Holiday Mulled Wine, White or Red?

The other day, we just so happened upon a great sale of cheap wine at Kroger’s, the wine was Gallo, in fact, 750 ml size, marked to $2.99 a bottle.  Hmmm…one idea came immediately to mind-mulled wine.  So we bought several Chardonnays and Cabernets and began our research on what sorts of things to put in them for mulling.  I consulted a number of websites with recipes and some with the historical information of how mulled wine came about to arrive at the following recipes for white and red mulled wine.  The mister has enjoyed his red variety, much less sweeter I’m assuming than mine, while I toyed around with the white.

Here is our method and recipe for a great mulled wine:

(To be made in quantities of one bottle)

First, start off with 1/3 C water in a small sauce pan

Add your mulling spices

            For red, use                                          For white, use

3 peppercorns                                      3 peppercorns

2/3 of a cinnamon stick                         1 whole cinnamon stick, broken into 3

2 whole cloves                                      3 whole cloves

3 pinches of nutmeg                              1/2 of an orange peel, dried, torn

1/3 of an orange peel, dried, torn                                 

1 bay leaf

Bring water and ingredients to a boil, stirring, boil for several minutes, abusing the hard ingredients to release their flavor

White wine mulling-start-small skillet

Remove from heat

Reduce burner to simmer, return skillet to heat, stirring for another 5 minutes or so.

Remove from heat and let cool, 5 minutes or so

Transfer contents to a separate, large skillet, adding sugar and stirring

            For red, use 1 1/2 T. sugar, for white, use 3 1/2 T. brown sugar

Apply low heat

Add contents of 1 wine bottle, stirring until all sugar is dissolved

Simmer for 10 minutes

White wine added

Taste….make any adjustments needed

Fill glasses and enjoy!

Hints:

We used tangerine peel and were perfectly satisfied

Remove the peel after adding the wine, or it can become overwhelming

Place a part of the used cinnamon stick in your glass to add flavor up to the moment you drink it!

Avoid boiling all of the alcohol out of the wine.

You can also put a dot of honey in the bottom of a glass of white mulled wine, it will melt in the warmth and disperse.

And finally, don’t waste good money or good wine with mulling intentions!

Gingerbread Houses from Scratch

Things have gone so swimmingly this year with the approaching holidays in this house, we are ready to welcome Christmas!!  So, that has given us plenty of time to get some of the "idealistic" things accomplished that we have never had the time to do in the past.  One of them on our list this year, was to make our own gingerbread houses, from scratch.

We used this recipe from epicurious, http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Gingerbread-House-103229, and baked long pieces in cookie sheets at just under 1/4" thickness.  This made enough for two medium sized houses.  Baked them on wax paper (yes, I checked the box and it was fine to do) and they were easy to cut with a pizza cutter.

Now, for the record, I want to say that I measured my half of the pieces, found the total amount of space I would be able to work with, and proceeded to calculate the sizes and dimensions of  walls, the roof and the floor.  I drew a cutting diagram.  None of it was worthwhile in practice, so I worked with what I had.  The mister, on the other hand, goes in with no plan whatsoever, and creates a cute chateau.  Mine turned out like a bad 60's-70's apartment building:

It was in the reviewers comments that I found a shortcut about joining the pieces of gingerbread with caramelized sugar.  I'm glad it worked for them, but it only have me a burn, and the pieces fell apart anyway.
BUT, we had fun making and decorating them!!

Marvelous Marzipan

With the holidays comes traditions, and I’ve held on to the ones I enjoyed the most growing up, so there are several Christmas treats that always make it on to our menu.  Russian Tea Cakes, described and recipe in an earlier post, are one that must make it to the Christmas Eve table of delight in this house.  Another one that I learned to make at a young age is marzipan.  This one, however, has been more dependent through the year on availability of ingredients…it calls for almond paste.  Nope, I have never tasted a shortcut that even approached the little fruits and vegetables we would create over the hours.  The mister helps me with this endeavor these days, and I think he enjoys it.  He’s very good at the ones I am not :)  And it can bring out the kid in you, too, making marzipan is akin to edible play-dough…OK, bad analogy…very bad, but it is fun!  And if you are a fan of almonds, how can this be wrong?  I love the very smell of them, myself.

To really enjoy the craft of making marzipan, you’ll need to set aside some time.  Pull out a Christmas movie, and pop that in, because this can all be done while you are plunked comfortably in front of the tv. 

Here’s what you’ll need:

1 (8 oz) can of Solo almond paste—not marzipan* in a can, tube or any other form

1 1/3 C powdered sugar

lemon juice (a very little bit, from the plastic lemon is most efficient)

water (in a fine mist spray bottle disperses the best in small amounts)

One med-large mixing bowl

Several smaller mixing bowls (the number depends on how many colors you want to make)

Liquid food coloring, paste is an acceptable alternative

Optional decorative aids: ground cinnamon, whole cloves, sugar for dusting

*Pre-made marzipan is exactly not what you need, it is made more for baking projects or for frosting.  Avoid this as it won’t give you the results you want (it will give you a very bitter taste though).

Step one:

Open can, scoop out all of the almond paste into a med-large mixing bowl

Step two:

Add 1 1/3 C powdered sugar

Step three:

Using washed hands, rub together mixture until it is evenly dispersed crumbs of almond paste and powdered sugar

See if you can get it to form large clumps

If you can not, give it a spray or two of water, be careful not to over wet—just enough to get the dough to form balls, repeat, alternate with 3 drops of lemon juice

*If you are kneading the marzipan, and it starts to leave a layer or film on your hands, it is too wet, and needs to be left alone to dry a bit before continuing

Step four:

Separate dough into smaller balls, depending on how many colors you wish to make

Place each smaller ball into a separate bowl, add three drops of food color to the smaller ball (to start), knead the coloring in, and check for desired results, possibly adding additional drop or two

Step five:

Time to get creative!  Make your objects, whatever they may be, we traditionally make fruits and vegetables, although this year the mister made a clever goldfish too.  You can use sugar to decorate with, or ground cinnamon and whole cloves really help to hold things together (hold leaves on, hold cherries together, etc.).  A toothpick is also very handy for making lines, divits, and well…you get the picture. 

Say, how do you like my picture of this years “crop?”

The Office--Done for Now...

Well, to be blunt, I’ve been busy, that’s why this months old update on the office project is just now being posted.  Holidays happen and many things are demanding the attention, ah well, here is the office, mostly finished.  I still have plans for two more pieces, a printer stand, and a parson chair for the light desk (for me!).  I have some rough plans for constructing the chair, but that will have to wait until January, I’m afraid.

 

Both of the desks were painstakingly and thoroughly stripped, the lighter/larger desk then received 2 coats of the golden oak stain and 2 coats of poly (3 on the top).  I later found a problem with the largest of the drawers, it was stuck, presumably due to the humidity, however, this swelling misfit did not improve with time.  I tried everything I could find on the web to solve this dilemma: beeswax and furniture polish for a smoother glide, sanding-sanding-sanding, nothing worked.  It seemed to be catching along the sides, and short of dismantling the entire drawer and reassembling it somewhat smaller, I was lost.  Then, upon further study, I saw that some of the problem actually lay in the back of the drawer, where the backing is taller than the sides.  Some quick jigsaw action took an inch and  a half off.  This, coupled with some frictionless tape I ordered to line the tracks with, has helped a great deal.  It now slides in and out with ease, just doesn’t close completely (I’d have to take the jigsaw to the front drawer panel to make that one fit now too, boy, humidity eh?).

 

The smaller, more brownish desk started out a virtually solid dark brown color, with no wood grain even visible.  It was very difficult to strip (and rather disgusting in its tar-like substance), and the decision was made to simply apply the coats of poly.  It would have been nearly impossible, if not outright impossible, to remove all of the stain from the wood on this desk.  It had seeped far down into the grain over the last decades.  I really like the grain that now shows, though. 

Done for now…one step at a time!