Holiday Ready
December 1st, 2006 | by Loretta |After two weeks since the first concert, the second one came.
And unlike the first reception, we had money left over to purchase goodies for the reception.
To get into the holiday spirit meant more than just singing traditional carols and holiday songs about dreidels, mistletoe and snow. It meant bringing out the sweet tooth from an 11-month (or so) hibernation.
It meant being unhealthy. Just a bit.
So we got some butter cookies. These can usually be found in Italian bakeries, but we were lucky enough to find them in a store.
They were quite fancy. Florentines, sandwich cookies and regular shortbread goodness. It was pretty much the same dough made and used in many different ways.
And we also had baklava, a popular Middle Eastern/Greek treat.
Baklava is a traditional dessert made with phillo dough– paper-thin sheets of flour and water and maybe a few other ingredients. It’s made by layering phillo dough and brushing with butter before adding the next. A combination of nuts or just pistashios is often added between a few layers. After baking, it’s drizzled and soaked with honey.
Baklava is good with tea.
What else is good with tea? Danishes.
These danishes were soft and a little doughy, but not overly sweet as some danishes can be. It was just sweet enough to know you had a treat, but not so sweet that could induce tooth decay on the spot.
And cupcakes, colored with sprinkles and in miniature sizes. What better way to be reminded of childhood? These tasted better after being put in the fridge to harden the frosting a bit.
We also had pecan pie, which was tricky to cut. This wasn’t bad though– it just meant they used a lot of whole pecans. There was also a rich buttery taste in the custardy filling.
We also had cheesecake. But I did not take pictures, as it was boring in appearance, but tasty nonetheless.
For our entree, we had mesquite wings, turkey wraps and vegetarian sushi…except for the shrimp nigiri which isn’t vegetarian. And arguable, neither is imitation crab meat in some cases, such as when fish extract is used.
Oh the complications of not going for DIY catering.