Eggnog! With printable recipe cards

I was a bad blogger last night and didn't take any photos of the eggnog. Instead, I enjoyed eggnog with my family.

The recipe from my childhood? Turned out to be just as good as I remembered. Just as creamy impossibly thick. Of course, I probably got the seasonings all wrong, but it worked!

Um.. this? Not for the faint of heart. If you're on a diet, I recommend half cups, or giving yours to someone else. Or realizing that dieting can be a resolution for 2013, or even that the world might end tomorrow. (written 12-20-2012)

My Favorite Eggnog (and now Michael's and my kids favorite too!)
What makes the difference is whipping the cream. A lot of eggnog is made with just straight cream and milk, using very cold cream and whipping it makes a frothy, foamy, thick eggnog. When you're 10, it's impressively good. When you're *coughcough* tyone, it's still very good, and you can add rum!

This recipe is made to serve 4 if you pour full cups. If you do half cup servings, it will serve 8. Why so small? Because one of my friends was very sad there were no small batch recipes for eggnog she could find, and I tested the recipe just for my family of 4.

So first, the cooked part:

4 eggs- separated, you'll use the yolks, refrigerate or freeze the whites to use in meringues or something else later
2 cups milk
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1/3 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla - or 2 if you love vanilla like I do!

Combine milk, spices and sugar in saucepan, bring to a light boil, and whisk constantly. Let simmer for about 10 minutes while whisking. Turn off heat, and stir in vanilla.

Pour 1/4 cup of milk mixture SLOWLY into the egg yolks while whisking to temper the yolks. This keeps them from cooking on contact with the rest of the hot liquid. Pour that mixture into the pan and whisk it to mix in the egg yolks completely. Chill milk mixture.

While the milk and egg mixture is chilling, whip
1 c. heavy cream
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 c. sugar
in a chilled bowl. Whip it to soft peaks (when you lift the mixer, whisk or egg beater, peaks will form and slump). Fold in the chilled milk mixture.

If you want to add rum, decide first if you're going to be serving some to kids. If so, just add the rum into individual cups, and stir it in well. Otherwise, you'll put the rum into the milk mixture before folding it into the whipped cream. If you just want a bit of rum flavor, use 2 Tbs, for a lightly alcoholic drink (about 1 ounce per serving) use a half cup of rum, for a stronger drink, use a full cup of rum. If you're doing individual drinks, I leave it up to you. A shot is 1.5 ounces. If you are going to use rum, please, please use a good one*. Because this is a bit of time to make and you're worth it! (Always drink responsibly!!)

So here's the printable recipe card- click on the images for larger versions.

Vegan Chocolate Pumpkin Pudding Recipe

Vegan Chocolate Pumpkin Pudding that's so good my non-vegan teens love it. Also good for pudding lovers who have a lactose intolerance. Another plus is that pumpkin and almond milk are both high in vitamin A and this is so much tastier than carrots!

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup tofu- yes. Tofu. Since this is vegan, it won't have the body and silkiness that an egg offers. Tofu helps! A soft tofu works best. You can skip this if you want soy free.
• 2 cups almond milk- the first time I made this, I used soy milk, but the almond milk tastes so much better!
• 1/2 cup pumpkin butter (recipe HERE)
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup sweetener- I used a raw sugar
• 2 tablespoons corn starch

Blend the tofu, almond milk, pumpkin butter, cocoa and sweetener until very smooth.
Put aside 1 cup, and put the rest in a medium sized sauce pan. Whisk the corn starch into the cup you put aside until the corn starch is well incorporated
Cook the mix in the pan over medium until it starts bubbling, whisking to keep the almond milk from scorching. Pour in the cup you set aside, whisking constantly.
Keep cooking over a medium heat until it's thickened to your liking.

I compare making pudding to making gravy. You use a thickener and cook to let some of the liquid evaporate until you have the consistency you like. For pudding, this takes about 10-15 minutes of cooking and whisking to keep it evenly heated and not let it scorch.

Serve chilled, with pumpkin seeds on top for garnish if you wish. The photos are of a tiny demitasse glass cup and little decorative pumpkins.
Here's another one!

Simple Black and White Pinstripe 4x6 recipe cards

Very simple black and white pinstripe designed recipe cards. These are in PDF format, and can be filled and saved using Acrobat Reader. Scaled for US Letter sized card stock.
The first set just has the open fields for filling in. Links will open in a new window or tab.

Pinstripe 4x6 Recipe Cards

The second set has a pair of recipes a couple people have asked for, my mom's stuffing recipe, and my French toast recipe.
Recipes on Pinstripe Cards

My mom's stuffing recipe always seemed very ordinary to me, it's what I grew up with after all. But my husband thinks it's the best food in the world and people have complimented it repeatedly. The apples give the stuffing a very nice tart sweetness.


Mom's Stuffing Recipe

1/2 breakfast sausage links
4 stalks celery
1 lg yellow onion
1 lg Granny Smith apple
8 c. dry bread cubes
1/4 tsp. crumbled thyme
1/2 tsp. sage
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 c. chicken broth

Get a couple large bowls with plates the cover them.
Chop celery, onion and apple in a small dice, cut sausage links into 1/2 inch pieces. Put all in a large skillet and saute until the sausage is done cooking.
Split the bread and sausage mixture between both bowls. Mix well.
Mix seasonings into broth and heat
Stir a half cup of hot broth into each bowl. Cover with plate. The steam should soften all the bread cubes. If it doesn't, add a couple more spoonfuls of broth into each bowl.
Use one batch to stuff the turkey, bake the other batch in a 9x13x2 inch pan. At least in theory. Mine never gets that far.

Quick note- Because of the fat that comes off the sausage, I don't use butter. My family also seems to prefer the flavor of bouillon cubes to canned broth. I'd like to say I'm one of those very prepared people that keeps homemade stock in my freezer, but it's just not so. My stocks usually gets used quickly to make soups.


Holiday French Toast
3 lg. free range eggs
1 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tbs. good vanilla
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 loaf stale sliced Italian bread
butter

Whisk together eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg. Melt a pat of butter in a medium high skillet and dip the bread into the egg batter. Fry on both sides until golden brown.

Serve with butter and choice of syrups and fruit purees. My family is very fond of Birch Breakfast Syrup, which is a mix of cane syrup and birch syrup. We use pure birch syrup in our cream sodas for lots of extra flavor.

Generally speaking, adding what seems like too much vanilla to sweet recipes makes people think you're a brilliant cook!