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Holiday Celebrations for Fall & Winter - Recipes and Decorating Ideas

Once I've adjusted to the climate and light changes that come upon us beginning with the autumnal equinox, I begin to enjoy the reprieve offered by the Fall and Winter seasons. Of course, I dislike cold intensely, but there is less compulsion to be out and about offering some much needed rest and solitude after the summer activity. Here are some ideas of great Holiday celebrations, as well as fall and winter recipes and menu ideas. So, here we have ideas about

  1. Decorating
  2. Harvest Parties
  3. Thanksgiving Dinners
  4. Winter Solstice & Christmas
  5. Dessert Parties

Decorate with Nature

Rather than breaking out the turkeys, pilgrims and santas in the storage cupboards, why not use the beauty of these seasons to bring your interiors in line with the outdoors.

In many areas colorful leaves and long lasting fruits and vegetables are easily accessible and make beautiful decorations for this time of year. If you live near oak trees, pumpkin patches and apple orchards, you can easily find some beautiful additions to your dining table centerpieces and living room decor. Try any or all of the following:

  1. Pick up as many acorns as you can find, especially those with 'caps' and place them inside a clear glass vase. If you have any eucalyptus berries, you might include some of those as well. For those lucky enough to live in California, perhaps even some fresh California bay leaves.
  2. Buy a few pumpkins and winter squashes. Choose different sizes and colors for variety and set up displays in odd numbers around your house and on the front porch. If you like to decorate outdoors, use large ones so they're easy to spot.
  3. Use fall leaves and herb branches to decorate indoors. The colors and scents are wonderful.
  4. Citrus, when fresh (as opposed to supermarket), tends to be very long lasting. So are pomegranates. It's lovely to have a crystal bowl or a pottery platter with lemons, navel oranges and pomegranates.
  5. A big blue bowl of persimmons won't last terribly long, but are really beautiful to decorate for a special occasion. They're quite usable too. We have a delicious recipe for Persimmon cookies, but they are also nice in salads. You don't need any recipe for the persimmons in salad, but do choose the Fuyu type rather than Hachiya. Here's a good article on the varieties and how to select and use them.
  6. Juniper shrubs have a wonderful scent and look especially pretty this time of year. Gather some branches and mix with squash centerpieces along with some whole, unshelled winter nuts such as Pecans, Hazelnuts or Chestnuts.
  7. Find some long Contorted Hazelnut branches, remove the leaves (but leave the flower clusters) and arrange in a clear crystal or glass vase. These look lovely against solid light colored backgrounds.
  8. Fall apples make beautiful displays. If you have any nice crystal bowls or vases, fill them with apples, mixed with bosc pears, nuts or even some greenery

Bring home the Harvest and Celebrate the Changing Seasons

Food is always an important part of cool weather. With food distribution systems and supermarkets, we no longer need to preserve foods for the winter months, but the foods we eat will affect our moods and overall health. It's important to continue to eat as much fresh food as possible, and now more than ever this is possible. If you live in a moderate winter climate, you can probably still even eat local products to some degree.

Throughout history, one of the fundamental aspects of friendship has been sharing food. Especially at this time of year when it's easy to 'stay in', try setting up some easy, celebratory opportunities to share food with friends and family. Here are a few ideas for entertaining during fall and winter months.

A Harvest Party
What could be more celebratory than a Harvest Party. For those of us who live in agricultural areas, we know firsthand the importance of this season. Even if you aren't a farmer or grower, you can still help celebrate a bountiful year and welcome the respite after the growing season, by hosting a Harvest Party.

So much from the garden is perfect at this time of year, you have many easily accessible choices to compose a feast of plenty. A few recipe suggestions follow:

  1. Roasted Red Peppers
  2. Fresh Fig Salad
  3. Winter Farmer Salad
  4. Stuffed Acorn Squash
  5. Hearty Harvest Soup
  6. Fall Turkey Burgers
  7. Poached Pears

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Dessert Parties

One of the things we like to do during late Fall and Winter is host dessert parties. We invite guests to come and bring a bottle of sparkling or dessert wine. We provide the desserts. We never have anyone decline unless they are out of town and it always turns into a great event.

Dessert parties are very nice as an alternative to full dinner parties. There is much less to do and it's easier for people to squeeze in around family and holiday events.

You can approach this in a variety of ways; either feature a dessert, or feature wine. Of course, you can feature both, but that requires more experimentation and thought beforehand.

Some great ideas for dessert features with accompanying wine are:

  1. Warm Spice Cake - Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc, Tawny Port
  2. Apple Pie - Late Harvest Johannesburg Reisling, Sauvignon Blanc
  3. Lemon Tart - Ruby Port
  4. Blackberry Cobbler - Sparkling Wine

Some great ideas for simple desserts in which dessert wine is the feature might be:

  1. Late Harvest Zinfandel - Pears in Red Wine
  2. Full bodied Merlot or Zinfandel - Chevre with dried fruit and nuts
  3. Late Harvest Johannesberg Reisling - Iced Anise Cookies

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Nouveau Thanksgiving Feast

Why be traditional? One of my biggest frustrations during the holidays is the ultra-unhealthy food everyone in my family wants to eat. That and the Turkey of which I'm not at all fond. I'm always trying to get them to try new things, but it's like pulling teeth - extremely difficult and very painful for everyone. These days, I do my own thing -- forget the turkey. It's roast duck for me!

Here are some other suggestions:

Nouveau Menu 1 with wine suggestions (Traditional type flavor in healthier dishes):

  1. Set out a light and flavorful appetizer including Roasted Red Peppers, Baked Olives and Easy Anti Pasta. Start off with some Sauvignon Blanc or un-oaked Sangiovese
  2. Instead of Turkey, roast Whole Roast Duck. Serve with your favorite red wine.
  3. Rather than the milk/flour pan gravy, use my Mushroom Gravy
  4. Forget the mashed potatoes - Instead try Spicy Roasted Potatoes
  5. Get the warm greens with a heaping dish of Steamed or Sautéed Swiss Chard
  6. For dessert, try a cheese plate with dried fruit - really, really simple. Serve with Gewürtztraminer or Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc

Nouveau Menu 2 with wine suggestions (Just plain good and festive food):

  1. Start with Mussels in Wine with good whole wheat sourdough bread, accompanied by some excellent Sparkling Wine
  2. Follow with Butternut Squash Soup to warm things up
  3. Buttery Salmon is absolutely delicious, full of good fats and a wonderful centerpiece to any meal. Serve with Dry French Rose, a lighter Pinot Noir, or a harder to find Cabernet Franc
  4. Accompany the spectacular salmon with Cauliflower Mash and Summer Green Beans with fairly easy to find ingredients year round
  5. For dessert, try a Wine Harvest Cake with some Zinfandel or Port

Nouveau Menu 3 with wine suggestions (Elegant Vegetarian Thanksgiving):

  1. Start with Spinach Mousse on Roasted Tomatoes. Serve with a lightly chilled Pinot Grigio
  2. Follow with Creamy Asparagus Soup and more Pinot Grigio
  3. Center the main course around a Vegetable Bechamel Lasagna or Eggplant Casserole with a well aged Cabernet or medium bodied Merlot
  4. To accompany the main course, you will want some simple items, such as Company Salad (or any other simple salad with greens) and a nice Foccacia bread or french bread
  5. Finish this with an elegant Fruit Salad and Late Harvest Johannesberg Reisling

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Winter Solstice and Christmas!

Dark, cool and a perfect time for reflection and anticipation. We're all familiar with Christmas. Solstice (mid-winter) is the day when here in the northern hemisphere we have our shortest day and longest night. This is mid-winter and once passed, the sun returns. The days become progressively longer and nights shorter. In ancient days during winter, the famine months, there was little food for any living thing. Most cattle were slaughtered during the fall/harvest months to conserve available food sources for the coming dark days. This led to a heavy dependence in winter on meat. It was also the time the beer and wine made during the year was ready to be consumed. Wine connoisseurs and snobs today would find this barbaric. Life was different. So now, this mid-winter season, we have much to be celebrating. The sun will be returning.

Here are some holiday suggestions for a Winter Solstice celebration with with friends and neighbors.

  1. Vegetarian stuffed mushrooms
  2. Makloubeh, Lamb cauliflower and rice
  3. Citrus collards
  4. Baked apples

Or an alternate menu might be:

  1. Chard & Kale pastries
  2. Beef carpaccio
  3. Caesar salad
  4. Poached pears
  5. Cheese and citrus plate

Enjoy the season!

    Oranges in Wine Orange & Olive Salad Roasted Vegetable Soup Muffaleta Sandwich Fresh Fig Salad Apple Radicchio Salad Orange & Red Onion Salad Grapefruit & Avocado Salad Butternut Soup Pumpkin Soup Citrus Collards Roasted Butternut Squash Fall Turkey Burgers Hearty Harvest Soup Roasted Winter Vegetables Cauliflower Mash Lacinato Kale Turkey & Swiss Chard Pasta Stuffed Acorn Squash Wine Harvest Cake

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