cake.

Here's the recipe.  It's a Donna Hay recipe but I couldn't locate the exact recipe at her website.  It calls for sherry but I didn't want to buy any and we don't usually keep sweet wine around the house.  I ended up using hazelnut coffee flavoring, the stuff they use at coffee shops.  I diluted mine just a bit with some water,  I was afraid it was going to be too strong.  But everyone loved it.

A big disappointment was Brownies a la Resolution.  You can find the recipe here.

The recipe sounds delicious, but it was a bit too cake-like for me.  If you try it I suggest you don't do as I did and follow the instructions to bake "until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean."  In my experience that's always a mistake when baking brownies, the toothpick should come out with some clinging crumbs.  But that's me and I wish I had followed my own advice.  On the other hand, if when eating these brownies you tell your brain "Cake!", they taste just fine.  

Hope your holidays have been great.  We're looking forward to a new year.  Another new grandchild in March, more knitting, more Montana visits, and perhaps Seattle to see this sweetie?  I sure miss my granddaughter and her parents.

And I think Scarface is telling us it's time to take the tree down.