Holiday Eggnog Muffins

Eggnog Muffins

Melt in Pyrex cup: 1/4 c. butter
Add:
1 c. eggnog -good old-fashioned full-fat eggnog
1/4 c. rum
1 egg

Mix separately:
2 c. flour
2/3 c. sugar
1 T. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. nutmeg
Mix eggnog and flour mixes together. Scoop into 12 paper-lined muffin cups. Bake 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until tests done. Cool on wire rack. Eat several muffins with a large cup of eggnog for breakfast or snacking during the holidays. Read the following 'holiday eating tips' that was a forwarded e-mail sent to me by a dear friend if you need convincing. Happy Holiday!



Holiday Eating Tips:

1. Avoid carrot sticks. Anyone who puts carrots on a holiday buffet table knows nothing of the Holiday spirit. In fact, if you see carrots, leave immediately. Go next door, where they’re serving rum balls.

2. Drink as much eggnog as you can. And quickly. It’s rare… You cannot find it any other time of year but now. So drink up! Who cares that it has 10,000 calories in every sip? It’s not as if you’re going to turn into an eggnog-alcoholic or something. It’s a treat. Enjoy it. Have one for me. Have two. It’s later than you think. It’s Christmas!

3. If something comes with gravy, use it. That’s the whole point of gravy. Gravy does not stand alone. Pour it on. Make a volcano out of your mashed potatoes. Fill it with gravy. Eat the volcano. Repeat.

4. As for mashed potatoes, always ask if they’re made with skim milk or whole milk. If it’s skim, pass. Why bother? It’s like buying a sports car with an automatic transmission.

5. Do not have a snack before going to a party in an effort to control your eating. The whole point of going to a Holiday party is to eat other people’s food for free. Lots of it. Hello?

6. Under no circumstances should you exercise between now and New Year’s. You can do that in January when you have nothing else to do. This is the time for long naps, which you’ll need after circling the buffet table while carrying a 10-pound plate of food and that vat of eggnog.

7. If you come across something really good at a buffet table, like frosted Christmas cookies in the shape and size of Santa, position yourself near them and don’t budge. Have as many as you can before becoming the center of attention. They’re like a beautiful pair of shoes. If you leave them behind, you’re never going to see them again.

8. Same for pies. Apple , Pumpkin , Mincemeat. Have a slice of each. Or if you don’t like mincemeat, have two apples and one pumpkin. Always have three. When else do you get to have more than one dessert? Labor Day ?

9. Did someone mention fruitcake? Granted, it’s loaded with the mandatory celebratory calories, but avoid it at all cost. I mean, have some standards.

10. One final tip: If you don’t feel terrible when you leave the party or get up from the table, you haven’t been paying attention. Re-read tips; start over, but hurry, January is just around the corner. Remember this motto to live by:“Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand and wine in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming “WOO HOO what a ride!"

Happy Fourth of July!

Stealing Gifts

Aren't these just the cutest little dish towels ever? My aunt and grandmother had some just like these when I was a girl, and I just love them. I got them Thursday night at my spinning guild's holiday gift exchange (everyone brings a wrapped gift, and when it's your turn, you either pick a wrapped gift to open, or take/steal a gift someone else has opened, and they then chose another). I actually 'stole' them from a very nice woman when it was my turn to choose. Last night was the holiday party for the company my husband works for, a cruise in Seattle aboard The Champagne Lady, where they also had a gift exchange. We got (or rather I 'stole' again from one of his very nice co-workers) a large box of See's chocolates. Tonight is the local knitting guild's holiday party and gift exchange, and I'm really looking forward to stealing something nice from some other very nice person.

Dark Day Challenge

I recently saw the Dark Day Challenge on the canning blog, Food in Jars. My immediate response was, well, here in the PNW during December, almost ALL the days are dark, making them ALL somewhat of a challenge. Giving it a bit more thought, I realize that the challenge for the dark days that are now upon us, we accepted early in the spring, and continued to do so throughout the summer, when we decided what we would grow and raise for the year, and then harvested and preserved it all when fall came. The menu-making and cooking done now, in the dark, dead of winter, is the easy part. A friend once asked me how we do all that we do here, and my response was that we do everything half-assed. The Dark Day Challenge also is met half-assed, so to speak. Very few of our meals are completely made up of only locally raised foods, but all our meals are made up of mostly locally raised foods -local mostly meaning we've raised it ourselves. I believe in moderation in all things, and though we frequently sit down to meals where we realize we've grown everything on the table, we more intentionally, seven days a week, strive to cook and eat meals composed of mostly foods which we've produced, and to call that good enough. But unless I really have no alternative, I don't WANT to cook without olive oil, lemons, and such. And I am NOT going without coffee (and I bet nobody else is either). That is a challenge I am just not up to.

Today is St. Lucia's Day, a transformation of ancient solstice rituals, that is celebrated in Sweden and by the Swedish and their descendants living elsewhere. Sometime before the winter solstice, my family will begin our winter holiday: the schools will all close, my husband will be off from work, my kids that have moved away will come back to the nest, and both my daughter and myself celebrate our birthdays. The next few weeks of the holiday season for my family, as has been done throughout the ages by all northern mankind to combat these dark days, will be filled with celebrating. Besides enjoying the holidays spent with the family here, I am also celebrating my 50th birthday. I can honestly say, I have been looking forward to this age for quite awhile. I firmly believe the next decade is going to be the best ten years of my life, and I plan to make it so.

"I don't think its a matter of taking or getting. You've got to make what you have be enough. That's the trick." -Jane Hamilton, Disobedience