Holiday Cocktails: Thanksgiving Recipe

Cranberries aren't just for sauce

We used to enliven our Thanksgiving meal with a special dessert, or kid friendly decoration. But as our children grew, I started to add a specialty cocktail to the mix.

Brandied cranberries

This year, I brandied some cranberries and created a riff on a Cape Codder. This is a vodka drink with cranberry juice and lime. But the brandied cranberries and bitters transformed it to another realm.

Brandied Cranberries

1/2 cup sugar 

1/2 cup cranberry juice or water

1 stick cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

Pinch of salt

1 cup brandy

12 ounces cranberries

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. In medium saucepan, combine sugar, cranberry juice or water, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Bring to a low simmer. Simmer, stirring until sugar is fully dissolved.

4. Remove saucepan from heat. Discard cinnamon stick. Add brandy and stir to combine.

4. Add cherries and stir until coated with syrup. Spread out on a baking sheet and roast in oven for 25 minutes.

5. Pour in a glass jar, with all the liquid.

Best Thanksgiving cocktail

2 ounces vodka

1/2 ounce triple sec

1/2 ounce cranberry juice

1 T liquid from brandied cranberries

2 drops orange bitters

2 brandied cranberries

Note: Use 100% cranberry juice, not cranberry juice cocktail

Fill a shaker with ice.  Add all the liquid and shake till cold

Strain into a martini glass. Spear cranberries with a fancy toothpick and garnish.

Serves one.

Holiday Entertaining on a Budget

Inexpensive crackers don't have to be boring

Thanksgiving and other holidays can be a time to shine, whipping out traditional recipes and grandma's silver. But you don't have to spend a ton.

At the Momtrends Holiday Soiree, I picked up some entertaining tips that can keep you on a budget.

Cheese plate: from the Supermarket

Add a drizzle of honey and aspire of rosemary to enliven supermarket cheese

I love cheese, and there's nothing like bit of artisan goat cheese, made from a flock of happy goats frolicking in the Vermont countryside. But some of those cheeses can cost upwards of $30 a pound, and when you are making a platter for entertaining, that can be too expensive.

Likewise, the crackers. Some crackers at my hipster local Brooklyn food boutique cost $10 a package.

At the holiday soiree, we created our own cheese platters, using supermarket cheese and cracker from Jarlsberg. The cheese crips made with chipotle provided nice crunch and just enough spice to transform ordinary cheese.

But the Jarlsberg cheese was also not ordinary. We had a smoked cheese that was a nice counterpart to sliced apples and the Norwegian skiqueen, a brown cheese made with cow and goat milk.

Another bonus: Jarlsberg cheese are lactose free. One of my daughters is lactose intolerant, so we save on her lactaid pills with a cheese platter built on Jarlsberg.

Good, cheap wine: not an oxymoron

Fashionable jeans, under $20 

Another supermarket find was the Noble Vines wine. The 337 Cabernet Sauvignon and 667 Pinot Noir are only about $9-11 a bottle and are perfect for that 'house wine,' - the wine that you buy by the case and keep on hand for when guests unexpectedly drop by.

Staying on Trend

Since this was Momtrends, there had to be a fashion element, and we got to style our own looks with Riders by Lee. Fashionable skinny jeans for under $20? Yes, you can.

Make your own hostess gifts

Of course, if you eat too much of that cheese, skinny jeans might not be your best bet. But there were boot cut jeans and cute tops, all at attractive prices.

Hostess Gifts for Less

If you are lucky enough to be going to a holiday arty, you don't have to spring for an expensive hostess gift. D-I-Y is thoughtful and keeps you on a budget.

But that doesn't mean your gift has to look sad. Name Bubbles has labels that can perk up a homemade gift.

These labels are also great for leftovers. My freezer is filled with what we call UFO's - unidentified frozen objects. The Name Bubbles labels stick on plastic and stay on in the freezer.

Stepping Up Your Game: Holiday Help

Beautiful holiday arrangement by Teleflora

Holiday entertaining when I was young always involved home cooked food, but little to no attention was given to setting a nice table. We had lovely china and sterling silver flatware, but my mother rarely took the trouble to use them. Unless I polished the silver, it sat, tarnished and unused in the drawer.

My sister-in-law is basically the opposite. She outsources much of the food, concentrating on flower arranging, exquisite linens and elegant serving pieces. 

The elegantly set table at the Momtrends Holiday Soiree

I strive for a mix of the two, and was encouraged to see how I could become the boss of my table at the Momtrends Holiday Soiree.

An elegantly set table featured bouquets from Teleflora, and there were examples of other holiday Teleflora bouquets throughout the room. I did a little research at home and discovered that the holiday arrangements are quite reasonably priced, and would be wonderful to send if you don't have time to make a hostess gift.

Avery labels add a professional touch to homemade gifts

The table also had serving pieces for Nambé. I have several bowls and platters from my wedding, but what is new this year is a jewelry collection, sold at Macy's. There were lovely bracelets and earrings, all in sterling silver.

Organic Smashmallow marshmallows

At the event, I also learned how I could up my game with homemade gifts. For the last few years, I've given hostess gifts like homemade bitters or infused liquor, putting them in mason jars and attaching a card with ingredients. But Avery has a whole line of labels and tags that elevate these gifts to near professional status. Maybe that is what Momtrends is up to, encouraging entrepreneurship in all of us. Could I have a business making bitters?

If you are giving gifts to teens or adults who don't drink, you could also make a custom blend hot chocolate mix. Those Avery labels could be on a mason jar filled with great cocoa and spices and you could include a bag of Smashmallow organic, gluten-free marshmallows.

The swag bag we got from Momtrends at the end of the evening included a bag of mint chocolate chip marshmallows, which would add a nice touch to a cup of hot chocolate; there is also an espresso bean flavor, for mocha lovers.

Note: I was a guest of Momtrends at the Holiday Soiree and was not compensated for this post.

Holiday Cooking, Texas Style

Dotty Griffith had me at pecan pie. I have been the Thanksgiving pie maker since I could turn on the oven, and pecan pie is my specialty. My ‘secret’ has always been to cook the sugar and corn syrup till the sugar dissolves, then melt the butter in. I don’t remember know how I came up with this idea, but I’ve never seen it in a recipe until the Texas Holiday Cookbook.

And this pared down recipe doesn’t add rum or any other nasty flavors to muck up the pie; Griffith even ‘allows’ you to use light or dark corn syrup. I’ve always used whatever was on hand; it’s nice to have that choice validated.

The cookbook has recipes for Thanksgiving through New Year’s, with Hanukkah and Christmas in between. And though the book is big on meat, there are some things in here for vegetarians.

There are latkes made with sweet potatoes – and rolled oats. And special Christmas breakfast idea, like kolaches (sweet rolls) and migas, Tex-Mex scrambled eggs/

If you like to give homemade food gifts, there is a chapter on making things like peppermint fudge, chili powder or black-eyed pea relish, to name a few.

There are also a lot of drink recipes to put you in the holiday spirit. Texas tea is perfect for a holiday party; the drink includes tequila, rum, vodka, gin and bourbon. In fact, this drink might be better in New York City than in Texas; our guests can walk or take the subway home.

No Turkey for Me

I used to cook a mean turkey. Haven’t eaten it since I was a kid, but I took over the Thanksgiving turkey when I read that you could improve the bird by rubbing spices on the skin and sticking butter and herbs under the skin. I didn’t want my family to endure a dry, tasteless bird.

I even used to make turkey stock afterwards and distribute it to the meat eaters in the family.

But I stopped cooking meat when I was pregnant with my first child, and I don’t get involved in the basting, stuffing, carving, or eating.

Until a near crisis this year. We are having our youngest daughter’s bat mitzvah 2 days after Thanksgiving, so my sister-in-law, our usual host, invited my husband’s family as well.

Then her father got sick and we became plan B – 45 guests, most of them expecting turkey, on Thanksgiving. I considered insisting on a raw, vegan meal, but I really have no interest in that.

But my sister-in-law decided to host after all. My oven gets to stay poultry free for another year.

Thanksgiving appetizer

Thanksgiving can be a tough time for vegetarians – some people are so focused on the turkey that they don’t give enough thought to the side dishes.

But if you are a guest at a Thanksgiving dinner with lots of good side dishes, you can usually make a meal of sides, as long as the stuffing isn’t cooked inside the turkey, the Brussels sprouts don’t have bacon and the re is soup and salad.
If you are hosting the meal, though, and you don’t want to serve turkey, you may get complaints. I used to make a turkey for my family, but it started grossing me out, so we did without the turkey for a few years. When my sister-in-law started hosting the meal, she made turkey, and I contribute chestnut or squash soup, chocolate pecan pie and regular pecan pie, and maybe an appetizer.

I have this habit of always making a complicated new dish and springing it on guests. But Bobby Flay, chef and owner of Mesa Grill and Bar Americain, recommends sticking with staples, making the same dish a couple of times to make entertaining easier.

But because we have my daughter’s bat mitzvah Thanksgiving weekend, 35 out of town guests, high school applications due for the same daughter and college apps due for another, I decided to try out Bobby’s easy balsamic-glazed stuffed mushrooms. They are easy to whip up, don’t require any hard to find ingredients and they taste great.

BALSAMIC-GLAZED STUFFED MUSHROOMS
A Bobby Flay Recipe

6 servings

Prep Time: 15 minutes Cook Time: 25 minutes

20 cremini mushrooms, stems removed and finely chopped
2 Tbsp. olive oil, divided
2 medium shallots or 1 small onion, finely chopped
Pinch crushed hot pepper flakes
2 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh parsley
2 tsp. fresh thyme leaves, chopped
1/2 cup Hellmann's® or Best Foods Real Mayonnaise, divided
2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar, divided
4 Tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1/4 cup plain dry bread crumbs, toasted

Preheat oven 400°.

Toss mushroom caps with 1 tablespoon oil in large bowl. Season, if desired, with salt and pepper. Arrange mushroom caps in 13 x 9-inch baking dish, stem-side-down. Bake 10 minutes or until golden brown. Remove mushrooms; drain liquid. Return mushrooms to baking dish, stem-side-up.

Heat remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil in 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat and cook shallots, stirring occasionally, 1 minute. Stir in mushroom stems and cook, stirring occasionally, 8 minutes or until tender. Stir in hot pepper flakes, parsley and thyme. Season, if desired, with salt and pepper. Turn into medium bowl. Stir in 1/4 cup mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon vinegar, 2 tablespoons cheese and bread crumbs. Evenly spoon mixture into mushrooms.
Combine remaining 1/4 cup mayonnaise with remaining 1 tablespoon vinegar in small bowl. Season, if desired, with salt and pepper. Drizzle over mushrooms, then sprinkle with remaining 2 tablespoons cheese. Bake 15 minutes or until mushrooms are golden and heated through.