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I saw this recipe at The Black Peppercorn and I knew I’d have to make it myself. I’ve made Guinness cupcakes, Guinness jelly, even put Guinness in macaroni & cheese. Why not Guinness barbecue sauce? Beer & barbecues go together like… rama lama lama ke ding a de dinga a dong. Or peanut butter & jelly. I love me a good beer. Don’t you?

This was my first attempt at a barbecue sauce. I was a bit nervous, actually, but I think it all worked out just fine in the end.

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GUINNESS BARBECUE SAUCE (adapted slightly from The Black Peppercorn)

Ingredients:

I haven’t made pickles since September. Probably because cucumbers are no longer “in season”; meaning I can still get them, but they’re far from the best quality. They’re somewhat wonky-looking for the most part. But of course, I can pick a pickle pretty good, so I decided instead of waiting for cucumber season I just went for it & picked the best damn cucumbers I could out of the offerings at the store. Why? Because I wanted to make some of these.

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Bourbon pickles & maple-bourbon pickles. Inspired by the Brooklyn Brine Company’s Whiskey Sour pickles, which I first saw in Williams-Sonoma. I decided to make a jar or two of these for Jay. I’m not cheap, far from it, but paying $12.95 for 24 oz. of pickles seemed a bit… over-indulgent. Especially when I figured I could make them myself. At first he wasn’t sure how he’d feel about them, but then he had one of their pickles when he played a show at the St. Vitus Bar & raved about it, so I thought “Why not make one teensy jar of them & see?” It seemed unique enough. How bad could it be? It’s pickles + whiskey. That’s a pretty rock star pickle.

That is not actually Brooklyn, it’s San Antonio. Whatever.

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I mean, dude up there just got back from the Netherlands where he performed with Cannibal Corpse, Behemoth, Napalm Death & a ton of other famous metal bands. Crazy, right?

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So yeah. I had to make him something special, & this is something special. Like I said, its one rock star pickle. Not to mention the fact that it includes whiskey makes it appropriate for St. Patty’s Day too. I mean, pickles are green, whiskey reminds me of being Irish (Irish whiskey, Irish coffee, hello?) and that’s enough for me. In case you’re wondering, a Pickleback is an actual thing you can order in some bars. That name for it originated at The Bushwick Country Club in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in 2007. It’s a shot of whiskey (from what I’ve read, it’s usually Jameson, but at The Bushwick Country Club they use Old Crow) with a pickle juice, or brine, chaser (they use McClure’s). The brine neutralizes the burn of the alcohol & the taste of the whiskey. Once I learned that, through a NYT article from almost 2 years ago, I thought the whiskey pickle idea was even more interesting. See, I’m not a whiskey girl. All I know about it is that if I’m forced to drink it in any capacity & I’m given a choice… I’ll take Jameson over Jack any damn day of the week. But other than that forget it. I’m lost. Whiskey, Rye, Bourbon, it’s all Greek to me. So I asked Jay what to use in these & he gave me a bottle of Blanton’s to use. It’s not a super high-end bourbon, yet it’s not the cheapest, so the flavor is decent. You don’t want to use cheap stuff for this, it might sounds obvious but really… the flavor is going to dictate the pickles so please don’t use gasoline-tasting whiskey just to save money. Use one that actually can be enjoyed on it’s own.

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New York & pickles are synonymous it seems, especially to New Yorkers. So therefore Brooklyn has quite a history with pickles. I love Brooklyn. I spend some of my spare time looking at gorgeous pre-war apartments (that I’ll probably never actually move into) with exposed brick in Brooklyn (along with many other places like the Upper & Lower East Side, etc). I think Brooklyn is amazing (for the most part, there are a lot of shitty things about it too). I love the Brooklyn Bowl, I love the Brooklyn Brewery & I love Radegast Hall. I’ve never been to the St. Vitus Bar but from what I heard it’s sweet, I have been to Duff’s though (not impressed- seeing that “metal” chick from Fuse dancing on tables in a corset isn’t my idea of fun). And now there’s Brooklyn Brine Co. And the thing I like about Brooklyn Brine Co. is that they’re making interesting things like this & lavender asparagus, chipotle carrots & fennel beets. Not to mention their maple bourbon bread & butter pickles. Yeah, I know. Needless to say those were on Jay’s list too, so I had to make them as well (keep reading for that). So yes, I dig what they’re doing over there. But I’m confident enough that I can do it too; and not have to buy theirs.

MARILLA’S “PICKLEBACK” WHISKEY-BRINE PICKLES

Makes about 4 pints

Ingredients:

• 8-10 small pickling cucumbers (about 3 pounds), or regular cucumbers if you’re going to slice them into chips… I usually use Kirby’s myself (just don’t use the large waxed ones!)
• 1 cup white vinegar
• ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
• 2 cups water
• ½ cup whiskey
• 2 tablespoons sea salt
• 4 heads fresh dill or 4 heaping teaspoons dill seeds
• 2 teaspoons pickling spice
• ½ teaspoon mustard seed
• a dash of freshly ground black pepper
• ¼ teaspoon hot pepper flakes or one Serrano chili pepper, finely diced
• dash of chili powder (optional)
• 4 small cloves garlic

Directions:

1. Cut a thin slice from the ends of each cucumber. This prevents a “mushy” pickle, as the ends of cucumbers contain an enzyme that makes them mushy. Then slice cucumbers as you like- slices, spears or sandwich-size; or leave them whole. Place jars in canner to sterilize them and place lids in hot water to soften seal.
2. Meanwhile, combine vinegar, water, and salt in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove hot jars from canner. Pour ⅛ cup whiskey or bourbon in each jar. Place 1 head fresh dill or 1 heaping teaspoon dill seeds, ½ teaspoon pickling spice, the mustard seed, black pepper, hot pepper flakes and 1 smashed clove of garlic into each jar; pack in cucumbers tightly.
3. Pour boiling vinegar/water mixture over cucumbers to within ½ inch of rim (head space). Place lids & bands. Process 10 minutes for pint jars and 15 minutes for quart jars.
4. Allow jars to sit for at least one week before opening for optimal flavor, but no one will kill you if you crack one open early.

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The color changes after the processing in the water bath. Ever notice that about pickles? That they’re usually a darker army-green in the jar, whereas Kosher dills stay brighter? That all has to do with fermenting vs. processing, and the vinegar brine vs. a salty water brine. End of today’s lesson.

Because of the apple cider vinegar & whiskey, they should be a bit on the sweeter side, but not too sweet. The white vinegar, garlic, peppers & salt would make up for it. I made this recipe up based on the ingredients the Brooklyn Brine Co. lists as being in their Whiskey Sour pickles, so I am in no way saying it’s the same exact flavor or pickle- especially since I didn’t use the same type of peppers or the same brand of whiskey (they use Finger Lakes Distilling McKenzie Rye Whiskey). This is just my version of it. That said, they do sell a pickling kit, however I do not think it’s for their Whiskey pickles, unless they include a recipe for it in the recipe packet.

As far as the maple bourbon pickles, I just used the same recipe as above, but I added caramelized onions, ⅛ cup good quality maple syrup (added with the whiskey) and omitted the hot pepper. I also cut the cukes into “chips” with a crinkled cutter instead of making spears. I also couldn’t find decent Kirby’s so I used small “snacking” cucumbers, which are longer & thinner than Kirby’s, hence the tiny little chips I got. I also added some caramelized onions to the regular bourbon pickles, because I made more than I needed for just one jar.

As soon as these babies are opened & Jay gives me his expert opinion, I’ll come back & edit this with the reviews & results.

EDIT 3/15/12: Okay the results are in! Consensus is that they’re both “fucking awesome.” Jay favors the maple-bourbon but said they’re both equally amazing. The regular bourbon batch could’ve used a slightly bigger hit of heat, so keep that in mind. I’d go for doubling the amount of pepper flakes in the recipe above; if you’re using actual Serrano you might be fine, especially if you leave in the seeds. In the spirit of knowledge, I tried both & it’s amazing how true it is that the vinegary pickle brine & the bourbon interact in such a way that you end up without the intensity of the alcohol & without the super tang of the brine. Good luck & happy pickling!

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Yup. Beer jelly. Not just beer, but stout. Guinness stout, to be exact.

I know you purists are turning your noses up. But for the rest of us- COME ON. IS THIS NOT AWESOME?! I think it’s insanely awesome. When I found this recipe my heart skipped a beat. I was wondering if anyone had tried it before & I was not only happy to know I wasn’t the only freak wanting to make jelly out of beer, but also that someone had a successful beer jelly-making experiment for me to follow. Let alone one that’s perfect for St. Patrick’s Day!

Guinness ( /ˈɡɪnɨs/ GIN-is) is a popular Irish dry stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness (1725–1803) at St. James’s Gate, Dublin. Guinness is directly descended from the porter style that originated in London in the early 18th century and is one of the most successful beer brands worldwide, brewed in almost 50 countries and available in over 100 countries.^[1] 18,000,000,000 US pints (8,500,000 m³) are sold annually.^[1]

A distinctive feature is the burnt flavour which is derived from the use of roasted unmalted barley (though this is a relatively modern development since it did not become a part of the grist until well into the 20th century). For many years a portion of aged brew was blended with freshly brewed product to give a sharp lactic flavour (which was a characteristic of the original porter). Although the palate of Guinness still features a characteristic “tang”, the company has refused to confirm whether this type of blending still occurs. The thick creamy head is the result of the beer being mixed with nitrogen when being poured. It is popular with Irish people both in Ireland and abroad, and, in spite of a decline in consumption since 2001,^[2] is still the best-selling alcoholic drink in Ireland ^[3][4] where Guinness & Co. makes almost €2 billion annually.

The company had its headquarters in London from 1932 onwards. It merged with Grand Metropolitan plc in 1997 and then figured in the development of the multi-national alcohol conglomerate Diageo.

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GUINNESS STOUT BEER JELLY (thanks to grow it cook it can it; recipe is hers exactly)

Makes about 7 half-pints; I halved the recipe & got exactly 3 half-pints & one 4-oz. jar

Ingredients:

• 2 12-ounce bottles of stout beer
• 1 package powdered Sure-Jell pectin
• 3 ½ cups sugar

Directions:

1. Bring canner to a boil. Wash jars and lids. Put lids in a bowl and cover with boiling water with the canner.
2. In a large, non-reactive pot, bring the beer and powdered pectin to a rolling boil. It will be very frothy, that’s normal. Stir in sugar and bring back to a rolling boil. Cook on high heat for two full minutes.
3. Pour hot jelly into jars. It will still be very frothy. I decided to leave a thick layer of foam on top of the jellies to imitate the way dark beer looks in a glass, but you could certainly skim it off with a spoon if you like. I only wanted a little froth on top, so I ladled the jelly into jars and led the air bubbles rise to the top for a few minutes before I screwed the lids on.
4. Wipe rims clean, screw on lids, and process half pint jars for 5 minutes.

Crazy talk. It’s absolute crazy talk that I have jelly made from stout in my presence. But I do, my friends, I really do. And this makes me really happy. It should make you happy, too, because it’s really easy & quick to make. The coolest part is the foamy top! It really looks like a glass of just poured Guinness straight off the tap. I should warn you though, the more you pour or ladle it the more it loses it’s foam. What I did was I filled the three half-pints first, then the quarter pint jar. By the time I got to the tiny 4-oz. jar, there wasn’t much foam at all. But that’s okay because I wanted the larger jars to look more like beer glasses. The littler jar was just an added bonus! Also, the longer it sits without a lid, the more the foam dissipates and the lower the “level” of the jelly gets. So get on that shit! Don’t wait too long to lid them.

It’s a loose set jelly, so don’t expect it to be as firm as most, but it’s firm enough.

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I wouldn’t try using a liquid pectin with this, reason being powdered & liquid pectin act very different. I stuck with what the original recipe author suggested & it came out perfect. Although if you’re rebellious, let me know how it works out for you. And here’s the deal: it’s amazing on Irish soda bread, whether you use my recipe or your own. It’s also great with the Irish soda bread muffins I made last year. It’s also great on a cracker with a piece of Irish cheese, like Dubliner, or on a thick ol’ piece of toast slathered with Kerrygold butter. But… true to form, it’s also great on scones. Specifically a plain scone.

And of course I had to “dress ‘em up” to make them more festive.

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Thank you, thank you, thank you. This is genius.

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I guess that means she really likes it. See what she said about the tea-soaked raisins? It gave me an idea. Now me personally? I’m not into raisins. I did like the California Raisins, though. But anyway, I thought of her tea-soaked raisins which made me think of rum-raisin, and then my brain went straight to Jameson Irish whiskey. And then it went to Jameson-soaked raisins. I wasn’t going to put them in the cake, but on top. And I decided, like Chrisie, to make the cake into little muffins or cupcakes. Then I’d top them with a vanilla-Jameson glaze & some Irish whiskey-soaked golden raisins.

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Shut the front door, right?

And yes, I left some plain with just a nice, sugary crust on top.

IRISH SODA MUFFINCAKES WITH JAMESON-SOAKED RAISINS & JAMESON GLAZE

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup granulated sugar, plus more for sprinkling on top
• 3 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• ½ tsp. salt
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsps. melted shortening (or butter)
• 1 cup buttermilk

Directions:

1. Make wet dough: mix salt, baking powder, baking soda, flour and sugar. Beat eggs lightly and add melted shortening and buttermilk.
2. Mix all together until combined. If too watery, add a bit more flour. If too thick, add a bit more buttermilk.
3. Prepare a muffin tin with liners. Fill each liner with two-three tablespoons of batter.
4. Before putting in the oven, sprinkle sugar on top (if not using the raisins & glaze).
5. Bake at 375 degrees° F for 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

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JAMESON-SOAKED RAISINS

Ingredients:

• ½ cup golden raisins
• 3-4 tablespoons Jameson Irish Whiskey (enough to cover the raisins)

Directions:

1. Place raisins in a small bowl and pour whiskey over them.
2. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to sit in a cool, dry place for about a half hour, 45 minutes.
3. When ready to use, remove raisins using a small strainer to remove excess whiskey. Use the whiskey in a drink or even in the glaze (below).

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JAMESON WHISKEY GLAZE

Ingredients:

• 4 tablespoons Jameson Irish whiskey (or whatever brand you prefer), you can use whatever is left after the raisins have soaked too
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 4 tablespoons granulated sugar
• ¼ teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

1. For glaze, pour sugar & Jameson into a saucepan.
2. Bring to a boil over high heat; boil rapidly for 1 full minute. Remove from heat, whisk in butter & vanilla. Let set to thicken slightly for a few minutes. Place raisins on top of the muffins. Using a spoon, drizzle glaze over cooled muffincakes, making sure to cover the raisins.

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Forreals, yo.

I prefer to use golden raisins on these because let’s face it- regular raisins can look like mouse crap. Sorry if that ruined your appetite, haha. And of course, the colors of the golden raisins go better with the color of the cakes and the green liners anyway. Those fancy “ruffled” liners are by Wilton. I baked the muffincakes in regular white liners, then put them in the fancier ones after they’d cooled.

So basically, feedback on these has been “holy balls” & “wow” & statements along those lines. I didn’t have any, ’cause like I said, I don’t like raisins. But.. if you want to be on a super Jameson kick, then pair these with some Irish coffee. Or Irish coffee my way, which is coffee with milk & sugar & Jameson, then topped with whipped cream.

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I made that image right there, just to brag. Can you tell I’m proud? And yes, you read that right, these jars are a Pimp That Preserve 2011 winner! Winner, winner, chicken dinner. Or in this case, champagne dinner? Whatever. So what does this mean? It means I pretty much rock the monkey. To quote the father from A Christmas Story, “It’s a major award!”

Anyway, enough bragging- let’s get to the jelly. Last year I did champagne cupcakes. They were awesome-sauce, but I hate repeats. Being that I was looking for a special New Years’ Eve snack or treat, I once again reached for that book that provided me with that deliciously amazing tea jelly; Canning For a New Generation by Liana Krissoff. In the book (which I love) she has a fantastic recipe for champagne jelly, and after the rousing success of the tea version, how could I not try it? Plus… it is New Years’ after all. What else would one have today but champagne.

The golden color was just so pretty. Actually, more like stunning. But let me make a confession- I used a dry white wine, not champagne.

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*gasp* I know, I know. I kinda lied & misled you. But since all my jars went so quickly, I plan on making it again very soon with real champagne (perhaps Cold Duck, just to get that pretty magenta color) but it doesn’t really matter either way, the flavor would be so similar at any rate. When added to the sugar, the difference probably wouldn’t even be noticeable. The wine I used was a dry, medium-sweet fruity wine called ‘Sweet Romance’ from the Mount Hope Winery in PA. The ‘Vidal Blanc’ they sell would’ve been amazing to use as well; it’s far drier & has a slight herbal taste. I used this wine that had been sitting in between the Jameson & the Stoli for over 3 years, waiting for its time to shine for a few reasons; one, back in 2008 when I bought it on a trip to PA I was more of a white wine fan- however I’ve grown to love reds & so haven’t had the urge for white in ages, two, I knew it was good wine so it wouldn’t fuck up my jelly, and finally three… this poor bottle was sitting, waiting for a special moment, for literally 27 months. Every other bottle we bought that day is long gone. It was time for this one to shine.

And shine it does. But any champagne would do smashingly, too, of course. I wouldn’t use the Cristal or even the Veuve Clicquot in this, personally, I’d save that for drinking. A cheap yet decent quality champagne is fine. The dryness is what makes the jelly so interesting, so if it’s extra dry, then great.

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By the way, I write this with the assumption that you know basic canning principles & practices. If not, please read this in its entirety before attempting it. It’s not difficult but you do need some “equipment” & knowledge before you begin.

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CHAMPAGNE JELLY

Ingredients:

• 1 (750 mℓ) bottle champagne, sparkling white or rosé or any dry-ish white wine
• 3 ¼ cups sugar
• 3 cups green apple pectin stock (see recipe here) or 1 package Certo liquid pectin
• ¼ cup strained fresh lemon juice

Directions:

1. Prepare for water bath canning: Sterilize the jars and keep them hot (in water) in the canning pot, put a small plate in the freezer, and put the flat lids in a heatproof bowl.
2. Boil the champagne/wine over high heat until reduced to about two cups, about 20 minutes.
3. Stir the pectin/pectin stock, lemon juice and sugar into the champagne. Bring to a boil over high heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture registers about 220° F on a candy thermometer or a small dab of it passes the freezer test (place some on the frozen plate and put back in the freezer for one minute, then remove; if the mixture wrinkles when you nudge it, it’s ready), about 25-30 minutes.
4. Ladle boiling water from the canning pot into the bowl with the lids. Using a jar lifter, remove the jars from the canning pot, carefully pouring the water from each one back into the pot, and place them upright on a clean, folded dish towel. Drain the water off the jar lids.
5. Ladle the hot jelly into the jars, leaving ¼ inch headspace at the top. Use a damp paper towel to wipe the rims of the jars, then put a flat lid & band on each jar, adjusting the band so it’s fingertip tight.
6. Return the jars to the canning pot in a canning rack, making sure the water covers the jars by at least 1 inch. Bring to a boil, and boil for 5 minutes to process. Remove the jars to the folded towel and do not disturb for 12 hours, except to check the seal after one hour by pressing down on the center of each lid; if it can be pushed down it hasn’t sealed, and must be refrigerated immediately. After 12 hours, label sealed jars & store.

After Pimp That Preserves, I find myself dressing my jars up in appropriate garb more often now. I think it’s very cute, plus you never know when someone will need to receive a jar.. & it’s nice to get something that looks as special as it tastes. I entered this lovely photoset in that contest back in early December. And uh, like I may have mentioned, I WON.

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I bought a gold wire-edged ribbon with sparkles that I thought embodied not only champagne but New Year’s. I just cut a length of it for each jar, gathered & stitched it together with a few tiny stitches, then I pinned or sewed on a specific little charm or trinket. The snowflake is a brooch, the recipient can remove it & wear it. The other sparkly one is a charm that can be removed & worn on a necklace (& it’s not as pink as it looks in the bottom picture, it’s bright & clear, like in the first). The little champagne bottle is a cupcake topper. I sent my mother’s friend Mara the snowflake jar with instructions that once the jar is opened, she can wear the brooch. I think that sorta thing is nice. Ultra-personal. Of course I had to label them in style too.

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It did in fact make 5 half-pint jars, but I kept two plain for my own use & decorated the rest for giving (& photographing). I don’t need to dress up my own jars. Sitting in my pantry they don’t get many flashbulbs going off. I’d rather make ‘em fancy when they’re going to a good home. I did end up sending one of the plain jars to Heather, so now I have just one extra jar left. And I think my friend Miss Melanie will end up with that one, since she seemed so enthused about it on Facebook. So my last, lonely little bottle of white wine from Pennsylvania ended up in New York, not to mention Florida & Texas reincarnated (& loved) as a delicious jelly. Talk about a “new start.”

I’ll be honest: 2011 sucked in a lot of ways, & I’m happy to bid her a not-so-fond farewell. But Cupcake Rehab has grown a lot this year, as have I, & that’s never a bad thing. I lost important people to me, but gained some. I expanded my knowledge in many areas, formed some new skills. It was a bittersweet year in too many ways to count. So many people have passed away, so many babies born. But new opportunities & new reasons for happiness are bound to come with the new year & therefore new reasons to be optimistic. That’s the best part- the mistakes & sorrows of last year are just that, & while they never really disappear, there’s hope for this new clean slate we’ve been given. I’m going to try & be more forgiving this year, however I’ll certainly not be a doormat. Life is short, why hold grudges or waste time or negative emotions or negative people? It’s a lot for me to strive for, I know that. Especially since I hate everyone (almost). But like I said… clean slate. One thing I will not be doing is cleaning up my potty mouth. I like my truck driver vocabulary. But I am going to make a conscious effort to weed out the unnecessary items & people in my life in 2012 and focus on only the necessary. Good riddance, ’11, here’s hoping 2012 is a far better- and healthier- year for all!

Happy New Year to all my readers, the old & loyal and the new & hopefully just as loyal alike. I really value every reader & commenter & “fan”; & I’ll continue to work very hard to make sure that you’re all still interested & not bored in the new year. Now let’s ring in this new year & enjoy some hooch like these two lovebirds… I’ll see you next year.

I’ve heard a lot recently about keeping traditions alive, especially after someone has passed away. For me it’s important. Vital, even. And that’s been something that has always been important in my family. The year my great-grandfather Tom died in late November (my grandmother’s father), her & my grandpa put up a Christmas tree. A smaller one, but still. The year her mother Mary passed away right before Halloween, her brother still passed out candy at the house because it was his mother’s favorite holiday. To not do these things would feel wrong to us. However, everyone grieves differently. For us it’s important to continue with the things those people loved to do… we’d feel sadder & lonelier without them. To each his own. But for me, that’s how our ancestors & family members are kept alive. Making their recipes, using their decorations, etc. Doing the things they used to do & love. Preserving the traditions. My grandma loved Christmas, to not celebrate it would be wrong.

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Speaking of preserving…. in the last few days before Christmas, I thought I’d throw in three more ideas for seasonally appropriate jams/conserves/jellies. Perfect for gift-giving, as additions to the Christmas dinner/after-dinner spread, or for a Christmas Day brunch. All three are different, yet totally Christmas-y. And in case you’re wondering…

Conserves are made with dried fruits and nuts and are cooked. They have a very thick and chunky texture. Conserves work very well as a spread and as a condiment for meats and cheeses.

Jam is a thick mixture of fruit, pectin, and sugar that is boiled gently but quickly until the fruit is soft and has an organic shape, yet is still thick enough that it spreads easily and can form a blob. In addition to being a spread, jams are also good for fillings.

Jelly is made from sugar, pectin, acid, and fruit juice and is a clear spread that is firm enough to hold its shape. Jellies can also be made from ingredients other than fruit, such as herbs, tea, wine, liqueurs, flowers, and vegetables.

- source: TheKitchn

Does that clear up the confusion? So anyway, like I said, three recipes. Yes. I said THREE. Three whole recipes today. I must be crazy, right? Three recipes for three different types of jarred up, old timey, homestyle holiday fare. I guess you could say this post is a trifecta of awesomeness. Or a triple threat. Whatever it is- it rocks.

Those are regular size cupcake liners used as lid covers!

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First up is the conserve; made with dried figs, dried plums & walnuts. The recipe was sent to me by my friend Chrisie who found it in an old cookbook of her grandma’s. I used whole dried Black Mission figs & Plum Amazins’ diced dried plums myself- the original recipe calls for two types of dried figs. I had the plums & figured why the hell not. My mother is a big fig person, so these were made specifically as a gift for her. I’m giving you the original recipe in it’s entirety, with any modifications I did in parentheses.

FIG (& PLUM) & WALNUT CONSERVE

Makes roughly 8 half pints

Ingredients:

• 1 cup packed dried black figs
• 3 cups boiling water
• 1 cup packed dried California figs, or any medium light brown figs (I substituted Plum Amazin dried plums)
• 1 medium orange, both the juice & the fruit (I used just the juice from a small orange, since I used slightly more figs than called for, I didn’t think I needed extra pulp or fruit)
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 2 cups packed light brown sugar (I used half light brown, half dark brown)
• 1 cup water
• ½ cup white wine (I omitted this)
• ⅓ cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 ½ cups toasted walnuts, chopped (I didn’t toast them, I just tossed them in and let them cook with the fruit)
• 1 teaspoon ground sage (I used cardamom instead, only ½ teaspoon)

Directions:

1. Snip the stems off the figlets and place in a large bowl along with the boiling water for 30 minutes. Slice the California figs in half (if using the Plum Amazin’s there’s no need to do that, they’re already diced) and place in a large pan along with the figlets and fig water.
2. Cut the orange in half; juice half and dice the remaining half, including rind, into small pieces. Add the orange juice to the pan. Mix in the remaining ingredients, except the walnuts and sage (or, like I used, cardamom). Bring the mixture to a boil and cook for 5 minutes. Mix in the walnuts and sage and cook for an additional 10 minutes (I let it cook down longer, so it was a much thicker consistency). Spoon the fig and walnuts into clean, hot jars, pressing down.
3. Ladle the juice over the fruit, leaving ½”-inch headroom. Wipe the rims clean and seal. Invert the jars for 10 minutes. Restore to an upright position and cool. Check the seals, label and store in a cool, dry place for up to 1 year.

Since it’s an old recipe, and it relies on the inversion method, you might want to add in about 15 minutes processing time in a water bath canner. Unless you’re not anal about these things. I know the USDA would say otherwise, but this recipe is old & I doubt anyone died from it. Still & all I’d hate to be responsible for anyone croaking from preserves.

And next… the big ol’ boozehound of the crew: vanilla-brandy chestnut jam. This smelled so good cooking on the stove, it took everything in my power to not eat it. Seriously. As it was cooking, I wanted to just eat it right out of the pot. Then once the brandy was added… well, forget it. It seems like this is a pretty insane jam. Very rich, very dessert-like.

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VANILLA-BRANDY CHESTNUT JAM

Makes about 8 pints

Ingredients:

• 2 ¾ lbs. peeled chestnuts, chopped
• 1 vanilla bean (or 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract)
• 3 cups light brown sugar
• 2-3 tablespoons brandy (depending on taste)

Directions:

1. Put peeled chestnuts and vanilla bean (or extract) in large sauce pan and just cover with water. Cover pan and bring to a boil; simmer until chestnuts are tender (about 30 min.). Remove and set aside vanilla bean. Drain chestnuts, reserving cooking liquid.
2. Put chestnuts, sugar, and about 5 tablespoons cooking liquid in heavy pan. Split vanilla bean and scrape out seeds; add seeds and bean to pan. Heat mixture gently, stirring & gently “smooshing” the chestnuts (don’t worry if they remain in little chunks), until sugar is dissolved, then raise heat and boil until mixture is thick. Remove and discard vanilla bean (if used); stir in brandy.
3. Ladle hot jam into sterilized jars, seal, and process in water bath for 10 minutes.

If you prefer a smoother jam, without chunks, then purée the chestnuts before step 2. I like jams to have chunks of fruit (in this case nuts) in ‘em, so I left the pieces of chestnut. And I’ll be honest here & say I bought pre-peeled chestnuts. I could not sit there & do that until my fingers bled… that’s dedication. I just like to reap the benefits. Plus, I scaled it back to make just 4 4-oz. jars, so for that small amount of chestnuts it’s kinda silly to go through all that. But certainly do as you wish.

And finally… last but not least… Gingerbread spice jelly! Made from TEA. Who’da thunk it? This is a fantastic idea, one of those “Why didn’t I think of that?” type of deals. As soon as I saw this in Taste of Home magazine, I ripped it out & circled it.

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GINGERBREAD SPICE JELLY (courtesy of Robin Nagel from Taste of Home magazine, December 2011)

Makes 5 half pints

Ingredients:

• 2 ½ cups water
• 18 individual gingerbread spice tea bags (I used Celestial Seasonings’ Gingerbread Spice tea because it’s the only one I know of!)
• 4 ½ cups sugar
• ½ cup unsweetened apple juice
• 2 teaspoons butter
• 2 pouches (3 oz. each) liquid fruit pectin

Directions:

1. In a large saucepan, bring water to a boil. Remove from the heat; add tea bags. Cover and steep for 30 minutes.
2. Discard tea bags. Stir in the sugar, apple juice and butter. Bring to a full rolling boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Stir in pectin. Boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
3. Remove from heat; skim off foam. Carefully ladle hot mixture into hot jars, leaving ¼”-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles; wipe rims and adjust lids. Process for 10 minutes in a boiling water canner (adjust that for your altitude). Let cool on a tea towel for 12 hours. Check seal. (Recipe author says jelly may take up to 2 weeks to fully set- mine set as soon as it cooled)

Since these are all wrapped up & ready to be given as gifts, I can’t tell you how any of them taste yet. But I’m sure they’re both amazing. From what I saw & smelled, I think the fig conserves would be excellent on a cracker with a piece of cheese (maybe even on a sour cream pound cake), and the chestnut jam would probably be awesome with a piece of pound cake or over vanilla ice cream. Now the jelly… hmm… I’d say on warm toast with a cup of tea. But I also kinda wanna say that it’d be great in thumbprint cookies.

Speaking of wrapped up- if you want to do this with your preserves as an easy way of jazzing ‘em up, wait until after the 12-24 hours are up and you’re sure they’re cooled & sealed. Then just unscrew the band, place a cupcake liner on the top & screw the band back on. Totally simple! And after seeing all the amazing entries in Well Preserved‘s Pimp That Preserve contest, you might have been inspired to start pimpin’ your jars… but you just didn’t know where to start! Well this is an easy way. Then you can just tie a ribbon on it, put a label on & you’re done. Although I happen to think the homemade labels & little penguin stickers on my Gingerbread jelly are mighty cute, too (they’re from the scrapbooking section of Michael’s). Be creative. Take it from a 2011 Pimp That Preserve winner *wink* The best thing about giving jars of treats like these as gifts is that unlike cake, cupcakes, cookies or bread, there’s no expiration date. Well there is, but it’s so far in the future no one has to feel the need to eat it all in one week!

Maybe Santa would like a jar of one of these instead of the usual cookies this year?

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From Bilder ur Nordens Flora, 1905

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And that brings me to cranberry sauce. It’s practically against the law not to have it on hand this time of year. But why go the boring old regular cranberry sauce route, or worse yet, the canned sauce route? Especially if you can make your own in less than an hour?

Not to mention it has Amaretto in it.

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Yes. Homemade, boozy & delicious. And I’m totally not kidding when I say it took less than an hour to make, from start to finish. And it’s gorgeous looking (& smelling). And if you don’t ‘can’ or preserve foods, you don’t even have to do it with this recipe. Just alter the amounts to fit in whatever jar you’re using, make it, then refrigerate it & use it immediately (well, not like, within an hour… but you know what I mean). I got the recipe from Smedette via Punk Domestics. And it is fan-friggin’-tastical.

Like my mismatched jars? Heh.

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I made these back before Thanksgiving, so that I could use them on turkey day (along with my pomegranate-based Chinese Apple-sauce), but cranberry sauce is so Christmas-appropriate too that I felt I could post it now & it would still be relevant. Besides, cranberry fans eat cranberry all the time, right, not just during the holidays! And if you like cranberry, and you like Amaretto, and you like lemon zest… you’ll like this. If you don’t, well, stop reading & click here.

So I bet the rest of ya wanna know how it’s done, huh?

I’m telling you, it’s super easy. You’ll see.

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AMARETTO CRANBERRY SAUCE (recipe from Smedette, word for word)

Makes about 4 12-oz. jars, or less depending how long you let it cook

Ingredients:

• 3 12-oz bags of fresh whole unsweetened cranberries
• 2 cups sugar
• Finely grated zest from one lemon
• 2 cups Amaretto

Directions:

1. Put everything in a large pot over medium heat. Stir to coat.
2. Once sugar dissolves into the Amaretto and becomes thick and syrup-like, reduce heat and simmer; cranberries will start to burst as they simmer. Cook until desired consistency is reached; 30-60 minutes. Sauce will thicken as it rests/refrigerates!
3. You have made cranberry sauce; it will amaze your family and friends. Your in-laws may even start to like you.
4. Store in the fridge for a few days or can using the directions below.

To can the sauce:

Ladle hot cranberry sauce into hot, clean jars leaving ½″ headspace. Wipe rims, place lids and affix screw bands. Process using the water bath method for 15 minutes. Let cool on towel-lined counter/table top for 12 hours before checking the seal; label and store. If any jars failed to seal correctly, refrigerate and consume within a week.

The author of the original recipe says you can use brandy instead of Amaretto as well, just increase the sugar a bit.

Also, I altered it to fit into the jars I had on hand (which happened to be three 8-oz. jars, yet I ended up only using two because I cooked the berries down a bit more), but yet I kept the lemon zest amount the same. This made it nice & tart & lemon-y bright, but balanced well with the sweetness of the liquor. The Amaretto is not in-your-face, but nice & subtle. It’s just perfection. And best of all- it’s not the same ol’, same ol’ cranberry sauce from a can. And apparently, it’s excellent on ice cream, too, and even on salad (like a berry vinaigrette I suppose?).

Look! It’s wearing a little sweater!

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Which brings me to my suggestion of gifting jars of homemade preserves or sauces for Christmas (or Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa). Its an easy way to save money on gifts as well… and it’s not only impressive looking but extremely personalized. Especially when dressed up in a fancy way, like these beautiful examples. For instance, Jay loves pickles (specifically my green coriander pickles), my mother loves peperoncini sott’olio, anything fig or cherry, or marmalade, my aunt loves strawberry jam, etc. I can make them big jars of what they love, tie pretty bows on them with lovely labels, and they know it’s a gift from the heart (although Tiffany’s is nice, too, haha). The jar above is just really simply decorated with the top of a wool sock (clean, mind you, & one that had gotten too many holes in it to fix, so was no longer of use in it’s original form), some twine, a little cupcake topper & a pink jingle bell. Old sweater sleeves, t-shirt sleeves & leg warmers are perfect to use too. Basically anything can dress up a jar or become a “jar cozy” & at the same time make it look more special for gifting. Thrift store finds like baby sweaters or baby hats can work too, as can old beaded necklaces twisted around the lid or a fancy pin or brooch pinned to the twine or ribbon. It’s fun, cheap, easy & quick to make a small jar of homemade preserves stand out. I entered the above photo in Well Preserved‘s ‘Pimp That Preserve’ contest, here’s hoping I win! Though I’m sure there’s some stiff competition out there. However… I did enter another stunning (well if I do say so myself) photo of some very interesting jelly all decked out in sparkly things… but that recipe won’t be posted for awhile… anyway we’ll see. You can find out exactly how it works/how to enter by going to the Well Preserved blog post about it. Pretty much, you can cast a vote for mine (or for others, or both!) on the Well Preserved Facebook page; just by going to the photo album for Pimp That Preserve 2011 & clicking like on the photo. Voting should begin around December 12th. For more ideas on dressing up your canned goods for holiday gifting or for entering your own preserves in the contest, Canning Across America has a bunch of swell ideas too, including plenty that should inspire you in your preserve pimpin’!

So anyway as difficult as this first year without Uncle Pat & my Nana will be, we all plod on & drown our sorrows in a variety of alcohol-laced fruit sauces, jams & marmalades. Merry Christmas to all indeed.

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Part of the charm & intrigue of Halloween is the fright factor. That things-that-go-bump-in-the-night-”what-was-that-sound” factor that gives you the chills- but you love it. The reason why people go on scary roller coasters or watch horror movies. That same feeling, that’s the best part of Halloween. I try to make that a part of everything I make around this time of year, not to mention I try to include the fall flavors that everyone loves. Of course, I’m biased. Like I said, this is my favorite holiday. I think some of my favorite things about it, in addition to the “scary” aspect, are all the traditions & symbols. It has such strong Celtic roots, I find the origins of the things we do today to be really interesting. Some of which I’ll be sharing with you over the next few weeks in detail… for now:

Development of artifacts and symbols associated with Halloween formed over time. For instance, the carving of jack-o’-lanterns springs from the souling custom of carving turnips into lanterns as a way of remembering the souls held in purgatory.^[5] The turnip has traditionally been used in Ireland and Scotland at Halloween,^[6][7] but immigrants to North America used the native pumpkin, which are both readily available and much larger – making them easier to carve than turnips.^[6] The American tradition of carving pumpkins is recorded in 1837^[8] and was originally associated with harvest time in general, not becoming specifically associated with Halloween until the mid-to-late 19th century.^[9]

The imagery of Halloween is derived from many sources, including national customs, works of Gothic and horror literature (such as the novels Frankenstein and Dracula), and classic horror films (such as Frankenstein and The Mummy).^[10] Among the earliest works on the subject of Halloween is from Scottish poet John Mayne in 1780, who made note of pranks at Halloween; “What fearfu’ pranks ensue!”, as well as the supernatural associated with the night, “Bogies” (ghosts), influencing Robert Burns‘ Halloween 1785.^[11] Elements of the autumn season, such as pumpkins, corn husks, and scarecrows, are also prevalent. Homes are often decorated with these types of symbols around Halloween.

Halloween imagery includes themes of death, evil, the occult, or mythical monsters.^[12] Black and orange are the holiday’s traditional colors.

I’m aware not everyone enjoys this day as much as I do, and I guess my personal opinion that they’re a bunch of boring, humorless stick-in-the-mud’s is irrelevant, but either way I think it’s fun & harmless. What could be more fun than dressing up as something you aren’t & getting free candy? I don’t know. It sounds pretty friggin’ amazing to me. So being it’s my favorite holiday, I have lots of treats for you to choose from for your spooky fall baking needs. I’ve done compilation posts before, as a matter of fact this past year, 2010-2011, I did one for every holiday, Halloween being the first. But being I did it early on each season, I excluded all the new ideas I had & implemented afterward. So this year it’s a truer compilation: all (or most) of my muffins, cupcakes & other treats; all with a Halloween or fall theme. Some are slightly more complex than others, but all of them are pretty simple when you get down to it & they really don’t take a lot of time or effort (or money, or experience really) to execute.

If you have any questions about where I bought supplies, etc, or just about the cupcakes/treats in general, feel free to comment or e-mail me.

CHOCOLATE STOUT CUPCAKES WITH WHITE CHOCOLATE BONES TRUE BLOOD ORANGE CUPCAKES WITH CANDIED BLOOD ORANGES

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DEVIL’S FOOD CUPCAKES WITH CINNAMON RED-HOTS FROSTING DOUBLE CHOCOLATE PUMPKIN CUPCAKES

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CHOCOLATE MALT CUPCAKES WITH FUDGE FILLING EERIE MONSTER CUPCAKES WITH SWEETMELT EYES

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TRUE BLOOD VELVET CUPCAKES & CREAM CHEESE FROSTING BLACK LICORICE CUPCAKES & ORANGE MARSHMALLOW FROSTING

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JACK-O-LANTERN PUMPKIN MUFFINS PUMPKIN STREUSEL MUFFINS WITH CREAM CHEESE ICING

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MARSHMALLOW BONES APPLE MUFFINS

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CINNAMON VANILLA CUPCAKES & MEXICAN HOT CHOCOLATE FROSTING TRES LECHES COCONUT CUPCAKES

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S’MORES CUPCAKES WITH MARSHMALLOW BUTTERCREAM SPICE CUPCAKES WITH BROWN SUGAR FROSTING

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And of course, if you’re looking for something in particular, you can always go through the archives, specifically the seasonal ones, like the pumpkin or apple categories. Another particular favorite of mine not pictured are the infamous apple cider donuts, they’re perfect for Halloween shenanigans. You could go bobbing for apple cider donuts! And if you’re into pumpkin seeds, I have two recipes, both plain & brown sugar/spice versions. And the two recipes second to last on the list, the cinnamon/vanilla & tres leches coconut, would both be perfect for Dia de los Muertos as well (which is what I used the latter for myself).

Almost any cupcake recipe or cookie recipe can be altered or decorated to fit in with Halloween. Use your imagination… you never know what you may come up with. If worse comes to worse, and you’re stuck for ideas, ask a kid! Kids have the best imaginations and come up with the best stuff, especially for Halloween. A kid’s brain works on a totally different level, they’re practically un-offended by everything, which is perfect.

And stay tuned this month for many more creepy (& not so creepy) fall-appropriate recipes & ideas.

Remember last week when I said nowadays I take my whiskey in the form of marmalade… or cupcakes? Heh. Did you know then what was coming with this post? Anyway, I decided before the Halloween treats get into full swing, I’d do a little something different. Those of you who are Facebook fans of CR saw a preview of these the other day, but sadly the way Facebook compresses photos, even when they say they’re “hi-res” leaves a lot to be desired. Hopefully these photos look a bit better… if not, at least there’s some semi-interesting storytelling coming your way.

One of my absolute most beloved shows on television is Boardwalk Empire. Thank you, HBO, for having some of the best shows on television, ALWAYS. It just so happens that not only am I a big Steve Buscemi fan (Valley Stream represent! Okay so I’m not from Valley Stream, but I’m close enough), but that time in history, particularly in American history, is one of my favorites. I always say I was born 81 years too late; I should’ve been born in 1900 and been a suffragette & a flapper in the roaring ’20′s. Yes, it’s highly romanticized, and in reality it wasn’t a very easy time to be alive, but still. I’m an old soul & I think I was definitely meant to be around then… or perhaps I was, in another life. In that same vein, a new documentary by Ken Burns premiered on Sunday, called Prohibition, and it too is fantastic.

My great-grandfather Tom Rooney was a rum-runner during Prohibition, starting when my grandmother & her brother were babies (my grandmother was born in 1918, her brother 1919). As Prohibition wore on, it got a bit more dangerous & by the mid-to-late 1920′s he had quite a few children & it wasn’t much worth the risk any more. On the other side, as a child my grandfather used to go & get/bring home the disguised beer in an aluminum can (called “rushing the duck”) in exchange for some bakery buns (you can see where I get my priorities from) or a quarter from his uncle. Not to mention the fact that my aforementioned great-grandfather owned a bar. We’re a big liquor lovin’ family. On those sides alone, we’re Irish, German, Prussian, Austrian, etc… so what else do you expect? Not to give in to a stereotype or anything but I mean, last week I posted lemon-orange whiskey marmalade. This week it’s whiskey cupcakes. Forget about the many reasons why, it’s clear I might as well have a Tommy gun under my arm, a cigarette hanging from my mouth & a stolen case full of Pimm’s next to my bathtub full of homemade gin.

Obviously, the inspiration from these cupcakes came from both HBO’s Boardwalk Empire as well as the Ken Burns’ documentary Prohibition, not to mention some old photos of my grandparents, and first & foremost Jay. The photos of my grandparents, while from 1937, aren’t from the exact same era, but they’re so ‘Bonnie & Clyde‘ looking that they just reminded me of Prohibition… & guns & liquor, too, haha. Not that there’s any of that in the pictures!

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How awesome are those photos? I love them. I have two photos of both my great-grandmothers that actually are from 1919/1920, one can be found at this post, but somehow the feel of the above pictures seem to capture the essence & style I was looking for better.

As far as Jay’s part in all this, he was really the main catalyst. A while back, he was out with his friends at a bar & tasted something new: Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey. He immediately thought of me baking with it, and bought some. How cute is he? Very. So I was thinking of what I’d make with it, perhaps a rum cake, except without the rum but with the JD… and maybe a honey glaze? Then I tasted it. Okay, well, I’m not a whiskey connoisseur nor am I a fan of Jack Daniel’s. I much prefer the sweeter, smoother taste of Jameson (and preferably in coffee if anything), so this new blend of Jack with honey liqueur was not really that different to me than regular Jack. Sure, I got the honey smell, however I tasted good ol’ Jack more than the honey. But I could tell that when added to some sugar, it’d be really delicious. So I decided to just go with cupcakes! I didn’t get the idea for the theme until the season 2 premiere of Boardwalk Empire, and of course the first night of Prohibition. What a better way to enjoy these TV shows than with some cupcakes filled with whiskey!?

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And boy, did I ever make cupcakes. I made honey whiskey cupcakes with some delicious Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey whiskey in both the cake & the frosting, topping them off with sugar pearls, gold chunky crystal sugar & teeny little liquor bottles (courtesy of Primp My Cupcake at Etsy) on them… frosted with a jumbo closed star tip from The Cupcake Social, black liners are from Wilton. Keepin’ it classy!

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Aren’t they the cat’s pajamas?

JACK DANIEL’S HONEY WHISKEY PROHIBITION CUPCAKES

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• ½ tsp. baking powder
• ¼ tsp. sea salt
• ½ cup Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey whiskey liqueur
• 3 tablespoons sour cream or yogurt
• ½ cup sugar
• ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• ½ cup butter, softened
• ½ cup honey
• 2 eggs

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350° F and line a 12-cup muffin tin with liners.
2. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and sea salt; set aside. In a small bowl, mix yogurt/sour cream, vanilla, whiskey; set aside.
3. In a mixing bowl, cream butter until fluffy. Add honey and sugar; mix well. Add eggs, one at a time.
4. Add half of the reserved dry ingredients to the butter mixture; mix on low until just combined. With mixer running on low, slowly add the whiskey mixture.
5. Add remaining dry ingredients until just combined.
6. Fill cupcake liners ⅔ full and bake 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

JACK DANIEL’S TENNESSEE HONEY (ITALIAN MERINGUE) BUTTERCREAM

Ingredients:

• ½ cup sugar plus 4 tablespoons
• 2 large egg whites
• Pinch of cream of tartar
• ⅓ cup water
• ½ pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled
• ¼ teaspoon honey
• ¼-½ teaspoon Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey whiskey liqueur

Directions:

1. In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring sugar and ⅓ cup water to a boil. Continue boiling until syrup reaches 238° degrees on a candy thermometer (soft-ball stage).
2. Meanwhile, place egg whites in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, and beat on low speed until foamy. Add cream of tartar, and beat on medium-high speed until stiff but not dry; do not overbeat.
3. With mixer running, add syrup to whites in a stream, beating on high speed until no longer steaming, about 3 minutes. Add butter bit by bit, beating until spreadable, 3 to 5 minutes; beat in honey, then the whiskey. If icing curdles, keep beating until smooth. Don’t be alarmed if the frosting gets “slippery” in the bowl; that’s from the alcohol. It’ll pipe just fine.

What a perfect way to sneak your alcohol- put it in a cupcake! As I was making these I came up with another amazing idea: make a whiskey custard, then fill honey cupcakes with it, and top them off with a whiskey/honey buttercream. I bet a whiskey custard would knock ‘em dead. And they’d also be great for New Year’s cupcakes. Although I have to make a confession: I didn’t make the above buttercream. I just made a confectioner’s sugar buttercream and added some whiskey & honey (similar to this recipe). Only because it was late, I had eaten a big meal, I was tired, and the thought of the boiling sugar & the whipping of egg whites into meringue made me want to crawl into bed. Either way, they’re amazeballs. Whiskey makes a great frosting!

Another confession? I’d much prefer this frosting on a plain vanilla cake as opposed to the modified honey-cake I used. It was good, don’t get me wrong. However I must say it felt a bit like overkill… I think it’d be better with just a cupcake made with pure vanilla topped with the whiskey-based frosting. I’m a bit boring like that.

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Like anything else, creating them/decorating them is only half the presentation. You have to dress the part. So I wore my brand new wingtip brogues. Nucky Thompson ain’t got nothin’ on me!

The consensus was that these cupcakes (and the shoes) were super cute & super good. Try ‘em. Preferably while listening to Sophie Tucker.

Whiskey is an extremely fall/winter-ish addition to any baked good or food (or drink). It’s warming by it’s very nature. So this recipe will work excellently all winter, substituting bourbon or scotch or any kind of good quality whiskey for the Jack Daniel’s I used; I’d just remove the honey, especially in the cupcakes (& in turn up the sugar content) unless you’re really looking for that particular flavor. Honey can be kinda obvious in some recipes, it’s not always subtle, so just keep that in mind.

Happy No-More-Prohibition (even though it was actually repealed on December 5th, 1933, you can still celebrate now)!

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“Nothing so needs reforming as other people’s habits. Fanatics will never learn that, though it be written in letters of gold across the sky. It is the prohibition that makes anything precious.” ❦ Mark Twain

Yes, I wrote Lemon-Orange Whiskey marmalade.

Do I really need to say anything else about this? No. I think not. But I will anyway. My very first encounter with marmalade was reading Alice in Wonderland as a child. Oddly enough, I don’t remember it from the movie, but I seem to remember from reading my very favorite version of it as a little girl that as Alice was tumbling down the rabbit hole, she saw a jar of orange marmalade. But alas, the jar was empty. This isn’t Alice’s kind of marmalade, though. And unless that white rabbit was knocking back a few down there himself, I doubt he had any whiskey marmalade. Though if he did it would make a lot of sense, actually…

Illustration by Marjorie Torrey © 1955

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Not that that ever made me want to try it, especially once I found out it was like jam, which I hated as a kid. And jelly too- I never even liked PB&J’s. However as soon as I saw this recipe I knew I had to make it, no matter what.

Unfortunately, as with most newspapers today, the Times now charges you to view the content online, but I had found the recipe & printed it out before that. Please, UK Times, don’t sue me. For £1 (which is what, like $1.60 American?) you can subscribe to it online & view all of their other recipes (& I think there are quite a few), which, if they are anything like this one, are well worth it.

LEMON-ORANGE WHISKEY MARMALADE (adapted slightly from the UK Sunday Times recipe, by Jill Dupleix, Nov 2004)

Makes 4 16-ounce jars

Ingredients:

• 2 lemons
• 4 oranges
• white granulated sugar (see recipe)*
• 2 tablespoons good whiskey**
• 4 16-ounce screw-top jars, sterilized

Directions:

1. Scrub the fruit well, and dry. Cut off the rinds and cut them into thin strips. Finely chop the fruit, placing the pips in a small muslin bag tied with string†. Place the fruit, rind and pips in a large bowl and cover with 1.5l of cold water (about 6 cups). Cover and leave to soak overnight. Transfer the mixture to a heavy-bottomed pan, and bring to the boil. Simmer gently until the fruit is soft, about 30 minutes.
2. Remove the muslin bag and discard the contents. Weigh the fruit mixture, then measure out three quarters of its weight in sugar‡. Add the sugar to the fruit, stirring enthusiastically until dissolved, and boil rapidly for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until you reach setting point (place a little of the mixture on a plate and freeze for 2 minutes — if set, it will wrinkle when moved).
3. Add the whiskey and stir well, cool only slightly, then ladle into warm sterilized jars and seal, processing in a waterbath for about 10-15 minutes.

Before settling them, removing the air, wiping the rims & putting the lids on…

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I let it sit for 5 hours, but not overnight, per se. Just during the day while I did other errands, etc. I’d recommend you do that & not skip that step. It really helps to release all the pectin in the skin/pith of the citrus fruit. Citrus fruit peels have a whopping 30% pectin content! Don’t let that go to waste, take advantage of it. Without pectin, whatever form you get it in, you can’t have a successful jelly, jam or marmalade.

Pectin (from Greek πηκτικός – pektikos, “congealed, curdled”^[1]) is a structural heteropolysaccharide contained in the primary cell walls of terrestrial plants. It was first isolated and described in 1825 by Henri Braconnot.^[2] It is produced commercially as a white to light brown powder, mainly extracted from citrus fruits, and is used in food as a gelling agent particularly in jams and jellies. It is also used in fillings, medicines, sweets, as a stabilizer in fruit juices and milk drinks and as a source of dietary fiber.

- Wikipedia

I did not need to use added pectin with this, nor do you usually with any marmalade, but I have seen recipes with the addition of some added pectin. I suppose it also depends on how thick you like it or how much you want to leave things up to nature (see next paragraph down re: marmalade not setting fast). I also added the waterbath part, being an overly-anal and neurotic American, I’ve been tortured by fears of food poisoning & botulism so I figured the extra 10 minutes in boiling water couldn’t hurt matters any. Next time I’d also use wide-mouth jars, as for stuff like this I imagine it’s easier getting every last bit out, and perhaps use the 8 oz ones, since then I’d have more to share. It’s supposedly good for 12-18 months unopened, stored in a dark, cool spot.

Immediately after the waterbath, while cooling.

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This marmalade did not have the “set” my previous marmalade had. On that note, I’ve read that sometimes marmalade takes a while to “fully set.” Meaning, in the jar directly afterwards, it will appear on the runny side, but after 2 weeks it should be fully set. Apparently, if your marmalade doesn’t look right, just store it in a cool, dark place and wait. Now I don’t know how scientifically sound that is, so don’t hold me responsible. Although the freezing test included in the recipe is an excellent way of judging, it’s not always a perfect method. Of course mine wasn’t 100% set right out of the gate, but it seemed like it was on the road there. I was a bit concerned because my lemon marmalade was set immediately, but after a few days of receiving this one (which was about a week or so after me making it) my mother opened her jar & said it was amazing. However… I would say let it rest at least a few days before opening it anyway. If after a week you turn the jar upside down, and it takes a while to slide, it’s good. If you turn it upside down and it just sloshes, or the liquid runs quickly, it’s not. If it never seems to set in the jar, it won’t be a marmalade, but that doesn’t mean it’s a waste! You could try opening it, reboiling it and totally re-canning it, using all new lids/rings, but I can’t tell you how to do that ’cause I never did it. Do a Google. Or… as long as the seal is good, you could save it & use it as a lemon-orange-whiskey-syrup thing or a glaze on cakes (like Julia Child’s gateau a l’orange from Mastering the Art of French Cooking… this in syrup form would be to die for poured on that cake while the cake is still warm, as a matter of fact, even in marmalade form it would be amazing on that cake!). So either way, all is not lost. From what they say on this forum, this website & this website, apparently marmalade is a notoriously slow setter, so don’t be alarmed. If it isn’t set after 2 weeks, try waiting another 2. If not, start making that orange cake!

Requisite lid labels!

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Imagine if you will, how warming & delicious this will be on a cold winter day. Or even a fall day. Truly. Although, it was pretty damn bad-ass right now on some toast, too (see below). Other uses for marmalade: a delicious glaze for chicken, a filling for little tortes or tarts, on an English muffin/scone/crumpet, mixed into a muffin recipe, and some people use it on ham as well (as a glaze with honey). It will not go to waste, because even if you’re like me & think you don’t like marmalade, you’ll probably like this one. Maybe it’s the whiskey, maybe it’s the extra added lemon-y flavor, who knows. But I thought it was excellent. Speaking of whiskey, I used Jameson because I personally cannot handle Jack Daniels, but you could use any good-quality whiskey you like, including Jack. Just don’t use shit whiskey, it’s not worth it, you’ll wreck the marmalade. If you wouldn’t want to drink it, why the hell would you want to eat it!? Another idea: adding little things to it, like cinnamon or rosemary or a sprig of mint. I left mine plain according to the recipe, but many people like to sneak a little something extra in. I figured the Jameson was extra enough!

All melty on warm toast…
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If you had told me 11 years ago that my Saturday’s would now be spent making marmalade, Googling Rick Bayless’ habanero hot sauce recipes (to use my homegrown hab’s) or searching for good plum jam recipes, not to mention that I’d get excited over a KitchenAid mixer or a 12-pack of wide mouth 8oz Ball® jars on sale, I’d have told you you were nuts. But really, you can spend your days doing meaningless shit with people you don’t give a fuck about & spend your nights getting hammered, or you can do something worthwhile & enjoyable. And at 30 years old, if you’re spending most of your nights getting hammered anyway, you sort of need a reality check. Or to just grow up. Unless you’re a rock star- then you’re exempt from judgement. However personally these days I take my whiskey in the form of marmalade. Or cupcakes *ahem*

Oh and by the way-

“Pip” is the correct term for the seed of a citrus fruit such as an orange, lemon or lime. – source

Just in case you were wondering.

Life is actually far from a being a bowl of cherries. Cherries are pretty, bright & usually perfect. Life is not. For one measly little example, I had an awesome photo of the cherries in the bag, looking all perky & red. And my camera deleted it. Or actually, I deleted it. By accident. *sigh* So that photo is from a website, I can’t take credit for it. I could’ve had a lovely picture of the actual cherries I used for the preserves, if I wasn’t such a knucklehead. Boo. An even better example is Hurricane Irene with her bitch-ass self. She placed 2 million plus people without power on the east coast of the U.S. alone. She caused many deaths in the continental United States, not counting the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Bahamas, Turks & Caicos, and the other places she blasted with her relentlessly slow-moving winds, rain & tornadoes. She battered us here in NY but we were lucky she was a tropical storm by the time she got here, or else things would’ve been way worse. As it is, so many people have died or are missing, let alone the fact almost half a million people on Long Island are still without power, and tons in New Jersey, Rhode Island, North Carolina, etc. If she was a person, I’d like to punch her right in the face. So no, life is not always a bowl of cherries.

But it’s okay, because while life may not always be as perfect as a bowl of beautiful cherries, you can eat a bowl of cherries. Or make cherry preserves. Better yet, make cherry preserves with an added kick- vanilla vodka.

(I came up with that part after realizing I deleted all the pictures on my memory card. Ha. Although this jam & the resulting cobbler was on my mind too… and I also figured we all needed a drink after Irene)

Cherries were on sale for $1.99 a pound. A DOLLAR NINETY-NINE A POUND. Normally, these particular cherries, Northwest cherries, are $4.99 a pound. How the hell could I pass that up? I could not. So I didn’t. I bought them & I made a small batch of preserves with some vanilla vodka. The vodka really only adds a subtle flavor, don’t be afraid of it. It’s not overwhelming or insanely vodka-y at all, it’s not even overwhelmingly vanilla-y. But add a little & go from there if you’re skurred. Or use vanilla extract or some vanilla bean seeds. Or omit that altogether, the preserves would stand just fine alone.

Be sure to wear gloves, dark colored clothing or a dark colored apron while doing this. Dark cherry juice splatters all over the place, and it stains.

I’m really bad with the foam-skimming thing, clearly

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VANILLA VODKA CHERRY PRESERVES

Makes 1½ pints or 3 8 oz. jars

Ingredients:

• 3 pounds dark red cherries, pitted
• 1 cup sugar
• ¼ cup lemon juice
• 4-6 tablespoons vanilla/French vanilla flavored vodka (any decent tasting, good quality vodka is fine; Skyy, GEOЯGI, Absolut, Grey Goose, etc)

Directions:

1. Put the cherries in a large, non-reactive pot on the stove. Using your (gloved) fingers, mash & crush them, but not totally, to release the juice.
2. Add the sugar and lemon juice, and stir well. Turn heat on low and cook until sugar dissolves.
3. Turn up the heat (I like to play with fire & go pretty high, but I don’t turn my back on it & stir when needed) and boil for around 25-30 minutes.
4. Check to see if it’s set. If so, skim the foam and stir in the vodka very gently. Ladle into hot jars, wipe rims, place lids/bands and process for 10 minutes in a water bath. Let cool. Refrigerate after opening.

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This can also be made & eaten right away, without the processing. One of my jars was eaten almost in totality as soon as it was cooled; spread on a few pieces of 9-grain bread. Generously. The rest? Well…

The cherries are so perfect they look fake!

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Not one to leave well enough alone, I thought of Black Forest cake. I was going to just make some chocolate cake & spread this in between the layers, then frost it with chocolate frosting, whipped cream & some big, fat cherries. But I’m not a cake person. I like cake; don’t get me wrong. Who doesn’t like cake? But as the title of my website clearly states, I’m more a cupcake gal. So Black Forest cupcakes it is! Unlike German Chocolate cake, which is just named for Sam German’s Baker’s chocolate, Black Forest cake is an actual German dessert. So for my great-grandma Frances Sonnanburg (nee Hebrank), a.k.a. “Midge” (seen below with my grandfather as a two-year old baby in 1920), the infamous German baker of the family, here are my individually-sized versions of Black Forest cake. Deutschland über alles!

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Black Forest gateau (British English) and Black Forest cake (American English and Australian English) are the English names for the German dessert Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte (pronounced [ˈʃvaʁt͡svɛldɐ ˈkɪʁʃˌtɔʁtə]), literally “Black Forest cherry torte“.

Typically, Black Forest cake consists of several layers of chocolate cake, with whipped cream and cherries between each layer. Then the cake is decorated with additional whipped cream, maraschino cherries, and chocolate shavings. In some European traditions sour cherries are used both between the layers and for decorating the top.^[1] Traditionally, Kirschwasser (a clear liquor distilled from tart cherries) is added to the cake,^[2] although other liquors are also used (such as rum, which is common in Austrian recipes). In the United States, Black Forest cake is most often prepared without alcohol. German statutory interpretation states Kirschwasser as a mandatory ingredient, otherwise the cake is legally not allowed to be marketed as Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte.^[3]

The cake is named not directly after the Black Forest (Schwarzwald) mountain range in southwestern Germany but rather from the specialty liquor of that region, known as Schwarzwälder Kirsch(wasser) and distilled from tart cherries. This is the ingredient, with its distinctive cherry pit flavor and alcoholic content, that gives the cake its flavour. Cherries, cream, and Kirschwasser were first combined in the form of a dessert in which cooked cherries were served with cream and Kirschwasser, while a cake combining cherries, biscuit and cream (but without Kirschwasser) probably originated in Germany.

Today, the Swiss canton of Zug is world-renowned for its Zuger Kirschtorte, a biscuit-based cake which formerly contained no Kirschwasser. A version from the canton of Basel also exists. The confectioner Josef Keller (1887–1981) claimed to have invented Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte in its present form in 1915 at the then prominent Café Agner in Bad Godesberg, now a suburb of Bonn about 500 km north of the Black Forest. This claim, however, has never been substantiated.^[4]

Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte was first mentioned in writing in 1934.^[5] At the time it was particularly associated with Berlin but was also available from high-class confectioners in other German, Austrian, and Swiss cities. In 1949 it took 13th place in a list of best-known German cakes, and since that time Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte has become world-renowned.

Filling the cupcakes with cherry preserves…

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What a great name that is, Black Forest. Anyway, these cupcakes are really crazy-simple. Dark Chocolate cupcakes, filled with this jam, topped with thick heavy cream-based confectioner’s buttercream and drenched in a chocolate sauce, then crowned with a cherry. Okay, they don’t sound simple. But they are. I promise. Just as simple as the preserves are to make, the cupcakes are. Use any chocolate cupcake recipe you like, use any vanilla frosting you like, fill ‘em up with jam in any way you like & frost ‘em however you like. Another option: cut the cupcakes in half & sandwich them back together using the preserves, then frost them. You could also use whipped cream instead of frosting.

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These are not only some of the prettiest cupcakes I ever made, but definitely some of the simplest. And also the most gratifying, since they were made from scratch literally start to finish. I think great-grandma Midge & her German ancestors would certainly approve.

I named this jam Van Gogh’s “la fraise & la liqueur de chocolat”  jam, which means roughly “strawberry & chocolate liqueur jam” after one of my favorite artist’s, Vincent Van Gogh, not because of any particular thing in common with him. He didn’t really paint strawberries, although in the 1880′s, he did write in several letters to his brother Theo about his efforts to “eat strawberries in the spring” ; a reference not only to his actually eating strawberries, but also a reference to learning to enjoy things in the moment. And to me, that’s a nice thought- enjoy things in the moment. Life is short, and we might as well enjoy the little things as we can. Too often we get caught up in the bullshit of every day life & we forget to stop & “eat strawberries in the spring.” I’ve been thinking of that ever since I read it, and especially with recent events I think it’s really important. My grandma lived every day to the fullest, and enjoyed every single day. She definitely ate her strawberries in the spring. And that’s a lesson we should all learn.

Sadly, Van Gogh was very troubled and cut off his own ear, so I’m guessing he wasn’t eating a lot of strawberries or enjoying a whole lot of things at the time.

Mirror image self-portrait, 1889

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So all of that sounds nice (except the ear-cutting part). However there was another factor in my naming this jam.

That other factor: Van Gogh’s Amsterdam Chocolate liqueur, which, obviously, is a key ingredient in the jam. Say what?! Oh yes. Behold:

My liquor shelf be poppin’, yo!

 ..

Yep. That’s right. There’s no actual chocolate in this jam. Just chocolate liqueur. It’s so good. This one happens to have a great chocolate flavor, not bitter & not fake-tasting, with no cream (unlike the Mozart or Godiva liqueurs which are divine but being cream based, I can only imagine they would not bode well for jam making). Perfect in a martini or even straight up. It looks as though it’s a bit difficult to find now, I bought it a while ago but I’m fairly sure my liquor store still sells it. Anyway, you could just as easily use a chocolate vodka, vanilla vodka, regular vodka, any liqueur not cream based… and even Chambord or Cointreau. Whatever flavor you like. I just happen to think strawberries & chocolate are a great flavor combination, so that’s why this struck me as a good idea. But why not use blackberries & Chambord? Or raspberries & pomegranate vodka? It all sounds pretty awesome. And if you’re gonna make a jam, why not make one with liquor!? Isn’t there an Ogden Nash quote, “Candy is dandy but liquor is quicker”?

Yes, those are fake strawberries.

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Here’s the deal: I made this on a whim after a “buy one get one free” sale on strawberries. I was partially inspired by a jam recipe that Tania made & sent me from Poet in the Pantry, but I wanted to do a different spin on the chocolate/strawberry thing. So I kind of made it up as I went along. I can’t come close to telling you the exact process I went through, and I’d feel terrible if I wrote something up that was awful, & you wasted 2 pounds of berries. So I won’t lead you down a terrible path by giving you one of my mangy, sad, made-up jam recipes that might not work for you. But I will say this: find a good strawberry jam recipe that makes about 3-4 pints (with the use of pectin, unless you’re confident about your strawberries gelling naturally, which I am not), and add  ⅓-½ cup liqueur of your choice to it. I actually only used ¼ cup and it was too subtle for my liking. You could taste it, but not quite enough for me. My base recipe was this small batch one from Food in Jars (except I altered it to use 2 lbs of berries, I added pectin & took out the vanilla).

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My jam also took a few days to firm up properly, even with the pectin. It was sorta gelling before I jarred it, but after I stirred in the alcohol it watered down a bit. However, it definitely got more firm as it settled. Possibly it took longer because of the alcohol addition? I’m not sure. If you don’t like to play with fire that way, do the cold plate test until you’re 100% positive it’s ready, then add the liqueur once it definitely is. I knew based on my sugar/acid/pectin that I’d be good, eventually, so I didn’t worry about it setting up. And even if it didn’t, I probably wouldn’t have cared. It was only a small batch, and let’s be honest: strawberry chocolate liqueur ice cream syrup sounds pretty awesome. I am no expert by any means, though, so don’t take my word for it. There are plenty of other people who know what they’re doing far better than I. I’m just a lowly canning neophyte.

Clearly backlit from heaven!

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This recipe makes roughly 3 pints. I filled up two & a half-pint jars for the waterbath/canning process, and then had a bit left over that might have been a bit under 6-8 oz. I just put that right in the fridge in an old marmalade jar for immediate use. That little part of the batch firmed up right away, probably from the cold. I had some right away and it was a bit sweet, but I know a lot of jams “mellow” in the jar after processing & sitting, which the small jar did not get a chance to do. Plus, the colder the jam is, the less sweet it will taste, so if you refrigerate it after a few days, even before it’s opened, it’ll dull the sweetness. Same principle as when making ice cream- it may seem too sweet, but when it’s frozen it’s really not. Or something.

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What a beautiful jewel-toned ruby colored jam this is. I could just stare at it in the jar all day. But that would be weird, right?

This would be a great cupcake filling, by the way. I’m thinking of a chocolate cupcake with this jam as a filling, and then an Italian meringue buttercream frosting made with some of the jam as well. Unf. That would be phenomenal. And how about a homemade pop-tart made with this? INSANE. Although… on two pieces of soft wheat toast it wasn’t exactly disgusting, let me tell you. Far from it.

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But… you can also make it into a bunch of mini cobblers. Strawberry chocolate liqueur mini-cobblers made in little ramekins! Adorable. Totes adorbs. And everything tastes better when it’s homemade start to finish, amirite?

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Yep. Take it all in.  Homemade mini-cobblers made with homemade strawberry chocolate liqueur jam. Are you loving this yet?

MINI-STRAWBERRY JAM COBBLERS WITH A KICK

Makes about 8 average sized ramekins

Ingredients:

• 1 16-ounce jar strawberry chocolate liqueur jam
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold & cut into pieces

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 400º F. Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil (because the jam will overflow & things will get very messy) and place ramekins on it. Spray ramekins with cooking spray, lightly & evenly, to make clean-up easier later.
2. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder & salt in a medium bowl. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Spoon jam into ramekins, filling almost up to the top, maybe ¾”  away from it.
3. Top each jam-filled ramekin with a heaping pile of the flour mixture. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until it starts to turn golden-brown. Remove, and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes. Best eaten when still fairly warm, but I know some people who wouldn’t turn it down room temperature either.

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And there you have it. I finally got around to baking something! How exciting. Although it was my first time baking since my grandma passed, and it was pretty hard. I’d normally bring some of whatever I made to her, and she’d eat it and rave about it and tell everyone how amazing it was. But, life goes on, and I know the last thing she’d want is to hear me complain or stop baking or be weepy & sad. At least I keep telling myself that.

Either way, this is some excellent cobbler, and I bet my Nana is pretty pissed that she missed it.

I decided to make a few different things for him, this being a pretty big birthday. And since he loves anything involving chocolate & peanut butter, I made this awesomely easy chocolate peanut butter fudge from the Food Network magazine. He isn’t a fudge fan by any means, but I knew I couldn’t go wrong with a PB/chocolate combo. I also made him some cupcakes (of course). I asked him about 4 times what kind he wanted, and each time I got a different answer. He said chocolate stout cupcakes, then he said chocolate cheesecake cupcakes, then he said a Guinness/chocolate stout cupcake again, and the fourth time he got overwhelmed and said he didn’t know. Pfft. In all fairness, I did ask about a month in advance. Well I asked a fifth time and this time I got an answer: Maple Irish Whiskey-frosted white velvet butter cupcakes, topped with crumbled bacon. Oh yes.

These aren’t a new concept for me. I’ve actually made them two other times in the past 2 months; both for St. Patrick’s Day & then later on that month for our friend Melanie’s 30th birthday. However neither of those times were they topped with bacon, and I didn’t use a white velvet cupcake recipe for ‘em, just plain vanilla. But in all honesty, this frosting is so amazing that it’s worth repeating & making over & over again. Add bacon it just takes it over the top. Jameson & bacon, together with maple in a cupcake? Insanity. And very manly, now that I think about it. Jameson & bacon could practically be a men’s cologne. And Jay loves his Jameson. Jack too, but really, Jameson is way better.

The funny thing is, that in past years I’ve ordered supplies, namely toppers, with plenty of time to spare & yet still didn’t get them in time. So I had these toppers waiting here for almost 2 years, begging to be used. I thought it’d be funny to get some camouflage liners and combine ‘em with the fish toppers for his cupcakes. Jay loves fishing, and there’s a sort of ongoing joke about his camo BDU’s he used to wear a lot, so the two things together make almost a perfect “Jay cupcake.” If you add some mini-death metal CD’s & mini-handcuffs, it’d be really perfect. I cannot for the life of me remember where I bought the toppers, but I will say that the Etsy shop littlemonsterhugs (which is awesome!) saved my ass by being the only shop to have the camo liners in stock as of a week & a half ago, and then on top of that, getting them to me in plenty of time when I ordered them late! Thank cupcakes for littlemonsterhugs! I’ll definitely be a returning customer. And the best part is they didn’t lose their color after baking- they stayed just as bright. LOVE THEM.

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Alright, so those are pretty fucking awesome. I smelled like bacon & whiskey for a half hour after making them, I finally just had to shower again, haha. The recipes for the cupcakes and frosting are linked to up there in that paragraph. And here are some photos of the delicious fudge. That recipe to follow.

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CHOCOLATE-PEANUT BUTTER FUDGE

Ingredients:

• Unsalted butter, softened, for brushing
• 1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
• 2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips
• 2 pinches salt
• 2 cups peanut butter chips

Directions:

1. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with foil, pressing it into the corners and up the sides; leave an overhang on 2 sides. Brush the foil with butter.
2. Combine 3/4 cup condensed milk, the chocolate chips, and a pinch of salt in a medium saucepan. Combine the remaining condensed milk, the peanut butter chips, and the last pinch salt in a separate saucepan. Put both pans over low heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until the chips are melted & smooth.
3. Spoon the chocolate mixture into the prepared pan, leaving spaces in between the spoonfuls. Spoon the peanut mixture in between the gaps. Brush an 8-inch square parchment paper with butter and lay it directly on top of the fudge; press to flatten evenly & fill-in the gaps. Refrigerate until firm, about 45 minutes. Lift the foil to remove the fudge from the pan and cut into 1-inch squares. Store up to 1-week in an airtight container.

You may notice that my fudge isn’t necessarily “two-tone.” That’s because the supermarket I went to didn’t have peanut butter chips (*gasp* I know!), they only had these two mixes from Nestle.

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So I figured, it’s technically the same thing. It made it easier because I just made it all in one saucepan as opposed to two. But it didn’t have a two-tone or swirled effect. *shrugs* It was to die for, and tasted like chocolate-peanut butter, so there! Basically, in all honesty, it was the same. It comes out fantastic this way, so if you don’t have peanut butter chips on hand either, these will work.

So my best friend turned 30. I really can’t believe it; I remember his silly ass at 19 calling me ‘whitehead’ because of my white bandanna & how I wanted to kick his ass. But he turned out to be the best thing to ever cross my path. We’ve been through a lot, both together & separately, over these past 11 years, and most especially during the almost 8 that we’ve been “a couple.” When I say he’s my best friend, I’m not exaggerating by any means. In him I have a confidante, a fellow “foodie” (that is a terrible word), someone who can help me fix almost anything- computers, plumbing, construction, ANYTHING… and most importantly someone whose personality fits so perfectly with mine it’s like we were made for one another. I love you, Jay, happy birthday. Now finish eating the cupcakes & fudge so we can go back to Angelo’s for dinner & Chip Shop for dessert.

This is the perfect St. Patrick’s Day recipe, and I’ve been dying to try it for so long. I like making macaroni & cheese in the fall & winter, and I’ve been putting off making this because I wanted to make it for this holiday. So it’s been waiting for this moment for 3 years. Literally. Since I saw it on the Food Network‘s Ultimate Recipe Showdown, I’ve had it printed out and waiting (that and the French Onion Soup Mac & Cheese I’ve been promising to make for Jay). The problem with me is that when I have beer in the house, I drink it, so it rarely ends up in the food. I love beer, especially stouts & lagers. What can I say, I’m mostly Irish, part German, & part Polish (among other things) – all of which are known for having hollow legs.

Speaking of ‘Black & Tans’, they aren’t an Irish concept. As a matter of fact, like most watered-down so-called “Irish” traditions, they’re rarely consumed in Ireland.

Black and Tan is a drink made from a blend of pale ale, usually Bass Pale Ale, and a dark beer such as a stout or porter, most often Guinness. Sometimes a pale lager is used instead of ale; this is usually called a half and half. Contrary to popular belief, however, Black and Tan as a mixture of two beers is not a drink commonly consumed in Ireland. Indeed, the drink has image problems in parts of Ireland and elsewhere due to the association with the Royal Irish Constabulary Reserve Force which was sent into Ireland in the early 1920s and nicknamed the Black and Tans.^[1][2]

Far be it from me to insult anyone (like Ben & Jerry’s apparently did) by making a dish with such a name. But I didn’t invent it, or create it. I just made the recipe. Don’t shoot the messenger.

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This recipe is easy, despite having lots of ingredients & steps. It doesn’t even bake in the oven, so it takes less time than most mac-n-cheese recipes. For someone like me who hates corned beef & cabbage, the traditional St. Pat’s dinner, it would be the perfect meal to make on the 17th.

BLACK & TAN IRISH MAC-N-CHEDDAR

Ingredients:

• 6 cups water
• 24 ounces lager beer
• 16 ounces rustic shaped pasta (I used decidedly un-Irish mini-rigatoni)
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 cup half-and-half
• 12 ounces evaporated milk
• 5 tablespoons lightly salted quality Irish butter
• 2 ½ tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon ground dry mustard
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
• 1/3 cup stout beer
• 3 ounces shredded smoked Gruyere
• 8 ounces shredded Irish Cheddar
• ½ cup bread crumbs, Japanese panko, or fresh country white
• ½ cup crisp cooked apple wood or maple bacon crumbles
• 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro leaves or several sage leaves for garnish (OPTIONAL)

Directions:

1. Place water and lager beer into a 4 ½ quart or larger saucepan over high heat and bring to boil, add pasta and cook until just al dente. Drain and keep warm.
2. Meanwhile in 3 quart saucepan, over medium-high heat, bring the milk, half-and-half, and evaporated milk just to a boil, keep hot. In a 4 quart saucepan, over medium heat, melt 3 tablespoons of the butter and stir in flour until it begins to color slightly, whisk in hot milk, mustard, salt, cayenne, and stout, and bring to a strong simmer. Reduce heat to low and stir in cheeses until melted. Place pasta into serving dish and pour the cheese sauce over the pasta.
3. Place remaining butter in a large saute pan over medium heat and stir in bread crumbs, stir until golden brown, stir in bacon crumbles. Spread mixture over top of macaroni. Garnish with cilantro or sage leaves.

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Okay so I used Harp lager and Guinness stout for this recipe, but any stout and any lager will do, as long as they aren’t flavored with anything fancy. No chocolate stouts. Just plain old Guinness and Harp are excellent; good, hearty, Irish alcohols. I recommend good quality beer for this- don’t use PBR or Natural Ice or something, please. I’d also recommend buying or making some black & tans to drink with it. Although you can definitely taste the beer in the recipe itself, it’s more fun that way.

I have to say this recipe was amazing. The bacon was a great addition to macaroni & cheese that I’d never done before, despite being the macaroni & cheese queen. And you don’t taste the cayenne- it is not overwhelming. So don’t be afraid to use it. If you can’t find Irish butter or Irish cheddar, you can use regular salted butter and regular sharp cheddar cheese. I made my panko crumbs extra crispy along with the bacon, ’cause that’s how I like it. The bacon, of course, isn’t 100% necessary. But I’d use it if I were you.

Arwyn, my little black Irish imp, wanted to say hi. Hi!

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Say what?

Oh, yes.

I was inspired by Cupcake Royale, again. Last time they inspired me, my results were highly successful. So I took their popular ‘Bacon Whiskey Maple‘ cupcake (also seen on Cakespy) which is a vanilla cupcake topped with this delightful aforementioned Irish whiskey maple buttercream, and ran with the idea. Seeing as how it’s almost St. Patty’s Day I thought a cupcake with Irish whiskey was just a little appropriate. So I came up with my own version using Amy Sedaris‘ vanilla cupcake recipe and a delicious confectioner’s sugar buttercream made with maple extract and Jameson.

Jameson is the most famous Irish whiskey there is, Bushmills & Tullamore Dew come in a close second.

Jameson Irish whiskey is produced from a mixture of malted and unmalted or “green” Irish barley, all sourced from within a fifty mile radius around the distillery in Cork. The barley is dried in a closed kiln fired by clean-burning anthracite coal to preserve its flavour. Like most Irish whiskey, Jameson is triple distilled for optimum smoothness. The philosophy is balance, ensuring that no one flavour element overpowers another. The end result is a sweet-tasting whiskey.

By the early 19th century, the distillery was producing one million gallons (3,785,412 litres) of whiskey per year and had grown to be the largest in the world. The production has now moved to the Midleton distillery and the Bow Street site is currently a museum and visitors centre. Jameson is made following the original 1780 recipe that uses malted barley combined with unmalted barley and other grains. It is distilled three times in copper pot stills to create its famous smoothness and flavour. Jameson sells 30 million bottles a year around the world, making it by far the best selling Irish whiskey.

Let me be clear: I am not a whiskey drinker. However if given a choice between Jack Daniels and Jameson, I’d sure as shit pick Jameson. That said- I like my whiskey sweetened. You’re probably thinking, “What the hell does that mean?” What I mean is, I like the taste that whiskey can have when combined with sugar; in coffee, cakes, cupcakes, frostings. Alone, not so much. Like it says above, Jameson has a sweet(er) taste anyway, and it’s much smoother than most other popular whiskeys. I’d still rather have a Bailey’s… or an Irish Car Bomb. But I’ll sing the praises of Jameson forever because of this frosting.

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AMY SEDARIS’ VANILLA CUPCAKES

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ sticks of unsalted butter
• 1 ¾ cups of sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons of pure vanilla
• ½ teaspoon of salt
• 2 ½ teaspoons of baking powder
• 2 ½ cups of flour
• 1 ¼ cups of milk

Directions:

1. Beat butter and sugar well, then add the rest of the ingredients.
2. Fill cups, and bake at 375 degrees for 18-20 minutes. You should get 24. I get 18, ’cause I’m doing something wrong.

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MAPLE IRISH WHISKEY BUTTERCREAM

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup or extract (room temp. if you use syrup)
• 2  tablespoons Jameson or other Irish whiskey
• 4-6 cups confectioners’ sugar

Directions:

1. Combine butter, maple syrup, Jameson and 2 cups confectioners sugar in a large bowl and beat at medium-high speed until smooth.
2. Add remaining sugar in gradually until frosting is thick enough to pipe easily. You may not use all the sugar. If icing is too dry, add additional milk until desired consistency is reached.

If you try only one icing with alcohol in it, ever, this is the one. The whiskey & the maple are so FUCKING amazing together. As a matter of fact… let’s say they’re “bi-winning.” Thanks, Charlie. Seriously, though, they’re awesome. Very delicious. The frosting would probably also be amazing on whiskey cupcakes, or Guinness/chocolate stout cupcakes.

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I topped them using my brand-spankin’ new tip from Cupcake Social and some green sugar, gold crystal sugar and edible pearls. Keepin’ it classy.