10 The Queens Courier • holiday • december 19, 2013 for breaking news visit www.queenscourier.com s holiday guide Easy gifts and simple appetizers 1. What can I make at home and give out as Christmas gifts? You can get pretzel rods and dip them in chocolate and cover them in green and red sprinkles. You can gift them in a glass cylinder wrapped in cellophane and a bow. 2. What can I serve as an appetizer for Christmas dinner? Buy bread sticks and prosciutto. Wrap the prosciutto around the bread sticks. Serve the bread sticks on a Chinese fan in the folds of the fan. It will make for a very simple appetizer. You can sprinkle some Parmigiano cheese on top for more flavors. A perfect complement to that is to poach pears in red wine and cut them in wedges. In the middle pipe in your favorite cheese and sprinkle toasted walnuts. Buy puff pastry dough. Roll it out. Insert hot dogs and bake. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and poppy seeds. Rhona Silver is currently the Founding Director of CaterBid.com. She is a visionary entrepreneur and a prominent figure for 40 years in the catering business. facebook.com/caterbid twitter.com/#!/CaterBid youtube.com/user/caterbid linkedin.com/company/caterbid Serve with an assortment of NY deli mustard, honey mustard and French mustard. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE OFFICE OF COUNCILMEMBER DONOVAN RICHARDS Councilmember Donovan Richards hosted a community Christmas tree lighting in Springfield Park. Springfield Gardens all aglow BY MAGIE HAYES [email protected] The holiday spirit is alive in Springfield Gardens. The Christmas tree in Springfield Park lit up for the season on Wednesday, December 11 with residents and community leaders watching. “This is a great event for the whole family,” said Councilmember Donovan Richards, who hosted the tree lighting along with the Parks Department, Friends of Brookville Park, Storm Rydaz and the Student’s Real Friends Network. Holiday music played as children took photos with Santa and shared in the community Christmas celebration. Holiday trees throughout the southeast community continue to light up. The Brookville Park tree was lit on Saturday, December 7. Photo Courtesy Sylvia Cho-Yu Members from the Junior Girl Scouts Troop 4208 in Jackson Heights, ages 10 and 11, got together on December 14 at St. Marks Church to distribute handmade holiday food baskets and restock the church’s food pantry. Girl Scouts give from the heart this holiday BY ANGY ALTAMIRANO [email protected] It’s never too soon to start giving back. Members from the Junior Girl Scouts Troop 4208 in Jackson Heights, ages 10 and 11, got together on Saturday, December 14 at St. Marks Church to distribute handmade holiday food baskets. The girls also restocked the church’s food pantry with food collected by seven other Girl Scouts troops to help the needy during holiday season. Working towards their Bronze Award, with the focus on fighting hunger in their community, 10 girls from Troop 4208 distributed the food baskets. One week before Saturday’s event the group hosted a food drive event for all the Girl Scouts in the neighborhood, including six other troops, at the Community Methodist Church. About 75 girls attended the food drive, which filled six shopping carts full of food and made up 35 holiday baskets to give to families. Santa visits St. Mary’s kids St. Mary’s Kids were in a festive and excited mood last week as firefighters from Engine 320, Ladder 167 brought Santa Claus and his elves to spread holiday cheer to the young patients, all of whom are battling complex medical and life-limiting conditions due to serious illness, injury or complications of premature birth. Chants of “We want Santa!” from the eager children were met with a cheery, “Ho Ho Ho” from Santa who mysteriously appeared on the roof with his bright red bag hung over his shoulder. As he climbed down the fire truck ladder waving and smiling, he was immediately surrounded by over 50 excited children. The firefighters, Santa and his elves spent the rest of the afternoon dropping off holiday gifts, visiting with the children, and hearing the children’s wish lists. For over 25 years the dedicated and brave firefighters have brought Santa to St. Mary’s Bayside campus. The annual holiday event is a favorite for both St. Mary’s Kids and the firefighters, who turned up in numbers to spend time interacting with the children. “Seeing the joy and smiles on the faces of the children as they spend time with Santa is a big part of why we come back year after year to St. Mary’s,” said firefighter Joe Barongi. “St. Mary’s is an amazing place, and this annual visit is a deep-rooted tradition at our fire station, we hope to make this event bigger and better each year.”
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