by Christina Waters | Nov 23, 2011 | Food, Holidays, Home |
When my sister and I were little, we would make the annual trek to Aunt Mariana and Uncle Doodle’s house for a holiday visit. Aunt Mariana would reach up high into her pantry and take down the fruitcake we were forced to eat each Christmas.
My sister and I would politely taste a forkful of this brown crumbly creation studded with eerily bright red and green fruits. We would take one bite and then cover the remaining bits with our napkins. Reading each other’s minds we would both think, “yes, but where’s the frosting?”
Children hate fruitcake. But many decades later, those early negative impressions were replaced by a romantic afternoon’s experience, on a rainy October day looking out over Lake Como, consuming the local fig and nut cake washed down by grappa. What a difference time (and grappa and a romantic companion) can make.
This season —after years of building a fan base on two coasts for my labor-intensive Christmas cookies—I’ve decided to wade into deeper, more mythic culinary territory. Yes, I’m making fruitcake this year. (more…)
by Christina Waters | Apr 21, 2011 | Holidays |
Marie Waters of La Mesa and Boulder Creek, California – and to Elizabeth Windsor of London and Buckingham Palace!
by Christina Waters | Apr 20, 2011 | Holidays |
Southern-style specialties complete with live jazz this Easter Sunday April 24, fill the menu at Clouds Downtown, 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Easter Eggs Benedict! Fried chicken and waffles, bananas foster, endless Mimosas. 110 Church St., Santa Cruz – 429-2000.
Or savor Easter brunch with a colossal view of the beach, Boardwalk and bay at Casablanca Restaurant, 10:30am until 2pm. Enjoy classics like New York steak and eggs, strawberry banana crepes, those Eggs Benedict, plus zesty salmon gravlox omelets, snapper piccata and of course you’ll want to chase those items with the easter bunny’s drink of choice—the fresh squeezed orange juice mimosa. Casablanca looks out over the corner of Beach and Main Streets – 426-9063.
by Christina Waters | Feb 14, 2011 | Food, Holidays |
Music department manager Thomas Pistole sure knows how to pamper his UCSC faculty & staff. Cupcake Diva Pistole uses any holiday as an excuse to break out his trusty cupcake carrier and fill it with colorfully-decorated, to-die-for pastries.
These are his latest – red velvet topped with cinnamon-flavored hearts.
A good man to know, especially around Halloween when his fabled carrot cupcakes with orange frosting are available.
by Christina Waters | Apr 7, 2010 | Holidays, Home |
Or at least a colorful table display. This is how adults in deep denial as to their actual emotional maturity adorn their dining room table during official holidays. Not all of them. But this one. Who can resist ranunculi in loud colors that exactly match the Peeps du jour? We can’t.
We didn’t.
by Christina Waters | Feb 1, 2010 | Holidays |
In Aptos, Muriel Loubiere has filled her Au Midi Valentine’s Eve menu with food for lovers. Foods with a provençal accent.
It begins with salad of Dungeness crab & shrimp, with lemon coulis & tomatoes emulsion, followed by wild mushroom crème brulée.
Entrees include Vegetarian Risotto: asparagus, lemon confit, mascarpone & reduction of balsamic vinegar, Or -Â rosemary kebab of Scallops: with glazed caramelized endives and orange juice, Or – seared foie gras served on (more…)
