Philadelphia Snowman Cookies

These cookies are one of my favorite holiday treats; they are so addicting. The recipe comes from my sister. She usually makes the dough ahead of time, freezes it, then thaws and bakes the cookies. Then we all help decorate them.

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.

Apple Cranberry Stuffing

My favorite ingredients strike again; I just love the combination of apples and cranberries. And this fall I’m definitely satiating my craving for them. For Thanksgiving I like to make two different kinds of stuffing, regular (onions, celery, bread and spices) and this apple cranberry version. Last year, Mr. Surly was a bit skeptical of the apple version but this year he was all about it. I have made a couple batches since Thanksgiving of this deliciousness.

When I make stuffing I don’t follow a recipe. I just throw everything together in ratios I like and bake it. I love stuffing. I also love how easy it is to make. Below is the general recipe I use.

Peppermint (Penguin) Patties

This week I really struggled for some reason. I picked out a chocolate mint candy recipe. But when I tried to make it, this is what I ended up with:



Fail.

This was supposed to be mint candy squares. But it failed to set up for me, even after hours in the fridge. Obviously, I left out something vitally important, I'm just not sure what. Oh well. I still haven’t decided what to do with it, maybe try to salvage it into mint truffles.

My second attempt was a recipe for peppermint patties. Things went well until I decided to add food coloring to make the filling a festive green color. After rummaging around the kitchen, I finally found my food coloring. I proceed to combine the red and blue dyes to achieve a jolly green hue. Did you catch that? Red and blue. As I mixed the colors, I was confused because I was getting purple not green. I thought my mistake was that I had too much blue, I needed to add more red. Nope, still not green. I go to grab the back of the box to see what I was doing wrong. I felt like an idiot when I realized that red+blue=purple and I should have done blue+yellow. And the real kicker is that I had a bottle of green food coloring in the box; I didn’t even need to mix colors. Here I am, the daughter of an artist/art teacher mother, and I couldn’t even remember the basic color wheel. I practically grew up in my mom's art studio. How embarrassing.

I do have an excuse, though. My GI doctor enrolled me in a clinical trial and the new medication I’m on is really affecting my mind. I thought I was crazy before, that was nothing compared to this. It’s a struggle for me to focus my mind on things. Perhaps this is why my first attempt at a minty dessert was a total disaster. Luckily, I’m only on this drug for 8 weeks. Then I can return to my original, slightly confused, state.

Finally, I attempted my third try at a mint treat; a new peppermint patty recipe that was simple; just a few ingredients. Third time’s the charm, right? Not quite for me. I wouldn’t call it a complete success, but at least this time it was my results were a bit more visually appealing. I used mini cookie cutters to make bite-sized mints. I haven’t had a peppermint pattie in years and found these surprisingly refreshing. I just wish they looked better. Oh well, maybe I’ll have better luck next week's treat.

Roasted Sweet Potato Balls

Another dish I wanted to make for Thanksgiving was some kind of sweet potato appetizer. Not one that included lots of sugar and marshmallows. My body isn’t absorbing fat, so lots of excess sugar and fat makes me feel nauseous and sick. I prefer to sneak good fats into my diet to try to trick my body into absorbing it. So far it hasn’t worked; my body is too smart. But I’ll keep trying. Since I need the fat and calories, I use butter to grease my dish, otherwise I would just use non-stick coconut oil.

Anyway, back to the sweet potato balls. I didn’t follow any recipe, I just made it up as I went along. I think they turned out really well. I love bite-sized things, and these were perfect. I made these up on wed and popped them in the oven on thurs right before serving our appetizers. Simple and low key, just how I like things. Oh and they are healthy, too. If you’re not a fan of nuts the walnuts can be omitted. I added a lot of walnuts since they contain a lot of “good fat.”

I have other scrumptious recipes from our thanksgiving dinner, but I have no idea when I’ll get around to posting them. The medicine I’m on is really kicking my ass, leaving me really tired, drained and way behind in my posting. I’m really hoping my posts are at least somewhat coherent and my recipe instructions make sense.