Christmas Party Treats

For years my wife has been saying that whenever we got a house, she wanted to host a Christmas/holiday party.  She thought it would be fun to have a fire, something warm & festive to drink, and various goodies to pad our waist lines for the impending cold weather.  Since this is our first winter in our new home, I said "Let's do it!"

The Mrs is quite the little baker.  I have no idea how she makes these things, so I'll just have to tell you what they are ... and that they are delicious.  She made a chocolate fudge and topped it with crushed candy canes.  That was great because the peppermint gives you this crisp cool break from the chocolate.  In a way, it's sort of the reverse proportions of a York Peppermint Patty.  The peppermint also gives them a nice textural crunch.

She also made a peanut butter fudge that was then rolled into a long tube, then frozen, and topped with crushed peanuts.  Then they were sliced into little rolls, kind of like sushi.  Combining sweet & salty is possibly one of my favorite things in a dessert.  And these were a bit like a salted nut roll, but with peanut butter.  And again you have the nice textural contrast with the smooth fudge and the crunchy peanuts.

Next she made macaroons -- the coconut variety, not to be confused with the French Macaron.  Then she dipped the bottoms of these in semi-sweet chocolate and milk chocolate.  These are so good, that I have eaten probably 5 or 6 of them ... and I don't like coconut!  That's how good they are. They're sticky, sugary, and delicious. The semi-sweet chocolate tempers the sweetness a little.  

Last, and probably least, she made some store-bought gingerbread cookies because she felt obligated to.  They were fine. But it's not something I will spend any more time on.

For beverages we had spiced apple cider warming on the stove, red wine, gin & tonic, and what is quite possibly the very best holiday beverage ever: Eggnog and Bourbon.  You could have either by themselves too.  I left that option available.  But one of our guests is from Lebanon and had never had eggnog before.  He must have liked it, because he made himself a second drink (using bourbon both times).

Stay tuned this week as I give you new posts on the savory treats that I made for the party.  Spoiler alert:  they were a hit!