Author: Dave the Hubby

Aion Bourbon Splash

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Dave tried this at the excellent Cafe Aion in Boulder, Colorado, where it’s called a “Bourbon Splash.” But that general description covers a multitude of drinks, most of which involve lemon (rather than orange) and mint. Dave wrote the restaurant, and Dakota S. provided this recipe, so credit where credit is due. It’s still a bit of a work in progress while he continues to tune the proportions, but what’s here is a fine start.

Ingredients:

  • 1 orange slice
  • 1 splash triple sec
  • 1 dash of bitters*
  • 2 oz bourbon
  • ginger ale

Directions:

  1. Muddle the orange with the triple sec and bitters in a rocks glass.
  2. Fill with ice.
  3. Add bourbon
  4. Fill the remainder of the glass with ginger ale.**

Notes:

*Dakota didn’t specify the bitters. Orange bitters worked nicely, though. Experiment!

**While Dave prefers ginger beer to ginger ale, in this case ordinary Canada Dry blends smoothly with the other flavors.

Summer Breeze

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Tried once upon a time, and again at the 4th of July 2022 Margie Gras … with cautionary note.

Ingredients:

  • 2 oz. gin*
  • 1 oz. orange liqueur
  • Juice of ½ squeeze lemon
  • 4 drops of lavender bitters

Shake over ice, strain into glass.

*The gin involved is very prominent in the final result. Using a “mixer” gin will produce less than optimal results. Dave’s initial review of this was a huge happy face, but a retry with a cheap gin made it more of a mild smile.

Source: Mountain Crow

Periodista Cocktail

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One of the cocktails we tried at the Mary’s Birthday / “Margie Gras” celebration in Summer 2022, chosen because Margie had picked up a bottle of apricot liqueur she wanted to try. “Periodista” is Spanish for “journalist,” though this seems a bit fussy for the stereotypical newsman slamming back a drink while cynically commenting on the corruption around him. 

Ingredients:

  • 1½ oz. rum*
  • ½ oz. fresh lime juice
  • ¼ oz. apricot liqueur
  • ¼ oz. cointreau
  • 1 tsp. simple syrup

Mix in an iced shaker, shake, and serve in a small cocktail glass.

*A light rum will provide a brighter flavor. A dark rum will create deeper, more nuanced notes. Try it both ways and decide for yourself!

No-Cheat Chocolate Eclair Cake

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Margie refused to let me make this no-cook dessert from frozen whipped topping or tub chocolate frosting, as the recipe I found online suggested. It did turn out better than expected.

Ingredients

  • 2 3½ oz packages instant vanilla pudding mix
  • 12 oz heavy cream
  • 3 c whole milk
  • 16 oz package of graham crackers (or whatever size they’ve shrunk to these days)
  • 1½ c semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

  1. Use 8 oz of heavy cream, and whip until you have whipped cream with peaks.
  2. Slowly mix into the whipped cream the pudding mix (both boxes) and the milk. Get rid of any lumps.
            
  3. Put down a layer of graham crackers on the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish, getting as close to the edges as possible. Use full, intact graham crackers as much as possible (makes things easier below), but you can also break them into partial crackers, but don’t get too small.
  4. Evenly spread half the pudding mixture over the crackers, filling in to the sides of the baking dish. This is where smaller pieces of cracker will be more difficult apply over.
  5. Apply second layer of crackers, as above. If your 9×13 is slightly flared, you may need somewhat more.
  6. Evenly spread the other half of the pudding mixture over the crackers, as above.
  7. Apply a third and final layer of crackers, as above, covering the pudding mixture evenly.
  8. Refrigerate the pan for 30 minutes to help the pudding set.
            
  9. When that’s done, or close to it, melt together the chocolate chips and remaining cream. I put them in a 2-cup Pyrex measuring cup (the cream fills to the level of the chips), and then run them through my microwave’s “melt” cycle for the chocolate chips quantity. Mix well, so that you have a smooth mixture.
  10. Let the chocolate ganache cool enough so that it doesn’t melt the pudding, but not so much that you can’t pour it and spread it.
  11. Pour and spread the chocolate ganache evenly across the top layer of graham crackers, from edge to edge.
            
  12. Cover and refrigerate for at least four hours before serving. Overnight is best, of course.

Makes: However many servings you can slice out of a 9×13 pan. It’s pretty rich, so you can go small for starters.

Time: About 0:20 prep and 4:30 waiting.

Notes:

If you’ve done it all right, you should come out with crisply defined layers. If you don’t, nobody will notice as they gobble it down.

The semi-sweet chips give the frosting a semi-sweet bitterness (duh), which complements the sweetness of the pudding mix and graham crackers well. You can use your favorite ganache recipe instead (for example) rather than this simplistic one.

The trade-off of being a no-bake recipe is that it does need to cool and set. While four hours should suffice, it’s really best made the day before.

While it’s always called a cake, it’s really a cream pie.

Nestle® Toll House® Chocolate Chip Cookies (High Altitude)

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Yes, we already have the Original Toll House Cookies recipe here, but this is the official recipe for High Altitude (or so we are told).  Bottom line: they make for nicely risen cookies here in Denver, so, yeah.

Ingredients

  • 2½ c. flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
     
  • 1 cup butter (two sticks)
  • 2/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
     
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 tsp water
     
  • 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
  • 1 cup chopped nuts (highly, highly optional)

 

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C)
  2. Combine flour, soda, salt in a small bowl.
  3. Cream together butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, vanilla in a large bowl.
  4. Add eggs, one at a time, to the butter mixture, beating well after each addition.
  5. Gradually beat in flour mixture and water into the wet ingredients until well combined.
  6. Stir in chips and nuts.
  7. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.
  8. Bake 8-10 minutes or until golden brown (ran closer to 10 in our oven).
  9. Cool on baking sheets 2 minutes, then transfer to wire racks.

For a pan cookie (10×15″ jelly-roll pan), prepare dough as above, and spread into greased pan, baking 17-19 minutes.

Gloria’s Cheesy Potatoes

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This is the SOP at Mom’s Christmas Table, as the potato side dish.

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp. chopped onion
  • ¼ cup butter*
  • ¼ cup flour
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • ½ tsp. dry mustard
  • Dash ground black pepper
  • 1½ c. whole milk
  • 2 c. (8 oz.) shredded mild cheddar cheese
  • 6 c. cooked potato chunks, slightly undercooked

Directions

The day before …

  1. Saute onion in butter.
  2. Blend in flour and seasonings.
  3. Gradually add milk: cook, stirring constantly, until thickened.
  4. Add 1½ c. of the cheese; stir until melted.
  5. Toss potatoes in the cheese sauce.
  6. Pour into 2-quart casserole; refrigerate

The day of …

  1. Bake in the oven on low for 2-4 hours, to slowly warm through and finish cooking the potatoes.
  2. Top with remaining cheese. Serve.

Servings: 6; notations on the recipe call to triple the recipe for our holiday table.

Source: Something from Kraft foods

Notes:

* Original recipe calls for Parkay margarine, but, c’mon …

Variant: As the original recipe shows, this is meant as a main dish, using ½ lb. ham cut into 1/8-inch slices, and slicing the potatoes. In that arrangement, you end up tossing all but 1 cup of of potatoes into the casserole, “arranging” the ham and remaining potatoes, and baking at 350°F, 30 minutes, then topping with remaining cheese.

Gloria’s Not-Eggnog “Mother’s Recipe”

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This has been the standard treat in my mom’s household to have alongside opening of gifts on Christmas Day since time out of mind. The original was scribbled down by on the back of Union Oil bill envelope dated December 1975 when my mom spotted Mike Roy on the TV talking about it. It said not to be an eggnog, even if it  fits the requirements of being “made with milk, cream, sugar, whipped egg whites, and egg yolks.”

Ingredients

  • 9 eggs, separated
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 1 pint heavy cream
  • 1 quart milk
  • ½ cup light rum
  • ½ cup brandy
  • 2 cups bourbon
  • ground nutmeg

Directions

  1. Beat yolks and sugar and salt until thick and very lemony in color. Set aside.
  2. Whip cream and blend in egg whites.
  3. Fold in brandy, rum, and bourbon to the cream-whites mix.
  4. Add milk to the cream-whites mix.
  5. Put yolk mix to bottom of bowl. Add cream mixture and blend a little.
  6. Family tradition calls on sampling just a little bit at the end of the prep. For quality control purposes, you understand.
  7. Refrigerate.
  8. Serve with sprinkled nutmeg.

Serves: 16 (ha!)

Source: Mike Roy (with variations over time)

 

Lucia’s Chicken

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Lucia Henderson was Jim’s house mother at Stanford.  She became a good friend and Margie’s Godmother.  Lucia would visit her four children and bring back the best-of-the-best recipes.

Ingredients:

1 Chicken — cut in pieces
Flour
Butter

¾ cup  Chicken Broth
¾ cup Sherry or White Wine

1 pkg Artichoke Hearts — frozen (or canned)
3 Tomatoes — peeled and quartered (or canned)
1 Onion — sliced thin (or instant)
¼ lb Mushrooms — trimmed, whole, sauteed

Instructions:

  1. Roll chicken in flour.
  2. Brown in butter in electric frying pan.
  3. Add broth and wine.  Cook 45 minutes.
  4. Add artichokes, tomatoes, onions, mushrooms to heat.

Serves:  3 to 4.

Suggestions:

  1. Serve on rice.
  2. Thicken remaining sauce with cornstarch.
  3. Reduce cooking time to 25 minutes for boneless chicken breasts.

Recipe by: Lucia Henderson

German Potato Salad (a la Scott’s Grandmother)

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This recipe came to us from our friend Scott Wolfgang, via his aunt. The German ladies would all contribute dishes to church socials, and this one was his grandmother’s specialty. We made it for the Twelfth Night party that he and Jackie hosted, and consensus was it was pretty darned good.

Ingredients

Salad:

  • 10 medium potatoes, cooked, peeled, sliced.
  • 4 hard-cooked eggs, chopped
  • 4 stalks celery, chopped
  • 2 small onions, chopped

Dressing (see note below):

  • 4 slices bacon, diced
  • 1/3 cup water
  • 2 tbsp corn starch
  • ½-¾ cup sugar
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ¼ tsp pepper
  • 1/3 cup vinegar

Directions

  1. Combine potatoes, eggs, celery, onion in a large bowl; mix gently.
  2. Cook bacon in skillet until crisp.
  3. Combine water and corn starch, mixing well
  4. Stir corn starch mixture, sugar, salt, pepper, and vinegar into skillet.
  5. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thick.
  6. Pour dressing over potato mixture; mix gently.
  7. Cover and chill overnight.
  8. Spoon into a dutch oven.
  9. Cook over low heat until thoroughly heated. Serve immediately.

Servings: 12

Notes:

  • A note on the handwritten recipe suggests doubling the dressing recipe.
  • One question that came up during cooking was how much of the bacon fat to retain in the dressing. We drained all but about a tablespoon.