Yule Brew🥃A Christmas Eve Tradition 🎄

Every year for Christmas  eve🎄 my family would have a meatless meal, a extra place setting would be set at the dining room table, for our family members who had passed on, and a bottle of whiskey and one shot glass would be passed around the table till it was gone, lol it was a big family 😍

Every one had a garlic clove dipped into salt and sometimes honey for good health for the year.  I remember my husband's first time with this tradition he ate the whole clove at once! Lol😳 instead of little nibbles throughout the meal. Oh well lesson learned. So we have continued this tradition throughout the years and now our son continues as well.

I hope you enjoy the recipe for what I now call our Yule Brew🥃🎄A smooth apple and cinnamon infused bourbon. 

Enjoy

Allison 

Yule Brew

One golden delicious Apple chopped 

2 or 3 -3" cinnamon sticks

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg 

3 cups of bourbon

 A 1/4 cup of simple syrup.

 Place 1st 3 ingredients in a large ball jar or container

 Add bourbon Stir cover let stand at Room temperature at least 4 days I do 7

 Stir once A-day.

Stir to distribute flavors 

Pour bourbon mixture through a fine wire mesh strainer.

 Discard solids.

 Stir in simple syrup and pour into a clean canning jar or fancy bottle cover and store in fridge.🎄

Simple syrup is equal amounts of sugar and water, heating till sugar melts.

Cranberry and Rosemary White Christmas Sangria

Cranberry & Rosemary White Christmas Sangria

1 Granny Smith apple

1 Braeburn apple

1 heaping Cup Fresh cranberries

1 large Sprig rosemary

1 Bottle Pinot grigio

½ cup white grape juice

¼ cup sugar (more, for garnish)

1 Can club soda

You need to chop up the apples, I prefer them in small cubes so you can easily snack on them while enjoying your sangria, or as I like to call it…dinner. I mean, it has food in it so that counts, right?

I try to use good wine for my sangria. I am sure many winemakers would scoff at the suggestion but good wine makes good sangria. Crappy wine makes good sangria too, you just have to add a lot more too it. I prefer to let the wine shine through too. Oh, a little secret…the advantage to using good wine is that you can pour yourself a glass of it while assembling this recipe and it won’t suck.

In a large pitcher, combine all of the ingredients.

Mix it well, so that the sugar fully dissolves.

Place the pitcher in the refrigerator to chill. During this time the sugar will fully dissolve and the rosemary, it will infuse your sangria. If you are wondering why I chose rosemary for this, well, it’s because I like my sangria’s sweet. But I really dislike the sweetness to linger. So by adding rosemary, it kind of cuts the sweetness down on the finish making it much more enjoyable.

While that chills, let’s make the garnish for this drink. I am not really into fancy garnish, personally. And this is far from one. But it is a Christmas drink and I figured if the rosemary could look like it was covered in snow, how effing Martha Stewart is that? To do this, simple place about 1/2 cup of granulated sugar in a shallow bowl. Lightly wet the rosemary and then give it a good shake to remove any excess water. Then roll the sprigs in the sugar until they are coated as you please. Gorgeous, right?

Once the pitcher has chilled for about an hour, it should be ready to serve. How amazing does this look?

Courtesy of:

http://cookingstoned.tv/recipe/cranberry-rosemary-white-christmas-sangria/

Roasted Shrimp Cocktail

This recipe for shrimp cocktail is one of our favorites,  and so easy for the Holidays 🎄

Toss peeled and deveined shrimp with a little olive oil, kosher salt, and cracked black pepper Sometimes I add a little garlic powder and old bay.

Spread single layer on a  cookie sheet, 

Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 8 min.

Serve at room temperature with cocktail sauce.

Happy Holidays 

Allison