Last year I baked a Simple Stollen for Christmas. This year, I just had to try my hand at baking a traditional Italian Christmas bread – panettone. This delicious fruit studded sweet bread is perfect for Christmas morning with coffee or tea (or whatever you prefer). Researching this bread was a bit of work as there are so many different recipes with so many differing steps, but I finally settled on using the King Arthur Flour Overnight Panettone recipe. Of course, I made a few minor changes. First, I used different dried fruits – golden raisins…
So here we are, down to the last few days before Christmas and you have not baked any cookies yet. Do not fear, because here is a quick and easy way to bake up a dozen or two cookies in fast fashion. Simply use a cake mix and adjust the ingredients added to create a quick cookie dough. Once you have the dough, the possibilities are nearly endless with add-ins and toppings to suit your heart’s desire. What, you think this is cheating? Popping cookies out of a roll onto a baking sheet…
This dish is tightly entwined with memories of my parents, especially my dad. Oyster stew was a dish he would make for the family and I can vividly recall as a young child going from ‘Ewww, I’ll never eat that’ to ‘Wow, this is so good’. I can still see all seven of us sitting at the table with the large pot in the middle while my mom ladled and passed out each bowlful. Oyster crackers were passed around; some floated theirs, others crushed and mixed them in, while others…
Tonight’s cocktail is an Old Fashioned/Manhattan variation I just had to try. This recipe swaps out Benedictine for the simple syrup/sweet vermouth to provide floral and herbal flavors with the spicy sweet rye whiskey. Served simply in a chilled rocks glass, this flavorful concoction is warm and soothing – perfect for a Friday happy hour relaxation. The history of this cocktail is quite brief, the best reference I found was that is was first documented in David Embury’s 1948 tome, The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks. I like this cocktail…
Today’s cookie just screams Christmas to me. These delightful powdered sugar coated or glazed spicy gems are fun to bake and perfect for sharing with family and friends. Pfeffernüsse are a Dutch/German/Danish treat typically associated with the St. Nicholas celebration of bringing gifts to children on December 5th/6th. As you can imagine, St. Nicholas or Sinterklaas is partially the basis for Santa Claus and the association of this cookie with Christmas. With a plethora of spices, including black and white pepper, it is believed this cookie also demonstrated the wealth…
With the holiday party and celebration season upon us, tonight’s cocktail is perfect for such events. From my research, it appears this cocktail is well over 150 years old and that it was crafted upon the death of Prince Albert (yes, Queen Victoria’s Prince Consort) at the Brook’s Club in London in 1861. Thinking that drinking champagne might construe celebrating this somber event, the bartender floated Guinness on top to mimic the mourner’s black armbands. The result became this wonderful, yet under appreciated cocktail. Well given that I…
Recently, a friend invited me over for dinner and I planned to bring dessert. I thought what would be better than cheesecake, especially since his wife missed out on the Cheesecake with Smoked Cherries I made this past summer. With a busy day planned before dinner, I knew I needed something that would come together quickly (thereby counting out a full cheesecake!), but I did not want to sacrifice having homemade quality. So, I relied on a 6 pack of Graham Cracker mini-pie crusts to simplify and individualize this simple dessert. The whole process (except…