Chai Eggnog

On the sixth day of Christmas my bartender made for me, Chai Eggnog to share with others besides just me...

I wanted to include some traditional Christmas drinks with some kind of twist to make them different. I love Chai lattes, so it was a no-brainer to add Chai concentrate to spice up the eggnog. I just wish we had the National Lampoon's Christmas moose mugs to drink it in.

Can you believe I have never had eggnog before? Am I the only one? It just never really appealed to me because I don't like milk. But after tasting this, I'm totally a fan, maybe because of the Chai. I really wanted to use coconut milk instead of regular milk, but we didn't have any. I will make this again for Mr.Surly and myself using coconut milk. Mmmmm, it will be like a coconut chai latte spiked with booze.

If you can't find Chai concentrate, here is a good recipe to make your own from spices and sweetened condensed milk.

The 12 Cocktails of Christmas

I have been waiting to post about this for weeks. But, since it relates to Christmas (and it's not even Thanksgiving yet), I forced myself to wait until November to share this with all of you. That way, if you want to participate, you have a month to come up with some drinks.

I came up with the idea of doing a 12 cocktails of Christmas, where each day, Dec 1-12, I'd feature a new holiday cocktail. I've been brainstorming different flavor combonations and drinks, along with the help of my sister-in-law (an NYC bartender). So many people do 12 treats or desserts of Christmas that I thought it would be fun and different to feature cocktails instead.

I'm extending an open invitation to any blogger who wants to join in. You drinks can be virgin, spiked, old posts, new posts; there really are no rules except it has to be a beverage. You can join me in posting every day or once, twice, as many times as you want, I'm pretty easy going.

If you're interested, leave a comment or email me (surlykitchen@gmail_dot_com). That way I can remind you as the time comes closer to December 1st. I'm setting up a code for the picture above, which will serve as a button in your blog's side bar, if you want to add it.

I'm actually really excited about this because it involves no cooking! I'm still adjusting to my new doses of medications, and have no energy and no desire to cook. But I promise as soon as I feel better I will post all kinds of deliciousness.

Spicy Hot Bloody Mary

While on vacation in August, for some reason, someone in Mr.Surly's family got a craving for a Bloody Mary. No one really knew how to make a bloody mary, so Mr.Surly's sister, an aspiring NYC bartender, took charge of the task. The result was delicious; so good, in fact, that once home Mr.Surly requested a bloody mary one Saturday afternoon. I had to text Surly-SIL (sister-in-law) for the recipe. She gave me the ingredient list but I had to play around with the ratio's to get it to Mr.Surly's liking (it took a couple of attempts).

Warning about these; they are hot and spicy. If that isn't your thing, just use regular V8 and maybe omit the creole seasonings.

Mint Julep

I admit, I enjoy watching the Kentucky Derby. I just hate the 2 hours of fluff pieces that leads up to it. Last year I attempted to make mint juleps. I don’t know which recipe I used, I just remember it involved a simple syrup and tasted horrible. I couldn’t even drink it. So this year I studied up. I’ve actually been to Churchill Downs and was lucky enough to have one their delicious mint juleps. We went with a guy who owned a horse, so he was able to explain the “strategy” of betting to us. I followed his advice and won $8; I was pretty happy with that. Anyway, back to the juleps, I found three different recipes to try. I made and tried them all (not all at once) and I’m here to give my verdict.

First, let’s talk about bourbon. Since Churchill Downs is in Kentucky, a Derby mint julep obviously needs a Kentucky Bourbon. Mr. Surly brought home Knob Creek, before we discovered that Woodford Reserved is the type of bourbon used at Churchill Downs. Ooops. Regardless, I continued on with my experiment.

I didn’t know what a “julep” cup is, nor how many ounces are in it. First, I tried pint glasses--too big. Then, I moved down to 12 oz glasses, still too large. Finally I used my stemless wine glasses (not sure how many oz) but they worked out great.