Cider Car Cocktail
As the snow fell and piled up during the now infamous blizzard of December ‘09, I stayed in the kitchen baking cookies and getting ready for Christmas with a mug of hot cider in hand. We like it spiked with spiced rum or cinnamon schnapps with a stick of cinnamon in the mug, but this hot cider cocktail is a variation on the classic sidecar cocktail and has apple brandy and triple sec. The orange flavor from the triple sec works well with the cider and we agreed the cinnamon sugar rimmer is perfect, though we used an orange wedge rather than lime to rim the mug. For a nonalcoholic variation, just add an ounce of orange juice to the hot cider. Read more
Gingerbread Scones
With wide eyes and a booming voice, Top Gun shouted, “Mommy, are you making stones? I love those!”
Our boys adore scones (even if they still can’t say it) and with all the excitement in the kitchen you would think some fabulous dessert was in the works instead of simple gingerbread scones for breakfast. After the scones had cooled a little I arranged them on the plate, leaving one for the boys to share while I quickly took a few photos. The flavor of these is such a delight that there wasn’t a single crumb left after breakfast and Michael asked me to make a double batch next time. Read more
Eggnog Gelato
One of our holiday traditions was dashed this year when we couldn’t find Turkey Hill Eggnog Ice Cream. We always buy eggnog ice cream in December and Michael was quite dejected when I came home without the prize, so I set out to help him recover from his eggnog ice cream funk. I promised him an eggnog gelato and set off to create a recipe. Read more
Bourbon Pumpkin Marble Cheesecake
Pumpkin cheesecake is one of my favorite holiday desserts and marbling the pumpkin filling with a bourbon vanilla filling takes it over the top for me. The recipe is my riff on the classic pumpkin marble cheesecake from the Philadelphia Cream Cheese Cheesecakes book published in 1989. I found a wire bound copy years ago at a yard sale for 50 cents and picked it right up. The recipes aren’t fussy, just simple and good, with a mix of baked and no-bake cheesecakes. I’ve made a number of cheesecakes from the book over the years and we enjoyed them all. Read more
Gingerbread Christmas Tree
Making gingerbread houses is a father-son event in our home, with the boys crowded around the table as Michael assembles the house, a task that is not always easy. Some years the walls fall over and we’ve even resorted to using a glue gun to make the walls stand up. Each boy has a mini muffin tin filled with little candies in each cup that they put on the house. Some years the boys cooperate and the effort is pretty organized, but certainly not every year. Someone usually bumps into the house or spills the candy decorations or sticks their fingers where they don’t belong, but in the end that’s all part of the fun. Read more
Coconut-Orange Snowballs
Last year a small group of bakers joined together to do a The 12 Days of Cookies extravaganza using recipes from a Gourmet magazine feature of their favorite cookies from 1941 to 2008. This year a few more people have joined us and today is the first day of 12 Days of Cookies 2009. Each baker chooses 12 cookies to make but doesn’t tell anyone else what they chose, so it’s a fun little surprise for us to see what everyone else made. Due to family obligations I cannot participate on all 12 days this year but I wanted to join in for at least one day and try some of the cookies, and if I can sneak it in I might be able to do one or two more hopefully. Read more
