See how to customize fresh evergreen wreaths for the holidays. Read my column in this month’s AY Magazine. Click here.

I’ve always found the holiday season to be a magical time of year, and nothing says it better than fresh greenery adorning your home. After years of making individual pieces by hand for my friends, I started designing fresh greenery holiday décor, and now you can have these pieces in your own home. This year, my Holiday Collection is made from beautiful Noble Fir, the finest and most fragrant pieces handcrafted by my friends at Berry Family of Nurseries . I’ve created several designs that I’m sure you’ll love because beautiful styles and wonderful aromas of my Holiday Collection are the perfect way to enjoy the holiday season. The best part is that there’s a little something to bring the holidays to every style and every space.

You can purchase the Colonial, Chocolate & Spice, Williamsburg, Lodge, and Classic Collections online at HomeDepot.com and the Rustic Collection at Frontgate.com. The Collection is also available at independent garden centers across the country, select Sam’s Club stores, and Reasor’s in northeast Oklahoma.

During the holidays, I always look forward to the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of a Smith Family Christmas. The holiday traditions of my family have been carried throughout the years, and I love passing our family stories and recipes on to my nieces and nephews. This year, though, I’m hoping to create a new tradition around the dinner table with an alternative to our typical recipes- this year, I’m making Pekin Duck.

Pekin Duck is one of my favorite “sounds fancy, cooks easy” main dishes, and when paired with a citrus glaze it is a beautiful and delicious meal with a holiday twist. Long Island Ducks are what we know as “Pekin.” They were bred in China and in 1873, exported to Long Island. It’s the most common duck meat consumed in the U.S. and in my opinion, the tastiest. We tend to rely on the holiday meal staples, but I think trying out a different bird this year will be a hit and hopefully start a tradition of trying new recipes each holiday.

Pekin Duck with Mandarin Sauce

Designer Tobi Fairley joins us today on my blog to spread some holiday cheer with a special giveaway – a pillow from her Saint Nick collection.

Hello, friends and fans of Allen!

Over at my blog, I’m giving thanks for all sorts of wonderful things in my life: people, places, opportunities, experiences, transformations, and more. I am so grateful for wonderful friends like Allen, with whom I can share big ideas about design, entertaining, food, and the outdoors! Another HUGE part of my gratitude is for the pleasure of giving, so I want to give something special to one of you this week to kick-off your holiday season!

If you leave a comment on this post telling Allen and me what you’re giving thanks for this week, you’ll be entered to win one of my Tobi Fairley Home pillows from the Saint Nick collection! The winner will be selected by random draw on Wednesday 12/05/12.

Sometimes an accent pillow is ALL it takes to make a sofa or chair festive and fun for the holiday season!

Find more inspiration from my Pinterest board: Holiday Treats & Decor

(like this sweet pic…)

Best of luck!

Xo,

I find that it just takes one recipe to bridge the gap between the adult and kid’s table, though. Desserts are always a good go-to, but last year I tried fresh Brussels sprouts. I know what you’re thinking- “my kids would never eat Brussels sprouts!” But try this recipe and I bet you’ll be surprised just how many members of your family ask for seconds.

Tarragon Pimiento Brussels Sprouts

Honestly, it’s a little bit of each of those (with the exception of the hot cocoa. In Arkansas there is a small window of time when it’s cold enough to drink hot cocoa.). The average week involves all of those details, but usually there’s a little something extra thrown into the mix.

Recently, it was shooting a commercial for my Holiday Collection with Berry Family of Nurseries. Filming is a part of daily life at the Garden Home, but we decided to rent out a studio for a new look for this commercial.

Here are a few things I learned about making commercials:

You have to take your shoes off when walking on an all-white set, otherwise you track dirt onto the set. If you do it correctly, though, the magic of television can turn an empty set into a fully decorated room in the snap of a finger.

It’s better to just bring most of the shirts in your closet, because you never know what is “holiday appropriate,” especially when it’s still 80 degrees outside.

Even a small amount of greenery can get you into the Christmas spirit, especially when the greenery was flown in just that morning from the Cascade Mountains in western Oregon.

It takes a lot of people to make a commercial come together. Luckily, I’ve got a very talented crew.

Five hours, three cups of coffee, one rented studio, a dozen set changes, 10 different wreaths, and a crew of 8 people later, we had a commercial.

Well, let me rephrase that. We had the footage for a commercial, and now it falls to the editing team back at the office. And I will say this much- I can’t wait to see what they produce.

When Your Roses Arrive
If your roses came prearranged, simply place the vase in a spot out of direct sun and away from heat sources.

For unarranged roses fill a vase with lukewarm water and add a floral preservative along with one teaspoon of bleach to keep the water clean. Remove any leaves from the stems below water line. Under running water, re-cut the ends of the stems at a slight angle. Place the flowers immediately into the vase.

Every few days replace with water and recut the ends of the stems.

Giving Your Roses a Second Life
Pull the freshest flowers from the bouquet and reuse them in a new arrangement. Buy flowers from a local florist or market to complement the colors of your roses. For red roses try purple, orange, and golden yellow flowers. If you receive salmon roses, add chartreuse, blue, and cream. Pink roses look great with burgundy, lavender, and cream blooms.

Cut the rose and flower stems to about 8 inches long. Grab the entire bouquet as close to the base of the blooms as possible. Wrap a rubber band around the stems to hold the arrangement together tightly. Place the bouquet in a low vase filled with fresh water, floral preservative and a few drops of bleach.

Preserve your Memory
As your roses fade, remove the petals and place them in an open weave basket to dry. Purchase other ingredients from hobby or craft stores to create your own personalized potpourri. I start with a base of pre-packaged dried flowers or potpourri to create a colorful mixture. With an eyedropper add some rose oil to the potpourri and toss gently to refresh the fragrance of the flowers. Place the mixture a bowl or basket where the aroma can be enjoyed.

While January isn’t the ideal time to plant a tree you can start planning and commit to plant a tree this spring or fall. Stop in at your local independent garden center to learn about suitable trees for your region and the best planting time. If you don’t have room in your garden, consider planting a tree at a hospital, school, or nursing home. Get your neighborhood association together to plant trees around the community.

And there’re just as many reasons as there are places to plant trees. I can’t think of a better way to honor or remember someone, or celebrate a special occasion, than by planting a tree. It’s because trees play such an important role in our environment, and our daily lives.

This New Year make a resolution to plant a tree. And stick to it! It’s a gift for future generations.

Christmas may be over, but the celebrating isn’t; New Year’s is less than a week away. If you’re in the southern United States, you can bet that black-eyed peas will be on the day’s menu. All good Southerners know that if you want to have good luck in 2012, you’ve got to eat at least a spoonful of black-eyed peas.

The traditional dish, Hoppin’ John, consists of rice and black-eyed peas seasoned with onions and pork (bacon or a ham hock), but these days pretty much anything goes from black-eyed pea cakes to black-eyed pea salsa. At the Garden Home Retreat you’ll find us eating salt pork black-eyed peas, turnip greens and cornbread. The turnip greens ensure wealth in the New Year and you’ve got to have cornbread to soak up all the good sauce.

Here’s a recipe for salt pork black-eyed peas. Top them with a tomato relish, hot sauce or some folks even like their peas with catsup.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups dried peas
• 6 slices of salt pork
• ½ medium onion, chopped
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• Water

Directions:

Soak the peas overnight and drain.

Place salt pork in a medium sized pot and cover with water. The water line should be about 1 inch above the pork. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Cook for about 1 hour. You’ll know it’s ready when the water looks oily.

Add the prepared peas, onion and crushed red pepper. Again, the water line should be about 1 inch above the peas. Cook for about 30 minutes and then check for doneness. They should be tender, but not mushy. The fresher the dried peas, the quicker they will cook.

Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Serve hot.

Every year I pick a Christmas decorating theme drawing inspiration from everyday items or materials from the garden. For instance, in 2010 I went all orange and chartreuse using tons of clementines and this year old fashioned tin ornaments will be my guide. One of my favorite muses was a magnolia leaf. The glossy green top and velvety brown underside sparked the idea to decorate in chocolate browns, white and silver.

How do you decorate for the holidays? Do you stick with a time honored theme or do you change it up every year?

#GardenChat is how I met Bren who coordinates the event and writes the blog BGGarden. She has contributed this week’s guest post. Everyone give her a big welcome to my blog!

If you are like many Americans, you will be watching A Charlie Brown Christmas during your Thanksgiving evening turkey sandwich snack.  What would the holidays be without a glimpse of the past when having a puny little tree reflected the true meaning behind Christmas?  This classic cartoon captures wonderful morals filled with the basic principle of making the most of what you have.  When I think simple, I can’t help but think of using items that make up my garden each year.

A wonderful tradition enjoyed by my family is to use treasures from the garden on our Christmas tree: Simple projects that include the children, like drying blooms from our favorite hydrangea shrub; Preserving memories while teaching the children that gardening is more then just enjoyment in the summer months but something that can be carried on into the next growing season. Drying hydrangeas for the Christmas tree is super easy if you remember that you will get the best results by cutting 12″ stems during the months of August through October.  Cutting fresh, recently opened blooms does not dry well in the open air.  Letting the blooms hang in a dry area for a few weeks teaches the children patience and that good things come to those who wait.   Basic craft projects like this will yield the benefits of expressing your creativity without spending a lot of money.

Think beyond what you’ve grown and preserved by using clean hand tools and miniature birdhouses in the decorating.   Pulling items you use in the garden make a wonderful natural garden theme on a low budget.  I can’t explain the visual sensation experienced when seeing my favorite vacant birdhouse with the Christmas lights sparkling around it.  You can also use burlap that is commonly used to wrap young shrubs in the garden as a tree skirt to complete the garden themed tree.

It seems that the true significance of the holidays has been lost in our society, having been cluttered by the average person’s busy schedule.   If time is budgeted, you can save money while attaching new memories to this time of year by making use of what you have – from the garden.

Red cheeked and hungry, we would run into a house full of mouth watering aromas. After washing up, we would all gather around for the meal – we small ones at the kids’ table on the back porch and the adults in the dining room.  Before dining in we would stand in a circle holding hands around the “big” table and my grandfather would say the blessing.  All the wonderful dishes made it hard to sit through the prayer, but as I grew older I learned to listen to what he was saying and now, as an adult, I hear his words  echoed around my own Thanksgiving table. That’s what this celebration is all about, being thankful for the blessings of the year and rejoicing in the bounty of the harvest.

Many members of my family are gone now, but their memories are very much alive and with us on Thanksgiving. Every year I dig out my grandmother’s recipe for corn bread dressing and my sister always makes mother’s cranberry relish. My young nieces and nephews have taken the place of my brothers, sister and cousins around the kids’ table and we’re passing on to them this very American tradition that each family has made into their own.

Josephine Foster’s Cornbread Dressing

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons bacon drippings

Cornbread:
1 ½ cups yellow cornmeal
½ cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
2 cups buttermilk

Dressing:
1 (6 to 7 pound) roasting chicken
8 tablespoons butter
3 to 4 celery rind, including leaves, chapped
1 medium onion, chopped
5 green onions, white and green parts, chopped
12 slices day-old white bread, crumbled
1 cup half-and-half or evaporated milk
2 eggs, beaten
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 level tablespoon rubbed sage
1 ½ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
First, prepare the cornbread batter: Combine the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Add the egg and buttermilk, stirring well to combine.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Add bacon drippings to a well-seasoned 10-inch cast-iron skillet and place in the oven for 4 minutes, or until it is hot.

Remove the hot skillet from the oven, and spoon the batter into the sizzling bacon drippings. Return the skillet to the oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the cornbread is lightly browned. Remove the skillet from the oven and turn the cornbread out onto a wire rack to cool.

Remove the giblets from the cavity of the chicken (reserve them if you’ll be making gravy). Thoroughly rinse the chicken inside and out. Place it in a stockpot, and cover it with cold water by about 2 inches.  Bring the water to a boil. Then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 1 to 1 ½ hours, or until the chicken is cooked through and tender. Remove the chicken and set aside while preparing the dressing. Reserve the broth.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly butter a 13 x 9-inch baking pan, and set it aside.

Crumble the cooled cornbread into a large bowl. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the celery, onions, and green onions, and cook until they are tender, 7 to 10 minutes. Then add the mixture to the bowl containing the cornbread. Also add the crumbled white bread, 2 ½ to 3 cups of the reserved chicken broth, the half-and-half, beaten eggs, salt, sage, and black pepper. Mix everything well to combine.  Taste for seasoning. Spoon the dressing mixture into the baking dish. Place the chicken on top of the dressing – either whole or cut in pieces. Return the baking dish to the oven and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the chicken is brown on top and the dressing bubbly around the edges. Remove from the oven and serve immediately.

Making a floating Jack-o-lantern is easy. Here is a photo journal of the steps. Click here for complete instructions.