Indemnity83

They say a picture is worth a thousand words; this one’s worth about 20 pounds

This post is part of a series called ‘Flavors of The Holidays‘.

Its fall and the flavors and aromas of the holidays are upon us. Join me for the next few weeks as I reveal some of my favorite holiday dishes from family, friends and around the world. Check back every Wednesday for a new recipe until Christmas.

Eggnog, the love-it/hate-it drink of the holidays. Personally I love the stuff whether from a carton bought at the supermarket or made at home from scratch. But I challenge you to find ANYBODY who doesn’t absolutely love this homemade (and spiked!) version of the holiday cocktail.

Amazingly Good Eggnog
Cook Time: 10 min | Level: Advanced | Yield: 12 servings

“It’s taken me several years to perfect this recipe. Now everyone asks, ‘When are you making the eggnog?!!’ This uses cooked eggs for safety, and you can use more or less rum to taste. It’s a bit of work to make, but well worth it. You’ll never buy store-bought eggnog again! Enjoy!”

Ingredients

4 cups milk

5 whole cloves

2-½ teaspoon vanilla extract (divided)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

12 egg yolks

1-½ cups sugar

2-½ cups light rum

4 cups light cream

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

Instructions

Combine milk, cloves, ½ teaspoon vanilla, and cinnamon in a saucepan, and heat over lowest setting for 5 minutes. Slowly bring milk mixture to a boil.

In a large bowl, combine egg yolks and sugar. Whisk together until fluffy. Whisk hot milk mixture slowly into the eggs. Pour mixture into saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly for 3 minutes, or until thick. Do not allow mixture to boil. Strain to remove cloves, and let cool for about an hour.

Stir in rum, cream, 2 teaspoon vanilla, and nutmeg. Refrigerate overnight before serving.

This post is part of a series called ‘Flavors of The Holidays‘.

Its fall and the flavors and aromas of the holidays are upon us. Join me for the next few weeks as I reveal some of my favorite holiday dishes from family, friends and around the world. Check back every Wednesday for a new recipe until Christmas.

Sky-high and scrumptious, this fluffy chocolate delight is a huge step up from the basic JELL-O chocolate pie for only a little more work. This recipe is a modified version of one I found on the internet some time ago, its slightly simplified from the one I found but just as good.

Chocolate Mousse Pie
Cook Time: 20 min | Level: Basic | Yield: 8 servings

Make sure you get the whipped cream to room temperature (4 hours if frozen) before you start or you will not be able to fold it into the chocolate.

Ingredients

1 bag (12 ounce) milk chocolate chips

4 cups miniature marshmallows

1 Graham cracker or Oreo pie crust

1 cup milk

1 8oz tub prepared whipped cream (at room temp)

Instructions

In a heavy saucepan, heat the chocolate, marshmallows and milk over low heat until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth, stirring constantly

Let cool for 10 minutes, fold in whipped cream and pour into pie crust

Refrigerate at least 3 hours or until set

Refrigerate leftovers

This post is part of a series called ‘Flavors of The Holidays‘.

Its fall and the flavors and aromas of the holidays are upon us. Join me for the next few weeks as I reveal some of my favorite holiday dishes from family, friends and around the world. Check back every Wednesday for a new recipe until Christmas.

Other than having made it half a dozen times, I can’t take any credit for this recipe. I first had it at Christmas when my cousin Jason made it for the entire family, and he got it from the Food Network. It was served on a bead of creamy mashed potatoes and covered with a sweet pea & cream sauce which gives it a nice festive color too. I simply love this recipe though, it does take a bit of prep work and a couple ingredients you aren’t likely to have but once you serve it to your friends and they beg you for the recipe it’ll all be worth it.

Lingonberry Stuffed Meatballs
Cook Time: 30 min | Level: Intermediate | Yield: 6 servings

Best served on a bed of mashed potatoes with a mildly sweet sauce.

Ingredients

2 pounds ground beef

1 pound ground veal

1/2 cup minced yellow onion

3 sprigs fresh tarragon, leaves stripped and coarsely chopped

2 teaspoons herbes de Provence

3 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons white pepper

5 eggs

3 cups panko (Japanese) bread crumbs

4 tablespoons lingonberries

Vegetable oil

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Put the ground beef, veal, onion, tarragon, herbes de Provence, salt and pepper into a large mixing bowl. Lightly beat the eggs and pour over the meat. Mix well using your hands (it’s the best way to make meatballs). Add 1 1/2 cups of the bread crumbs and mix well. Set aside.

Form the meat mixture into 12 balls. Make a hole in the center of each ball with your thumb and fill the hole with 1 teaspoon of the lingonberries. Push the meat back over the fruit, making sure to seal the hole well. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. (The meatballs can be made to this point 1 day in advance.)

Pour 3 inches of vegetable oil into a large deep sided skillet and place over medium heat for 7 to 10 minutes. Test the oil by dropping a bread cube into it. If the cube browns quickly, the oil is ready. Remove the meatballs from the refrigerator and roll them in the remaining bread crumbs. Carefully place them into the skillet 4 at a time. Keep a close watch on them, making sure to turn them so they get golden brown on all sides. Remove with a slotted spoon and place on a sheet of paper towels. Repeat with the remaining meatballs.

Put the meatballs on a baking sheet and place in the oven for 20 minutes. Remove and serve immediately.

NOTE: Substitute cranberry sauce if you can’t find lingonberries

The first time I made this I couldn’t find ligonberries, so I substituted cranberry sauce. Recently though, I’ve found that IKEA sells a ligonberry sauce that could be used. In the end though, I frankly can’t tell the difference between the lingonberry sauce and cranberry sauce so it may just be easier to stick with cranberry.

Otherwise, I incourage you to make these WAY ahead of time (like the day before) and do the cooking right before you serve. Once you start the cooking process you can’t really stop so its very nice to be prepared ahead of time, and if they are cold they hold together better when you fry them. This makes an incredible alternative to traditional Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners and is one of my all time favorite dishes.

This post is part of a series called ‘Flavors of The Holidays‘.

Its fall and the flavors and aromas of the holidays are upon us. Join me for the next few weeks as I reveal some of my favorite holiday dishes from family, friends and around the world. Check back every Wednesday for a new recipe until Christmas.

On a cold, blustery day, nothing warms you to the core like a hot cup of spiced apple cider and its probably one of the easiest things to make. Just writing out the recipe is enough to make me want to go have a cup! Besides being simple, cheap and tasty, it’ll make your house smell like warm apples and cinnamon all day.

Spiced Apple Cider
Cook Time: 30 min | Level: Basic | Yield: 16 servings

Ingredients

1 Gallon apple juice

~10 whole cloves

2-3 cinnamon sticks

3-4 star anise heads

Instructions

Put everything in a large crock pot and heat until steaming

Enjoy

NOTE: It takes a good while for everything to heat up, so if you’re in a rush you may want to start it on the stove top, but you’ll lose some flavor. If you can’t fit the entire gallon of cider in your pot just set the remaining off to the side and top off the batch as it gets low.

A note on the difference between apple juice and apple cider when your shopping. From what I can tell the difference is that cider is made by pressing the apples which results in the typically refrigerated cloudy stuff found in the produce section and juice is the pasteurized and filtered liquid from a cider. That said, you may notice in the juice aisle of your supermarket there will be both ‘Apple Juice’ and ‘Apple Cider’ (both from concentrate) that look nearly identical, most notably that they are clear. As far as I can tell there isn’t a difference between these two products and either will work for this recipe. The key is to get a 100% juice from concentrate that is clear, as it makes the best presentation.

In the past few weeks, I’ve missed easily 4 lunches. In those same past few weeks, the lunches I did have, were nearly exclusively fast food. I do on occasion make time to sit down at a Subway, but even then I usually get a food long, and sometimes ask for a toasted BMT (likely they worst sandwich on the menu).

Besides the fact that I’m eating extremely poorly (my late night math puts my average caloric intake for just lunch well over 1000), but I’m spending more money than I need to be. According to Mint.com (a subject I’ve been meaning to create a whole post on) in the month of June I spent $135 on fast food. Its hard to get a solid per day cost though since often I use cash, and occasionally it goes on the company card but some guestimating tells me I spend about $8 per day (during the work week) on fast food, or expanded out a little under two-thousand dollars per year. Yikes.

So today, on my way home from work (at 9pm) I decided to do something about it. I stopped in Raley’s, grabbed a basket and started gathering supplies. My goals were more along the lines of getting a filling, satisfying and physically robust meal than making a perfectly nutritious one. I figure the nutrition can come in more seriously when I get used to this new pattern, and I have more time to plan meals than skimming nutrition facts in the super market.

Over the past seven years I’ve been working, I’ve taken in maybe 10 bagged lunches. For a very long time I’ve had excuses, and “reasons” to not take a bagged lunch. However, no matter what I tried to convince myself of, I can easily put together a lunch that can sit in the car all day without being destroyed and if I make the lunches ahead of time (like, when I get home from the store) then it doesn’t take up any more of my mornings.

All that said, what did I end up with in my bagged lunch? A single serving of Oberto Beef Jerky Strips; “Chicken of the Sea” Tuna Snax (tuna dip with crackers); A bag of Sun Chips; A bottle of water and a few pieces of hard Caramels for desert. Which puts this meal at a much healthier 390 calories (overall nutrition information is posted to the right)

I also took the opportunity to look at more than just my lunch eating and spending habits. Its no secret that I like Starbucks (mmm, venti, soy, no-water, Chai Tea Latte). But, the amount of money I spend on Starbucks each month could probably feed a third world village. Not to mention that a twenty ounce cup of steamed milk (albeit soy milk) satisfies none of my morning nutritional needs. So I also picked up some instant coffee (for my caffeine fix) and a variety pack of instant oatmeal.

Its not a complete plan, and has some gaps (like dinner) but its a change for the good, and one that I hope will inspire others to do the same. Save yourself some cash, and make those miles on the treadmill count for something: brown bag your lunches this week! I’d also like to hear from people with the things you put in your bag.