Homemade Eggnog

To me, nothing reminds me of the holiday season than eggnog.  I’ve always loved the stuff.  As a kid, I wasn’t picky.  I even liked the instant eggnog mix that you just stirred into milk.  These days I find it difficult to find a brand of eggnog that I like.  The expensive ones with the best spices tend to have a really thick consistency that is way too snot like for me.  The ‘light’ ones have a better consistency, but they tend to also be light on spice.  Well, if you can’t find a suitable version in the store, it’s time to make your own. 

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 4 cups milk
• 1 cup cream
• ⅓ - ½  cup sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• Piece of a vanilla bean
• 1 whole nutmeg

A lot of the recipes I’ve seen online just say to throw everything into a blender.  For some reason the thought of drinking raw eggs makes me want to hurl, though, so I made a cooked version.  So, pour your milk and cream into a pan over low heat. 

Very carefully cut your nutmeg in half.  I’ll be honest, I don’t have any brilliant tips on how to do it safely. 

Actually, scratch that, I’ve just had an epiphany.  You’re going to need to grate the other half of the nutmeg later, so just grate that half off now, and set it aside.

Then drop the intact half into the milk. 

I can’t believe I didn’t figure that plan out before now.  It addresses two safety problems you see.  Not only the dangerous act of cutting a small, round, hard object in half, but also, grating the nutmeg while it’s whole will hopefully prevent you from accidentally grating your finger. 

Next up is the vanilla bean.  Cut a third-ish of it off. 

Carefully split it down the middle. 

Then just run the back of your knife along the inside scraping out the seeds. 

Plop them into the milk and whisk to get them to separate and distribute themselves throughout.     

Now it’s time to move to the eggs.  Drop your yolks into a mixing bowl along with the sugar.  I used ½ cup, which made it pretty sweet.  Next time I think I’ll use ⅓ cup instead.  I’d say, if you’re unsure, start with ⅓ cup and you can taste it when it’s finished but still hot, and add more if you need to.

Mix on medium speed until it all comes together.  You probably noticed that my yolks are a dark orange color.  That’s because they come from local, pasture raised hens.  They are seriously amazing. At this stage, go ahead and scrape everything down, then turn the mixer back on and allow it to run for a minute or two. 

(Don’t forget to stir your milk.)  This is pretty close here.  Just one more scrape down and another quick whirl.  

Now you can step away from that and put your full attention on the milk mixture.  Go ahead and bump the heat up a little.  Stir constantly until it comes just to a simmer.  My nutmeg conveniently lodged itself in my whisk, but if yours doesn’t, you’ll want to fish it out now. 

This next part is another do as I say not as I do moment.  With the mixer running on medium low speed, slowly pour in the hot milk.  As you can see from the picture, there was nothing slow about my pouring.  Perhaps trying to take pictures while pouring a full pan of hot liquid into a running mixer isn’t the brightest idea.  Fortunately, I didn’t burn myself, but I did get milk all over the bar, and was afraid I could have curdled the eggs the hot liquid in that fast. 

Allow the mixer to run while you give the pan a quick wash.  The mixture should be nice and frothy. 

Now, if you had a pouring mishap like I did (or even if you didn’t) you might want to pour the mixture through a sieve as you return it back to the pan, just to make sure it’s nice and smooth. 

It should look something like this:

Sprinkle on your reserved nutmeg.  I know it looks like a lot, but this is eggnog we’re talking about.  Nutmeg is what makes it special. 

Stirring constantly, bring the mixture up to a boil. 

Then turn off the heat, but continue to stir for a couple minutes just to make sure it doesn’t scorch on the bottom. 

You’ve done it!  You’ve made homemade eggnog!  And I’m going to bet it’s the best you’ve ever had.  You have a couple of options at this point.  Go ahead and taste it to see if it needs anymore sugar or nutmeg.  First thing you have to decide is do you want nog in your eggnog.  I don’t drink alcohol, but if you do, go ahead and add some good rum, or whatever your heart desires.  Next, you have to decided if you want to drink it hot or cold.  If you like it hot, go ahead and ladle it into mugs.  Personally, I prefer eggnog cold.  For that, go ahead and put a lid on the pan and allow it to cool.  Once it has, pour it into a vessel and refrigerate for several hours. 

When serving, simply grate a bit more nutmeg over the top to make it fragrant and pretty, and enjoy! 

How do you like your eggnog?

Meat and Potatoes with a Kick!

So apparently, Seeley and I were both thinking about Mexican meat this week.  The truth is, I had a flank steak in the freezer that I pulled out to thaw, and really had no clue what I was going to do with it.  Basically with flank, you have two options.  You can cook it hot and fast or low and slow.  Anything in the middle is going to be stringy shoe leather.  Well, as it happens, Elise and I recently went on a bit of a shopping spree at Penzeys. 

If you have a store near you and you’ve never been in.  Go.  Seriously.  You can smell every spice in the store, and it’s an amazing experience.  If you don’t have one nearby, you can order from their website, which is great, but not quite the same.  So obviously I won’t be using all of those spices for this one meal.  These are the ones I decided on. 

So here’s what you’ll need:

• 1 Tablespoon oil
• ½ teaspoon salt
• Flank steak (mine was probably .75 lb.)
• 1 Tablespoon oil (yes this makes two, but they’re used separately)
• 1 Tablespoon chili powder 
• ⅛ teaspoon cayenne
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon Mexican oregano
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon onion powder
• 2 Tablespoons dried minced onion
• Juice of a lime
• ½ cup water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 medium russet potatoes
• 1 medium tomato

The first step is to sear the meat.  Salt both sides well.  Then put it into a very hot pan with 1 Tablespoon of oil.  Ideally, you’d like it to be a bit darker than this, but I had a bit of a brain fart and used a nonstick pan rather than a stainless one.  Why is this a problem?  Well, Teflon gives off toxic stuff if it gets too hot, so I didn’t want to put it on high.  Just use stainless and you won’t have to worry about it. 

Once you’ve seared both sides, remove it from the pan and put it into your crock pot. 

See those tasty bits left in the pan?  That’s one of the reasons for searing the meat, so we can’t waste them.  Also, a bit of heat will really wake up your spices. 

Add another tablespoon of oil to the pan (I had already added it in that picture) and stir in your chili powder, cumin, and cayenne. 

Spices can burn really easily in this process, so give them only about 30 seconds or so, then quickly add your minced onion, oregano, garlic and onion powder, and pour in the lime juice and water. 

Add 1 teaspoon of salt.  Stir and simmer that for about a minute, then just turn off the heat.  It should look something like this:

Peel and dice your potatoes.

Stir them into the spice mixture as you go so that they don’t oxidize. 

Then pour the whole thing over the top of your waiting flank steak. 

This was about the time I looked over and saw the beautiful tomatoes that I had picked up at the farmers’ market.

So I diced one of them up and threw it in.  If you want to make it easier, just stir it in with the potatoes before adding them to the pot.  Otherwise, you can just stir them in afterward, like I did. 

I like to start my slow cooker on high for the first hour, just to get things going a bit, then turn it down to low for the duration.  This went for a total of about 5 hours.  Look at those potatoes.  Can you just imagine how much flavor they must have?

You’ll know it’s done when the potatoes are nice and soft, and the meat is fall apart tender.  No, I didn’t just put the meat on my countertop.  It just looks like that because it’s on a glass plate.

Now the tricky part, cutting the tender meat into chunks.  Sure, you could just shred it, but I think chunks are better for this particular dish.  Cut across the grain first. (see, glass plate)

Then it will be easy to cut the strips into small pieces.

Put the meat chunks back into the crock pot and stir so that everything is nicely coated. 

Spoon the mixture into tortillas, top with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of green onion, and you have serious taco goodness. 

You might not find carne y papas tacos at your local restaurante mexicano, but meat and potatoes cooked in a similar fashion to this are actually very traditional Mexican cuisine.

What’s on your list of spices to buy and/or use?