A Cozy Christmas Party

This year I didn't try to make people dress up or do anything extraordinary for my annual party.  I just wanted to create exactly what the invitation said - a cozy christmas party.  For me that means really good food, folks who love to laugh and warm clothing.

I thought big for the food and I couldn't have done it without Lauri.  She thankfully was visiting DC that week and came to the help out before the party.  A couple of key things would not have happened without her.  I counted it as a major success that I was able to get into my party outfit not too long after the guests started arriving.  I'm amazed how DC guests arrive on time when in NYC that would never happen.

Assorted truffles from Trader Joe's because they do chocolates/desserts really well.

Jenica made the varnished gingerbread cookies and I made my favorite peanut butter blossoms.  These are special ones though as I found this recipe in the new Gramercy Tavern Cookbook where you can find it here.  These are my favorite cookies always.

In the same cookbook, I found these cheddar bacon biscuits which were surprisingly easy and crazy delicious (obviously since bacon is included). I recommend buying the cookbook but until then, you can find the recipe here.

I made the pumpkin chocolate chip bread and the rugelach is from NYC via Dean & Deluca.

This looks like any plate of meat but that burnt meat in the middle is special.  It's called Millionaire's Candied Bacon but my bacon wasn't as thick of a cut as necessary so it turned a little bit browner than I wanted but my friends didn't agree.  

I found this scalloped sweet potato dish in Ottolenghi which has only a few ingredients - garlic, thyme and cream - but it's so very good. I also made the salad from the Jerusalem cookbook that I loved when May made it for the cookbook club.

It was an hour into the party when the monkey bread was finally done. It kind of fell apart when I took it out of the pan but it was delicious - full of butter and sugar.  There was supposed to be a caramel glaze on top of this but it was already so good without that.

It was so lovely to see all of my friends but I really wasn't very good at taking photos of them.  I was too involved in wanting to converse and laugh.  It was my favorite way to begin the season!

Merry Christmas wonderful friends wherever you may be!

Today: Wish someone a happy holiday.