Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Christmas Eve Feast


What a splendid Christmas Eve we had
here at Purple Chocolat Home.

It is always a highlight of Christmas for me.
I love to have the music playing and to be 
setting the table in anticipation of the 
night.  


It is always a formal dinner like my aunt used to 
do it at her house.  I have such fond memories of
dressing up and knowing we would all be seated
at a beautiful table that I have continued that
tradition through all the years of marriage.

The family is big now.  We all love to crowd 
around the same table so a few years ago we started
moving the furntiture out of the great room and
setting up tables.  This year I put two 8 foot
tables side by side to fit 16 of us.


In the pictures the cloth looks pink but it is
really two oblong red cloths covered with
this beautiful gold embellished fabric that 
I had purchased from JoAnn fabrics.


The gold is so elegant for Christmas Eve.
I started with these gold plated ceramic chargers
that weigh a ton.  I purchased them years ago
at Target.  They are topped with my gold-rimmed
china.   This is the only china I own.  A gold embellished
napkin from Home Goods is topped with my gold flatware
I got from Neiman Marcus for Christmas 2012.


You can see the whole topper is dotted
with metallic gold.  I didn't have any purpose
for the fabric when I purchased it a while ago
but luckily I got enough to cover two 8 foot
tables!


Gold candles and a tree create the lush centerpiece.


The tree lights up and is surrounded
by gold candles and lanterns perfect
for a beautiful night time table.







These beautiful goblets add to the
elegance of the table.  These are my
Home Goods version of my more
expensive gold goblets so I can let
the children drink from them.





Everything looks so pretty lined up down
the side of the table.



But the real view is from up above.


Here is a shot from up on the balcony.  


This gold flatware is so elegant.
I am so glad that I bought these from
Neiman Marcus a couple of years ago.  They are
discontinued now and I just love their size
and elegance.  

They are Ricci Raffaelo, gold plated flatware.
Nieman Marcus still carries them in stainless.


I just shopped around the house for
the vignette in the center of the table.

Gold rimmed wavy glass bowls are
placed to catch empty king crab shells
around the table.  These beautiful and
extremely heavy bowls and plates plus
the chargers were purchased probably
20 years ago at Target when they used
to have marvelous dishes for Christmas.


We are all ready!

I really do like to set the table by myself.
It just makes me happy!





We always have this same menu
for Christmas Eve.  It is everyone's favorite.

I hope you had a wonderful 
Christmas too.  Our highlight was talking to
our missionary son from Korea for one hour
at 7:00 after we had eaten.
What a miracle it is to be able to communicate
across the world so easily.

I will be posting this table with





Monday, December 29, 2014

Chocolate Peppermint Bark Pavlova


'Tis the Season for rich and delicious
desserts and this Chocolate Peppermint Pavlova
is the perfect Christmas or winter dessert.

Each bite has the moist crunch of meringue with
the rich smoothness of chocolate ganache and
the flavor punch of peppermint bark. 

Wow, this just screams celebration!! 


My friend Rachel made this for a dinner party
last week and hubby and I kept having visions
of Pavlova dance in our heads  - so I made
it myself for a dinner invitation last night.

The recipe comes from Williams-Sonoma.
Click here for complete instructions.




I made a few minor changes to the preparation.
Rather than letting the melted chocolate and cream
mix sit and cool for two hours (way too long for
my patience) I put them in a large mixing bowl
and beat them with the whisk attachment until 
the mixture became like a soft pudding.  When
you can spoon the ganache onto the meringue,
it is ready to use.  This only takes a few
minutes on high.

Have all of your ingredients
ready as the ganache can cool rapidly.  

I also baked all of my meringues
at once, and only shaped them to 8 inches
each as they will grow.  I did two pans in
my big oven and one in the little but it ended
up that I didn't use the fifth layer as I ran 
out of ganache.

If you can't get WS's Peppermint Bark,
Ghiradelli makes a great one or whip up
a quick batch of your own. 


I used a combination of Jensen's and Ghiradelli's
for mine because that was what I had on hand.

This could also
be made with Ande's Mints or you could
change it to almond - so many possibilities!!
This isn't just a Christmas dessert.



The Pavlova is delicate and cracks easily 
so handle it with care.  You would think it
would be difficult to slice and serve, but use
a serrated knife to cut it.  You want it room
temperature to cut it or the ganache will
be too hard.


Layer after layer of light and moist
meringue cuts the richness of the
ganache.  Oh, the texture combination
is fantastic!  The peppermint flavor 
comes just from the peppermint bark so
it isn't too minty.


This is one of those desserts that takes 
some time for prep but is worth it.

This is one of those desserts that
depicts
"dreams of sugarplums dancing in their heads".

We give this a ten thumbs up!

I will be posting this with 





Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Merry Christmas 2014



Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

This was taken at the Grand America.
We always go there for a weekend the
last weekend before Christmas to celebrate
being done (mostly) with our preparations
and to enjoy the Christmas atmosphere of
The Grand and Salt Lake and the lights on
the Salt Lake Temple.  As they seated all
18 of us I was overwhelmed with our
wonderful family and the blessings all of
the little ones bring and the quote came to 
my mind,

"All because two people fell in love!"

Nothing could bring me more joy than these
precious gifts from God.

We just had a new baby in November and another
was just announced arriving in July!  What a joy to
have such a wonderful family.

We still have our youngest son on an 
LDS  mission in Seoul, Korea.  

We get to talk to him
for Christmas and that will be one of the 
highlights of Christmas.  

We hope this year brings you joy and happiness.
May you feel the peace, joy and hope that
abounds because of the birth of Christ
at this time of year and through all the
year as we strive to follow His example.

Merry Christmas!!


Tuesday, December 23, 2014

A Magical Christmas Playhouse


There are some people that know how
to create magic, and this little playhouse
is one of those magical gems that just
makes you feel like a child again, wanting
to move in.  Everyone that sees this, 
including my grandchildren says, "I want one!"


Come in for tea to this magic wonderland
filled with details and ruffles and everything
girly you can imagine.

I was invited to participate in a Christmas
Home Tour by some friends and this
is the magical playhouse in the backyard
of one of my new friends, Joanne.  She and
Laura and Rachel decorated it for Christmas.
Rachel has featured photo shoots at it several
times on her blog, A Little Cuppa Tea.
Here is her Christmas post of the charming house.
She has some wonderful day time shots too.  I
was only there at night, but it is oh so magical
at night.



Of course there is a fabulous Christmas
tree stuffed with everything fluffy and sparkly
and wonderful that sits right in front of the
window.


There is even a faux fireplace created by 
two spindles and a board.  Doesn't this
make you just want to be a little girl
and have a Christmas tea party in here?


There is wonder everywhere, but this railing
around the loft covered with bits of lace and 
fabric just took everyone's breath away.


This shot through the chandy shows you the 
gorgeous collection of fabrics.


I just sat down on the floor to take
some of the photos and felt like a
little girl.  Who wouldn't be charmed by this?


Bear has invited us to have a wintery
tea with her as she enjoys her magical
cottage.


This wintry vignette sits under glass
on the tea table, right next to the daybed.


Beautiful magic fills every corner of
this tiny playhouse.



Bear is still decorating the place for
Christmas.


It is too hard to pick a favorite spot, but this
charming daybed with
ruffled bedspread, sweet bear and
exquisite pillows just is the focal point
of the magic they have created here.



So glad that you could join me
and Bear for tea in this
magical wonderland of
Christmas. 




May Christmas bring out the child in each
of us.



I will be posting this with


Monday, December 22, 2014

Raspberry Cream Chocolates


Watch your loved ones' eyes sparkle
as they indulge in these sparkling
Raspberry Cream Chocolates.

These have been Mrs. Claus' favorite
for years.  She loves the tart of the
raspberry with the richness of the dark
chocolate.  You can dip with either
milk or dark chocolate but I prefer
dark with fruit centers.





Raspberry Cream Fondant

1 C. whipping cream
3 T. light corn syrup
3 C. sugar
1/8 tsp salt
Pinch of baking soda
12 oz. frozen raspberries, thawed, pureed and put
through a sieve
1/4 tsp. citric acid
1/3 C. marshmallow cream

In a large heavy saucepan place the cream, corn syrup
sugar, salt and baking soda. Bring to a boil, stirring
constantly.  Wash down the sides of the pan with
water using a pastry brush.  Cook until about 200
degrees then add the pureed and sieved raspberries.
Now it is really important to stir, scraping the bottom
of the pan as any seeds might stick to the bottom and
scorch.  Bring the mixture to 239 degrees.  Be sure
and check to see where your thermometer boils.  It
should boil at 212, but here at our high 
altitude it boils at 200 so I have to subtract 12
degrees.

When it reaches temperature, pour into a 9x13
inch pan.  Don't scrape the pan and place it in
the fridge without moving the pan much.  Let
the pan cool about 15 minutes, then check
the bottom of the pan.  It should just be
slightly warm when you start to stir. 

For some reason, this fondant takes longer
to turn than most.  After you have stirred it
about 20 minutes, just keeping the mass moving,
add the citric acid and the marshmallow cream.

It will eventually turn from stringy to like
a stiff frosting.  This time I gave up after
over an hour of stirring and left it in the
pan overnight and it had turned into the
frosting like mass in the morning.  


Form into patties, using a little flour on hands
and pan if needed to keep it from sticking.

Dip in tempered chocolate.  To learn how click here.
Decorate as desired.
We used edible sparkle dust.  

These need a few days to ripen, or for the 
centers to soften.  They will keep several weeks
or you can refrigerate them.



You do know that women need chocolate 
once a day don't you?!!  These fit the bill.

I have to tell you that I always refer to 
myself as Mrs. Claus and I bought a cute
hoodie this year that looks like a Mrs. Claus
and this weekend I called myself Mrs. Claus
and my 4 1/2 year old granddaughter said, "You
are not Mrs. Claus, Grandma, that's just a
costume!"  We all had a good laugh over that.

I will be posting these with 


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