Cookistry

I've been having a lot of fun making cream liqueurs, and now that I've found flavored sweetened condensed milks (made by Eagle Brand) in chocolate and caramel flavors, it's even more fun.

Or less fuss. One or the other.

Unfortunately, the flavored sweetened condensed milks don't seem to be widely available. Someone I know posted a photo of them, and it took quite a long time before I found them - in just one grocery store so far.

If you do find them, you might want to pick up a few cans. I can see how they could be very handy to have one hand. Not just for cocktails, but also for making ice cream.

One reason I like these cream liqueurs so much is that they make a lovely dessert cocktail, and I don't have to fuss with mixing anything - just pour. I don't mind making mixed drinks, but some evenings I just want to settle in with something nice without measuring, fussing, squeezing, or stirring. And since this is sweet and rich, it's dessert and a drink all in one.

I made a minty cream liqueur with chocolate sweetened condensed milk that was pretty amazing. This time I chose to use the caramel flavored sweetened condensed milk along with bourbon. It was super-tasty.

Caramel Bourbon Mint Liqueur
Makes about 1 quart

1 14-ounce can caramel sweetened condensed milk (I used Eagle Brand)
1 12-ounce can evaporated milk
1 1/4 cups bourbon (I used Four Roses)
1/2 cup Brancamenta
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt

Combine all the ingredients and stir or shake to combine. Keep refrigerated. Serve straight-up or over ice.

If you can't find the caramel sweetened condensed milk, you can use canned dulce de leche, and then add more evaporated milk or regular milk to taste.

Did you miss me?

I planned on taking some time off for the holidays and coming back right after the first of the year. But ... that didn't happen. Honestly, I don't know if I'm completely back yet. I have some recipes that I made that are blog-worthy, though, so there will be at least a few more posts this month.

While I was slacking off, I has one old post that suddenly got popular. It was my recipe for Pressure-Fried Chicken. I'm not sure if pressure cooking in general has gotten popular, or if people have a sudden urge to do dangerous things in the kitchen. But that post was my most-viewed since I took my little break. Heck, it probably would have been my most popular, even if I didn't take a break.

Meanwhile, I got some samples of hibiscus products from a company called Wild Hibiscus Flower Company through the group 37 Cooks. If you're not familiar with 37 Cooks, it's a group that's pretty much just for fun. And, trust me, it's a lot of fun. There are bloggers and non-bloggers in the group, so you'll see recipes there from people you won't see anywhere else.

So ... one of the items I got was hibiscus flowers in syrup.

I've been a huge fan of hibiscus flowers long before I actually knew what they were. They show up in a lot of herbal teas, adding red color and a fruity sort of flavor. You can find them dried in Mexican stores, where they're called jamaica (ha-my-ka). And now, there are flowers in syrup.

The syrup was my favorite part, but I thought the flowers made a really pretty garnish.

I made my own sparkling water using a soda maker, but you can use bottle water or any fizzy drink you like. If you use a sweetened beverage, omit the agave - it will probably be sweet enough.

Sparkling Hibiscus Lemonade

1 tablespoon hibiscus syrup (from jar of hibiscus flowers in syrup)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons agave syrup
Sparkling water (or soda) to fill glass
1 hibiscus flower for garnish

Combine the hibiscus syrup, lemon juice, and agave in a glass. Fill with sparkling water and stir. Add the hibiscus flower. Serve.

You can, of course, add ice, if you like. But if the sparkling water is cold, you might not need it, depending on how chilled you like your beverages.

The larger your glass, the more diluted your flavors will be, so adjust as you like. And adjust the sweetness, tartness, too.

I received samples via 37 Cooks for my use in this challenge.

September 12 is Chocolate Milkshake Day. Are you prepared?
I got a little added incentive to whip up a milkshake this year because the nice folks at Branca made me an offer I couldn't refuse. And that included a bottle of their Brancamenta, a mint-flavored liqueur. I'm a huge fan of chocolate and mint. Of course I wanted those flavors in a shake.

But before I started, I had to try the liqueur on its own. Unlike other super-sweet or one-note mint liqueurs, this one is pretty complex, with herby-spicy notes along with the mint. It was really nice over ice after dinner, and I'm looking forward to mixing it into cocktails.

I started the shake with a home made chocolate ice cream, but your favorite store-bought brand would be just fine, too.

To add a little texture to the shake, I added some cookies, as well. I used mint-filled Oreos, but when they're in season, Girl Scout cookies would be great. Or any other mint cookie you like.

Or, if you don't happen to have mint cookies hanging around, chocolate cookies would work. The Brancamenta has enough mint flavor, so you don't really need to add more mint.

Minty Chocolate Milkshake

2 generous scoops chocolate ice cream
1/2 cup milk (or as needed)
1 1/2 ounces Brancamenta
4 chocolate mint cookies (Thin Mints, Mint Oreos, or your favorite mint or chocolate cookie)

Toss everything into your blender and blend until it reaches the consistency you like.

If it's too thick, add a little extra milk to thin it out. If it's too thin, go right ahead and add more ice cream. I won't tell.

If you like, you can garnish with a dollop of whipped cream, but I didn't think this needed any embellishment at all.

Serve immediately.Slurp, slurp. Ahhhhhh. Now make one for everyone else!

Thanks to Braca for sponsoring this post.

A while back, I received sets of cocktail, chai, and recipe dice from a company called Leafcutter Designs. The general idea is that you roll the dice and create a cocktail, chai, or recipe based on what you roll. It's a great way of brainstorming.

And it's a lot of fun, too. And tasty.

I'll admit that I don't follow the dice every single time - I mean, no one's looking, so if I roll an ingredient I don't have, I don't use it. Or I might tip one over now and then to get an ingredient I like better.

And pretty soon I'm going to cross out "arugula" on the recipe dice and maybe change it to endive or radicchio.

This time, I decided to roll the chai dice. I was in the mood for chai and didn't want to look up a recipe. I figured that the dice would lead me to some good flavors.

The funny part was when I rolled the dice and saw that I rolled black tea, I had no idea if I had any plain black tea.

I have a LOT of different teas, but most are mixed flavors, many are herbal, and some are green. I dug through my box 'o tea and through the random packets, and I found one black tea teabag. Just one.

But it was enough to make a single glass of chai and that was all I wanted.

The thing about the dice is that while you roll ingredients, you don't roll amounts, so two people could roll exactly the same thing and end up with completely different things.



The "milk" die says milk on all sides, but I could have made my chai with almond milk or soy milk or any other milk. And I made a hot chai. I could have made a cold drink with chai flavors, too.


I liked this version. I might make it again. Or, you know, just roll the dice and see what happens the next time.

Chai

1 cup milk
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 green cardamom pods
1/8 teaspoon dry ginger bits
5 coriander seeds
1 cinnamon stick

Put all of the ingredients except the cinnamon stick in a small saucepan and heat gently.

You could also heat the milk in the microwave in the mug you're going to use, but keep in mind that it tends to foam up, and you risk having it foam and spill out of the mug if you don't watch it carefully.

Let the spices steep in the milk for a minute or two. Go ahead and taste it and see if it's strong enough. If not, let it steep longer. If you steep so long that the drink cools off too much, just re-warm it.

Hey, we're having fun here. There's no wrong way to do this.

Put the cinnamon stick in the mug you'll use. If you want a stronger cinnamon flavor, you could also let it steep with the rest of the spices. Your drink, your choice. I liked the idea of using it as a stir stick, so that's what I did.

Strain the milk into the mug. Serve.

Note: I got the dice at no cost to me from Leafcutter Designs for the purpose of a review. I already wrote about them here, but. I continue to use them because they're fun. You'll probably see them used here again.

When I was offered some Jeremiah Weed whiskies to try, I wasn't exactly sure what it was. I mean, I know what whisky is, but I hadn't tried this particular brand.

There are three flavors, spiced, cinnamon, and sarsaparilla. I was particularly smitten with the sarsaparilla. It's similar to root beer, which is one of my favorite flavors. I started playing around with flavors, but then decided to pare things back to the whisky could really shine.

I thought about making an ice cream drink, but then decided to make something less heavy using ice and half-and-half. While half-and-half is certainly richer than milk, there's a lot of water from the ice. I've also made this with milk, and it's fine.

I also tried a variation of this with chocolate, and it was pretty darned good. Try it with just a little chocolate, and add more to taste. If you add too much, it can overpower the sarsaparilla flavor.

Yes, I've had quite a few of these.

The other flavors are also good served this way. The cinnamon with chocolate reminded me of Mexican chocolate.

Jeremiah Weed Sarsaparilla Slushie

1 1/2 cups ice
1 1/2 ounces Jeremiah Weed Sarsaparilla Whisky
1 ounce simple syrup
4 ounce half-and-half (or milk or heavy cream)

You don't need to measure the ice cubes precisely. I measured what came of out my ice cube tray a few times, and it averages 1 1/2 cup, but it depends on how neatly they go into the measuring cup, and it also depends on how full I fill it or how much spills out. Sometimes I'm a little sloppy.

Put the ice cubes in your blender. Crush until you have a fine snow.

Add the whisky, simple syrup, and half-and-half. Blend until well combined and a little frothy.

Serve in a mug with a straw.

I received the Jeremiah Weed at no cost to me.

I've been making a lot of cocktails lately, so it makes sense that I'd want to make my own mixers. I have a soda siphon for making fizzy water, and I've made flavored simple syrups. But for some reason, I never thought about making a sour mix.

Which is sort of silly, since I like tart cocktails. Usually that means I'm squeezing limes for my drinks. But wen I got a copy of Summer Cocktails to review, I decided to make the sour mix recipe from the book.

But of course I had to put my own twist on it.

The standard recipe had one cup of lemon juice and one cup of lime juice, but there were options for sour mixes with more lime, with orange juice, and with grapefruit juice. I had a brand-new bag of limes and a bag of lemons, but I also had some ugli fruit from Frieda's Specialty Produce, so I decided to use one of them. Then I squeezed all the limes, and I got the rest of my two cups of citrus from squeezing lemons.

The resulting sour mix is tart and a little sweet, and it tastes fresh because it is fresh. I decided that I wanted the clearest possible cocktails, so I strained the juice before I mixed it with the sugar. If you want a thicker juice, don't bother straining.

Homemade Sour Mix
Adapted from Summer Cocktails by Maria Del Mar Sacasa

1 cup granulated sugar
6 tablespoons finely grated citrus zest (from the citrus you've chosen to use)
1 cup water
2 cups fresh citrus juice (your choice)

Pulse the sugar and zest in a food processor until the zest is very very fine.

Put the zesty sugar and the water in a saucepan. Heat on medium, stirring, until the sugar melts. Take the pot off the heat and let the mixture cool to room temperature.

Add the fruit juice and stir to combine. Transfer to a bottle or jar for storage. You can strain it if you like, or leave it pulpy.

About the Book

I've acquired a few cocktail books, and some are for fantasizing about, and others are for making cocktails whenever I feel like it. This is the latter. It's less about hunting for exotic brands of liquor and more about having some fun with tasty combination.

There are some classics, and there are some more modern drinks. And there are variations of the drinks, so you can experiment a bit. There are classics like martinis and margaritas, and there are some new creations as well.

I have to say that I'll probably be using this book quite a bit. And I'm probably going to make the sour mix again and again, whenever I see citrus on sale.

I received the book from the publisher at no cost to me. I regularly receive produce from Frieda's Specialty Produce for my use.

Moscoto wine is becoming one of my favorites. It's not super-sweet, but sweet enough. I particularly like the sparkling versions. They seem so festive. And it's inexpensive enough that you can mix it with fruit juices or use it in cocktail recipes without feeling like you're ruining a fancy varietal wine.

In this case, I decided to do a play off the mimosa, made with champagne. Or even a bellini, made with prosecco. The idea is the same - sparkling wine and fruit juice. The moscato wine is light and fresh and easy to drink (and perfect for summer). and the citrus is always a good match for seafood.

Moscato Mimosa

Orange-pineapple juice, cold
Moscato wine (sparkling preferred), cold
Maraschino cherry (optional)

Fill your favorite sparking-wine drinking glass about 1/4 full with juice. Top with the wine. Add the cherry, if you like.

Serve.

If you prefer, you can change the ratio to 50-50, or even use 3/4 juice and 1/4 wine. It's up to you. And that cherry? Completely optional.

Like Indian food? Want to make it at home?

The Cafe Spice Cookbook touts 84 "quick and easy Indian recipes for everyday meals," and the chef who wrote the book says that ingredients are readily available. That's good news, because I've grumbled that some Indian cookbooks require ingredients that have to be purchased in specialty stores.

Indian recipes typically use a lot of spices, but they're all common enough. The problem I had with other Indian cookbooks was that some of them required specific spice mixes like garam masala or chaat masala. This book does, too, but it also gives recipes to make those mixes yourself.

If you're near an Indian market or you have the mix in your pantry, you can use that - if you can't buy the mix, you can make your own from spices that are easy to find. A simple thing like that makes this book a lot easier to cook from. A lot.

The book also has a recipe for Ginger-Garlic paste, which is another item that is common in Indian cooking and sold at Indian grocers - but again, if you don't live near an Indian grocer, you can make your own.

The very first recipe that caught my eye was the Chicken Tikka Masala, and the second was the Tandoori Spiced Roasted Chicken. Another recipe I have bookmarked is a veggie sloppy joe - I don't think I'll serve it as a sandwich as suggested, but it sounds like it would be a really good vegetable stew.

But I decided to start with something simple, before I launched into one of the more complicated recipes.

Chai seemed about as simple as it could get, and I like chai. When I went digging through my stash of tea, I realized I didn't have any plain black tea. I did have a ginger-peach black tea, so I figured I'd give that a try, since the chai used ginger.

The chai was good, but the peach flavor in the tea I had was a little too strong in the finished drink. It would have been a lot better if I had used a plain black tea - I suggest that if you make this, you use the right tea

The Perfect Chai
Adapted from The Cafe Spice Cookbook by Hari Nayak

2 cups water
1/4 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 1-inch piece fresh peeled ginger, lightly crushed
6 green cardamom pods, crushed
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons loose black tea, or 1 teabag black tea (like English breakfast tea)
Sugar, for serving

Put the water, fennel seeds, ginger, and cardamom pods in a saucepan and bring to a boil on high heat.

Lower the heat to medium and boil for another minute.

Add the milk, let it return to a boil, then take it off the heat and add the black tea. Cover the pot and let the tea steep for 3 minutes.

Pour the mixture through a strainer into 2 teacups. Add sugar, as desired.

I received this book from the publisher at no cost to me.

A short time ago, I received the lastest new flavored rums from Captain Morgan - grapefruit, pineapple, and coconut.

As soon as I posted a photo of the rums on Facebook, a friend told me how great the grapefruit was. Interesting.

Of course I didn't take their word for it - I did a taste test. The grapefruit was indeed stunning. s soon as I opened the bottle, it smelled like grapefruit and the flavor was there, with a little hint of sweetness.

The pineapple was the one I expected to love, and it was really good, too. I can see a lot of interesting uses for it, even in cooking. A pineapple rum cake could be fun.

Then we come to coconut. Hmmm. I'm not a huge fan of coconut, but I tasted it, anyway. And ... it truly wasn't bad. It was actually good. It had the flavor of coconut, for sure, but it was totally drinkable.

How about that, hmmmm?

I probably won't seek it out simply because the pineapple and grapefruit would land in my basket first, but I'm definitely going to whip up some cocktails with the coconut rum. I particularly liked it mixed with the pineapple.

So then I started playing around with cocktails. this one is ridiculously simple, but it's amazingly delicious. It would be perfect for a brunch. Mix up a pitcher for a party or a barbecue.

I didn't garnish with anything, but it would be lovely with a skewer of fresh fruit, orange slices, cherries, or chunks of pineapple.

Or, you know, a paper umbrella, because those are just silly and cute.

Pineapple Grapefruit-Rum Cocktail

1 1/2 ounces Captain Morgan Grapefruit Rum
4 ounces pineapple juice* (or as needed), cold

Combine the rum and pineapple juice in a glass, garnish as desired.and serve. Yup, that's it. Two ingredients, and you're done.

Perfect for brunch, when you're busy with everything else that brunch entails.

You can add ice if you like (or if your juice isn't chilled), but I thought it was great without.

*Fresh pineapple juice is always preferred, but if you don't have a pineapple and a juicer, the frozen concentrate that comes in cans is pretty good.

There's also a pineapple-orange-banana juice that I like a lot - I think it would be great with this rum.

I receive products from the Captain Morgan family of products for my use in making cocktails.

As I was driving to the grocery store today, I was thinking about the Shamrock Shake. And I was wondering why a mint-flavored shake was Irish. Green is associate with Ireland, so it makes sense that the shake is green.

But why mint? Why not ... uh ... lime?

Avocado?

Kale?

Yeah, I guess that explains why it's mint flavored.

I recently made a Baileys-like Irish Cream liqueur, but it wasn't green. Or minty.

I decided to fix that. Well, I decided to make something minty, but not necessarily green. I did put it in a green bottle, though.

I eliminated the coffee and made a few other tweaks, and I think it's pretty darned successful. Like the other drink, this is pretty much a drinkable dessert or an evening treat.

Minty Irish Cream Liqueur

1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 12-ounce can evaporated milk
1 cup Irish whiskey
1/2 cup peppermint schnapps
1/4 cup chocolate syrup

Combine all ingredients in a bowl or a large measuring cup and mix well. Transfer to a suitable bottle for storage. Keep refrigerated.

Back in my mom's day (because dad didn't drink) you went to a bar for a highball or a screwdriver or beer. Cocktails were pretty standard. A whisky sour was fancy.

Later, there were cosmopolitans and mojitos and complicated drinks with cute names and exotic ingredients and imported whiskies. No one's ordering a shot and a beer any more.

Well, maybe they are, but they're naming the liquor and chasing it with a craft beer.

A martini isn't just a martini any more. Heck, I've got a recipe for a Caramel Nut Pumpkintini here on my blog!

But that's not all. No only are the drinks more dramatic these days, but there are mixologists who create exclusive cocktails and flair bartenders who spin and juggle bottles and make a show out of making your drink.

I don't mind a little showmanship, but trust me, you don't want me juggling. That's why I was pretty excited to find B'lure cocktail concentrate. It's sort of a like bitters, and it's made from a flower extract, and it's blue.

Or, I should say that it's blue until it meets up with something acidic. Like, let's say ... a drink that has lemon or lime juice. Even mildly acidic substances change the color. Maybe not all the way to pink, but you could end up with a vibrant purple.

Now, that's fun, right?

But here's the deal. The color changes pretty quickly, so to have an impact, you need to add the extract while your guests are watching. Otherwise, you're serving them a pink or purple drink. Which is certainly pretty, but not very dramatic.

So far, I've only poured and mixed - but it would be fun to add the B'lure to ice cubes, or perhaps use them in a layered cocktail, so the guests would do the final mixing to change the colors.

This cocktail is very similar to a margarita, but with gin instead of tequila. It works. Trust me. I've been testing this cocktail for a loooong time to get the proportions right. I like it with lime juice, but I've also used Meyer lemons as well as standard lemons.

You might want to adjust the sweetness on this to your liking. The tartness depends, of course, on how tart your citrus juice is, but you also need to take into consideration how tart you like your drinks. It's totally up to you.

If this seems too strong for you, you can also add sparking water or soda to tame it a bit.

As far as the mixing, you could add the B'lure the way I did, or start with the B'lure in the glass with some water or soda and then add the gin and lime. Either way works. Just have fun with it!

And - hey - if you don't happen to have any B'lure hanging around, this makes a tasty drink without the added color!

Gin-a-Rita
1 ounce Tanqueray gin
1 ounce lime juice
1/2 ounce agave syrup
1 dropper-full B-lure mixed with 1 ounce water

Combine the gin, lime juice, and agave in a short squat glass filled with ice. Mix well.

Pour the B-lure mixture into the cocktail while your guests watch. Garnish with something fun. I used a slice of starfruit.

Serve.

And now ... for the rest of the story!

Right after I finished this post, I decided to see how some of my other ideas would work. I was really pleased with this layering effect:


That's agave nectar on the bottom, water mixed with B'lure in the center - you can see how blue it really is there - and then gin mixed with B'lure on top. The gin was just acidic enough so the B'lure turned it a very pretty purple. And with careful pouring over the back side of a spoon, the gin floated nicely on top of the water.

Needless to say, there's a lot of potential for creativity with this product. I'm sure you'll see me using it more in the future.

I have so much fun playing around with cocktails.

Sure, it's hard work, all that pouring and sipping and whatnot. And some things aren't worthy of writing about. Other times, I come up with ideas that are just too good to not write down for next time.

This time around, my buddies at Crown Royal sent me a bottle of Crown Regal Apple. You might know that I'm a rabid fan of Crown Maple, but this apple stuff was new to me. So I sipped. And it tastes very much like apples. Not a candy-sour-apple sort of thing, but more like apple cider or boiled apple syrup. Apple-apples, and not apple-candy-flavored.

So that led me off in several directions. Caramel apples, cinnamon apples, apple pie ... and then I started thinking about other fruits. First, cherries. But not actual cherries this time, but cherry bitters.

Have you seen all the types of bitters these days? Yikes. And there are recipes online for making your own. It's a whole new mini-industry.

Once I had cherries and apples covered, I decided to add one more thing. The resulting cocktail resembles sangria on the first sip, but then the whisky taste shows up and the cherry and apple come along for the ride again. It's a simple combination, but the flavors are more complex than you'd expect.

If you're into garnishing, I'd suggest an orange slice, cherries, or both. A lemon twist could be interesting, too. But really, I think the color is pretty enough to let it go unadorned.

This would be a fine cocktail for any occasion. How about for watching that "big game" that's coming up? I think it would pair perfectly with chicken wings.

Manhattan Sangria

1 ounce Crown Regal Apple
Plum juice, as needed
Several dashes of cherry bitters, to taste

Fill a short squat glass with ice. Add the Crown Regal Apple.

Top with plum juice to fill the glass (or as desired). Add a few dashes of cherry bitters.

Stir and serve.

I received a bottle of Crown Regal Apple at no cost to me.

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Dr Pepper Snapple Group. All opinions are 100% mine.

When I was a kid, one of my favorite things was to order a kiddie cocktail at restaurants when i was out with my parents. I remember loving the cherries in particular, and it was a real treat when I got more than one cherry in my drink.

Oh yeah, that's what it was all about, right?

These days I prefer more adult cockails.

This one includes tart cherry juice, so it's not as sweet as that childhood beverage. And there's vodka, too.

I've always been a fan of Canada Dry ginger ale, and usually have some on hand. It's a comforting fizzy drink when my tummy's feeling a little unhappy, and it makes a nice fizzy cocktail that's a little sweet - but not too much - and with a little zip from the ginger.

So it seemed perfect for my adult cocktail, to go with the tart cherry juice.

If you can't find tart cherry juice, then pomegranate would work well, too, but I had no trouble picking up everything I needed at my local Safeway, so you shouldn't have a problem.

The color is a pretty red, perfect for the holidays, and the flavor is light and refreshing, so it's great as a pre-dinner drink, or for a cocktail-and-appetizer party.

Maraschino cherries can sometimes be found in green as well as red, particularly near the holidays, so those could be fun along with - or instead of - the red cherries.

Not-so-Kiddie Cocktail

1 ounce vodka
2 ounces tart cherry juice
Canada Dry Ginger Ale, to fill glass
Maraschino cherries, for garnish

Fill your glass with as much ice as you like.

Add the vodka and tart cherry juice, then fill the glass with ginger ale.

Garnish with cherries and serve.

If you prefer, you can mix these by the pitcher - without the ice - then just fill your glasses with ice and pour. But don't let it sit too long, or you'll lose the fizz.

Find more fun holiday drink recipes and entertaining tips!

Welcome to Day One of Christmas Week. This event is hosted by Kim of Cravings of a Lunatic and Susan of The Girl in the Little Red Kitchen. We hope to inspire you to break out those holiday sprinkles and get your bake on!

For my first offering, I decided to make eggnog, which seems to be one of those things that people tend to love or hate - no middle ground.

I'm on the "love" side of the equation, and now I'm just a little bit obsessed with making my own. I know some people are skittish about the raw eggs in some recipes, but this one is fully cooked. And it's easy - no need to temper eggs. It's just mix and cook.

If you think about it, a cooked eggnog is really a thin custard pudding. It's made to be drinkable rather than pourable. It's like the difference between ice cream and a milkshake. Or Greek yogurt and drinkable yogurt. Or a banana and a smoothie.

Since eggnog is really just a drinkable pudding, I decided to steal a few tricks from pudding-making. This one is easier to make than a traditional nog, and although it's thick and rich, it doesn't include any heavy cream.

The secret ingredient is the cornstarch, which is what thickens a lot of puddings. It helps to thicken the eggnog and make it silky. Of course there are still eggs, which contribute their own richness and flavor.

As far as spices, I prefer to keep things simple, with just a hint of nutmeg. But if you like, you could add pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, or other flavors. Once you've made it, make it your own.

Easier Eggnog
Makes 1 quart

1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
3 1/2 cups milk, divided
4 egg yolks
Pinch of salt
Tiny pinch of nutmeg - just a whisper of it, particularly of it's freshly grated
1/2 cup whiskey

Whisk the sugar and cornstarch together in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Add 3 cups of the milk, whisking as you go - lumps of cornstarch are not good. Add the egg yolks and salt, and whisk well to make sure the eggs are well-blended.

Turn the heat to medium, and cook, stirring most of the time, until you feel the mixture begin to thicken, then stir continuously until the mixture begins to simmer. Adjust the heat so the mixture is barely simmering, but not boiling. Cook another 30 seconds, stirring constantly.

Turn the heat off and add the remaining milk and the whiskey, and stir well.

Note: If you're not sure how much whiskey you want in your eggnog, or if you're serving to both adults and kids, you can leave it out and add it to each individual glass. 

Pour the mixture immediately through a strainer into a bowl or storage container. Or into a large glass measuring cup with a spout, for easy transfer to a jar or bottle. It's important to get the mixture out of the pot fairly quickly, since it's still very warm and you want the eggnog to stop cooking.

You shouldn't have a lot of bits in the strainer, but there are always a few, particularly if you didn't do a great job separating the eggs - the whites tend to cook into little clumps, which isn't something you want in your beverage.

Refrigerate the eggnog until fully chilled. Serve chilled, or over ice, if you prefer. Garnish with a little more nutmeg or a sprinkle of sugar, if you like.

 More about CHRISTMAS WEEK!!!

Swing by all the participants to see what they've been whipping up for the holidays:

• Coconut Layer Cake by Cravings of a Lunatic
• Monster Cookie Cake by The Girl in the Little Red Kitchen (It's Susan's birthday today as well! Happy Birthday, Susan!)
• Chewy Molasses Cookies by Dinners, Dishes, and Desserts
• Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie by My Catholic Kitchen
• Cranberry Berry Pomegranate Sangria by Mind Over Batter
• Cranberry Cheesecake by From Gate to Plate
• Eggnog Made Easier by Cookistry
• Eggnog Muffins with Eggnog Glaze by Food Lust People Love
• Finnish Pulla (Cardamom Coffee Braid) by Farm Fresh Feasts
• Red Velvet Fudge by That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• Millionaire's Shortbread Cookies by Cooking In Stilettos

Thanks to our sponsors for Christmas Week. Anolon is donating a 5-piece Bakeware Set. Swing by their Facebook Page to show them some love. We also have Ball supplying us with 4 sets of Jars in their gorgeous Green Heritage Color. Swing by their Ball Canning and Recipes Facebook Page to say hello.

• One 5 piece set of Anolon Bakeware Set
• Two Sets of Ball Heritage Collection Quart Jars (each set includes 6 jars)
• Two Sets of Ball Heritage Collection Pint Jars (each set includes 6 jars)
• One Set of 1 Dozen Assorted Cookie Sampler Box from The Girl In The Little Red Kitchen Bake Shop
• Two Sets of Brownie Brittle Snack Sampler (each set includes One 5-ounce bag of each flavor)

• One Autographed Copy of Make Ahead Bread by Donna Currie
• One Copy of The Mixer Bible by Meredith Deeds
• One Copy of 175 Best Babycakes Cake Pop Recipes by Kathy Moore and Roxanne Wyss
• One Copy of 175 Best Mini Pie Recipes by Julie-Anne Hession
• One Copy of The 250 Best Brownies, Bars & Squares by Ester Brody
• One Copy of Oatrageous Oatmeals by Kathy Hester
• One Copy of Adventures in Comfort Food by Kerry Alteiro
• One Copy of Food Truck Road Trip by Kim Pham
• One Copy of Decadent Gluten-Free Vegan Baking by Cara Reed
• One Copy of 100 Juices, Smoothies and Healthy Snacks by Emily von Euw
• One Copy of CopyKat coms Dining Out at Home Cookbook Recipes by Stephanie Manley
• One Copy of Copykat.com's Dining Out At Home Cookbook 2 by Stephanie Manley

GIVEAWAY is OVER

I was not provided product or incentive for participating in this event.