Cookie Cornucopia

So for Christmas, I was invited to a Cookie Party.  I am not a good baker, so rather than baking cookies I opted for making a couple of drinks.  One was Alton Brown's Eggnog, which I made an entire gallon of.  Even though it was very delicious it was a bit excessive.  The other thing I went ahead and made was a Hot Toddy.  My recipe was extremely easy to make and was done in a crock pot overnight.  It was the more popular of the two beverages and was completely gone by the night was over.

The party was a good idea and everyone bought a different type of cookie. This cornucopia of cookies was a child’s dream.  There was even a spot for decorating cookies.  I used my awesome artistic ability to make two cookies that were just a giant glob of yellow.  I did very well if I do say so myself.  We also had  a fun time with a bit of Christmas Karaoke.  It was a brilliant idea.  I had no idea that you could do Karaoke on YouTube.  It makes good sense and you can do karaoke very cheaply using it.

Anyway  here’s the recipe:

Hot Toddy

Ingredients:

1 Gallon Apple Juice (I used Simply Apple)

10 3 inch Cinnamon Sticks

4 Star Anise Pods

¼ Cup Sugar

2 Vanilla Beans

250 mL Ameretto

1 Liter Whiskey (I use 750mL Crown Royal and 250mL Southern Comfort, just what I had available)

125 mL Goldshlagger

Method:

Combine the first five ingredients in a crock pot.  Slice the vanilla beans in half and scrape the seeds out with a knife before adding the beans and seeds to the mix.

Let the thing go on low overnight.

Just before serving remove the anise, vanilla beans, cinnamon sticks, and add the booze, serve at your party with the crockpot set to warm.

Here's the Crock pot that I used:

After a pretty fun game of Scategories, we ended up going out for Mexican food.  The location, Los Comales.  The food was actually very straight forward and pretty tasty.  I ended up getting a chicharone (Pork Belly) gordita as well as a Steak Hurrache.  The food there was pretty good and came out pretty fast.  They even had a variety of vegetarian options. It is a good place that I say would deserve a stop if you’re ever in Pilsen.

Happy Holidays. 

Happy Thanksgiving* (Belated)

I’ve been wanting to work with Oysters for a long time.  This Thanksgiving presented me with the perfect opportunity to do so.  Oysters were one of the items that were likely at the first Thanksgiving so I wanted to stay true to that.  This recipe is also a good use for left over cornbread.  I got invited to dinner, so the most practical thing for me to do was to make appetizers.  I decided to go with two good ones.  First off, I made a nice little play on a Oysters Rockefeller, substituting the breadcrumbs with cornbread and adding a little bit of pancetta.  The other was a tasty and smooth mushroom pâté.

I’ve only really worked with oysters once before in the kitchen and it wasn’t that crazy, though this time I learned a lot.  The main thing is shucking oysters is kind of a pain in the ass.  It’s one of the reasons you should definitely enjoy them fresh (my favorite place to have them is a Fishferman’s Warf in San Francisico, where you can dine on them for just 50 cents each).

For the Oysters:

Ingredients:

A Dozen Oysters

1 Clove Garlic

1 Bunch Chives

1/8 Pound Pancetta diced

¼ of a small pan of corn bread or two prepared corn muffins

2 Tablespoons unsalted butter (I’m picky about butter and my favorite big brand of butter is Kerrygold)

Method:

1. Clean the outside of the oysters.
2. Cover the bottom of  a baking pan with salt.  This will keep the oysters stable when cooking
3. Cook the pancetta over moderate heat until almost crisp
4. Add minced garlic and sautee until crisp and remove  the mixture from the heat.  Reserve half of oil
5. Crumble the cornbread and sautee it in the combination of reserved pancetta fat and unsalted butter, mix in chives and sautee for about a min.
6. Shuck the oysters discarding the top shell and leaving the meat in the bottom shell.
7. Allow to cool and top the oysters with the mixture.
8. Bake at 375F for 20 mins until browned

Mushroom Pâté

Ingredients:

1 four ounce bag of wild dried mushrooms

1 Pound mushrooms of any variety (I used cremeni and button, but most any variety would work, you would want to remove the stems if they are woody like in shitakes).

8 Ounces Neufchâtel Cheese (You can use plain old cream cheese if you so desire)

3 Tablespoons unsalted Butter

Salt and Pepper to taste

Method:

1. Add dried mushrooms to blender and run until the mushrooms become a fine powder.
2. Sautee the fresh mushrooms in 1 tablespoon of butter until browned and tender and season with salt and pepper
3. Allow mushrooms to cool
4. Add everything to blender and puree until smooth.
5. Refrigerate overnight to allow the dried mushrooms to absorb moisture of the cheese for a smooth texture