Candy Cane Poinsettia

As usual at this time of the year, we have lots of varieties in many different sizes.  If you have received a poinsettia as a gift and are wondering how to care for it, we have some wonderful information at wkf.com – see bottom of page after clicking here – You can download our Poinsettia Care & Toxicology Pamphlet from a link there.  Basically give your Poinsettia lots of indirect sunlight and don’t let the soil dry out – but don’t drown them either, they need good drainage.  Also, they are not poisonous! Now don’t go eating a poinsettia, it will probably make you feel yucky, but it won’t kill you – same goes for the pets.

We have many styles and sizes to choose from, many are at our web site, but give us a call for more options including a different container or color choice.

Pink Poinsettia

I’d also like to recommend for the holidays that your bring your pet to Anmar Photography at 3308 Jamieson Ave in South St Louis and have his/her photo taken with Santa!  We used Anmar for our Open House Santa photos and thought they did a great job!  call Mark for more information at 314 644-1010 or to make an appointment- tell him Di sent you!

Oh my neighbor kids and parents all have the swine flu, croup and/or ear infections! Poor mama! Yesterday while I baked off cookies for the holidays I thru together some chicken soup for them.

I gathered together celery, onions, carrots, garlic and ginger in the food processor and chopped it all pretty fine in case there is any throwing up going on!

Then I sauted the veggies until pretty soft add a couple cartons of chicken stock and a can of petite diced tomatoes a bit of salt & pepper and marjoram. Since I had ginger in there I also added a bit of soy sauce and Mirin.

I think little kids have got to have noodles in their soup so I broke up about a cup of hollow macaroni sticks into 1/2 to 1 inch pieces. I cooked the macaroni in a separate pot then added it to the soup. Took the whole pot over and plopped it on their stove. Feel better soon!

mm mm good!

especially with Grammy’s Chocolate Waffies!
Makes about 60.

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup Dutch process cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
2-1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Preheat Oven 350
Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter, 2 cups sugar, and eggs on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add vanilla, and mix to combine. Gradually add dry ingredients, and combine with mixer on low speed. Form dough into tablespoon sized balls – inch and a half apart on silpats or parchment paper bake 8 minutes – turning at 4 minutes, just until shine just starts to go away – cool on sheet a few minutes before transferring to cooling racks –

I made my dough a week ahead and refrigerated it in a bowl with plastic wrap pressed to the dough and a lid on the bowl – worked great to let it sit on the counter to soften a bit while I prepared the veggies for the soup!

Speaking of cookies . . . I just love this Merry Memories arrangement we are featuring this year – the container could be a great cookie jar kinda gift container next year! So a great gift for that baker friend of yours!

Speaking of cookies . . . Our Italian Cookies offering from our baker friends on the hill are selling like hotcakes this year! We also have their pies! The Cherry Pie is as good as my own!

There’s a NEW holiday tradition being added to St. Louis’s social calendar this year! “Holiday Magic” comes to America’s Center, December 4-6, and it promises to be an exciting and entertaining event for families and shoppers. Enjoy wood carving demonstrations and hands-on crafts, a dazzling light show with over 40,000 holiday lights choreographed to holiday music, and a full-scale indoor carnival.
And best of all . . . Walter Knoll Florist will be there with a special treat for children . . .

It’s gonna be great – we’ll have hundreds, maybe thousands of white poinsettias for kids to paint – as well as protective gear to keep their little outfits tidy – so come on down and get in the Christmas Spirit!

As we prepare and set up our booth for the big show we are also installing over 75 real live Christmas trees around the center-complete with lights!

And our booth will have lots of fully decorated trees and ideas as well as special “show” pricing – there will be ornaments and garland and wreaths and swags you can buy and take with you and we will also have on display our Holiday Arrangements (you may have seen them on our Holiday Unwrapped 2009 brochure we mailed out last week) – so come on down, bring the kids (and $5 of course-proceeds benefit Mathews-Dickey Boys and Girls Club). Tell ‘em Di sent you!

Speaking of poinsettias – you know it’s an old wives tale about them being toxic, don’t you? Well, although we don’t recommend you eat them, they are NOT poisonous.

Here is a pic of a poinsettia painted by a 73-year old!

How about a blue or purple poinsettia?

Can’t get down to the Convention Center this weekend? Don’t despair – visit our garden center at California and LaSalle and see all our poinsettia varieties – here’s a sampling!

I’m ahead of the game this year – hoping to have dozens of knitted gifts to give –
Here are 5 hats I’ve made since mid August or so

Wacky Hats

I especially like these two, so if you see someone wearing something like this, ask them if Di made that hat!

Cool you say? No, very warm!

Please don’t ask me for the pattern! I figure them out as I go along or I copy a previous pattern from one I have made.

Are you perhaps not so nimble fingered and wondering about holiday gift giving? Walter Knoll Florist can solve that problem! Call us about our holiday corporate gift giving ideas! We’ll have beautiful poinsettias, wreaths (decorated and plain – live and everlasting) as well as a whole line up of holiday floral bouquets! After all, we’re Walter Knoll Florist, Your Personal Florist Since 1883 Call us at 314.352.7575 or toll free at 1-800-341-ROSE (7673) WKF.COM

Three Little Pigs

What could be better than salty buttery puff pastry wrapped around a little sausage or hot dog? These are easy to make, there will be very few left over and if there are leftovers, they reheat well.

Ingredients:
1 package Pepperidge Farm frozen puff pastry sheets (thawed)
2 1-pound packages of mini hot dogs or cocktail sausages (Hillshire)
Grainy Mustard
Egg Wash (egg mixed with water to seal edges and paint tops

Drain the wieners well in a colander and dry them well with paper towels. As you are dying them, poke each one just enough to pierce the skin with a fork or several times with the point of a sharp knife.

Unfold and smooth out a sheet of thawed puff pastry on a lightly flowered surface (do not roll the dough thin or manipulate it much or it won’t puff as much as it should – keep second sheet wrapped until ready to use)

Use a pizza cutter to cut the dough

Divide the dough into 3 long strips then make 7 rectangles of each strip (use pizza cutter) and then cut the rectangles on an angle to form triangles.

Put a little grainy mustard in the center of each triangle then roll it around a dry weenie, sealing the point to the base of the triangle with a tiny brushing of egg wash.

Space about an inch apart - they will puff up

Space and inch or so apart on a parchment lined baking sheet, then lightly brush the tops lightly with egg wash.

Bake in preheated 400F oven for 20-22 minutes or until as brown as you like them. Remove from sheet pan to a paper towel laid over a cooling rack.

Serve hot with more mustard for dipping.

These reheat well at 325F for 8 or 10 minutes.

Hey! Who Stole A Weenie?

One package of two sheets of pastry makes about 100 – or 2 pounds of mini weenies.

A great party snack, they are good hot or at room temperature.

Speaking of Party! Are you ready for your New Year’s Festivities? 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy and the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s use of a telescope! So drink a toast to Galileo and the skies this December 31!

Galileo Galilei (surely a big fan of Pigs in Blankets!) Painting by Giusto Sustermans

Don’t forget to take or send ahead some flowers to your New Year’s Eve Party!

Man, it’s hard to do my usual bake-a-thon for the holidays now that I work in a Flower Shop.  Christmas is one of our big holidays and we’re all putting in a lot of hours in getting those flowers and centerpieces and gifts out for you. There’s lots of extra help though, and the busy busy busyness of it all is intoxicating.

I did over last weekend manage to make up a couple batches of cookie dough which I rolled into logs, wrapped in wax paper and stored in the fridge in paper towel cardboards (you save those, right?) so they stay in a log shape and don’t flatten on one side.

My one cookie gift this year

I have only packaged one gift of cookies for my friends Mary and Bill, but I’ll be taking lots of cookies to work on Sunday when everyone will be working. After all, what’s a Walter Knoll Floral Holiday without Di’s cookies and spicy cheese wafies?

I’m going to share this amazing chocolate cookie recipe with you, not sure where I picked it up, somewhere on the internet, but these are the best chocolate cookies you’ll ever eat!

Dark Dark Dark Dark Chocolate Cookies
Makes about 100.

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup Dutch cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter, 2 cups sugar, and eggs on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add vanilla, and mix to combine. Gradually add dry ingredients, and combine with mixer on low speed. Roll dough into 1 to 1-1/2 inch logs, wrap in waxed paper, stuff into a paper towel cardboard and chill until dough is firm, about 1 hour or as long as a week.
When ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with Silpat baking mats. Cut logs into quarter inch slices. Place on prepared baking sheets about 1 1/2 inches apart.

They spread, so leave some room!

Bake until they just quit being shiny, about 8 minutes. Cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Voila!

My cool neighbor Joe tests all my cookies out and these dark dark dark chocolates got a big thumbs up out of him!

Joe Cool