Stuart Weitzman Gemex Sandals

They are the perfect color of gold, and the crystals on them are so shiny! My crow totem approves. These will look perfect with so many dresses that I have.

Speaking of dresses, I also wanted something which has sleeves, packs easily, and is dressy enough for some of the more upscale restaurants. I like things with sleeves because I’m usually cold. While the outside temperature might be completely tropical, many places have the AC cranked up, which means I need a cardigan, jacket, or something with sleeves. Also, strappy sundresses don’t work so well on me because of the major boobage. I like some coverage so I don’t look like a low-rent hooker. Thus, I was thrilled to find this ombre green dress. Green is my color, and  I love the kimono styling!

Green Ombre Kimono-Style Dress

Now if I can just figure out what color to paint my toenails. Any suggestions? I’m having a difficult time deciding on the color.

Mai Tai Cocktail - Hawaii's Finest

Since this will be my first trip to Hawaii, I have no idea what the original Hawaiian cocktail is like. I do, however, know that I’ve tried several on the mainland and throughout Caribbean resorts, and this recipe is by far the best one I’ve made at home. While I think most Mai Tai cocktails are made with nothing more than pineapple juice and lime, this one has some other fresh juices. I’m all about what tastes good.

INGREDIENTS

* 3 oz. light rum

* 3 oz. dark rum

* 1 oz. orange curacao (or grand marnier)

* 2 oz. pineapple juice (fresh is amazing if you can do it)

* 2 oz. guava juice

* 2 oz. fresh squeezed lime juice

* 1 oz. orgeat syrup (almond syrup w/ orange or rose)

* 1 oz. simple syrup

* crushed mint leaves to garnish (very important)

* pineapple wedges for garnish

* lime wedge to garnish

DIRECTIONS:

Put all liquid ingredients in cocktail shaker. Fill two high ball glasses with shaved ice. Shake cocktail shaker thoroughly, at least ten times. Strain into two glasses.

Crush the mint leaves between your fingers and float on the top of the drink. It is important to really bruise the mint leaves, because they blend the flavors together. You should NOT skip the fresh mint – it is the key to the whole drink.

Garnish with pineapple and lime wedges.

Drink through a straw. Make sure you have a designated driver … or make at home so you don’t need one.

If you are having a party, these can be made ahead of time and stored in a pitcher, but make sure you stir well before serving.

I can almost feel those tropical breezes already!

Glogg - Swedish Mulled Wine

It’s traditionally served with a snack of raisins and almonds. What’s not to love?! A crunch salty-sweet snack and some alcohol. I dig it. If you’re having a particularly cold day, make a batch, invite some friends, and have a movie marathon or play some video games.

INGREDIENTS:

* 2½ cups full-bodied red wine, such as Cabernet

* 1½ cups ruby port

* 1 cup cognac

* ¼ cup light brown sugar

* 1 orange peel

* 8 green cardamom pods

* 2 cinnamon sticks

* 5 whole cloves

* 1 whole star anise

* ¼ cup blanched, sliced almonds

* ¼ cup raisins

* ¼ cup dried cherries

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a large stockpot set over medium heat, combine the wine, port, cognac, brown sugar, orange peel, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and star anise. Bring to a simmer and then remove from the heat. Cover and set aside for 2 hours.

2. Strain the glogg through a fine-mesh strainer, discard the spices and rewarm. Place a few blanched almonds, raisins and dried cherries in each glass and add the glogg. Serve immediately. Makes 1 1/2 quarts.

Recipe courtesy of Tasting Table.

Adorable Winter Scene Container - Complete with Bark!

These are perfect for many reasons. First, it’s a cute winter woodland scene with critters, and it has a bear in it. I ♥ bears! Because it’s a Winter scene, it’s not specific to any particular holiday. I can give it to friends and family regardless of what they are celebrating: Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, the Winter Solstice, Saturnalia, etc. Second, it has a cute bark design on the sides, and I’m giving chocolate bark. WIN!

If you’re curious about chocolate-peanut-butter bark, I made it from a recipe I found here, with one small change. I also added small mini-pretzels to my bark, so it contains semi-sweet chocolate, peanut butter, salted peanuts, mini Reese’s cups, and pretzels. I love the juxtaposition of sweet, salty, creamy, and crunchy.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bark from Best Mom on the Block

As such, I thought today’s Midweek Martini should celebrate the intriguing mechanics of our solar system. What could be more appropriate for a Winter Solstice celebration than a drink called Fire & Ice? It is a layered drink featuring Hot Damn (i.e. cinnamon schnapps) and Bailey’s Irish Creme. Cinnamon is one of those wonderful warming spices, which makes it ideal for a cold Winter’s day, and represents the warmth of our Sun. The Bailey’s Irish Creme represents the ice and snow of Winter.

Making a layered drink can be tricky, so I’ve included a video on how to perfect the art of the layered shot!

INGREDIENTS:

DIRECTIONS:

The Grinch Who Stole Christmas

This isn’t the case. I don’t begrudge anyone the joys of the Holiday Season. Believe it or not, I enjoy the innate tackiness of garish holiday decorations. After all, my bird totem is a Party Crow, and crows love shiny things! I just don’t have the initiative to spend the time and energy decorating my own home and taking endless pictures of it to post on my blog. I typically slap some lights and two burlap bows on the blue spruce trees flanking my front door and call it a day. That’s not exactly blog-worthy holiday decorating!

However, I have fond memories of my own childhood and decorating the live tree we always had. Yes, we were one of those freaky “hippy” families who didn’t enjoy cutting down a tree. We always got a live tree with a root ball, and then we planted the tree after the New Year. It was a fun way to extend the holiday a bit, and I always looked forward to getting my hands dirty and planting a live evergreen.

Live Tree With Root Ball

If I return to my childhood neighborhood, I can see many of those trees today, grown and beautiful. We even planted a few in neighbors’ yards when we didn’t have a good spot in our yard! It was a wonderful holiday tradition.

Now I’m married to someone who is culturally Jewish. We own a menorah, but we don’t bother with that, either. Instead, we spend this time making our home cozy with a nice fire in the fireplace and hanging some mistletoe around the house. We make treats together to give away as gifts since we don’t like to be part of the materialistic “competitive shopping” during the Holidays, and we’ve been known to indulge in a pile of fried potato latkes or two. We also celebrate our wedding anniverary on the Solstice, which is December 21st, by treating ourselves to a really nice gourmet dinner at our favorite restaurants, and we exchange small but thoughtful gifts. Overall, it’s a very relaxing time of year for us, the recent upswing in work notwithstanding. I wouldn’t have my holiday any other way! It’s our time to recharge and appreciate the subtle beauty of Winter: the evergreens, the colorful red cardinals in our yard, the holly trees with their bright berries, the visible mistletoe in the tops of oak trees, etc.

Hungry Cardinals

If anything gets me down at this time of year, it’s the hateful behavior of “Christians” who whine about “The War on Christmas” and get their panties in a wad over “Happy Holidays.” It really upsets me that some people are so egotistical and self-absorbed as to think the entire world should bend to their whims and celebrate “Christmas.” If you say “Happy Holidays”, you offend them. If a town has a tree-lighting ceremony instead of a Christmas-tree-lighting ceremony, they accuse everyone of discriminating against Christians. I’m not really sure how it’s possible to discriminate against 83% of the population in the U.S., but that’s what they try to guilt the rest of us into believing. Somehow, the word “Holiday”, which is meant to encompass all Winter Celebrations including Christmas, is the height of rudeness. You know – because being inclusive is hateful! Basically, anyone not celebrating their Winter Holiday in the way they think it should be celebrated are told to leave the country or STFU, and that’s a pretty shitty attitude to pass around at this time of year. It’s no wonder I prefer to spend my holidays at home in quiet, subdued retreat!

War On Christmas - a.k.a. Christian Martry Syndrome

This is why you don’t see a lot of posts from me during this time of year. I certainly don’t want to end up with a blog full of hateful comments that say, “Why are you celebrating anyway, if you don’t believe in Jesus?!” (and yes, I’ve gotten those comments from people on Facebook and in email after responding negatively when someone sent a nasty email about non-Believers and the holidays)

Still, it’s nice to have a cocktail sometimes, and honey-flavored drinks are one of my favorites during Winter. This probably results from my Grandparents giving me a homemade whiskey/honey/lemon cough syrup when I was sick. Anyway, I’ve had homemade Lithuanian Honey Liqueur (called Krupnikas) in the past and started craving some. In graduate school, one of the students in the lab next to mine was from Lithuania, and one Christmas he brought a bottle to our holiday gathering. I think it really deserves to be renamed to the Honey Badger drink. Why? Because after a few shots of this, you just won’t give a shit. You know….”Honey Badger don’t care. Honey Badger doesn’t give a shit!”

If you brew enough of this, you can transfer it to nice, sterilized decorative bottles and give it to friends as gifts.

Lithuanian Honey Liqueur - Krupnikas

INGREDIENTS:

10 cardamom seeds

1/2 nutmeg seed

2 teaspoons caraway seed

10 whole cloves

10 whole allspice berries

4 (3 inch) cinnamon sticks

2 teaspoons whole peppercorns

1 pinch crushed saffron threads (optional)

2 (1 inch) pieces fresh ginger root

2 (1 inch) pieces fresh turmeric (yellow ginger)

3 large strips of orange zest

3 large strips of lemon zest

4 cups water

3 whole vanilla beans

2 pounds honey

1 quart 190 proof grain alcohol or Devil’s Springs 160-proof Vodka

DIRECTIONS:

1. Crack the cardamom seeds and nutmeg with a heavy skillet on a cutting board. Toss them into a saucepan with the caraway seed, cloves, allspice berries, cinnamon sticks, peppercorns, saffron, ginger, turmeric, vanilla beans, orange zest and lemon zest. Pour in the water, and bring to a boil. Cover, and simmer until the liquid is reduced by 1/2. Strain out spices, and set the liquid aside.

2. Pour honey into a large pot, and bring to a boil over medium heat. Skim off any foam from the top. Stir in the strained liquid from the spices. Remove from heat and place far from the stove to avoid any flare-ups from the alcohol! Slowly stir in the alcohol. Place the pot back onto the burner over low heat and cover. Heat through, being careful not to boil or even simmer. Remove from heat and let stand overnight with the lid on.

3. The following day, pour the liquid into sterile bottles, seal, and allow to settle for 2 weeks. The longer you let it sit, the clearer it will become and the better it tastes.

And for those who don’t get the Honey Badger reference:

Homemade Eggnog via Alton Brown

There are a few variations on the choice of alcohol with which to spike your eggnog. Personally, I don’t think it’s eggnog unless it has bourbon in it, but you can also use rum or brandy if you’re so inclined.

INGREDIENTS:

* 4 egg yolks

* 1/3 cup sugar, plus 1 tablespoon

* 1 pint whole milk

* 1 cup heavy cream

* 3 ounces quality bourbon, like Woodford Reserve or Maker’s Mark

* 1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

* 4 egg whites*

DIRECTIONS:

Using a mixer, beat the egg yolks in a bowl until they lighten in color. Gradually add the 1/3 cup sugar and continue to beat until it is completely dissolved. Add the milk, cream, bourbon and nutmeg and stir to combine.

Place the egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat to soft peaks. With the mixer still running gradually add the 1 tablespoon of sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.

Whisk the egg whites into the mixture. Chill and serve.

Road Runner :: "Look at me! Pay attention to me!"

By the way, am I the only one who, as a child, had different expectations for the appearance of a Road Runner – expectations which were set by Looney Toons?

Looney Toons Road Runner

The NC Zoo also had a Blue Crowned Pigeon like the one at the Sylvan Heights Bird Park. Like the one at the bird park, the zoo’s pigeon is a ham. However, he had flown into a treetop inside the tropical forest habitat to escape some bratty children who were trying to pick him up. Poor bird! Once safely away from the grabby hands of hellspawn, he was happy to pose for those of us with cameras.

Blue Crowned Pigeon :: "Get away from me, brats!"

They also have a beautiful parrot in the tropical rainforest habitat. He was happily munching on a pecan when I snapped this photo.

Parrot :: "Snack time!"

And this eagle outside the baboon habitat was also happy to pose for photos. Seconds after he calmly posed for this picture he started flapping his wings and bobbing. I think he was demanding praise and a treat for being such a good sport.

Bataleur Eagle :: "There! Now give me a treat!"

However, my day wouldn’t have been complete without at least one photo of a bird’s ass. These flamingos were all facing me, but a group of screaming rugrats approached right as I went to take the photo. Thus, they decided it was best to do what all the other animals at the zoo did all day long: present us with their asses.

Flamingo :: "We are SO not interested in your screaming kids!"

I try not to do that these days, but I still can’t resist serving some bourbon smashed sweet potatoes along with my cornbread dressing and roast bird. It’s the more adult version of sweet potatoes for the holidays.

Bourbon "Smashed" Sweet Potatoes

INGREDIENTS:

* 1 3/4 to 2 pounds sweet potatoes

* 1 teaspoon olive oil

* 1/2 cup heavy cream

* 1/4 cup bourbon whiskey

* 3 tablespoons packed light brown sugar

* 2 tablespoons molasses

* 1/8 teaspoon salt

 DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 425° F.

Lightly rub the sweet potatoes with the olive oil. Place on a foil-lined baking sheet and bake until tender, about 45 minutes to 1 hour, depending upon their size. Remove from the oven and let sit until cool enough to handle.

Peel the sweet potatoes and transfer the flesh to a large bowl. Add the cream, bourbon, brown sugar, molasses, and salt, and beat on high speed with a hand-held mixer until smooth. Cover to keep warm until ready to serve.

Makes 4 servings

As you can tell from the recipe, these are totally low-fat and healthy!