Tonight we were invited over to Eileen and Stephen’s house for a holiday gathering.
They had wonderful homemade pizzas for us – sundried tomato, pesto, pears, goat cheese, sausage, peppers. They were all wonderful!
Matt and I brought a crudité platter to share, which we dipped into some Trader Joe’s hummus
MY OTHER RECIPES
We enjoyed a few of their favorite brews [LOVED this Christmas Ale!]
I had my eye on dessert all evening …
These no-bake peanut butter scented double chocolate cookies Eileen made..
Plus this homemade cheesecake her friend Julie baked.
It was wonderful – her grandmother’s recipe – and leaned on the egg & custard side of the spectrum, which we all loved.
Matt and I also brought a few Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Treecakes!
The two of us shared a slice of the cheesecake, but we each ate our own cookies –
What a wonderful way to spend a Sunday!
Sigh, I live for dessert.
what a delicious looking evening! I think I need to go make dinner because now my stomach is growling… 🙂
Ack! I’m from the Cleveland area and am a die hard devotee of Christmas Ale-I’m actually celebrating NYE there. How did that delicious beer make it to a Cville party because it’s not normally sold in VA?
Stephen worked with the company years ago and they hunt it down [I think]!
[PS. it was really great!]
hi! Stephen (my husband) grew up in Cleveland and his parents still live there. We LOVE Christmas ale ~ we make sure his parents get us a supply every year. We picked up several six packs when we visited CLE over Thanksgiving, and were happy to share with some beer lovers in VA to spread the Great Lakes goodness 🙂
Eileen, that’s the story of my life too! I brought back some six packs of Christmas Ale from visiting my parents over Thanksgiving, and plan on bringing back more over Christmas! It’d be great to share some GLBC with you when I move to Cville full time in January! And Kath, I think you’d enjoy GLBC’s business practices-go check em out at greatlakesbrewing.com
I will!
Laura – you are moving to Cville? Exciting! Shoot me an email (it’s listed on my blog that’s linked here) and we can definitely meet up for a drink! I’m pretty new to the town myself but am slowly learning the places with the best beer selections ~ a few even have some Great Lakes options 🙂
[me too!!]
I am jealous of you all! I live in Columbus, and for some reason it has been IMPOSSIBLE to hunt down the GL Christmas Ale in bottles this year (only finding it on tap at bars!). We always look forward to a couple 6 packs. At least it’s led us to doing a giant assorted Christmas ale/winter warmer tasting to find other favorites. We heard that Thirsty Dog (Akron) has a brewer who used to work at GL, and helped develop recipes at both. Their 12 Dogs of Christmas is just as good and way, way more available here.
Those pizzas look fun AND delicious!!
love a good holiday party! desserts look awesome!!
I had two different types of homemade pizza as well tonight…AND they were red and green! One
(the red) was a traditional red sauce and mozzerella pizza and the other (the green) was spinach, pineapple, caramelized onion, and ricotta!
Love the red and green pizza idea…so festive…not to mention tasty looking! I can see why you would be eyeing dessert! So many yummy choices! What a great Christmas spread!
The no-bake peanut butter scented double chocolate cookies are calling my name. Not calling, SCREAMING at me. I want those!
And the cheesecake.
And the little pumpkin trees you two brought…adorable!
Looks like a great time. And great desserts!
I should say so! ….A grandma’s recipe- those are *the best*! 🙂
I absolutely love custard pie–the only kind of pie I really like– so I am sure that I would have loved that cheesecake!
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The pesto pizza looks great. I need to make more homemade pesto and freeze it. There really is so much you can do with it.
I am so glad you had such a great time! Your meal looks wonderful! Homemade pizza + cheesecake sounds SO delicious! 🙂
goodness, i’d have my eyes on the desserts all evening if i had THESE desserts staring me in the face all evening too! they look SO good!
I can tell we are quickly approaching that holiday climax as stunning sweets crescendo in appearance! Is it okay if I dream of making a cheesecake angel on that fresh, glowing white cheesecake??
Hard to believe those cookies are no bake, they don’t look it at all! But they do look delicious! 🙂
The pumpkin chocolate chip trees are so pretty, and I bet really yummy!
All looks so good! Oh ya, you just reminded me to put a pizza stone on my Christmas wish list (pizza stone).
Love the treecake!
That cheesecake looks just heavenly!
My eye is always on dessert 😀
I love the tree shaped pumpkin chocolate chip cookie!
pumpkin and chocolate chip is like the best combination.. 😛
epic looking cheesecake!
Now I’m hungry… I want that cheesecake!
Those pizzas sound beautiful, homemade is always amazing! And those desserts.. wow! 🙂
omg. christmas party heaven.
There isn’t much that beats homemade pizza in my mind. And this looks delicious. Being able to control what does (and doesn’t) go on top is amazing!
oh those cookies look fantastic!
Eileen’s cookies look amazing! Do you think she’d be willing to share the recipe?
I was thinking the same thing! Please?!?
I will ask!
Recipe is from here: http://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2011/08/flourless-chocolate-peanut-butter-chocolate-chip-cookies.html
I cut down the sugar a bit and added in a ripe banana – they were still very rich, chocolaty, and plenty sweet! I think the peanut butter really ups the decadence.
Thank you!!! Fun that they were Averie’s!
this is toooooo ironic!
I went to your blog, Eileen, because I wanted to know what they were but couldn’t find a recipe when I got there. I almost emailed you but didn’t want to be annoying b/c not every single thing people eat or make necessarily makes their blog…so I then googled it and my site and Kath’s site came up. And I was like, well, who knows…and I wrote them off. But thought about them.
And now…I find out you adapted a recipe of mine. Well, thank you, and the world works in mysterious ways!
🙂
too funny! they were amazing – definitely a keeper recipe 🙂
Looks like a fun party and the food was very colorful!
What a festive post! Love all the xmas colors – keep it coming! Your teacakes look great – are they like pumpkin muffins in tree shape?
Yup
Dessert is the best part! Those cookies look absolutely amazing! 🙂
Oh wow–looks delicious!
I have to try sun dried tomatoes on a pizza – sounds yummy! I love the treecakes!
Such a gorgeous spread!
Oh my I would’ve been all over that pumpkin chocolate chip tree cake!
I love the christmas themed homemade pizzas! that’s so cute!
Would LOVE to get the recipe for Eileen’s cookies 🙂
Good friends + good food = a good time! The pizzas and desserts look delic!
Your crudite platter looks great! Love fresh veg.
They look like good pizza makers and kudos to the person making the cheesecake – it looks fab, and cheesecakes can be tempermental 😉 I speak from baker’s experience
Besides the obviously oh-so-delicious desserts, I am in LOVE with the festive pizza’s! I love love love this idea so much that I may even have to try them myself. 😉
Oh man! We live in Columbus, OH, and my husband (serious beer fiend) looooves the GL Christmas Ale, but it sells out basically immediately ’round these parts–both on tap and in bottles! Yesterday, we spied some at the movie theater, of all places, even though we haven’t seen it on tap anywhere in town in over a month. Our neighborhood bar says they sell out of it within a few days every year! Lucky, lucky, lucky you! 🙂 (And…as a native Ohioan…glad you enjoyed it!)
Oh DESSERT! I have to tell you the post you wrote about “re-focusing” is really sticking with me this holiday season. Instead of beating myself up for indulging in some holiday treats, I am just accepting it and letting myself go for it, then balancing out with more workouts and such. Thank you for the re-focus wisdom Kath, truly!!
So glad!!
Oooooh, that cheesecake is GORGEOUS! Wow. It’s all I can say…wow!