I’m so excited about sharing my Christmas dinner table with Peugeot Saveurs! We’re all in the mood for Christmas and today I invite you to my home in Chicago to delight in festive holiday recipes and some of my favorite gifts for your loved ones. Take a seat and enjoy!
It must be one of my most personal posts, as today I’m taking you home with me for an intimate Christmas party together. Christmas is such a wonderful time, full of magic, childhood memories, and happy times. It’s also the perfect occasion to share great food and good wine in a heart-warming atmosphere.
Christmas with Peugeot Saveurs
For the occasion, I’m partnering with Peugeot Saveurs, a brand I personally love and care about. Follow along to discover their beautiful mills, cookware and dinnerware with me, and don’t forget to enter the wonderful Christmas giveaway at the end of this post.
You have probably heard of Peugeot Saveurs before, and you might be lucky enough to own one of their precious manual coffee mills or pepper mills yourself (maybe you even inherited it from your grandparents). Tradition, advanced mechanisms and designs are what Peugeot products are all about. But Peugeot is much more than that!
Each mill is assembled in France in Franche-Comté, where the French factory is located. The wood used for Peugeot’s mills is sourced from European forests, and post manufacturing wastewood (chips and sawdust) is collected and recycled. The company also uses solvent-free paintings for the colored finishes. For all these reasons, I feel honored to represent the brand and share with you these beautiful products that you can keep a lifetime.
A festive & delicious Christmas dinner table
Make your table festive
To set the mood for the holidays, make sure you set the table beautifully. Playing with textures and natural elements is key: wood, fabrics, plants. If you are lucky to own one, use your rustic wooden dining table and garnish with napkins or ornaments. Or warm up your Christmas dinner table using a red cotton or linen tablecloth like I did here. White fabrics is also a great option and allows you to play with the white (for snow) and green (for pine trees) scheme of colors.
This year, I also said goodbye to paper napkins (they look cheap and are bad for environment anyway) and used linen napkins instead. I pimped them up with a lovely ribbon and a branch of pine tree, added a few candles there and there, and sprinkle the table with glitter to make it look even more lighthearted.
Alongside decorations, you may recognize a few Peugeot mills, cutting boards, as well as their beautiful Paris Bouquet wine and sparkling glasses. Now that we’ve set the mood, let’s move on to the food.
Below are a few ideas you can make for the holidays to entertain your guests. Recipes will be published throughout the next days and weeks, in good time for Christmas.
Start with a festive appetizer Christmas Tree
I launched the festivities with a stunning Christmas tree puff pastry appetizer. It always makes the best impression among your guests, although it’s rather simple to prepare. The recipe will come soon, with a step-by-step tutorial to guide you through.
I garnished my Christmas tree puff pastry with a thyme mushroom spread (my new obsession, I can’t wait to share the recipe with you) and placed it in the center of the table on my Appolia slate-gray pizza stone (that I previously used for my Tarte soleil appetizer).
Go on with some appetizers
Mingling is one of the best part of Christmas in my opinion. People gather, drink and catch up in a very informal way around small bites to grab there and there. I first prepared these cheese bites a couple of years ago for my first cooking show with Peugeot Saveurs in Chicago, and they were so successful that I made them again for the show this year. Add a skewer and place the bites on a tiny cutting board for serving.
- Goat cheese bites with timut pepper and fresh mango
- Festive pecan cheese bites with anise, cloves, pear and prosciutto (or gingerbread for a vegetarian version)
Wrap up a savory surprise
Phyllo wrapped Brie with baked apples make the most stunning effect on your table. They are thin, crispy, and oozing with warm melting cheese. Add fresh thyme, Voatsiperifery wild pepper from Madagascar and you’re good to go. Note here my Manual pepper mill in cast iron, which is probably my favorite pepper mill. It’s tiny, heavy, and always find its way on the table, whatever the style of your kitchen.
Don’t forget homemade bread
If you haven’t tried my Easy homemade no-knead bread recipe, then the time has come you finally get your hands on this magic recipe that comes in 5 different versions. With just one cocotte (I used here Appolia round casserole) and no-kneading at all, you get stunning bread like the one on the photo every single time with no effort. Try it for Christmas and serve along with your cheese board, you are guaranteed to impress your guests!
A Tropical Cake Roll for Dessert (+ video)
I kept the best for the end: a wonderful toasted coconut tropical fruit cake roll! Yule log and cake roll are both classic Christmas desserts in France, and they come in many different versions. While waiting for the full recipe, you can have a glimpse by watching this little video tutorial. This might be your next Christmas dessert!
Christmas Giveaway on Instagram!
Tune in on Instagram and get a chance to win a gift box Poivre Haute Couture, with double chances to win:
- 1 gift box Poivre Haute Couture in USA and Canada
- 1 gift box Poivre Haute Couture to win if you live in France
You have until Sunday to win your dream gift for Christmas. Good luck to everyone!
Long-lasting gifts from Peugeot for Christmas
I’ve been doing some thinking lately and I’ve decided there won’t be any proper Christmas gift guide on the blog this year. Instead, I want to focus on long-lasting gifts. With this idea in mind, here’s a short list of my very favorite Peugeot items I’ve been using and loving this year:
- Manual Coffee Mill in Hand-Aged Beechwood – This manual coffee mill takes you back to your grandparents kitchen. It’s a beautiful object that reminds us of the ancient tradition of grinding coffee.
- Manual pepper mill in cast iron – As said previously, this is one of my favorite pepper mill in the kitchen (and believe me, I have many). I love its tiny, compact shape and it goes in every kitchen.
- Cinnamon Shaker Mill Lanka – It’s new and I’m hooked! I love the idea of grinding your own cinnamon sticks. This is the best way to get all the flavors from cinnamon.
- Paris Icône – This is an iconic mill from Peugeot, and really you can’t go wrong with this one. If you’re looking for a timeless present, this one goes along with the manual coffee mill I mentioned above.
- Paris Bouquet Sparkling Wine Glass – These festive sparkling wine glasses charmed me with their elegant shape and make the most stunning effect on my Christmas dinner table.
- Paris Bouquet Red Wine Glass – I love the round and generous shape of these red wine glasses, that are also perfect for wine connoisseurs. Their design allow you to make the most of the expression of wines, whilst highlighting their specific characters.
The list could go on, but I chose to focus on my very favorite items. These are timeless presents that will go in every kitchen and make a beautiful Christmas dinner table.
I wish you all a Merry Christmas!
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Peugeot Saveurs. All words and opinions are mine, and the products I chose to share are some personal favorites.
Aline Libassi
J’adore vos recettes ! Je retourne au Mexique pour l’hiver et j’ai hâte de préparer votre entrée pour l’arbre de Noël et de mélanger certaines de vos recettes pour mes dîners de Noël et d’Hannukah.
J’ai enseigné le français pendant des années dans des écoles du Connecticut et j’admire particulièrement le chic et la simplicité de vos recettes, les merveilleux ingrédients frais et la belle présentation. Je suis également impatiente d’essayer d’autres plats végétariens pendant mon séjour au Mexique. Joyeux Noël et bonne année.
Aline
Del’s Cooking Twist
Merci infiniment pour vos ces gentilles paroles Aline. Je suis très contente que vous trouviez votre inspiration sur mon blog et je vous souhaite également un Joyeux Noël et une bonne année!