happy holidays

White Christmas. Holiday Inn. Christmas in Connecticut. I love Christmas movies. The Hallmark/Lifetime movies are in constant rotation this time of year (much to the dismay of a certain gentlemen...) This is the xmas edition of my usual wine and popcorn movie snack- milkless eggnog and holiday chips. (Milk/cream/ etc. do bad things to me.) The chips admittedly I just poured into a bowl, but the eggnog is made from scratch and full of bourbon. And rye. And cognac. I think I like more booze in my eggnog than most. And I wore my creepy holiday monkey toe socks!

Milkless Eggnog

4 eggs separated 
1/3 cup grade b maple syrup (i always use b I think it has more flavor) 
1 1/2 cups dairy free milk (I used lactaid, but soy or almond would work too)  
1 cup coconut milk solids (just scoop out the thick part not the watery stuff)
pinch of salt
2 cups of bourbon, rye and cognac in whatever proportion you prefer
Whisk the egg whites in a mixer at high speed until they reach soft peaks. Reduce to medium and add half of the maple syrup. Beat until incorporated and transfer to another bowl. Put the yolks and the rest of the syrup in the bowl and beat until they are quite pale yellow and hold "ribbons" ie is thick enough to hold its shape when drizzled, about 2-3 minutes. Pour the non-dairy milk into a measuring cup and then scoop in the coconut cream until it displaces the milk up to 2 1/2 cups. (The cream is thick enough that it can be tricky to measure) Add the milk/coconut mixture, salt and hooch and mix on low until incorporated. Fold in the egg whites and ladle into glasses. Sprinkle with nutmeg. Yum. 

the best chocolate mug cake. no seriously.

I have been collecting/hoarding "mug cake" recipes for years now and have tried a bazillion of them. Seriously. Years. I have folders full of them online and in real life. They seem like such a brilliant idea, except they are so often rubbery and disappointing. They almost always contain a whole egg which seems seriously problematic to me... I mean an entire batch of cupcakes has one or two eggs in it-- why would one small serving need a whole egg? It makes the cake way too spongy. However using an 1/16 of an egg isn't practical so I started looking specifically for egg-less mug cake recipes. I found one on a health blog of all places... and proceeded to disregard most of the proportions completely, increasing the fat and decreasing the sugar significantly. It was almost perfect, but still a little dry. Then I had a stroke of genius. I buried a spoonful of peanut butter in the batter before I cooked it. The peanut butter becomes molten with cooking and makes the cake super moist. Then I tried it with caramel sauce (mine was homemade but tj's has a nice salt caramel sauce that I've used as well) also awesome. Strawberry jam. Yum. If you wanted to be really crazy you could put a spoonful of nutella in there. Peanut butter is still my fav, but I like the option to change it up and experiment. Speaking of which. I most often make this cake with almond milk. It started because I was out of milk and it was my only option. (I make almond milk all the time- its so good) I'm not sure if it's my imagination or not, but I've convinced myself that the almond milk in this recipe tastes better than regular milk although it works fine with both. I've also tried buttermilk with didn't seem to alter the flavor at all so being as its more expensive I don't bother with. I've substituted brown sugar and maple for the white sugar with no noticeable effect, and frequently sub barley or whole wheat flour for the AP. (Often half and half, although a full swap works fine) A pinch of cinnamon is nice, I didn't find vanilla altered the flavor much. I've tried olive oil in place of the veggie and again I didn't think it was worth the expense. Don't leave the pinch of salt out it's key. I should also mention that this cake is small. It's more like half a mug. You can double it and I have, but I find this to be exactly the amount I want to eat when I come home from work late at night exhausted and in need of warm cake. Mmmm warm cake. This and a glass of red wine is pretty much the best pb& j ever. I always make it in my goofy piglet mug which is child sized. (No idea where it came from now that I think about it...) but it would also fill a ramekin nicely. If you double it remember to cook it a little longer. It's also not very sweet which I prefer, especially with the sweeter fillings, but feel free to increase the sugar to taste.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Mug Cake

2 tablespoons flour (I often use 1 T AP and 1 T barley flour)
1/2 teaspoon of sugar (or to taste)
2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch salt
2 tablespoons milk (or almond milk, my fav.)
1 tablespoon oil
handful of mini chocolate chips
1 Tbs peanut butter (or caramel, jam, nutella, almond butter, etc)

In a small mug combine the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt until no lumps remain. Stir in the milk and oil until smooth. Make sure to scrape your fork around the edges of the cup so you don't get pockets of dry flour. Mix in the chocolate chips. Drop the peanut butter into the chocolate mix and push it down to submerge. Bake in the microwave on high for 1 minute. You may need to add or subtract 5-10 seconds depending on your microwave, but don’t be tempted to overcook or it will be dry. It should still be moist on the bottom and will continue cooking as it sets. (In my microwave its 1:04 exactly.)

happy halloween!

stars & stripes

I like making red white and blue foods on the fourth and... drinking margaritas. This is so cute and so simple. The first time I made it I put the 1/2 teas. of salt that martha intended for the rims into the drink and I really liked it-- this is right on the edge of being too sweet and I like that little extra bit of salt. Happy holidays!

Patriotic Coconut Margarita

adapted from martha stewart

1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice, plus 2 tablespoons for glasses (about 5 limes)
3/4 cup cream of coconut
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons tequila
1/4 cup Cointreau or other orange liqueur

Salt for the Rim
blueberries
strawberries cut into stars with a small cookie cutter

Put the first 5 ingredients in the blender with about a cup of ice and blend until smooth. Pour into glasses with salted rims and garnish with berries.

things that are red

I finally remembered to buy sour cherries at the market this year (they have a pretty short season) and made some maraschino cherries. I started with the new york times recipe, but I have to admit that I like the sugary sweet store bought version, so I added some sugar to the recipe. I honestly can't remember how much... hopefully I wrote it down someplace. The sour cherries are important because they stay really red and they taste better than a sweet cherry after cooking. Actually the guy in line before me popped one in his mouth raw despite protests from myself and the farmer's market girl... they don't taste so good raw. I think he learned his lesson. I made a whole bunch of extras for christmas gifts- I'm thinking the cherries with a bottle of nice bourbon- sounds perfect to me. But for now I have been making Bourbon Cherry Slushies, more appropriate for the intense Baltimore heat. It's super easy to grind up ice cubes in the food processor for the "slush" bit and well worth the effort, especially when it's hot. The rose is just a shot from my garden.

Bourbon Cherry Slushies

• 2 oz bourbon
• a few homemade maraschino cherries
• a slug of maraschino liquid

Mix in a highball and top with shaved ice. The ice will melt fairly quickly and thin out the bourbon a bit.

fig caramel upside down cake

I adapted this recipe from one in Rustic Fruit Desserts, a book I highly recommend. It's a small book which generally is unappealing to me in a cookbook-- I don't have the greatest vision I don't need teeny tiny type slowing me down-- but it makes up for it's size with hunger inducing recipes and great pictures. The original recipe called for cherries (which I don't really care for cooked honestly) and I added some buttermilk to the cake, but otherwise pretty much left it be. If you come into some fresh figs- I highly recommend it.

peaches

Peaches are finally in season and I have a boatload from the co-op. I'm bordering on peach addiction I can't seem to get enough of them. They are also one of the few fruits that I like cooked (along with apples) I prefer most of them raw, especially in the summer. To start I made peach cobbler which is probably one of my top ten favorite desserts. Ok I actually made two of them. And I ate almost all of them myself. Peaches are healthy right? I use the dough from this recipe although for the filling I just use peeled sliced peaches, maybe 2 tbs of sugar, 1 tbs of flour and a little vanilla extract. Then I made another summer favorite, peach and bacon pizza. I nearly always have some bread dough kicking around in the fridge so I made my crust with some wheat sandwich bread which was actually pretty tasty. I spread the crust with marscapone that had been mixed with salt and pepper and some asiago-- I usually use blue cheese but I didn't have any. Then add sliced peaches, sweet onions and chopped bacon and cook. I use nice thick bacon so I cook it most of the way first- if you used prosciutto or something thinner you could throw it on raw. Now, before you tell me that putting peaches on pizza are weird... let me remind you that tomato is a fruit as well. And besides it's delicious. My next favorite summery peach treat is hot dogs with peach chutney. I am a big fan of the savory/sweet combo and this is just the best. I serve on top of warm brie as well and it is divine. The hot dogs are made of bison and from the co-op as well- they may well be the best ones I've had.

Peach Chutney

• 1 tbs butter
• 3-4 cloves minced garlic (use coarse sea salt to help break it up)
• 1 smallish onion diced
• 1-2 hot pepper diced (I use a strange hybrid pepper that I accidentally made in my garden, apparently this happens if you grow two peppers close together)
• 4-5 peaches, less if they are giant
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup bourbon
• 1/2 cup white wine vinegar
• salt and pepper to taste

Dunk the peaches in boiling water for a few minutes so that their skins peel off easily. Pit and dice the peeled peaches. Melt butter in a saucepan. Add onion and peppers and sweat for 2 minutes. Add garlic and cook another minute or so. Add peaches and cook another 2 minutes. add sugar and stir in then add whiskey and vinegar. There will be a fair amount of liquid at this point continue cooking on medium heat until the liquid has reduced and it is thick like a chutney around 30-40 minutes. As the liquid reduces you will have to stir more often to keep it from sticking to the bottom of the pan. The peaches will break down quite a bit, but you should still have some chunks. Will keep for weeks in the refrigerator or I often properly can it as well.