So, So Wrong

I fully admit to being a Scrooge, so when Vivian (or cyclist extraordinare, triathelte, super-nurse, sharp shooter Viv as we know her) said that she would hosting Christmas in July for her Dinner Diva's night I was, well, maybe not as excited I would be normally. But I was wrong. So, so wrong. And I stand corrected. So corrected that there will be multiple recipes this time, including the cocktail that everyone sucked down like it was water in the desert and the dessert that I shamelessly unbuttoned my pants for in order to be able to fit in a second helping. So, lets start at the beginning, shall we?

The DD's take our cocktails seriously. You can't live in New Orleans, the city that gave birth to the cocktail, and be a tee-totaler. It's against the law. The recipe for this cocktail came from one of our favorite websites, The Love Bite. The drink's name is Tina Louise and we love her and want her to become a regular member of our little group. We think she fits right in with us. Bubbly, slighly sweet, bright and just a little tart. She does tend to go down a little easy, though, so watch out for her!

Tina Louise Cocktail
from The Love Bite
Print Recipe

Ingredients:

Fee Brothers orange bitters

Sugar cubes (Demerara prefered)

Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur

Chilled prosecco or champagne


Drop a sugar cube into a champagne flute. You can use white sugar cubes, but the Demerara sugar has a much better flavor. Drop a few drops of orange bitters onto the sugar cube. Add a capfull (or even a splash more) of the ginger liqueur and then fill the glass with chilled prosecco or champagne.

Note: The ginger liquor and the bitters can be a bit hard to find. Both are available online. In the New Orleans area, the liquor is available at Dorgniac's.

For dinner, we had HUGE grilled turkey burgers with salad and brazil nut stuffing and I could provide you with recipes for those but I don't want you to get too lazy. Google something for God's sake. Besides, everyone knows dessert is where it's at. I was certain that the gingerbread bread pudding was going to be good. Really good. I just wasn't sure how well it was going to go with peppermint ice cream. The original recipe posted by Mannix on The Love Bite had pumpkin ice cream, but his was a fall/Halloween menu and Viv's was a Christmas-themed dinner, so the change to peppermint made sense. I just wasn't sure how well those two particular flavors were going to go together. They went. In fact, they were so good together that two servings mysteriously made their way onto my plate (yes, on a night I was skipping yoga no less). Everyone loved it and it will certainly be showing up on my holiday table this winter. And maybe a couple of times before that as well.

Mannix's Gingerbread and Butter Pudding with Toffee Sauce aka Gingerbread Bread Pudding
from The Love Bite

Print Recipe


1 loaf Gingerbread
Butter
1/2 C. Raisins
1/4 C. Mixed Peel (or substitute marmalade)
2 Eggs
2/3 C. Brown sugar
1 C. Heavy cream
1 C. Milk
2 t. Pumpkin Pie Spice (or 1t. cinnamon, 1/2 t. ginger, 1/4 t. cloves, and 1/4 t. nutmeg)

Slice the gingerbread into 1" thick slices and butter both sides. Break into pieces to line the bottom and sides of a buttered dish or individual ramekins. Sprinkle some raisins and dried peel onto the bread. Layer on more gingerbread and more fruit and peel until the bread is used up. Mix the eggs, brown sugar, cream, milk, and the pumpkin pie spice and pour the mixture over the bread. Let it sit about 10 minutes. If it looks a bit too dry you can add a splash of milk. Bake in an oven preheated to 350 for 25 minutes. Serve with toffee sauce.

Toffee Sauce

1 stick Butter
6 oz. Heavy cream
2/3 C. Brown sugar

Melt the butter in a small sauce pan. Add the sugar and cream. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer 5 minutes.


Peppermint Ice Cream
adapted from here

1/2 C. Peppermint candy, finely crushed
1/4 t. Peppermint oil
1/4 C. Bailey's Mint Chocolate
1 large egg
1 C. Half-and-half
1/2 C. Granulated sugar
1 t. Vanilla extract
3 C. Heavy cream


Makes one quart. Put the crushed peppermint candy, peppermint oil, and the Bailey's Mint Chocolate in a blender and blend on high speed for about 30 seconds. Add the egg, half-and-half, sugar, and vanilla and blend on medium until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is smooth. Slowly add the cream and blend on low for a few seconds to combine. Transfer the mixture to a container with a tight seal and refrigerate overnight to allow all the flavors to combine (you can make it right away if you are in that big of a hurry, but we'll frown at you). Transfer the mixture to your ice-cream machine and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Notes: Allowing the mixture to refrigerate overnight gives you a fuller flavor, but also totally dissolves the crushed candy. If you want it to have a bit of a crunch, add more candy just before freezing (don't worry, this ice cream has a nicely mellow peppermint flavor so the extra candy won't make it too strong).

Mannix, the evil genius behind The Love Bite, has a website packed with great recipes and menus. He was gracious enough to allow us to re-post his recipes here and if you enjoy them as much as we did, follow the many, many links to his page and sign up for his newsletter. He can also be found on Facebook.

--QC