Holiday Wrap-Up

Deflated: yep, 'tis the end of the holiday season.

Regifting: It's Okay

I wrote a piece on regifting for Sprig, a website about green living (yep, regifting is a form of recycling!). So, if you're wondering, "What the heck am I gonna do with this?"....

Muppets in the Manger

In addition to an artificial Christmas tree with lots of flashy silver and gold garlands, tinsel, and bulbs, my grandparents had a classic nativity scene they put under the tree. The wood manger remained long after the plastic figures were lost of the Three Kings, animals, Joseph, Mary, and baby Jesus. I prided myself on being a crafty kid and created replacement characters for the nativity using cotton balls and pantyhose for the heads and fabric scraps for the clothing. My kind parents did not tell me that I made the family look like muppets or aliens.

Santa Surfs

This guy is cool (from today's LA Times).

Roadside Photos: Snowy Train Ride

Photos taken on Long Island.

Cookie Time: Peanut Blossoms and Butter Cookies

I don't feel compelled to take risks when it comes to baking holiday cookies. Classic cookies are beloved because they're perfect, like the roll-out butter cookie (I used a recipe from Bon Appetit) and peanut butter cookies with a chocolate kiss on top. We call them peanut blossoms in my family and they've been a perennial favorite since I was a kid. I have the fondest memories of baking them with my mom and helping to push the chocolate kiss on the cookie while it was still on the cookie sheet. Eating them right from the oven is always best, when the chocolate is still gooey from the heat of the oven (pictured, Kristine and Rebecca digged in). I make them with a mixture of dark chocolate and milk chocolate kisses. The recipe from mom, which came to her from Aunt Ruth, is below.

Peanut Blossom Cookies

Makes 7 dozen

1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup unsalted butter
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
Chocolates kisses

Preheat oven at 375 F.
Cream together sugars, butter and peanut butter.
Stir in eggs, milk and vanilla.
Sift together flour, salt and baking soda.
Combine dry and wet ingredients.
Shape into balls and roll in sugar.
Place balls on ungreased cookie sheet, leaving an inch between each ball.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes.
Remove from oven and press on chocolate kisses, then return to oven for 1 minute.

Holiday Greetings from Stef

Peace and love.

Holiday Card Contenders

I like to send photo cards and I've sent a link to photos posted online in recent years (small step to save paper). These are the images considered for this year. Our friends Maya and Avery supplied these kid-drawn ornaments for the tree using recycled paper.

Mermaids on the Tree

X-mas tree ornaments on our tree: one cut out from a box of Mexican loteria cards, one drawn and cut out by a budding eight-year-old artist, Maya.

My Kinda Yule Log

When I was growing up, the TV was always turned to Channel 11 on Christmas Day for the Yule Log. Christmas songs played and the fire burned--that's it. We didn't have a fireplace so I especially loved the Yule Log. I would like it now, but I'm sure I'd mute it. Enough with the terrible X-mas songs! Two weeks into December and I'm feeling Scroogy each time I walk into a shop and hear Mariah Carey or Kenny G or Celine Dion or Amy Grant. I'd program the Yule Log with the sountrack to "A Charlie Brown Christmas," plus some Nat King Cole, Johnny Mathis, Ella Fitzgerald, Elvis, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and the Beach Boys. I'd throw in some Chipmunks for fun and some wildcards, like "Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin" by Lynyrd Skynrd and "Christmas with the Devil" by Spinal Tap. Cause we could all use some serious rockin' (and humor) this time of year.

Bomb's Away

I might have to look for an actual bomber jacket like this.

Cherry on Top: Champagne Party

Highlights from Dara and David's champagne party: champagne. (Duh.). Also, cheese and charcuterie; crab deviled eggs; blini with crème fraiche and caviar or smoked salmon; spiced pecans; bacon-wrapped dates; brie en croute; bread shots with goat cheese and fig or pesto. The cherry on top: Dara's chocolate cake with dulce de leche. I would eat it every day.

Mermaid Pinata

Window of a party supply shop, with a mermaid pinata.

Bite Size Delights

One sweet, one savory. A friend asked me recently for a quick starter she could bring to a dinner party and I suggested tuna with olive oil and capers on my new favorite chip—a multi-grain tortilla chip from a company called Food Should Taste Good (I know, genius). For a post-dinner snack: raspberries and chocolate wafer cookies (I love the ones from Newman's Own Organics). Mr. MVP came out last night with the raspberry on the cookie and called it berry caviar.

Red All Over Again

In the late '80s and pre-grunge '90s, I wore red lipstick every day. It was my thing. (Red fingernails, too.) I favored a well-known brand that uses ingredients I wouldn't dare put on my lips again, now that I'm aware of how the stuff is made (check out the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics website to get an honest look inside the products we use). The holiday season is here and I feel the urge to paint my lips red again. Josie Maran's lipstick line includes the perfect sheer red, called Devious, that's packaged in a recyclable tube and made with moisturizing jojoba oil and coconut cream (and no artificial fragrances or parabens or petrachemicals). I tried it recently at a makeup event for Josie's line at Vert, my local beauty shop in Venice, and bought a tube. My other new red is a tinted lip balm that contains shea butter to moisturize: the Wild Rose Lip Butter by Korres, another eco-conscious beauty line. I'm seeing red again: Devious for dramatic red lips, Wild Rose for dewy red lips.

Time in a Wheel

Forget time in a bottle; I want my time in a wheel. The pictured clock was in a dive bar in Ventura (the photo below it shows the view of the beach from the bar at sunset). I've spotted some good options on eBay and then I went to Etsy and scored this brass ship wheel necklace.

Recycled Pizza Box

I needed something to deliver the turkey we cooked and donated on Thanksgiving but I couldn't part with the roasting pan—so I made use of a pizza box.

Farmers' Market Adventures: Carrot Photos

Photo 1: Carrot Top
Photo 2: Pageant
Photo 3: Proud Mama

(Thanks to the carrot model and comic improviser, Beck.)

Mermaid and the Books

Moved the mermaid from the porch to the bookshelves.

Monday Night Supper Club

A new favorite finger food: potatoes on a stick. More specifically, smoked German butterball potato confit, caviar, creme fraiche prepared by my friend Josh (above). Here was the menu for the first Monday Night Supper Club event at the just-opened Venice Beach Wines.

*Sticks*
Smoked German Butterball Potato Confit, Caviar, Creme Fraiche

Salsafi with Black Truffle-Scallop Mousse

Grilled Beef with Roasted Corn Raw Clam Chimichurri

*Cup*
Artichoke and Red Bell Pepper Flans, Apricot Puree Shaft Blue Cheese Foam, Peacock Farms Walnuts, Rosemary Flowers

*Spoons*
Pumpkin Raviolinni, White Truffle, Foie Powder

Smoked Salmon Mousse, Meyer Lemon Panna Cota, Wasabi Tobiko, Fried Quinoa, Chervil

*Chop Sticks*
Speck Wrapped Pine Nut Stuffed Grape, Tarragon, Uni, Ebi

Braised Pork Shoulder Baked in Brioche, Frisee, Quail Egg, Black Truffle Vinaigrette

Hamachi & Avocado Invultinni, Grapefruit-Caviar, Huitlacoche, Sudachi - Miso Air

Smoky Sunsets

Fire-enhanced sunset photos taken in Venice.

This Week's Graffiti

Photos taken at the Venice Beach graffiti wall.

Records Recycled

I've got a box of old albums and 45s in my parents' basement. They're too warped to play and I no longer own a record player for that purpose anyway, but something prevents me from getting rid of them. Maybe it's seeing the work of artists, who recycle the records to make something new from them, like the coasters made from old records we've got on the coffee table. I found another artist while clicking around on Etsy; Aroha Silhouettes who uses vinyl records for bold jewelry. This one pictured looks like a rose.

Good Together: Pizza, Burgers, Bacon

Pizza party photos.

Nanny's Ring Recycled

My grandmother had seriously gorgeous rings, given to her by my grandfather. Visits to see my grandparents included playing hairdresser with the vanity set on Nanny's dresser, pulling out her handbags from the storage cabinet, and trying on her rings. I recall I was allowed to wear them only while sitting at the table, usually following a big Sunday dinner. There might be cheesecake or a plate of Italian pastries on the table and there was always a bowl filled with whole nuts and fresh fennel (good for digestion). We played a game called Scat and I would feel very glamorous holding my cards with fingers weighed down by the rings. Most of the styles featured diamonds set in white gold settings and the one I loved most was the cocktail ring on her middle finger. In her later years, she gifted this ring to my aunt, who removed the diamonds and used them for a more contemporary ring design that suited her own style. I was there when she returned from the jeweler and we gathered round to compliment her on the pretty new ring. I couldn't help but mention that I had also loved the original design. "Do you want it?" she asked. She handed me the plastic bag from the jeweler that held the remaining shape of the ring, with no stones and shaved down prongs. It looked a little sad. But maybe there was hope for it, I thought. I held on to it for several years and finally brought it to a jewelry repair guy recommended to me by an antique shop where I've found some great vintage pieces of jewelry. I told him I pictured a recycled version, this one filled with pearls, and he went ahead and transformed it for me. I still feel a bit like a little girl who should wear it only while sitting at the table, but I'll venture out with it when I'm feeling glam.

Mermaid on the Porch

This mermaid was a gift from my parents. (Thanks, Mom and Dad!)