Something Different Holiday Gift Guide – Oddka

Posted on November 26, 2012 by Renee {Eat.Live.Blog.}

Who wants the same old thing for the holidays? Socks in your stalking, a sweater on the 3rd night, or a book under the tree are all things we have come to expect. And while it is always nice to get a gift, regardless of what it is, if you are anything like me, you want to surprise people when you give a gift.

Salty Caramel Popcorn Oddka

So this month, I am starting a new series, the “Something Different Holiday Gift Guide”! I was inspired to write this series when I received a bottle of Salty Caramel Popcorn flavored Oddka. When I received the bottle, I instantly thought what a cool gift this would be for someone! With flavors including Apple Pie, Electricity (?!), Fresh Cut Grass and Wasabi…seriously, if you wrap this for your Holiday Gift Exchange, you will definitely have the hit gift of the party!

Instead of giving my bottle away, I chose to enjoy the crazy vodka at a family Thanksgiving get-together. After a LONG day of Black Friday shopping (yeah, I was one of the crazies up at 2am), all I could think to drink that evening was Salty Caramel Popcorn Oddka in a nice hot cup of caffeine (aka coffee). The result was delicious! I can’t wait for a warmer holiday so I can throw a shot or two of this stuff to a milk shake!

Oddka drink

What is on your “something different” holiday wish list?

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary bottle of Oddka to review. As always, all opinions are my own!

 

Filed under: Reviews | Tagged: , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Homemade Mac & Cheese – Perfect for the Holiday Potluck!

Posted on December 23, 2011 by Renee {Eat.Live.Blog.}

The perfect holiday potluck dish. It’s an elusive item. Actually, any potluck dish is always a tough choice, especially for a food blogger. You want to show off your cooking skills and style, but you don’t want to make anything too crazy so that it scares noshers away.

This is especially true over the holidays. This Thanksgiving, I was lucky enough to make my way home for the holiday for the first time in the 6 holidays that I have lived in Boston.  This was also the first time I would be cooking anything for my family in years. The perfect dish needed to be planned.

Since moving to Boston, my family has blended. We now celebrate the holidays combined with my dad’s wife Michelle’s family. Not knowing how adventurous they are in the culinary realm, I wanted to keep it simple, but delicious.

I consulted my handy (and amazing) Cooks’ Illustrated Cookbook, which really has something for everyone. It only took me a minute to decide on Homemade Mac & Cheese. Who doesn’t like homemade Mac & Cheese??

I am happy to report, this dish was absolutely amazing! It was surprisingly easy, and the results were perfect. I made it again for dinner last week…and almost kicked myself for packaging up the leftovers and forgetting to put them in the fridge!

This is what the beginning of a roux looks like.

And, I am also happy to report, I will be making it again for the Beaulac Family Christmas Eve Potluck! So, family, if you are reading this, you have this deliciousness to look forward to!

Happy Holidays!

Homemade Mac & Cheese

(Closely adapted from Cooks’ Illustrated Cookbook)

Ingredients:

  • 1 lb elbow or shell noodles
  • 5 Tbsp butter
  • 6 Tbsp all-purpose flour
  • 5 cups 1% or whole milk
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 1/2 tsp dry mustard
  • salt to taste
  • 1 lb of your favorite cheeses - grated (I used a combo of Havarti, cheddar and Dubliner. For Christmas I am using Havarti and cheddar)
  • 1 cup shredded Monterrey Jack cheese
  • 3/4 cup bread crumbs

Directions:

  • Cook  the noodles to al-dente. You don’t want to over cook them since they will simmer in the sauce
  • Set noodles aside
  • In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat
  • Once butter is melted, add flour and stir constantly until mixture forms a dough ball. (This is how you make a roux! Adding liquid, as you will do below, and this is the base of most cream sauces!)
  • Add 1/2 a cup of milk and stir well until all lumps are gone
  • Add another 1/2 cup of milk and stir well until all lumps are gone
  • Add the remaining 4 cups of milk and stir well
  • Add nutmeg, pepper and mustard, stir
  • Add salt to taste, stir
  • Bring to a slow simmer, stirring frequently
  • Allow to simmer, while stirring, for 5 minutes
  • Add the one pound of cheese you grated
  • Stir well
  • Allow to simmer for 3 minutes while stirring constantly
  • Add pasta and stir well
  • Allow to simmer for 5 minutes, stirring frequently
  • Pour the pasta into a 9 x 13 pan (or if your skillet is oven safe, you may keep it in that)
  • Sprinkle the one cup of cheese over the top of  the dish
  • Sprinkle an even coating of bread crumbs over the top of the dish
  • At this point you may set the dish aside until 10 minutes before you are ready to serve
  • Pre-heat the broiler of your oven
  • Place the dish, uncovered, under the broiler
  • Broil until the top of the dish gets brown and bubbly, but do not burn
  • Remove from oven and serve!

Filed under: Recipes | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Orange Drop Cookies and Annual Holiday Cookie Exchange – A Guest Post from the Best Friend

Posted on December 20, 2011 by Renee {Eat.Live.Blog.}

She’s back! Last Spring you may remember that my best friend Missy did a guest post stint for the blog as she tested my lemon blueberry tart recipe. Well, since that time, Missy, her husband and their daughter Bailey have welcomed the adorable Kinley to the family.

Meeting Kinley for the first time in FL over Thanksgiving. Oh yeah...Missy and Brad were there too!

I guess having a second child made Missy charitable, because she is sharing her orange drop cookie recipe! Missy is known for this recipe. Well, this recipe and her love for cheese.

So, without further ado, I give you Missy’s Orange Drop Cookies!

In my family we love to celebrate the holidays and Christmas is one of our favorites.  We always spend Christmas Eve at my mom’s house and Christmas day at my Aunt and Uncles.  Besides presents, football games and gorging myself until I want to burst, one of the things I look most forward to is my Aunt Glen’s Orange Drop Cookies. 
 They are only made at Christmas and they are well worth the wait, and I’m not the only person who thinks so…I literally pay my dentist with Orange Drop Cookies…I’m serious!
I asked my aunt what the story was behind the Orange Drop Cookies and she explained that they are a Zweifel family tradition.  She was able to trace them back to Great Grandma Nelly Zweifel.  They are of Swiss-German descent and every woman in the Zweifel family has made them for Christmas.
Now, technically I am not a Zweifel, my Aunt Glen is my mom’s sister and she married into the Zweifel family, but growing up my cousin Dan and I were inseparable so I consider myself an honorary Zweifel. 
After my cousin and I had grown up and gone away for college, I noticed that the Orange Drop Cookies were not making their normal appearance at the Christmas table.  When I asked about them I got that wonderful response I always dreaded hearing, “you are an adult, if you want them you can make them”.  At the same time, my good friends Cheryl (whose husband happens to be the dentist) and Dory (who Renee has known since elementary school and I have known since middle school) decided that we wanted to do a holiday cookie exchange.    I thought if that’s not an invitation for me to make the Orange Drop Cookies, then what is.
What I like about the Orange Drop Cookies is that they taste very light and airy and honestly, I could eat dozens of them and not feel full…which is also a problem as you will see they are not going to shrink your waistline.  Plus they are just divine…as Cheryl says (you have to say it with a thick Alabama accent) “It’s like a bite of heaven in your mouth” So without further ado:

 Dough Ingredients:

  • 2/3 cup shortening
  • 1 ½ cups sugar
  • ½ cup sour cream
  • ½ cup orange juice (preferably no pulp)
  • 1 teaspoon orange extract
  • 2 tablespoons grated orange rind
  • 2 ½ cups all purpose flour
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt

 Instructions:

  • Heat oven to 400 degrees. 
  • In a bowl, mix shortening, sugar, egg and sour cream.
  • Stir in orange juice, extract and rind.
  • In separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. 
  • Stir dry ingredients into orange juice mixture until well combined.  (I’ve found it’s easier to stir the dry ingredients in small doses and hand mix it, then use a dough hook with the electric mixer to smooth out the batter.) 
  • The batter will be thick and there will be some lumps, but that’s fine.
  • Drop rounded teaspoonfuls on an ungreased baking sheet. 
  • Bake 8-10 minutes.  (You will have to play with the baking time, I tend to like my cookies more undercooked and I have a gas range, so I was able to cook them for 4-6 minutes.  You just have to watch them; you want to see a little brown around the edges but not on the top of the cookie.)

Icing Ingredients

  • 2 cups sifted confectioner’s sugar
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, slightly softened (do not melt)
  • 4 tablespoons orange juice
  • 1 teaspoon orange extract

 Icing Instructions:

  • Combine confectioner’s sugar and butter
  • Add orange juice and extract to make spreadable icing
  • Drizzle frosting over the cookies while still warm.
  • You will need to whisk the frosting again if it has been sitting for a while.  Also, it will run off everywhere so make sure you have something underneath the cookies to catch the icing.  I like parchment paper because I can scoop up the dried frosting with my fingers…Yummy!
  • Makes approximately 4 dozen cookies.

Cookie Exchange

Our cookie exchange started with just Cheryl, Dory and me cooking in Cheryl’s kitchen about 7 years ago.  Now we have a party with about 8-10 people, we bring our cookies and swap them, but we also enjoy some appetizers and a day away from our mundane daily duties!

This year we had snickerdoodles, cinnamon bun cookies, peanut butter, pink lemonade cookies, oatmeal raisin, m&m brownies and chocolate balls to name a few!

Thanks for the post Missy! I can’t wait to finally try these for myself. And next time….I’m making you tackle Osso Bucco next!

Filed under: Recipes | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Renee’s Holiday Gift Guide

Posted on November 9, 2011 by Renee {Eat.Live.Blog.}

With the holiday spirit in the air, (damned if they don’t bring out those red Starbucks cups earlier and earlier every year) I thought it was time to bring you a list of the things that are ruling my wish list. I would love to hear what you are wishing for this year too!

Korres Wild Rose Foundation in WRF2

I discovered this foundation last year around this time. If you know me, you know I pretty much NEVER wear makeup. Sadly, age is starting to show with a few dark spots on my complexion. Luckily they only appear in the winter. I absolutely HATE the feel of wearing makeup, and if you put anything on my skin, I break out in all kinds of rashes. So, naturally I was skeptical when the sales lady at Sephora offered to try some on me. It was light, it didn’t smell, and it actually made my skin even smoother! Sold!

PS- Never a bad gift….a Sephora gift certificate!

Bean Boots from LL Bean in Black

This is why, despite being in New England for 6 years, I am still a Florida girl. I have not yet gotten a great pair of snow boots. Every year I try out a new pair and they fail. So why haven’t I just bought these Bean Boots? Excellent question, I have no answer. They are super cute, have a mini heel (when you are pushing 5 ft, that’s important) and are LL Bean quality. What’s not to love?

LL Bean Trail Model Rain Coat – French Blue – Small

A raincoat is something I have never been able to commit to. My “want” list is too long. It must have a great shape, not be too hot, and truly be waterproof. I was holding out for it to be yellow too, but alas I don’t think that will ever happen. This LL Bean Trail Model Rain Coat fits all of my other requirements nicely though!

Cannon G12

I know, this one is a tall order. But, this is my “wish” list, right? As a food blogger, I do my best with my little point and shoot camera, which I love. I just feel like I could really step it up if I had something like the G12 on my side!

Kitchenaid Stand Mixer in Green Apple

The hardest part in picking out a Kitchenaid appliance is choosing the color! Green apple is the way to go for me, it would match all of my Le Creuset pieces.

Calvin Klein Elita Stacked Platform Pumps in Taupe (7.5)

Narrowing this list down to only include 2 pairs of shoes was a pretty hard task. But I did it. These pumps would be the perfect replacement for my favorite reptile textured nude pumps that I have worn down to the nubs. These shoes are versatile and when all else fails, they will always match!

Tempur-Pedic Classic Pillow

Our Tempur-Pedic bed was one of the best purchases we ever made. And when we bought it, my Tempur-Pedic pillow was still in good shape. Reise decided to use it as a scratching post (yes, even though she is a dog and not a cat), and long story short, its time for new pillows. Throwing 2 of these space aged balls of comfort on the bed would provide us with sleep that could only be compared to Utopia.

So, there you have it. The items at the top of my wish list. If you add win the lottery, we will be all set! I would also like to say that I reserve the right to publish additional wish lists throughout the holiday season as the mood strikes me!

Filed under: Random | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

  • Foodbuzz
  • Quantcast
    • Follow

    Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

    Join 3,006 other followers