Peppermint Paddy Cocktail

Peppermint and chocolate is one of my all-time flavor combinations, and this hot treat with white hot chocolate, chocolate whipped cream, and minty Altoids is a perfect dessert drink for a cold day. A twist on the classic Hot Peppermint Patty drink, this white hot chocolate cocktail is spiked with brandy, white crème de menthe, and dark rum, making a mug of cheer sure to warm you all over. Read more

Pure Passion Cocktail

New Year’s celebrations just aren’t the same without champagne, and mixing up champagne cocktails is one of our favorite ways to enjoy the bubbly. This cocktail recipe has passion fruit juice, lime juice, triple sec, and a brut cava, and the sugared rim with chili powder gives it a mix of sweet and spicy.

Passion fruit juice may be tricky to track down in some areas, and I hit every single store we regularly shop at to find some. I finally had to give in and buy passion fruit nectar, a sweetened form of passion fruit juice, but I also had to read the labels because almost every brand I could find had high fructose corn syrup. La Fe brand passion fruit nectar was the only one to use regular sugar. Read more

Cider Car Cocktail

As the snow fell and piled up during the now infamous blizzard of December ‘09, I stayed in the kitchen baking cookies and getting ready for Christmas with a mug of hot cider in hand. We like it spiked with spiced rum or cinnamon schnapps with a stick of cinnamon in the mug, but this hot cider cocktail is a variation on the classic sidecar cocktail and has apple brandy and triple sec. The orange flavor from the triple sec works well with the cider and we agreed the cinnamon sugar rimmer is perfect, though we used an orange wedge rather than lime to rim the mug. For a nonalcoholic variation, just add an ounce of orange juice to the hot cider. Read more

Big O Cocktail

Christmas is past, New Year’s Eve is approaching, and whether you host or attend large parties, intimate gatherings, or stay at home with your loved ones, festive drinks are part of the celebration of the new year. We began taste testing new (to us) cocktails over the weekend and will share some of our favorites this week in preparation for New Year’s Eve. Read more

Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Pie with Whole Wheat Crust

We did it. I can’t believe it’s true, but we planted two pecan trees in our yard. We spotted them at Lowe’s in late September and selected a Sumner Pecan and a Stuart Pecan. We are slightly north of the growing zone for the Sumner, but our area has mild winters so it should do well. Pecan trees need another variety nearby to produce, and we planted these within 30 feet of each other. They got a little dry at one point and we were worried we might lose them, but it looks like they have taken to their new home. They don’t look like much right now, just a couple sticks about five feet (152 cm) tall since they lost their leaves, but they are full of promise, I can feel it. We have hopeful visions of harvesting pounds and pounds of pecans in about eight years. Yes it will be a long wait, but if the trees produce then my dream to grow our own pecans will be fulfilled. Read more

Tomato Jam (Doce de Tomate)

It’s rich and complex, not your average tomato jam. The cinnamon and cloves spice it up, but the ruby port makes all the difference between an average jam and a memorable jam. It’s good by itself on toast, crackers, or baguette slices, and even better with sheep or goat cheese.

The recipe comes from the newly released The New Portuguese Table (review) by award-winning author David Leite, a book combining culinary tradition with modern flavors. In his version, Leite reduced the sugar considerably, leaving plenty of room for the flavor of the tomatoes to shine. We used our homegrown Cherokee Purple tomatoes, a rich rose-purple colored heirloom. We had several of them ripen at once, giving us the perfect opportunity to try them in this jam. The tomatoes have a sweet, rich flavor that works perfectly with the spices and port. Read more

Next Page »