When I lived in Sacramento, one of my favorite Christmas traditions was the Christkindlmarkt (Christmas market) at the Turn Verein, a German community center in my old neighborhood. After browsing craft tables, buying a Christmas tree ornament, German Christmas cookies and maybe a sausage sandwich, I would make a visit to the glühwein stand. Glühwein …
Gingerbread is the ideal counter cake. It sits on the counter and gets more and more delicious each day. Friends drop by during the holidays, you cut a few slices, and damn it’s good — intensely spiced, moist and tasty. It also goes really well with eggnog. This recipe was developed by Claudia Fleming when …
Sit down, let’s chat food. Sorry, the growler of Aviator King Rat Imperial Oatmeal Stout is kaput, but I made eggnog yesterday. Would you like me to pour you a glass? As always, there’s Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale chilling on the back porch. Have you ever done Christmas shopping at the supermarket? Don’t laugh, on …
My mum and I are mincemeat pie lovers. Just a thin slice is the perfect dessert, or breakfast, at Christmas time. You can buy mincemeat in the jar, but it’s not that difficult to make your own. Traditional mincemeat pies are made with beef or venison and suet. Suet is the fat found around the …
Look Santa! Another Julia Child book to add to my wishlist just in time for Christmas! Christopher Kimball, of Cook’s Illustrated fame, reviews a new book edited by Joan Reardon, As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto. If not for Avis, I wonder if Julia would have ever managed to get …
This is the 25th anniversary of my eggnog. Wow. That deserved its own paragraph. It’s quite an old reliable friend. I first made it for Thanksgiving in 1985 from a recipe, Nat’s Eggnog, in the Sugar & Spice section of the December 1985 issue of Gourmet. I still have that stained page: “My husband used …
Pull up a chair. I’ll pour you some of this Smuttynose Imperial Stout, one from their Big Beer Series, or I’ll get you a Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale from the fridge — my seasonal house beer. I was disappointed in the Siren Noire Imperial Chocolate Stout from Heavy Seas, tasted off to me, so I’m …
Grabbing the Gusto 