Category: Holidays

  • Post Christmas

    Yes, this is the post where I detail what I got for Christmas, etc. I’ll even throw my birthday gifts in there for good measure.

    It was a good Christmas, too. (First Christmas in our new house.) After we got up and opened up presents, I made some giant French toast on my new griddle (got it for Christmas), wearing my new bathrobe (Christmas). I also got two cookbooks, Quicksilver, a fifth of Jagermeister, several bottles of McMenamins beer, a Jack Daniels gift set (whiskey plus playing cards and dice), a Barnes and Noble gift card, The Return of the King DVD, and A Charlie Brown Christmas (the book adapted from the original TV special).

    For my birthday two days earlier, I received a Peanuts daily desk calendar, a photo Christmas tree ornament (with the kids’ picture in it), an unusual sculpture/pen holder for my desk at work, several bottles of McMenamins beer (this was kind of a boozy holiday, I think) along with an Old St. Francis School pint glass, a gift certificate to Pegasus Books (the local comics shop), a personalized keychain, and cash. Cold, hard cash.

    All in all, a nice haul.

  • Merry Christmas!

    Some Christmas Eve wishes for everyone. I likely won’t be online much tomorrow, there’s just too much fun to be had in realspace. So, Merry Christmas, and I hope Santa Claus brings everyone what they want!

  • Eggnog

    Okay, it’s the holidays, who doesn’t love eggnog? Of course you could buy all the eggnog you want from the store, but that’s boring. Searching through the cookbooks we have, I found no fewer than three different eggnog recipes. The one that appeals to me the most is a combination of an egg custard and whipped cream; the others use uncooked eggs and while I know there’s almost a zero chance of getting salmonella from properly handled and stored eggs, the thought of consuming anything that’s mostly raw egg just doesn’t sit well with me.

    Here’s the preferred recipe, from Betty Crocker’s New Cookbook. It says it makes about 10 servings of ½ cup each.

    Ingredients for the egg custard:

    • 3 large eggs, slightly beaten
    • 1/3 cup sugar
    • Dash of salt
    • 2½ cups milk
    • 1 tsp. vanilla

    Mix eggs, sugar and salt in heavy 2-quart saucepan. Gradually stir in milk. Cook over medium heat 10 to 15 minutes, stirring constantly, until mixture just coats a metal spoon; remove from heat. Stir in vanilla. Place saucepan in cold water until custard is cool. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours but no longer than 24 hours.

    Ingredients for the whipped cream:

    • 1 cup whipping cream
    • 2 tbsp. powdered sugar
    • ½ tsp. vanilla
    • ½ cup rum (subsitute 1 tsp. vanilla for non-alcoholic)
    • 1 to 2 drops yellow food color, if desired
    • Ground nutmeg

    Beat whipping cream, powdered sugar and vanilla in chilled medium bowl with electric mixer on high speed until stiff. Gently stir 1 cup of the whipped cream, the rum and the food color into custard. Pour custard mixture into small punch bowl. Drop remaining whipped cream in mounds onto custard mixture. Sprinkle with nutmeg. Serve immediately. Refrigerate any remaining eggnog.

    Sounds pretty good to me. Now, here’s an old recipe for a single serving of eggnog, from the 1956 Betty Crocker’s Picture Cookbook:

    • Beat together 1 well-beaten egg and 2 tbsp. sugar.
    • Beat in 1 cup chilled rich milk and either ¼ tsp. vanilla or 1½ tsp. sherry flavoring and 1 tbsp. brandy or rum.
    • Serve cold in a tall glass sprinkled lightly with nutmeg.

    Yeah. Not sure about that. Anyway, that’s one variation; the other, from The Joy of Cooking, calls for separating the yolks from the whites, beating the whites to stiff peaks and folding them back into the mixture:

    • Beat until light 12 large egg yolks.
    • Gradually beat in 1 pound powdered sugar.
    • Add very slowly, beating constantly, 2 cups dark rum, brandy, bourbon or rye, or a combination.
    • Let stand, covered, for 1 hour to dispel the eggy taste.
    • Add, beating constantly, 2 to 4 cups chosen liquor(s) and 8 cups heavy cream.
    • Refrigerate, covered, for 3 hours.
    • In another large bowl beat until the peaks are stiff 12 large egg whites.
    • Fold the egg whites gently into the other ingredients.

    The recipe claims this makes 40 servings! My favorite part is the “dispel eggy taste.” That just sounds nasty.

    Otherwise, drink up! And if it tastes too eggy or you get salmonella, well, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

  • Christmas parties galore

    So Thursday evening the kids’ daycare/preschool had their Christmas program, with each class performing two (or more) songs. Before the performances, Santa and his elves had arrived and all the kids waited in line to see them (although when you’re talking about kids ranging in age from 1 to 5, “waiting in line” is relative), and there was a big table full of cookies and treats for everyone. The kids (ours especially) all did great jobs with their respective songs, and while this wasn’t a “big” pageant or anything, it still kind of feels like you’ve “arrived” as a parent when your kids are in a school program on stage.

    Friday (last night) was my company’s holiday party. (“Holiday” as opposed to “Christmas” because we—as a company—didn’t want to offend anyone who might not celebrate Christmas. Have we really gotten so PC and “sensitive” that…? Ah, but that’s another rant.) It was a great party, lots of free beer and wine and excellent food and company. Everyone laughed a lot, and even though I didn’t win any cool prizes like I did last year, that’s all ancillary anyway; it’s just as much fun to dress up for the night and go out.

    Tonight was my wife’s Moms Club Christmas party, so the kids and I had a “night out” of TV dinners (the kids love the frozen kids meals) and Shrek 2. I helped my wife make rum balls earlier in the week for tonight’s party, so you know that sets the stage for a long night.

    And while not quite like a party, all last week we did Secret Santa at work. That’s always fun because getting free stuff is always a great distractor from work itself.

    Next week, my birthday, along with Christmas Eve and Day. Oh, and I have a five-day weekend for it all, too. Gotta love this time of year!

  • Recipe: Holiday Fruitcake

    I mentioned the other day that I’d post the fruitcake recipe I make each year, so I’m now getting around to it. What I like about this recipe is that there’s a higher ratio of batter-to-fruit than you’ll find in most modern recipes and commercial fruitcakes; they tend to be almost all candied fruit and nuts, loosely held together with the batter. Those are, in my opinion, too sickly sweet and more of a candy than a cake.

    This recipe is much more of a cake consistency, with more of the spicy batter to offset the candy-sweet of the fruit. It’s still quite dense, and despite what my wife will tell you, quite good.

    Adapted from the 1956 Betty Crocker Cookbook.

    Ingredients:

    • 1 cup soft shortening
    • 2 cups brown sugar (packed)
    • 6 large eggs
    • 3 cups flour
    • 1 tsp. baking powder
    • 1 tsp. salt
    • ½ tsp. baking soda
    • 1 tsp. cinnamon
    • 1 tsp. nutmeg
    • ½ tsp. mace
    • ½ tsp. cloves
    • ¾ cup strong coffee
    • ½ cup tart jelly
    • ½ cup molasses
    • 1½ pounds candied fruit
    • ½ pound seedless raisins
    • ½ pound chopped dates
    • ½ pound dried cranberries
    • ½ pound of nuts
    • grated rind and juice of 1 orange and 1 lemon

    Directions: Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and spices in a bowl. Set aside. Combine coffee, jelly and molasses in another bowl and set that aside also. It’s also helpful to zest and juice the lemon and the orange ahead of time.

    Preheat the oven to 300°. Prepare three 3 loaf pans by lining them with foil (leave the edges longer than the sides of the pans, so it will be easier to remove the loaves) and spraying with non-stick spray.

    Cream the shortening and brown sugar together until fluffy. Butter is good, though this year I tried Crisco vegetable shortening. Next, beat in the eggs. Then you will want to alternately stir in the powder and liquid mixtures to the main batter; I start with about a cup of the flour mixture (using an electric beater) and let that mix in, then about a half cup of the liquid. Continue until they’re all mixed thoroughly.

    Now add the fruits and nuts—be sure to use a big bowl and stir them in manually rather than trying to use an electric mixer. For the nuts, I used pecans, chopped coarsely. Finally, add the zest and juice from the lemon and orange (or, alternately, you could add them to the liquid mixture earlier).

    This will look like a lot of batter, and it is, but trust me, it will all fit into the three loaf pans (these are standard size bread loaf pans). Fill them up equally, then bake them in the oven for 2½ to 3 hours, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Mine were done after 2½. Cover them the last hour loosely with foil.

    Out of the oven, you can remove them from the loaf pans to a rack to cool completely. Then, the magic: wrap them in brandy-soaked cheesecloth, then plastic wrap (waxed paper, I’ve noticed, tends to dissolve a bit with exposure to the alcohol; this is the first year I’ve used regular plastic wrap so I can’t report on it substantively yet) and foil, and store in a cool, dry place. The brandy will keep the cakes moist as they mellow with age.

    You could use other liquors, too, or even a strong wine (port might be very good). You’ll want to choose something that will complement the dark, spicy, fruity taste.

    A note about the candied fruits: I like to pick up the artificially colored stuff from the grocery store, just because it’s so festive and cheesy and tasty. This is generally made from dried pineapple, dried papaya, maraschino cherries, and citron (candied peel from citrus fruits), dyed with bright green and red colors. There’s nothing wrong with it, it’s convenient and works great. However, this year I toyed with the idea of skipping this pre-made stuff and going to the source: bulk dried pineapple and papaya, and maraschino cherries (though I may still buy candied citron, because I’m not sure how to get it otherwise—if I use it at all) and chopping them up myself. I may do this next year.

    And the other fruits I added—raisins, dates, and cranberries—can be varied, too. The original recipe called for currants, and I’ve seen recipes with blueberries, dried apricots, and dried cherries. Get creative, but stick with fruits that have low acidity and dry well. Dried apples, mango, figs, coconut, perhaps even cantaloupe could all be interesting.

    And if you’ve read this far, a couple of links: Alton Brown’s Free Range Fruitcake recipe from Food Network, and Wikipedia’s Fruitcake article.

  • December 1st

    December is upon us already. Bust out your advent calendars (we did), hang your wreaths (we did), Christmas is a mere 24 days away. Was Thanksgiving really less than a week ago? Jeez, having this cold must be screwing with my sense of time.

    I made my traditional fruitcakes over the weekend. Really! I (loosely) follow a recipe from an older Betty Crocker cookbook, it’s better than most modern fruitcake recipes I’ve seen, and I wrap the fruitcakes in brandy-soaked cheesecloth to mellow for a month (or more, depending on when I make them). That’s the secret, soaking in brandy and aging. I love my fruitcakes. You would, too. Maybe tomorrow I’ll post the recipe I use.

    Gotta gear up for more holiday baking, too. Gingersnaps, sugar cookies (shaped and cutouts), fudge, at least. I remember one thing my mom used to make for the holidays: dates stuffed with almonds and cream cheese and rolled in powdered sugar. Awesome! More work than I want to take on right now, though.

    Mmmmmmmm, December.

  • 20 pounds

    I hope everyone had a pleasant Thanksgiving this year. Ours was, except for the fact that I was sick. Nothing serious, I just came home from work early Wednesday totally drained, achy, throaty—all the usual signs of the flu. Went to bed for awhile, got up for dinner (soup), went to bed early. Took much medicine. Slept poorly, but fortunately it “merely” turned into a troublesome cold. (This is the latest I’ve been up since Tuesday, and I won’t be up for much longer.)

    We had a small group for Thanksgiving this year—just us and my mom. Despite that, we still had a 20 pound turkey to roast for some insane reason. That thing was a monster. It’s still a monster, sitting in the fridge waiting to be carved… but it was delicious.

    Okay, enough for tonight. Gotta go cough some more before bed.

  • Halloween Summary

    As usual, it was as cold as a witch’s tit last night for Halloween, but at least it wasn’t snowing or anything; last year I wrote that it was in the teens. Fortunately this year it was “only” around 30 degrees.

    Ah, but this year we live in a new neighborhood! One that’s filled with houses, unlike our old one that we could hit maybe four or five when trick-or-treating. We took the kids up and down several blocks, amassing a small fortune in candy and revelling in the wonderment of people, before the cold finally drove us home. What’s interesting is that our house sits at the end of a cul-de-sac in the new development, which only has four other houses with people in them… so our doorbell only rang perhaps three times because nobody wanted to wander off the beaten path down the dark street for only one house. So in that respect, it was very much like our old neighborhood.

    Whatever, it was still a good Halloween; the best part is watching the kids enjoy it more as they get older and have a better grip of what’s going on. Although my youngest needs to work on his timing: they’d ring the doorbell and he would immediately say “Trick or treat!” before anyone actually opened the door.

    And Jake has the best Halloween story. I think I’m most glad I don’t live in his neighborhood :).

  • 4th of July Recap

    We had a good 4th of July here, the weather was beautiful, the fireworks were grand and it was fun in general. I took the kids to the Pet Parade, while my wife and mother visited the gem show in Sisters. Afterwards we drank beer, barbecued hamburgers and set off fireworks for the kids in the cul-de-sac.

    We got invited to a neighbor’s party down the street, which my wife and I visited for about a half hour after the kids went to bed. (Interesting illustration to me of one of the benefits of living in a “real” neighborhood community.) We came back home and watched the Pilot Butte fireworks from our new backyard for the first time in 5 or more years—that was pretty cool.

    All in all, a good Fourth. Hope everyone else’s was good, too.

  • This 4th

    I kind of doubt I’ll be online posting much tomorrow, so a pre-emptive note for everyone to have a fun, safe July 4th. We’ll be shooting from the hip as far as plans go tomorrow; I’m taking the kids to the Pet Parade downtown at 10 for sure. Should be a good day.

    And we can see Pilot Butte from our new house! It’s the first time in something like five years we’ll be able to see the fireworks. That’s cool.