by BS

Cocktail O’Clock: A White Christmas

Dreaming of snow this Christmas? Let coconut flakes stand in for the real stuff on top of your drink. If you get your guests boozed up enough, they may even think it’s snowing.

You could do this with pretty much any drink; Isaac Elbhar at Bryant Park Hotel Cellar Bar in New York offers it atop the Purple Snowflake Martini:

1 ½ oz of 44th Degree North (Huckleberry Vodka)
¾ oz of Cointreau
½ oz of Pineapple Juice
3 fresh blackberry
1 fresh squeeze of lemon juice
Coconut flakes

Pour all ingredients into shaker except the coconut flakes. Shake the concoction vigorously! Pour the mixture into a martini glass and top with coconut flakes.

More: Winter Cocktails Gone Wild!

by bakersroyale

Edible Holiday Gifts: Boozy Peppermint Bark

Peppermint bark is a standard for the holiday season, but since we like playing with our food here at ES we decided to give ours a bit of a boozy twist by adding in a peppermint Kahlua truffle center.

We’re so glad we did and we are betting you will too. What can you expect in this bark? How about a bottom chocolate layer crunched-up with some crushed chocolate wafers. For the center we boozed up our bark with Kahlua’s seasonal Peppermint Mocha mix, and to finish it all off is a layer of white chocolate with crushed Peppermint Andes candy.

Now that we’ve finished tweaking a classic bark, we’re off to create a new bark with a bit of wine. Stay tuned!

Peppermint Truffle Bark

in Desserts / Holiday / Recipe 4 comments

by gansie

10 Christmas Treats Better Than Christmas Cookies

Last week I couldn’t figure out what the deal is with Christmas cookies. And after some ranting, I was still curious-slash-irritated. I decided that I’d actually rather eat the dreaded cupcake over some snickerdoodle. Let’s stroll through some other Christmas eats more exciting than those damn cookies.

10. Ho! Ho!

(Photo: Strange Days)

9. Life is Like…

(Photo: omgitsrenzo)

8. Honestly, I Don’t Know What This Is Made Of, But It’s Gorgeous, Right?!

(Photo: Icy Snow of Winter)

in Desserts / Holiday 2 comments

by Emily

Presents for Foodies: Food Network Star Book

This time of year I am always scrambling for holiday gift ideas. It’s not that I’m not a generous person… it’s just that sometimes, come on, people are hard as hell to buy for. Being a food-minded individual, I often solve this dilemma by throwing a cookbook their way and calling it good. In this case, here is something to please the masses: Food Network Star: The Official Insider’s Guide to America’s Hottest Food Show. It’s chock full of recipes and television gossip. We all know people who love Food Network, so there! One gift to cross off the list.

How good is this cookbook? Well, it’s definitely a crowd pleaser. FNS:TOIGTAHFS, as I like to call it to save time, offers a wide array of recipes, from the laughably simple (Carissa Seward’s Shrimp Puffs), to the reasonable (Eggs en Cocotte from Amy Finley), to the elegantly involved (Alex Hernandez’s Beignets with Rosemary Caramel). It’s fun because recipes from basically every cheftestant from every season of the show are featured, so it’s easy to pick a selection from one’s favorite. I, for example, eagerly sought out recipes from the Hearty Boys. Then, upon seeing that their featured item was lobster pot pie and reminding myself I was supposed to be saving money for other presents, decided to go with something a bit more pedestrian.

I would hardly call Guy Fieri my favorite “chef” but hey, he is probably the ultimate Next Food Network Star winner. This dude is everywhere! How’s his food? There’s only one way to find out, and that is to make one of the recipes that catapulted him to stardom.

Chipotle Pasta

in Celebs / Holiday / Recipe / TV 0 comments

by gansie

What’s the Deal With Christmas Cookies?

I should probably know this as an American. But I just don’t understand the whole Christmas cookies thing.

When I was five my mom revealed that Santa didn’t exist. She made me swear not to tell my Christmas-celebrating friends. Every time a friend mentioned Santa I would smirk, but play along. It’s not easy being a Jewish kid in a Christian world, but that little nugget of truth made me feel special during the red and green take over of December.

I like decorating trees. I like reindeer lawn scenes. I like eggnog. But I just don’t understand the cookie obsession this time of year.

Did it start with Santa’s present of milk and cookies?

Is it as an excuse to turn the oven on to warm a cold house?

I just don’t know. And would love to learn why.

(Photo: Greatest Time of the Year)

in Desserts / Holiday 5 comments

by bakersroyale

Whiskey, Caramel, Marshmallow and Bacon Bark

Yeah, so it’s a mouthful to say, but we’re betting you won’t mind once you find your hand-to-mouth addiction with this week’s bark.

In keeping with the theme of making the bark recipes as easy as possible, we bypassed making homemade marshmallows. Instead we used a bag of store-bought mini marshmallows and melted them ever so slightly on the stovetop, then spiked it with whiskey and poured that whiskey marshmallow layer over the chocolate.

If you’re wondering why not spike the caramel filling as well — good point — and we tried that. But it takes a lot of whiskey to edge out the strong flavor of caramel. In doing so, the caramel filling became too liquidity for a bark. So while that was a no-go for the bark, we’ll be bringing that whiskey-spiked caramel back for an upcoming recipe.

And since it seems we are never satisfied, we decided to go one step further and finish our whiskeycara-mallow with a spiced bacon crumble. Yes, spiced — that’s spiced with cayenne and black pepper.

There you have it—an ES style bark that’s equally sweet and spicy and a whole lot punchy, with all kinds of goodness.

On a tangential note, we used this Beka Bain Marie to keep the chocolate melted, warm and ready to go. Mighty handy for this series – thank you, Beka!

Whiskey, Caramel, Marshmallow and Bacon Bark

in Bacon / Desserts / Endless Bacon / Holiday / Recipe 65 comments

by gansie

Give the Gift of Wrapping Paper

It really doesn’t matter what your gift is, as long as it’s cute on the outside. Judge a book by its cover this year.

(Photo: Gift Couture)

in Holiday / Trends 3 comments