Holidays

We had an early Thanksgiving with Rob’s parents last weekend, so I’m feeling ahead of schedule for the holidays so far this year. Forget “Spring Cleaning” – I want to use our free weekend after Thanksgiving to launch into a full room-by-room cleaning spree before Christmas entertaining season begins. It’s usually just about this time…

While it is impossible to believe that December is just around the corner, the time has come for holiday preparations! This is the week to take your Christmas card photo and to send holiday party invites. Here’s a checklist to help: Step 1. Pick your parties  Casual or fancy. Cozy or crowded. It doesn’t matter…

December will be here before you know it!  If you want to avoid a rush, it’s time to start shopping now for what to wear to your office holiday party. Plus, you can make the most of sale season, including the Bloomingdale’s Friend’s & Family Sale (that ends Sunday) with an extra 20% off discounted…

Now that Halloween has passed, the holidays are just around the corner. There are only so many quiet weekends available for cooking before things start to book up with Thanksgiving and Christmas events. When I posted the recipe for marinated christmas lima beans last week, Heatherina asked for more ideas for savory homemade gifts. These…

Happy New Year from Hawaii! Not pictured in this photo, panic exclamations of “Ouch! I think an ember went down my shirt. There’s a spark on my foot!” Remember to stage your picturesque, Pinterest-ready New Year’s photo standing upwind from the sparklers. 2013 was full of a lot of travel: Whistler, London & Edinburgh, Tahoe, Hetch…

We started this series on holiday entertaining a few weeks ago with the outline for Holiday Party No. 1: A Housewarming for a Small Apartment. Over the weekend, Lauren succumbed to my bossiness and held a wonderful event at her apartment in Noe Valley.  The mantlepiece was decorated with a fresh winter garland and candles: She…

There comes a moment, on these busy holiday party weekends, where you realize you haven’t eaten anything but spinach dip and fudge in about 36 hours. A nice leisurely weekend lunch is just the thing to get you recharged on real food. A couple weeks ago, I made cioppino for Sunday lunch with my parents.…

My office has a tradition of a ladies tea to celebrate the holidays. Each December, a small group of the top women in the company go to the Palace Hotel‘s famous Garden Court for a fancy afternoon tea. Guests. Six of your favorite co-workers. Decor. The Palace Hotel is famous for it’s atrium ceiling that…

My friend Nicole invited me to a cookie swap party last week, hosted at 18 Reasons. This community food space is the non-profit division of Bi-Rite Market and one of the hubs of foodie culture in the Mission.  So my original (lazy) plan to make Toll House chocolate chip cookies got nixed by Nicole as…

It really is Christmas with a weekend this packed with fun entertaining and events. Even San Francisco’s classic crisp, clear winter weather showed up to the party! On Friday, I returned home early to work on preparations for our brunch on Saturday. Margaret came over to help and together we chopped, cooked and polished up…