Holiday Goodies

ImageWhat would the holiday season be without desserts? And booze? Fortunately, the sassy ladies behind the spirited cookbook Booze Cakes have got ya covered. Authors Krystina Castella and Terry Lee Stone have created the ultimate fun baking book with over 100 bodacious, boozy confections.

The book is divided into four sections:
1. Classic Booze Cakes such as English Trifle and Tipsy Tiramisu.
2. Cocktail Cakes such as Pumpkin Martini Cakes and Tequila Sunrise Cake.
3. Cake Shots including Rum & Coke and Screwdriver Shots.
4. Cakes with a Twist such as Black Jack Praline Cake and Rosemary Limoncello Cake.

Castella and Stone are girls who want to have fun, and they want you to have fun too. That's why they include helpful icons for special occasion cakes and a cheeky "Booze Meter" that rates cakes as "Lightweight," "Feeling It," or "Totally Tipsy." (In case you're wondering, I picked a "Totally Tipsy" cake.)

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wild-rice-003.jpgThanksgiving may be my favorite holiday. Families gather. And as they surround the dining table they celebrate and give thanks for all blessings, including the bountiful meal before them.

When my mom was living, she prepared most of the Thanksgiving meal herself. Trying to please everyone, she’d make baseball-sized dumplings and sauerkraut for my German dad, lump-free mashed potatoes for the grandchildren, sweet potatoes with a crunchy topping of melted marshmallows for her daughter-in-law, stuffing for her son-in-law, and lentils for herself and me. My brother wasn’t hard to please. I think he ate everything. And, of course, there was always a huge turkey. I am not kidding when I say there was hardly room on the table for our dinner plates.

Not to be forgotten was the wild rice. In Minnesota, where wild rice is plentiful, most cooks have favorite ways to prepare this “gourmet grain.” It seems my mom could never come up with a recipe that lived up to her expectations. Too dry, too mushy, not enough flavor, too much sage or thyme…just never quite right. Her wild rice challenges may have been due to the fact she had been transplanted in Minnesota from Indiana, where she had never even heard of this aquatic grass seed, the only grain native to the North American continent.

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"Latkes are a kind of oil, into which small quantities of shredded potato have been infused." -- Jonathan Safran Foer

herodlamp_sm.jpg Latkes, also known as potato pancakes, are a traditional treat to eat at least once during the eight days of Hanukkah. The reason you eat latkes for Hanukkah is because they are fried in oil. Why oil? Hanukkah celebrates the re-dedication of the second temple after a battle and along with the victory came the miracle in which mere drops of oil in an oil lamp lasted eight days. The "miracle" is much like a story about a fat man coming down a chimney with presents...

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seafoodpates.jpgI always hated how it got so dark, so early in the winter. One day, a friend told me I just needed to manage until December 21st because that was the shortest day of the year and from that day on it would get lighter a minute earlier each day. Growing up and working in Pittsburgh, anything that could help us through the cold and gloomy winter days was motivating, so I decided we needed to celebrate the day.

As a supervisor in a call center, I was always trying to find fun things to do with the team to keep them motivated.  I love trying new dips so I thought it would be a good idea to put the two together and officially make December 21st "Dip Day."  Everyone would bring in a different dip and it often included sharing the recipe because they were so good, garnering me a wide assortment of different recipes to use at parties and family get togethers.  I moved to Florida in 1995 and although I do not have those wintry days to put up with, I still continue to celebrate "dip day" and the extra light it brings. 

 

Hot Artichoke Spinach Dip

Baked Mexican Layer Dip

Buffalo Chicken Dip

Cider Cheese Fondue

Clam Jam Dip

Jumbo Lump Crab Dip

Ina Garten’s Roasted Eggplant Spread

Fig and Walnut Tapenade with Goat Cheese

Lila’s Guacamole

Baked Vidalia Onion Dip

Reuben Dip

Retro Pistachio Cheese Ball

Smoked Salmon Dip

Shrimp, Spinach and Goat Cheese Dip

Spicy Black Bean Dip