Happy New Year and good thoughts for our men and women in service to our country.
happy 2011 new year
pineapple-apricot-mustard Glaze for smoked ham
What’s Christmas without a special ham and a uniquely yummy glaze? The glaze takes nearly as long to make as cooking the ham… but it is worth it!
You never know what will happen when my daughters come home to visit! They decided to make gingerbread cookies in the shape of the popular cellphone game “Plants vs. Zombies”… plus a tribute to their Biological Psychologist mother in the form of a Brain… ah… yummy… I guess?
Enjoy the season!
Merry Christmas and the joys of the season
Much happens around our house during the holidays… especially a lot of culinary magic! However, with all of our blessings we want to thank all of our men and women in service to our country… and those not able to leave the hospitals at this time. Our thoughts are with you all!
Lots of baking today…a time to spend with family and give thanks.
Enjoy the day!
idle cooks are the devils mischief
When my daughters Kristin & Karen come home for Christmas, we all work on making some of the family things we all enjoy. A few days ago, I caught Kristin making one of our favorite ‘with coffee’ desserts… Biscotti! Making the dough isn’t difficult with a heavy duty mixer and a good dough hook… and the real trick is to slice the biscotti after coming from the oven the first time … using a good serrated bread knife.
Today is Christmas Eve… and we are making Tiramisu for tomorrow … not a real traditional Christmas dessert… but nice after a smoked spiral cut ham with my special Apricot and Pineapple glaze!
Bon appetite!
revolutionary eggnog
When my daughters returned home for the holidays, they had many things that they wanted to make… one of these was the Eggnog recipe handed to us from the days of George Washington.
Although this recipe is generally made with alcoholic beverages, one can simply leave them out for a less challenging version.
Although I leave the spices up to you here is the super secret spice blend I use for our eggnog that we made yesterday… now, as for flavorings, I added about a teaspoon and a half of the following mixture to the egg yolks during preparation: nutmeg (4 parts), cloves (1 part), ginger (2 parts), allspice (1 part), mace ( 1 part), cinnamon ( 1 part) and (1 part) cardamon.
The eggnog traditionally has to sit in the refrigerator for a few days to allow for the spices to fully integrate with the other ingredients... however, a short cut would be to allow the spices to soak in some of your alcoholic ingredients for a day or so to help extract the flavorings!
enjoy the season!