As Christmas arrives and the weather gets cooler for most of us, chilly mixed drinks are much less desirable. Over at Simple Cocktails, I rarely make warm drinks, but with the weather peaking in the 40’s in Albuquerque, it’s time to warm up.
Fire and Ice Hot Cocoa
Because of all the hot and spicy liquor I taste here at the Burn! Blog, I often keep a mental note of cocktail recipes I can try in the future with these flavors. Other times, a liquor arrives at my home bar and I know exactly what do mix it with.
This month, I have one of each, combined with a traditional holiday drink, though at odds with each other in their flavors. I’m calling them Fire and Ice, based on my wife’s description of these cocoas flavors.
Christmas Food Coverage on the SuperSite, Part Two
Continuing our Christmas food coverage, here are two more articles of interest…
Christmas Food Coverage on the SuperSite
We have quite a number of unique holiday articles on the SuperSite that I’m going to tell you about, so here are the first two.
Christmas Candied Bacon
Over the last two years, Christmas-flavored bacon has been the Red Ryder BB gun to my Ralph Parker. Unlike the hero in A Christmas Story, though, there’s no chance of me shooting my eye out or getting my tongue stuck to a frozen pole along the way. TBS also hasn’t opted to run 24 Hours of Mark Chases Christmas Bacon. This year, however, I think I finally got it right: Christmas Candied Bacon.
Candied Yams in Kahlua and Chocolate
Candied yams being a regular cast member of holiday dinner, I like to play around with them each year. Not like some creepy herbophile, just so we’re clear. I like to change them up when I cook ’em. We did Thanksgiving in a Southwestern theme so I had to find a way to make them fit. The solution: Kahlua, baker’s chocolate, and ground red pepper to set off all of that sweetness. And, coincidentally, keep the little kids from eating them all before the grown up kids had a chance to grab a bite.
Kicked-Up Cranberry Sauce: Cranberry, Apple, and Jalapeño United
If you’re like me, you probably get tired of the regular boring cranberry sauce that most people serve at holiday dinners. You know the stuff that I’m referring to — that gelatinous, mushy cranberry mold that your grandmother plated up every year for as long as you can remember. The flavor isn’t terribly bad, but I don’t understand why something that is as easy to make as homemade cranberry sauce is so often purchased off a grocery store shelf. When the canned version is served alongside a delicious spread of Thanksgiving goodies, I’m the first to overlook it and move on to the next offering. So this year I decided to try something new: since I’m a fan of spicy foods, I thought I’d add jalapeños to my otherwise fairly sweet homemade sauce and the results were delicious. If you prefer another type of pepper, feel free to use that one. You really can’t go wrong with this recipe!
