Styling for Santa: Bay City Rollers instill shortbread love

Ask me about my shortbread skills. It was the Bay City Rollers that got me to be a semi expert on all things Scottish. I knew how many stone these tartan-clad lads weighed and everything. Some issue of Tiger Beat magazine may have mentioned shortbread and I was on it, like I was going to get to serve some to these rockers.

Jump to Shortbread House of Edinburgh, offering a beautiful short tin of Truly Handmade Shortbread with Clotted Cream. Go to The Bee’s Knees British Imports to get your sweets. I’ve got to figure some way to reuse this adorable blue tin with pink/purple thistle. The rich, crunchy cookies are long gone.

If Santa is getting shortbread cookies and tea, serve it in style.

The Bee’s Knees British Imports flagship store is in Acton, MA. can connect you to the Christmas Toast tray with red and green lettering reading:

Nearest & Dearest, A Wreath on the Door, Wicked Cocktails

Parmesan Biscuits, A Fire in Every Room

Champagne on Ice, Clementines

Around the rim reads;

How I Love Winter Parties.

OCD Planners, Let’s plan a year – Would a detail of a juniper berry branch or aloe, roots and all, help your week?  The American Horticultural Society has created a weekly planner with drawings of plantes dated in the 1800s and early 1900s. You can journal a bit and mark appointments in this hardback book designed for beautiful thoughts. The owner/author/artist will write in the numbers and dates, so you could technically start anywhere on the calendar. But say we’re headed into an amazing 2026. I have a January birthday so I’d get an Opuntia with orange flowers. That’s a prickly pear cactus. Mary Emily Eaton drew this one in 1916. Honestly, these pages include names and varieties that are either new to me, or they are so beautifully blossoming that I’d never noticed them before. Remember old style phone books with tabs? The society has a lovely little Internet Password Logbook that also features floral beauty. One must stay organized.

 

 

Pumpkin Spice Watch – This week’s spotting is a pumpkin bread recipe and preserving your winter squash. Dehydrating is for hard-core pumpkin lovers. Do you make the cut? Maybe get support from your gardening accountability buddy. Maybe you can become a tomato snob. “The Preserver’s Garden: How to Grow a Garden for Fermenting, Canning, Pickling, Dehydrating, Freeze Drying & More” keeps you on your toes all year round. Staci & Jeremy Hill of Gooseberry Bridge Farm feed a family of eight year-round from a home pantry. Learn how they do it and feast on the beautiful photography of their labors. Okra, garlic or basil? Eat it all year with their tips. I want that pantry!

 

 

Darragh Doiron is a Port Arthur area foodie savoring the flavors of holiday gatherings. Share your family faves with her via panews@panews.com.