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.