2025 Holiday GIFT GUIDE
Unique, local gifts for everyone on your list!
S & K BOUTIQUE
4273 Woodbine Rd., Pace, Fl.; 850-310-9908
All items can be purchased in store or ordered via phone (shipping available).
Merry Cranberry Room Spray and Foam Hand Soap Bundle $24.99 Quick Dry Hair Towels $23.99
Silk Pillow Set $29.99
Shower Steamers $7.99 Each (6-8 Uses Each)
Rewined Hand Poured Soy Candles $26.99 Mixologie Perfume Rollers $25.00 (Create your own scent)
Photo by: Kristina Wright of Transcending Dreams Photography
Mon-Sat 10am-5pm Sun. 12pm-4pm
All I want for Christmas is…
Travel & experience
Travel bag
National Park Pass
Noise canceling headphones
Tickets to an upcoming sporting event/concert
Parasailing or dolphin watching
Digital camera
Instant camera
Tattoo session
Card games, board games
• Books, Kindle or Audible credits
• Cooking class
All I want for Christmas is…
Personal care & beauty
• Gift card for massage
• Perfume
• Manicure/pedicure
• Color analysis session
• Pajama set
• Slippers
• Favorite beauty product (lotion, makeup, skincare)
• Yoga class
All I want for Christmas is…
Home & kitchen
• Electric teapot
• Dutch oven
• Personalized cutting board
• Knife set
• Vacuum sealer
• Pellet ice maker
• Charcuterie board
• House cleaning service
• Plants
• Customized ring holder or jewelry box
• Quilt
• Towel warmer
• Candles
• Custom family photo ornament
All I want for Christmas is…
Food & drink
• Homemade breads, cookies, jams
• Meal service kit
• High-quality olive oil or balsamic vinegar set
• Gourmet popcorn
• Specialty coffee or tea sampler
• Hot sauce collection
• Local baked goods
• Unique spices or a spice set
• Flavored salts or finishing salts
• Local honey
• Monthly snack box
• Cheese club membership
• Restaurant gift card
• Quality wine, liquor or beer
Holiday Events
Dec. 3 – 7: Snow Ball Derby at 5 Flags Speedway. Tickets and details at 5flagsspeedway.com.
Dec. 5: First Fridays at Blue Morning Gallery, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. Enjoy art and refreshments.
Dec. 5 – 7, 12 – 14, 19 – 23: Wahoos Winter Nights tickets at BlueWahoos.com.
Dec. 5, 6, 11, 20, 23, 27: Ice Flyers Hockey Home Games. Foundation Night Dec. 5, Military Appreciation Dec. 27. Tickets at iceflyers.com/tickets.
Dec. 6: Santa Drop 11 a.m. at FloraBama Lounge in Perdido Key.
Dec. 6: Christmas Caravan Arts and Crafts Show 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. at St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church.
Dec. 6: Into the Woods – Artist’s and Farmer’s Marketplace, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. at Magnolia Acres Farmacy in Cantonment.
What’s happening in and around Pensacola this holiday season
Dec. 6: Pensacola Downtown Holiday Market, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. at W Main Street. $5 entry.
Dec. 6: USO 13th Annual Airport Runway 5K beginning at Pensacola International Airport, 10 a.m. Details and tickets at runpensacola.com/event/runway-5k.
Dec. 6: Curiosity Day: Papercraft ages 7 and up, 1 p.m. – 4 p.m. at Pensacola M.E.S.S. Hall. Details and tickets at pensacolamesshall.org.
Dec. 6: “A Chocolate Covered Christmas Carol” 7 p.m. – 9:45 p.m. at Saenger Theater.
Dec. 7: Surfin’ Santa Beach Parade, beginning at 2 p.m. from Panferio Dr. to Via De Luna toward Casino Beach and ending at Gulfside Pavilion.
Dec. 11 – 12: Perdido Key Christmas Market, 4 p.m. – 9 p.m. at Warrior Beer Company.
Dec. 11: Sip n Shop and Hang with the Artists, 5 p.m. – 7 p.m. at the Unique Boutique.
Dec. 13: 87th Annual Camellia Flower Show, 1 p.m. – 4 p.m. at the UWF Conference Center.
Dec. 13: Pensacola Christmas Parade, 5:30 p.m. – 8 p.m. in Downtown Pensacola.
Dec. 13: The Dinner Detective True Crime Murder Mystery Dinner Show, 6 p.m. – 9 p.m. at the Hilton Garden Inn Downtown Pensacola. Details and tickets at thedinnerdetective.com.
Dec. 13: Gino Rosaria’s Tenth Anniversary Christmas Charity Jazz Concert, 7 p.m. – 10 p.m. at WSRE PBS Jean & Paul Amos Performance Studio. Details and tickets at rosariamusicandarts.org.
Dec. 19: Gallery Night: Threads of Cheer, 5 p.m. – 9 p.m. at Palafox Place.
Dec. 23: A Drag Queen Christmas, 7:30 p.m. at Saeger Theater. Tickets at pensacolasaenger. com
Dec. 31: Midnight Masquerade at Perfect Plain. Tickets at ticketsilver.com/ perfectplain/tcevents/midnightmasquerade-vipthe-well.
Dec. 31: New Year’s Eve Fireworks, 11:55 p.m. at Casino Beach Boardwalk.
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Recurring Events
MONDAYS
• Dog Run Club, 6 p.m. at Perfect Plain Brewing.
• BTB Comedy Open Mic, 6 p.m. at Odd Colony Brewing.
FRIDAYS
• Check out Live Music at Lillian’s Pizza 6 p.m. – 9 p.m.
SATURDAYS
• Palafox Market, 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. at Dr. Martin Luther King Plaza and Plaza Ferdinand.
• Live music featuring the Glenn Parker Band, 6 p.m. – 10 p.m. at Five Sisters Blues Café.
• Latin Night, 10 p.m. at Senor Frog’s in Pensacola Beach.
SUNDAYS
• Adult Roller Hockey Games, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. at Cowley Park. Register at app.teamlinkt.com/register/find/pbhl.
WEDNESDAYS – SATURDAYS
• Dueling Pianos at Rosie O’Grady’s, at 8 p.m. in Seville Quarter.
Check out The University of West Florida’s event page at events.uwf.edu for sports and other upcoming events.
Mention
The perfect cake for CHRISTMAS Holiday recipes
By Celia Casey / Photo by Al Gonzalez, Getty Images
Maybe you’ve heard of it but never tasted one. The name, certainly apropos, suggests something rare, light, elusive and vanishing quickly. As a child, I can remember having it once. It was Christmas dinner and there was a long table of noisy relatives. Suddenly, an aunt appeared at one end carrying a creamy mounded layer cake studded with pecans.
“I made a hummingbird cake,” she announced.
Everyone gasped with delight. Given the name, I imagined a cake baked by Cinderella or dropped off by fairies. As it turned out, the name was a fitting prelude to the taste inside. It was a rare combination of banana and pineapple. The layers were light, crumbly and moist and held together with a soft cream cheese pecan frosting. Just like the tiny elusive bird, it appeared
on special occasions and vanished quickly.
This traditional Southern cake popped up again in 1978 when Southern Living magazine first published the recipe. It was all the rage and became the magazine’s most requested recipe. Somehow, I never made one.
This show-stopping cake was just a pleasant memory until recently. Hungry for lunch, I called the soup line at the Sunshine Garden Café, across from Baptist Hospital on Moreno Street, and spoke with Genevieve Bookman, the owner. She is known for her homemade desserts, so I asked what was featured.
“I made a hummingbird cake last night, and it’s going fast,” she said.
No kidding. “I’ll be right over.”
The cake was as sweet as the memory.
Sweeten your holidays with a hummingbird cake. Bake it yourself, or let Bookman make one for you. Here is her recipe, adapted from Southern Living, or call her at 850434-6412.
Hummingbird Cake
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1½ tablespoons cinnamon
• 3 eggs beaten
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1½ teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup canned crushed pineapple
• 1 cup chopped ripe bananas
Combine flour, sugar, soda, salt and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the oil, eggs, vanilla, pineapple and bananas. Fold the wet ingredients in with the dry ingredients. Do not beat.
Spoon the batter into two wellgreased and floured 9-inch cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, until the cake is done.
Cool the cake in the pans for 10 minutes. Remove them from the pans and cool completely. With a serrated knife, cut each cake in half lengthwise to make 4 layers.
For the cream cheese frosting
• 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese
• ½ cup butter
• 1 box (16-ounces) powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ½ cup chopped pecans
Cream butter and cream cheese with a mixer. Add sugar, a little at a time. Beat until fluffy. Add vanilla.
Frost between the cake layers and on the top and sides of the cake. Sprinkle with pecans.
Celia Casey is a graduate of the Paris Cordon Bleu and teaches classes in French cuisine. Visit celiacasey.com.
Want to impress at Christmas?
Try making this iconic French Yule log cake
By Celia Casey / Photos from Getty Images
Along with traditional American holiday foods, many of us bring a taste of ethnicity to the table as well. Whether it’s potato latkes and jelly donuts for Hanukkah, Italian seafood lasagna on Christmas Eve, Greek roast leg of lamb on Christmas Day or peanut soup for Kwanzaa, these foods tell a story of history, culture and faith. Many ethnic dishes, like the Italian panettone, a bread flavored with pine nuts and raisins, and the iconic French log-shaped cake, la buche de Noel, are becoming quite popular on American holiday tables. Do these ethnic dishes make you both hungry and curious? Why do
the French make a dessert shaped like a log? Sometimes, the history of the dish is as rich as its taste. This Yule log cake sprang from the Celtic tradition of celebrating the winter solstice. On the shortest day of the year, an enormous log was burned to symbolize the rebirth of the sun. Years later in France, it became a merry tradition on Christmas Eve for family members to haul a log to their homes. They would decorate, bless and sprinkle it with wine. Placed in the fireplace and lit, the log was used to cook the Christmas supper. The ashes were believed to have magical and medicinal powers, and were scattered under the furniture to protect the house from fires and
Award Masters Inc. has been proudly serving Pensacola and the Emerald Coast since 1981. We are locally owned by Eddie and Tami Hill and we truly love our customers. We strive hard to have excellent customer service and produce top quality products.
We have a huge selection of gifts, corporate awards, and promotional products. Our state of the art production facility includes computer driven engraving equipment that can diamond drag, burnish, route, sand blast, and laser engrave. We have full-color UV printing and sublimation (sub surface) printing and graphic capabilities that enable us to put full color on almost anything.
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lightning.
Symbolic of this bucolic rite, the cake may have originated as a simpler way of celebrating this tradition. Other stories credit Napoleon I with inspiring its creation when he outlawed the use of drafty fireplaces during a sickly cold Parisian winter. With no way to burn the traditional Yule log, bakers invented the cake as a replacement for their traditions of the hearth.
This delicious festive cake is not difficult to make. A long flat genoise, or sponge cake, is moistened with rum or Cognacspiked simple syrup. Whipped cream is spread on top of the cake, which is rolled into a log. One end is cut off and placed on top to resemble a cut branch. The cake is covered with a buttercream icing and given a bark-like texture. Green holly leaves, red berries and a dusting of powdered sugar snow decorate the log. Whether you are savoring the foods of your ancestors or adopting an ethnic dish to begin your own traditions, food, feast and family bring us together.
MAKING A BUCHE DE NOEL GENOISE CAKE
Ingredients
• Jelly roll pan, approximately 12 by 17 inches — butter and flour the pan
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla; melt the butter, stir in the vanilla and set aside
• 3 eggs
• 1 egg yolk
• ½ cup sugar
• Copper, stainless or heat resistant glass bowl
• ½ cup all-purpose flour
Directions
1. Place the eggs and sugar in a bowl. Place the bowl over a saucepan of hot water. Beat the mixture with an electric hand mixer until double in volume (3 to 4 minutes).
2. Remove from the hot water and continue to beat until thick, cool and glossy (5 minutes).
3. Gradually sift in the flour and fold in gently. Fold in the flavored butter.
4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. Do not overbake the cake.
6. Invert on a cake rack and cool.
7. Roll between two sheets of waxed paper and refrigerate until ready to use.
SYRUP
Ingredients
• ¼ cup hot water
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons rum or Cognac
• Directions
• Stir the sugar into the water until dissolved.
• Stir in the rum.
• Set aside.
• Buttercream icing
• Ingredients
• 3 ounces milk chocolate
• ¼ cup water
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 3 egg yolks
• 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• Red and green food coloring (for holly leaves and berries)
Directions
1. Melt the chocolate in a small bowl over a saucepan of hot water.
2. Combine the water and sugar and bring to a boil. Boil for two minutes.
3. Place the yolks in a bowl and beat with an electric hand mixer.
4. Pour the hot sugar water very slowly over the yolks, beating constantly. Beat for about five minutes, until thick and pale yellow. Continue to beat and add the butter, bit by bit, until smooth.
5. If decorating with holly leaves and berries, remove three tablespoons of the icing and set aside.
6. Add the melted chocolate to the remaining buttercream and beat until smooth.
7. Color a small amount of the reserved buttercream red, and the rest green.
WHIPPED CREAM FILLING
Ingredients
• 1 ½ cups heavy whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 tablespoons rum or Cognac
Directions
1. Beat the cream until thick.
2. Add the sugar, vanilla and rum and beat until stiff.
3. To assemble and decorate the cake
4. Unroll the cake. Remove the waxed paper on top.
5. Sprinkle the cake with the syrup. Spread the whipped cream filling on top of the cake.
6. Roll the cake back up. Place on a serving platter.
7. Trim off one end of the cake and place the cut piece on the log to resemble a cut branch.
8. With a spatula, spread the buttercream icing over the entire cake and stump.
9. Use the spatula or a fork to make a bark-like texture.
10. For holly leaves, place the green icing in a pastry bag with a fluted tip.
11. For the berries, place the red icing in a pastry bag with a plain tip. Decorate with green leaves, and then add the red berries.
12. Dust a small amount of powdered sugar over the cake and edges to resemble snow.
13. Refrigerate until served. Slice with a serrated knife. The cake can be made up to two days in advance.
Celia Casey is a graduate of the Paris Cordon Bleu and teaches classes in French cuisine. Visit celiacasey.com.
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