The Christmas season is certainly my most favorite time of year and this year it got a little brighter when Annie invited me to her Virtual Holiday Party.  As a blogger, I’ve made some wonderful connections to other bloggers and this party is made up of some of best on my list.  I have known a few of them for about 4 years…even before we started blogging!  Our relationships started on a message board, moved to our blogs and blogging groups, to email and to our personal Facebook accounts…and these ladies have been my cooking, baking, and blogging inspiration for years.  Wanna know who I hung out with at our Virtual Holiday Party??

What a list, huh?  Well, you know as well as I do that if a party involves food bloggers, there’s going to be food.  And this party was no different.  Annie asked us to bring either a cocktail, appetizer, or dessert – the perfect kind of party food to pick on with good friends!  Booze isn’t the normal thing you’d find on Smells Like Home…it’s what I feel like I struggle most with when I host people in my home so I figured this would be a great time to try out a new drink – everyone needs a great holiday drink in their repertoire!  So how about some Cranberry Lime Bellinis?  The recipe calls for prosecco but I think champagne worked just as nicely and I even made a virgin version (made with ginger ale) for those of us who pass on the booze.  I knew the girls would love these…Pass around a tray of these in some fancy glasses with a few frozen cranberries floating in them and you’ve got not only a gorgeous holiday drink, but also such a girlie drink!  All that’s needed now (aside from some great chit-chat) is some more alcohol and of course some food!

Kelsey didn’t let us down on the drink front.  She brought along some Pepper Berry Cocktails – don’t they look amazingly refreshing?!  It’s a good thing I wasn’t driving home from this party because these look just too good to pass up.

Elly is the queen of Greek food and she certainly brought it with these Dolmades (stuffed grape leaves).  I’ve recently tried them for the first time and loved them but I’m sure the ones I had pale in comparison to Elly’s!


Nikki, be still my heart, showed up with Baked Fontina…a recipe I’ve been dying to try for weeks.  Wouldn’t you just love to bury some toasty bread into this?!

No holiday party is complete without dessert and boy were there two doozy desserts at this party!

Josie graced our presence with Raspberry Cream Puffs.  Uh…helloooo gorgeous!  Just look at how that raspberry pastry cream is just itching to be tasted!


And our hostess, Annie, made some of her most delectable treats: Macarons. She of course, upped the ante and made Candy Cane Macarons for this party though!  Being a lover of peppermint myself, I absolutely can’t resist them!

What a fab party this was – great friends and great food making this Christmas season just a little bit merrier.  Thank you, Annie, for hosting and for inviting us to join you!  I have a little surprise for you…let’s call it a hostess gift…since I know how much you LOVE this treat. And don’t ask Ben hide it on you either – its yours to enjoy! :)

Merry Christmas everyone!  Be sure to check out all of the links here for the fabulous recipes that go along with the amazing photos!

Cranberry Lime Bellinis
source: adapted from Giada DeLaurentiis
Serves 6

Ingredients:

  • 12 oz cranberry juice, chilled
  • 16 oz prosecco or champagne, chilled
  • Juice of one lime
  • Frozen fresh cranberries, for garnish

Instructions:

  1. In a large pitcher, pour in the cranberry juice, prosecco or champagne, and lime juice.  Stir to combine.  Pour into champagne flutes or tall slender glasses and garnish with a few frozen cranberries in each glass.  Serve chilled.

For the virgin version: Swap out the prosecco/champagne for 14 oz ginger ale and increase the amount of cranberry juice to 14 oz.