Holiday Design Collab with Cottages & Bungalows Magazine

 Our favorite time of the year - the Holiday Season! We've teamed up with Cottage & Bungalows Magazine to curate our first Holiday Entertaining collection and are thrilled to show it off to you. 

Create your very own coastal-cottage seasonal look with lush seaside blues, shades of aqua, frosty white and plenty of shiny details. Our team partnered with Cottages & Bungalows Magazine to curate these festive tabletop and barware ideas that are so easy to incorporate into your dining room to make your celebrations memorable events.

Add silver, aqua and blue Christmas ornaments, white sea shells and natural beach elements from your stretch of the coast to dress up your table for the holidays with am elegant beach home style.  It's all about getting creative with simple accents to create your very own special look!

Don't forget beautiful glassware!

Icy Pine Glassware - ONLY available during the Holidays!

So easy to design a welcoming season table that reflects your love of the shore; blue and white dinnerware, etched sea motif wine glasses, blue serving pieces combined with pretty holiday table linens. It's the perfect time to use fun napkin rings too!

So many ways to combine what is already in your everyday tableware cabinet to create a really special celebration!  Your friends and family will be impressed with your entertaining skills..... 

Beautiful dinnerware, holiday table linens, special seasonal glassware and gorgeous serving pieces that will absolutely make a welcoming holiday party experience at your home. 

Hint... Hint... Hint....Wonderful gift ideas too!

On newsstands now - look for us in the Holiday Issue of Cottages & Bungalows

Friday Fall Cocktail - Apple Butter Old Fashioned

One of our best trips a few years ago on the Central Coast! 

Loaded up the Mini Cooper (BEST car for driving on Hwy 1!) and we were ready to roll in just a few hours. An opportune time to take our stemless whale tumblers and try out a new fall cocktail concoction!  Rolling into our hotel  just as the sun was beginning its descent into the Pacific, we quickly unpacked the ingredients for our Apple Butter Old Fashioned Cocktails and got ready to watch the sky glow over Morro Bay.

Here's what you need - ingredients for one drink:

• cinnamon plus coarse sugar for decorating the rim
• Apple Slices for Garnish
• 1/4 cup apple cider
• juice from 1/2 of a lemon
• dash of orange bitters
• 1 Tablespoon of Apple Butter (we keep a jar in the fridge at this time of year!)
• 2 ounces Evan Williams 100 Proof Bourbon (or your choice of Bourbon)
• Splash of Ginger Beer to add a little sizzle!

Bar Essentials Needed:

Double Old Fashioned Glasses or Stemless Tumblers

Cocktail Shaker

Measuring Tools

Strainer

Instructions:

1. Mix Cinnamon and Sugar together; then use to rim glasses

2. In an ice filled cocktail shaker, combine the apple cider, lemon juice, orange bitters, apple butter and bourbon. Give it a few shakes to combine well. 

3. Strain into your prepared glasses filled with ice. Top with a splash of ginger beer and garnish with cinnamon sprinkled apple slices.

So yum, and absolutely perfect for sharing on a beautiful fall evening with someone you love.

PS.Stemless Tumblers make great travel cocktail glasses and great holiday gifts too! Unfortunately, we no longer carry the Whale Stemless Tumblers, but we have lots of other choices now too!

 

Dungeness Crab Bisque with Cognac

We're right in the middle of Dungeness Crab season here in the San Francisco Bay Area. Such a treat!  

Alex (my US Navy son) was here on Veterans Day Weekend and was invited to go crabbing with a bunch of his military fishing buddies. What a great time they all had! Chartering a boat out of Berkley Harbor, they dropped the crab nets out close to the Farallon Islands and managed to easily come home with 10 big Dungeness for each of them. (Lucky us!)

While Alex was here for the holiday weekend, we stuffed ourselves with fresh cracked crab with lemon-butter sauce, and pesto aioli. Of course, we had to have some famous San Francisco sour dough bread too.  

Tom and Alex even made a fabulous seafood Paella on our grill, but that's another story for a different day... 

But, I did manage to save two crabs in the freezer, and was just waiting until I had some extra time to make dinner an occasion.  This past weekend, while Tom watched the San Francisco 49rs play in the Wildcard Playoff Game, I found my Craving for Crab Cookbook, written by my friend Christine Quinn, and thought I would give her Dungeness Crab Bisque Recipe a whirl. It seemed like the ideal recipe to use with crab that had been frozen!

What can I say?  This elegant, classic soup is beyond delicious! 

Adapted from Craving for Crab - Here's what you will need:

• 4 Tablespoons of Butter (use unsalted so that you can add salt to taste)
• 1/2 Cup Chopped Shallots
• 2 Minced Garlic Clves
• 2 Tablespoons Flour
• 2 Cups Chicken Stock
• 1 Cup Heavy Cream
• 2 Tablespoons Tomato Paste (I like to keep the "tube" kind handy in my frig)
• 1 Bay Leaf
• 1 tsp. kosher salt
• 1 tsp. dried tarragon
• 1/8 ground cayenne pepper (or to taste if you like it a little "hotter")
• 1/4 tsp. smoky Spanish Paprika
• 1/4 cup Cognac
• 2 Cups Crabmeat

Garnish:

• Sour Cream
• Smoked Spanish Paprika

1.  Melt the butter in a large deep saucepan over medium-high heat until it foams, then add the shallots. Stir the sautéing shallots and then cover the pan. Reducing the heat to low, cook for three minutes. Then add garlic - cook for 2 more minutes. Then add your flour. Whisk it all in, continuing to cook for about 3 minutes with the shallots and garlic.

2. Slowly add the chicken stock and cream. Stir well, then add the tomato paste, bay leaf, tarragon, salt, cayenne pepper, and paprika.

3. Return the soup to medium-high heat and stir until it boils. Reduce the heat to simmer, stirring occasionally for about 10 minutes. Add cognac (do not skip!) and crab meat. Make sure to reserve a little crab meat to use for garnishing too!

4. Cook for 10 more minutes on low-simmer

5. Serve in large bowls. I personally like using pasta bowls - they look a little more appropriate for a dinner meal! Garnish by adding a spoonful of sour cream in the center, pile on a few crab chunks then finish with a final dusting of smoky Spanish Paprika. 

Serve with a green salad, garlic toasts and a buttery Chardonnay and you will instantly impress your guests (or your significant other!) with your gourmet skills. 

Enjoy!  

BTW - Lots of new fabulous Blue Crab Bay Stoneware pieces are now available on our site! Come take a look!