ROYAL TART – Forum/Blog

Tick-tock, tick-tock…raise your glass and cheer…tick-tock, tick-tock…the birth of a New Year. A rock-the-clock cocktail soiree where midnight arrives every hour-or-so, with different countdown toasts to our hopes, our dreams, our loves…a proverbial toasting shower, of elation, jubilation, exultation…with love, with laughter, with merriment, raise your glass and cheer as each different time zone clock strikes midnight, you ring in the New Year!

As with every Royal Tart Celebration, a Royal Tart Let’s Get This Party Started Blueprint with Suggested Menu, Recipes & Celebration Tips is included. This particular Party Blueprint includes suggested appetizer recipes that correspond to each time you Rock-the Clock. Look for elegant, interesting and tasty recipes from South America, Russia, France as well as regional US recipes. Plus we’ve included a great Rock-the-Clock play list. This party is timeless, elegant and fun. Ask your guests to dress in their best black and white cocktail attire or go black-tie.

Cheers,

Tricia

www.RoyalTart.com

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Some would say the best thing about Christmas is that it is over; I, however, do not share this sentiment but I do know it is time to plan a New Year’s Eve party if you haven’t done so already. How about a slumber party with your girlfriend’s or a family hourly countdown similar to the adult one sold at Royal Tart or a romantic dinner bidding 2009 adieux?

Cheers,

Tricia

www.RoyalTart.com

Delivering Complete Prepackaged Designer Parties to Your Door

Check it out…the boys and I baked and decorated a gingerbread house wearing Royal Tart’s totally cute gingerbread aprons in three sizes: adult, medium child, small child. We had fun building our masterpiece and the boys loved their 3-D aprons. Plus their sticky fingers smeared their aprons not their shirts. You can purchase these cute aprons and other coordinating gingerbread items at www.RoyalTart.com. The aprons and other cute stuff including tea cups, favor bags, Merry Christmas Cookie Tray, etc. is from the Jumpin Gingerbread: Let’s Bake Holiday Celebration.

Happy Holidays.

Enjoy!

Tricia

www.RoyalTart.com

Delivering Complete Prepackaged Designer Parties to Your Door

Relax!

Give yourself and your party guests the perfect party favor and the biggest Christmas gift this year…relax… and give others the permission to do the same.

Cheers,

Tricia

www.RoyalTart.com

Delivering Complete Prepackaged Designer Parties to Your Door

The Holiday Season is a cherished time for many; but how does one create enchanting visual images in their home?

I know I have several boxes of Christmas and New Years decorations along with a few Hanukkah items which are best described as disparate holiday items. These items include various snowmen, Santas, trains and ornaments.

One of the best ways to create some order to your holiday assortment and create strong visual memories is to set up vignettes or little arrangements all over your home. Place your Santas on the mantel, your snowmen at the entry, your dreidels on the coffee table, gingerbread men dangling from the kitchen ceiling, etc.

You may also group seemingly disparate items together if they have a common style. For example you can arrange your tin decorations together, your glass pieces together, your 1950’s ornaments together.

By adding various little arrangements around your home you create charming layers of decorations throughout your home bringing Christmas joy to every room.

And of course once you get your home decorated you will know exactly where you can add new decorations you purchased this year. Check out Royal Tart’s holiday items at www.RoyalTart.com for new holiday items.

Happy Holiday Decorating,

Tricia

www.RoyalTart.com

Delivering Complete Prepackaged Designer Parties to Your Door

Need a fabulous and decadent dessert for the holidays? Royal Tart made a recipe from Bon Appétit our own by adding chili chocolate and a decorative edge. Serve this at Thanksgiving, like I did, or at your next holiday party, on Christmas Eve or for New Years Eve (or any celebration)– serve it from a retro-holiday pedestal plate and you will win raves from all the chocoholics in your life. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

Pecans
Nonstick vegetable oil spray
1 large egg white
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon golden brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
1/4-1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (1/2 tsp provides real heat)
1 1/2 cups pecan halves

Crust
1 cup chocolate wafer cookie crumbs (about 28 cookies, RT used Nabisco Chocolate Wafers)
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Filling
1 cup heavy whipping cream
4 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped (RT used Trader Joes 54% dark chocolate)
3.5 ounces chili chocolate, chopped (RT used Lindt),
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper (optional)
pinch of salt

Directions:
For pecans:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray rimmed baking sheet with nonstick spray. Whisk all ingredients except pecans in medium bowl. Stir in pecans. Spread in single layer on sheet, rounded side up. Bake until just browned and dry, about 15 minutes. Cool on sheet. Separate nuts, removing excess coating. DO AHEAD: Can be made ahead. Store airtight at room temperature. TIPS: 1)RT added more nuts to the bowl and made about 3 cups of nuts to use in salads or as fancy snacks, etc; 2) Add more cayenne pepper for heat (the ¼ tsp doesn’t add heat but instead an interesting nuance).

For crust:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Blend first 4 ingredients in processor. Add melted butter; process until crumbs are moistened. Break several of the unused cookies in half; edge pan with curved side of cookie up and broken side down; press crumbs into 9-inch-diameter spring form pan with removable bottom. Bake until set, about 15-20 minutes. Cool on rack.

For filling:
Bring cream to simmer in medium saucepan. Remove from heat. Add chocolates; whisk until melted. Add butter, 1 piece at a time; whisk until smooth. Whisk in vanilla, cinnamon, and salt. Pour filling into crust. Chill until filling begins to set, about 30 minutes. Then arrange nuts in concentric circles atop tart. Chill until set, about 4 hours. DO AHEAD Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover loosely with foil and keep chilled.
Serve tart with sweetened whipped cream.
Adapted Feb 2007 Bon Appétit Recipe

Cheers,

Tricia

www.RoyalTart.com

Delivering Complete Prepackaged Designer Parties to Your Door

Hey Santa How much for your naughty list? Invite your coolest cats and your hippest chicks to attend a fab, funkadelic Christmas gathering. Dust off that disco ball and think retro….it is time to GET YOUR MERRY ON! Spend you evening chilaxin with old school martinis or serve them with a peppermint twist! Anyway you “shake it” or “stir it” the gig is sure to be cool. Hip friends, mod food, a touch of naughty…can you dig it?

Cheers,

Tricia

Delivering Complete Prepackaged Designer Parties to Your Door

…the goose is getting fat…

Hey we are posting all of our Holiday, Christmas & New Year’s Eve Celebrations on our website, www.RoyalTart.com, over the next few days.

Today we posted our Peppermint Snowman Celebration. It is darling and so versatile with snowman decorations, tabletop, plates, party favors and even a suggested menu, recipes & party tips.

Cheers,

Tricia

Delivering Complete Prepackaged Designer Parties to Your Door

Now that the rush of Halloween is over it is time to put away the scary masks and spider webs, take a breath and enjoy the splendor of fall. There are so many things to be thankful for during the autumn season; there are fantastic fall soups and stews, scrumptious fruit pies and plenty of elegant and easy decorations.

Check out Royal Tart’s Harvest Centerpiece. We used a natural wood root bowl for the rustic autumn look and filled the bowl with richly detailed table scatters. Royal Tart will ship this beautiful centerpiece to you for $62.00. Check it out at www.RoyalTart.com. Artisans hand carve the discarded root balls of Chinese fir trees into these magnificent bowls that display the character of their parent trees in unique shapes, color variations, knots, and small fissures. All are untreated, so cracks and irregular grain patterns are normal.

Cheers,

Tricia

Delivering Complete Prepackaged Designer Parties to Your Door

Eeeewwhhhh! This Halloween serve up an Alien Secretion as your signature cocktail. The name has the perfect ick factor, the color is very slimy-green and the cocktail itself is sublime–what a perfectly horrific combination!

Alien Secretion Recipe:
1 jigger Malibu rum
1 jigger Midori
½ a jigger pineapple juice
½ a jigger sprite

Mix ingredients in shaker with ice, pour into shot glasses.

Make a toast to all your ghouls…

Cheers,

Tricia

Delivering Complete Prepackaged Designer Parties to Your Door