Happy Christmas Eve everyone! I’m sure you’re all excited for tonight and tomorrows festivites. I spent all day Friday baking, wrapping presents, finally finished decorating my cactus, and listened to all my favorite Christmas records. Woo hoo! Christmas Eve was always a big celebration with my family growing up. If you came from an Italian family (my father was Italian) you know The Feast of the Seven Fishes, and thats what we did. That was our day to spend together before the rest of the family came Christmas Day. For my whole life holidays were hosted at our house, up until my parents sold the house and flew south for retirement. So if you host, you know Christmas Day and any major holiday is filled with stress, prep, and lots of clean up (and also joy).
In the last few years I started doing my own tradition of Adult Milk & Cookies. My holidays are much more mellow these days, some spent alone, with friends, or at my sisters house. One day I hope to have a nice big house where I can invite my family and friends over and have a big celebration reminiscent of holidays past. I know you’re going to tell me to becareful what I wish for, but I’d like nothing more than to decorate, cook, bake, make drinks, and set a table. I am a natural host, which makes sense that I kind of do it for a living.
I wish I had more time to dedicate to the blog because I would have posted so many more recipes this month. I’ve been running out out time and I really wanted to post a classic Brandy Alexander cocktail, a Tom & Jerry, and Eggnog. I could only pick one so I went with the Alexander because that is usally what I make for Christmas Eve to serve with cookies. Since I couldn’t make and shoot an Egg Nog post in time I decided to turn my cookies into Egg Nog. You read that right, EGGNOG SNICKERDOODLE COOKIES!!!
Both of these recipes are quite easy to make, so they are perfect if you’re pressed for time or waited til the last minute to get something together. I always do this. Don’t sweat it. Whip up a batch of these to go with cookies that take about only 20 minutes to make with ingredients you might already have handy! This is a Brandy Alexander but I have been known to make these with Rum. Rum works great, especially Dark or Spiced. Vodka, Gin, or Bourbon would work in a pinch as well.
Brandy Alexander
1 1/2 oz. Brandy (I used Pierre Ferrand Cognac)
1 oz. Creme de Cacao (I used Tempus Fugit)
1 oz. Heavy Cream
Add all ingredients to tin, shake with ice, strain into coupe glass, and garnish with freshly grated nutmeg.
Eggnog Snickerdoodles
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 2 1/3 cups sugar, divided
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla or rum extract
- 1 cup eggnog
- 4 1/2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large bowl, cream together the butter and 2 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla.
- In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt.
- Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture, alternately with the eggnog. The dough will be thick and slightly sticky.
- Mix together 1/3 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg in a small bowl.
- Shape the dough into rounded tablespoons; roll in sugar and nutmeg mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets and bake for 8-10 minutes, or until cookies are just set and starting to crack.
