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.

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!

Scott Hepper is one of many Master Designers at Walter Knoll Florist and he is one of a handful of award-winning designers to provide a wreath for the annual Missouri Botanical Gardens Christmas Program Wreath Auction.

Last year, Scott’s wreath garnered the highest bids.  Proceeds to go to the garden.

This year’s wreath “Going Green” is a Missouri natural – all local greens and pines that come together to form a beautiful
winter wreath.

This exhibit features unique creations by some of the area’s finest floral designers. Congratulations, Scott, on being chosen again.  All wreaths are sold by silent auction bidding, with proceeds benefiting the Missouri Botanical Garden.

Anyone who listens to 105.7 the Point’s Woody and Rizzuto Show knows we are working with them to help get folks out of the “dog house” with flowers, and you have probably heard Woody going on about the great Bacon Burgers at Kendrick’s Meat Market in South County.  Well, I love bacon and all pork for that matter, so I had to check the burgers out.  Fried a couple up for breakfast while down in Creekieside near Ironton, MO at my friend Rick’s place – good stuff!  I think they are a mix of bacon and pork with just a bit of pepper added for seasoning.  Not being cholesterolly able to eat bacon day after day for breakfast, I found myself with some left-over patties which I incorporated into a sort of Bolognese sauce with great results!  Here’s the recipe

Bolognese Sauce

1/4 cup  Olive Oil

2 cups Grated Carrots

1 whole Large Red Onion, Diced

3 bacon burger patties from Kendrick’s, shredded

1 can (6 Ounce) Tomato Paste

5 cloves Garlic, chopped fine

1 to 2 cups White Wine

2 Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce

2 28-Ounce cans Whole Tomatoes

1 28-Ounce can Crushed tomatoes

2 cups Milk

¼ cup Fresh Oregano Leaves

½ cup Fresh Basil Leaves

Salt And Pepper, to taste

Fresh Parmesan Cheese

Heat oil in a large Dutch oven or skillet over medium heat. Add grated carrots and onions and cook for a few minutes. Make a well in the center of the mixture, and then add in the ground beef.

Cook for a few minutes until brown, gradually stirring it into the carrot mixture.  Make another well and add tomato paste and stir while it toasts up. Add garlic and stir to combine.  Add wine and Worcestershire and cook for a few minutes, stirring, then add the canned whole and crushed tomatoes.  Stir to combine, then add milk and oregano and basil. (Use fresh herbs if you have them or if using dried herbs, use half the amount).   Let simmer for 30 minutes to 2 hours—however long you need.

Serve with pasta and a generous sprinkling of Parmesan Reggiano.

I’m thinking this could be a great New Year’s meal served over my homemade noodles with a garlicky Ceasar salad!  Maybe a grilled flank steak sliced thin and tossed into that salad!

Or take the easy route for a holiday meal and check out the gourmet dinners we offer at wkf.com

I’m a fan and subscriber to the King Arthur Flour newsletter -

every recipe I have ever tried has been wonderful.

Lately a ginger snap recipe came thru and since I had some around,

I finely diced some candied ginger and added it to the batter.

Then I poked a dark chocolate covered ginger candy into each one – voila, delish!

So, anyway,  here’s my take on their recipe

Gingersnaps – makes about sixty cookies

For the cookie dough

3/4 cup vegetable shortening*

1 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 large egg

1/3 cup molasses

2 1/3 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1 to 2 teaspoons ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

3/4 cup finely diced crystallized ginger

about 60 small pieces of dark chocolate covered candied ginger

For the coating

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Beat together the shortening, sugar, salt, and baking soda.

Beat in the egg, then the molasses.

Add the flour and spices, beating to make a smooth, fairly stiff dough.

Stir in the finely diced candied ginger

To make the coating, combine the sugar and cinnamon, and place in a shallow pan or dish.

Drop the dough in 1″ balls into the cinnamon-sugar mixture.

Roll the balls in the sugar to coat, then transfer them to the prepared baking sheets,

leaving at least 1-1/2″ between them.

Poke a chocolate covered candy into each cookie.

Bake the cookies for 11 minutes, for cookies that are crisp around the edges, and “bendy” in the center.

Bake for 13 minutes, for cookies that are crisp/crunchy all the way through.

(I baked for 8 minutes then rotated the pan and baked for 7 more minutes.)

Remove the cookies from the oven, and cool right on the pan, or on a rack.

Cool completely, then store tightly wrapped, at room temperature.

I only baked 24 and rolled and stuffed the remaining batter and put the balls on waxed paper on a cookie sheet in the freezer and will bag them when they are hard.  I’ll have to get back to you on how the chocolate holds up!

Here is a photo of one of this summer’s moonflowers -(remember the seed pods in the basket above?  Nothing works better to pretty up a chain link fence! And the hummingbirds love the flowers.  But, then again, it was a lot of work today to cut those vines away.  I think I’ll plan on something else next year, maybe something I find in the spring at the Walter Knoll Florist garden center!

Got your holiday shopping started?  We’ve got our holiday features up!  Gifts from Walter Knoll are great for corporate gift giving! Check out our poinsettias – better than anything you’ll get at the big box hardware stores!  We also have any size gourmet gift basket you could want!

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!

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

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

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

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)

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 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.

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!

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

This tree is in the Lobby of the Metropolitan Square building in downtown St Louis (Located at 1 Metropolitan Square).  This year the tree has been transformed to tell the story of the history of St Louis. Included in the ornaments are 32 large, custom luminaries that were hand crafted by Walter Knoll Florist.  These luminaries show a pictorial history of St Louis.  The luminaries are made from Lexan, a clear polycarbonate that has been cast into tubes that then have historical images from St Louis’ past displayed with back-lit illumination.  Images featured include Louisiana Purchase, Thomas Jefferson,  Lewis and Clark, The 1904 Worlds Fair, Charles Lindbergh & the Spirit of St Louis,  the construction of the St Louis Arch and many other Saint Louis historic moments.

Standing at over 45 feet tall, this is the largest Indoor holiday tree in the St Louis area.

This year we added a podium and a book with copies of the images and a description of each photo.

Some Close Ups of the Luminaries

Many of the images came from the Missouri History Museum and  several from the personal collection of Mark Allen from Anmar Photography.

If you are out looking at holiday decorations this season, it is worth your time to go by and see the biggest and best tree in St Louis. The Metropolitan Square Building tree is a great backdrop for a holiday photo.

This tree was assembled and decorated by Walter Knoll Florist and we manufactured many of the decorations as well.

If you would like to ask Walter Sr a question about the decorations click here.

The Garden Center is a riot of color right now!  So many poinsettias!  If you are in the city, plan to make a trip to Florist Row and the Walter Knoll Florist Garden Center -

You can read about Pointsettia care and feeding or visit our web site wkf.com for more of our holiday selections

Walter Knoll Florist Holiday 2008 TV Spot.  See our Holiday Flower Selection. Click here to visit our web site for more information.  Click here to request a catalog to be mailed.

This spot is narrated by Walter III, Chuck and David Knoll, 5th generation of the Knoll family, It features Walter Knoll Florist’s Season’s Greetings Centerpiece, Let It Snow, Let It Snow . . .
and Gold & Rubies.