Homemade Eggnog: Possible and Delicious

This is one of my favorite recipes to share at holiday gatherings and special parties. You may or may not be a fan of the eggnog that shows up in grocery stores at Christmas time but love or hate it this is something completely different. I happen to dislike store bought eggnog very much. This, however, tastes light and rich and just plain amazing.



The ingredients are few: eggs, milk, sugar, salt, nutmeg, vanilla and cream.



Whisk together the eggs, salt and sugar.



Stir in one quart of milk.



Heat over low heat until the temperature reaches 160 - 170 degrees. Stir constantly or you will have bits of cooked egg in your nog and that's just plain weird. I have saved it from egg chunks by using my immersion blender to reincorporate the separated egg.



Place in an ice water bath (or snow bath if you live in a place that has piles of snow right outside the front door).



Stir in another quart of milk, nutmeg and vanilla.



The proper thing to do now is to take some heavy whipping cream and whip it until soft peaks form. Us poor bush dwelling folks don't have access to heavy whipping cream unless we special order it. So, our emergency substitution for real whipping cream is Dream Whip. It virtually has an endless shelf life. I recommend buying this for your backup Armageddon supplies. That way if the world around you is crumbling you can still have nice desserts.



I normally put the eggnog a punch bowl, top with the whipped cream and sprinkle nutmeg on top for a pretty effect. For this photo my coffee mug will have to do.

I promise you, even the most skeptical party goer will be crazy for this if you can get them to take just one sip.

Homemade Eggnog

Ingredients:
1 dozen eggs
1 1/2 c. sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 quarts milk (divided)
2 T vanilla
1tsp nutmeg
2 c. heavy whipping cream

Pretty punch bowl  

Directions: In a heavy 4-quart saucepan, whisk together eggs, sugar & salt. Add 1 quart of the milk. Cook and stir over low heat until 160 - 170 degrees. Stir in vanilla, nutmeg and remaining milk. Cool in an ice water bath. If the mixture separates mix it in the blender. It'll fix things right up. Cover and refrigerate for 3 hours or more. When ready to serve, beat cream until soft peaks form. Whisk gently into cooled milk. Pour in to a chilled punch bowl. Sprinkle with nutmeg. 

~AnnMarie

Salmon Quiche

Though the time of fresh salmon is long over for the year, we have plenty in the freezer to eat up this winter. And so, the salmon recipes continue.

This is one of my favorite ways to use up any left over salmon or canned salmon I may have on hand.



Start by cooking the onions in butter until they are soft.



Add garlic, salt, pepper and parsley to the onions.



Isn't it just so pretty?



Add canned or left over salmon to the mix.



I used my handy Mix n Chop tool from Pampered Chef to break up the meat.



You will need milk, evaporated milk and four eggs.



Beat the eggs and milk together.



Add a pile of cheese and the onion mixture to the eggs and milk.



Pour into a prepared pie crust and bake.



It takes much longer to cook than the recipe says. You know it is done when the crust is golden brown and the egg mixture is cooked in the middle.

Serve with Tabasco, it adds just the right amount of kick.

This recipe was found in the Cooking Alaskan cookbook but can also be found here.

~AnnMarie

Mini Frittats

I ran across this recipe for Mini Frittatas yesterday on Pinterest and decided to give them a try.



The recipe begins with three basic ingredients.



Whisk together.




If you have a four year old on hand, they're very good at doling out muffin liners. I got these very handy silicone muffin cups from my mother-in-law. They're great because they don't need to be greased or oiled and they're reusable.




Fill your muffin tins or muffin cups about 1/2 to 2/3 full of the egg mixture.

Sprinkle your favorite egg dish ingredients into the partially filled muffin cups.



This morning we happened to have peppers, cheese, onions and left over breakfast sausage available.




Serve in the muffin cups or they pop right out.

The recipe made quite a bit less than I was expecting. Next time I think I'll double or triple the recipe. The original recipe calls for 1/2 tsp. salt and turned out to be too much, cut that amount in half and add a bit of pepper instead.

~AnnMarie

German Pancakes

I don't make breakfast very often.  But, I was inspired by this post.  I was also inspired by the fact that I got up before 11:00am on a Saturday.





It started with six eggs in a bowl.  Due to a very unfortunate incident involving an egg and a blackish brown spot on the inside of the shell,  I had to make a trip to the store.  Sigh.





Next was cinnamon.





Milk.

Note to readers: You may have noticed that my milk is being poured out of a box.  That's because it's nearly impossible to get fresh milk out in the bush.  Steve and I buy tons of it in Anchorage every year and have it mailed up to us.  We get it in 2% and whole.  It's great for cooking, and we've even gotten to the point where we can drink it straight from the box (it's better cold).

Additional Note to Readers: I may or may not have spilled milk on the floor while taking the above photo.





Believe it or not, all I had was kosher salt.  Well, that's not true.  I had some sea salt in a grinder,  but I was a little worried about the accuracy of the grinder with a small measuring spoon.  Pouring out of a box was much easier.





A little vanilla....





And whisk it all together.





Pour the mixture in a pan coated with melted butter.

Note to readers: I attempted to take an interesting photo of the melted butter in the pan, but they all turned out ugly.  You're welcome for not sharing them.






Bake until puffy (if you want specifics of time and temperature, you can go to Missy's blog).





Top with whatever you can find in the fridge makes you happy.  In my case it was raspberry jam and vanilla pudding.

Definitely worth getting up for on a Saturday morning!