A Bowlful of Festive

Alright, I've got to get this recipe to you stat, as a) it's crazy delicious and b) it's seasonal and since we are post-Consumermas, is probably already out of date. Also, I'm a little embarrassed to share this, as I do feel it's kind of cheating since the main ingredient is pre-made eggnog. Don't worry--I'm not going to go all Semi-Homemade kwanzaa cake on you, I promise. Just trust that this is stupid easy and ridiculously tasty, and I don't even particularly like eggnog. If you wanted to make your own eggnog not only would this recipe work with it, I would also tip my hat to you.

Eggnog Ice Cream


Adapted from Sherlie's Easy Eggnog Ice Cream at Allrecipes

Mr. Monster approves this recipe.

2 cups eggnog
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon dark rum

Mix up the goods and pour into the frozen container of an ice cream maker. Follow its directions. Mine took 50 minutes to firm up to soft serve consistency, but you know your own ice cream maker better than I. Eat a little of it now and put the rest of it in a container in the fridge to firm up properly (it will take about 2 hours).

A Winter Pick-Me-Up with the Power of Color

Winter food can get a little... well, boring, especially if your diet is heavy on the produce like mine is. How many ways can a person cook potatoes, anyway? Squash are the tiny splashes of color that keep my winter cooking from ending up monochrome and snooze-inducing. A little scene-stealer of a dish like this one can keep your meals feeing festive and interesting even when you've got, say, several inches of snow on the ground like we do here. Plus, a vegetarian dish that can stand as the beautiful centerpiece of a meal is a rare and wondrous thing (you know where I'm coming from, fellow veggies and almost-veggies: a plate of sides does not a meal make). These babies spend a long time in the oven, so they're best suited to a day when you can commit several hours to kicking around the kitchen--like an upcoming holiday, perhaps.

Roasted Acorn Squash with Corn Pudding

Adapted from Heidi Swanson's recipe at 101Cookbooks

The original recipe only called for 1 acorn squash, but I found that I had way too much filling. Either you can use two squashes (as I suggest here) or you can use one squash and cook the remainder of the filling like a custard. I did mine in an ungreased souffle pan, placed it in a cake pan full of water, and put the whole shebang into a cold oven. I then let it heat up to 375 and baked for 40 minutes. It was okay, but a little bland for me. The combination of egg and squash is what makes this dish stellar.


2 acorn squash (see note above)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup milk
1 egg and 2 egg whites
1/2 cup corn kernels (I used frozen, thawed but fresh would be great too)
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/3 cup chopped scallions
pinch of nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup grated cheddar

Mise en place: the finest kitchen methodology!

Preheat oven to 375F degrees with your rack in the middle.

Cut your squash in half lengthwise to make nice little cups and scrape them out with a spoon. Then cut a flat spot on the bottom so that the cup sits level. You want to have a nice level container for your filling so there's no slopping about. Rub the top and inside of your squash with the olive oil and put them cup-side up on a baking sheet. Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes until the squash starts to get tender.

Whisk your eggs together with the milk, allspice, corn, nutmeg, salt, and about half to 2/3 of the scallions. Please note that the corn will sink, especially if you use frozen, and everything else will float. Give it a good stir right before pouring it into the squash, filling them about 3/4 of the way. Just leave the squash on the same baking sheet to save yourself the trouble of moving a mostly full squash cup from one surface to another. The original recipe says it can take as little time as 30 minutes, depending on the oven, but I was using my mom's nice new oven (thanks Mom!) and my pudding took nearly an hour and a quarter to set--so proceed with patience!

When the pudding looks done, sprinkle on your cheese and put the squash back in the oven for another 5 minutes. If you're feeling fancy, you can also melt the cheese by putting the squash under a hot broiler for a quick crisp--just be careful not to burn anything. Sprinkle your remaining scallions on top and tuck in!

Look at this spread and try to feel dreary. I dare ya.

Notable Potables: Brugge Brasserie's Thunder Monkey

When I think of a winter beer, I tend to imagine molasses with a head of foam: something thick, viscous, and chewy that likely counts, calorie-wise, as the entirety of my meal. The holidays are my favorite time for beer for precisely this reason, since for about three months brewers suddenly remember that people really do like dark brews. Brugge Brasserie, Indianapolis' temple to Belgium, offers a holiday beer by the name of Thunder Monkey that is anything but the heavy, rich variety of winter beer that I know and love, but to be honest, I kind of dig it anyway.

I failed to take a photo so you will just have to use your imaginations, cats & kittens. This brew is about the color of a good bourbon, lightly effervescent, and light in the head department. Coriander and cinnamon are the first notes I got in a sip, with a little anise and hops bite at the end. The beer is very light, so the flavor is gone as soon as you've sensed it, making this a fabulous beer to drink with dinner: no fighting between flavors. Now if you hear "cinnamon" and "holiday beer" and fear you're going to have a swig full of Essence of Christmas Febreze, don't panic. If the brewers had messed with any bourbon barrel aging or cloying vanilla notes or even yeastiness, maybe. Nothing of the sort here. In fact, I'd like this brew as well in autumn as I do in winter. It's great with crepes & frites, but I bet it'd be killer with an apple and cheese plate.

The bad news? This stuff is only available in Indianapolis, and is a rare occurrence on Brugge's menu. If you happen to be there and it's on tap, go for it. Hoosier Beer Geek gave Thunder Monkey 3.96 mugs back in 2007, but their review sounds like an entirely different beer, so I imagine it's undergone some revisions between then and now. I strongly recommend the current version--that is, if you manage to snag some.