Sjolund Family Traditional Hot Christmas Eggnog

Family holiday gatherings, the smells of Christmas dinner, and the rich, luxurious taste of eggnogs are high on my list of favorite childhood memories.  I attribute the peacefulness of the gatherings to eggnog which was always homemade and served hot, Uncle Bob never slugged Uncle Burney although there could be some loud discussions in by the tree.  My daughter was visiting this Christmas and was thirsting for this beverage which we tried to find in our local stores, but the whole valley was “out of eggnog” due to high demand!  I realized that we had never written down this recipe and after looking though old cookbooks, searching on the web, I came up empty handed.  I called my sister, we struggled to remember but only came up with a guess, I decided to do the best I could, as I proceeded, the smells stimulated all the memories and low and behold, “The Eggnog”!

I offer it to you with this note of warning.  Upon awakening this morning, I was given this question by my confused sweetheart, “ Why are there black panties draped across the bananas?”

1 egg
1 tablespoon sugar
¾ cup milk
Fresh grated nutmeg
Spirits such as Whiskey or Brandy

Plan on 1 egg per serving.  Separate whites and yolks, beat sugar and some nutmeg into yolks, whip egg whites into peaks.  Gently add yolk mixture to whipped whites.  Heat milk to simmering.  Fill cup ½ full of egg mixture, pour in hot milk to fill cup, add spirits to taste, top with a dash of nutmeg.

The Bee’s Knees

My new’s years resolution, as Amy jokingly told Maya and Manose, was to drink more. This might sound like I have a drinking problem, but my reasoning was that even though I love cooking, I’ve never done any experimenting with cocktails. Spurred by my desire to save money, I thought that it would be great to try making more cocktails at home.

After buying a bottle of gin, I was in search of new gin cocktail and found different version of this one, “the bee’s knees” on many sites. As you might have guessed from the name, “the bee’s knees” is a prohibition-era cocktail from the days when liquor was often not the best quality and needed sweetness to offset the taste. The taste is similar to lemonade.

Ingredients
Gin
Honey
Hot Water
Lemon Juice

Method
1) Mix equal parts honey and hot water to form a simple syrup. Allow to cool
2) Juice lemons
3) Combine gin, honey syrup and lemon. Play with ratio, but you might want to make it 1/2 gin, 1/4 lemon juice, and 1/4 honey syrup. Depends on how sweet you want it!
4) Shake in a cocktail shaker with ice
5) Enjoy 🙂

Jodi’s Spicy Bloody Marys

Jodi had the night off.  Though she also made chicken enchiladas, the bloody marys were like a light first course.  Is it wrong for getting buzzed to be so nutritious?  Jodi and I played the Wii fishing game.  There may also have been a video-recorded session of “American Idol” in which I sang “Satisfaction” (to stretch the definition of “singing” a bit) and Jodi danced around the room with Aqua in her arms.  But we won’t talk about that, nor reveal, even under pain of death, where the files are stored.  Let me just note that Aqua is a very tolerant cat and leave it at that.

Jodi’s Spicy Bloody Marys

1 English cucumber
1 large celery stalk
3 small tomatoes
Small handful of cilantro
¼ white onion
¼ red bell pepper
3 anchovies
2 ½ c tomato-based vegetable juice
Juice of 1 lemon
¼ c pepperoncini juice
1 T Worchester sauce
2 t Tabasco sauce
½ t cayenne
1 t paprika
Fresh-ground black pepper to taste
Salt to taste

Blend all ingredients.  Add vodka and serve on the rocks.  Garnish with a wedge of lemon, a pepperoncini and a spear of celery for stirring.