The Godfather

No, not Marlan Brando, I’m talking about the drink. Have you heard of it? I had not until I received a bottle of Amaretto di Saronno from my FIL for my birthday not long ago. I love many things about amaretto, especially the originale from Saronno – the shape and texture of the bottle, the color of the liquor, the creamy almond fragrance, the secret guarded recipe for making it, the fact that it has been around since 1525, and of course it doesn’t taste bad either, but as primarily a wine drinker, I don’t really know what to do with it or most liqueurs. I was explaining this to my mom who said “Oh, you have to make a Godfather.” She went on to tell me that I am not alone in my libational ignorance, everybody including most bartenders has forgotten about this drink. She said she always has to give barkeeps instructions when she orders it out. Having the two requisite ingredients on hand, I promptly mixed one for myself. Here’s how:

A Godfather

Mix 2 parts Scotch or bourbon whiskey with 1 part amaretto in an old fashioned glass with ice. Stir and enjoy. To make it fancy add a lime wedge.

I ended up adding a smidge more amaretto. The whiskey tempered the sweet of the amaretto and the amaretto smoothed the harshness of the whiskey. Happy weekend. Cheers.

Simple Gingerbread Cookies

Gingerbread is a holiday staple. Years ago, we used to make houses, an endeavor requiring mathematical calculations, vats of thick frosting and considerable structural engineering skills; challenging and rewarding, but not simple (for us anyway). Gingerbread houses gradually mutated to gingerbread men and women cut out one-by-one and wonkily decorated with blobs of icing with red hot eyeballs. Charming to be sure, but messy and time consuming; who needs that this time of year? As the demand for holiday gingerbread has not ceased in this household, my husband suggested we simply roll the dough into logs, wrap them in plastic and refrigerate like we do with butter cookies. When ready (the dough & us), slice the dough into discs and bake. Once out of the oven and cooled decorate to resemble snowflakes. Here’s how they turned out – we kept the rewarding and charming, omitted the challenging and time consuming.

And here’s the recipe. It’s from Rose’s Christmas Cookies, by Rose Levy Beranbaum (author of The Cake Bible)

Gingerbread People (Snowflakes)

Ingredients:

3 cups all purpose flour

¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon grated nutmeg

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

¾ cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

12 tablespoons unsalted butter

½ cup unsulfured molasses

1 large egg

-In a medium bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking soda and spices, them whisk together to mix evenly.

-In a food processor with a metal blade, process brown sugar until fine. Cut the butter into a few pieces and add it with the motor running. Process until smooth and creamy. Add the molasses and egg and process until incorporated, scraping the sides of the bowl. Add the flour mixture and pulse in just until the dough begins to clump together.

-Scrape the dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap and roll into a ball. Divide dough into quarters and roll each into a log shape. Wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

-Preheat oven to 350. Slice dough into discs and bake 8-10 minutes. Decorate with royal icing.

Attend a Holiday Concert

We recently attended this year’s annual Christmas concert featuring the Mountain Madrigals, a holidays-only choir that sings songs of the season to packed audiences on weekends leading up to Christmas. We didn’t make it last year and I regretted it, so I made sure we got to the first performance before the momentum of December whisked away our chance. Their opening song was Silent Night, my favorite, and long before the final note was sung, I was crying like a baby. What is it about live performances that cuts to the emotional core? My husband even got “choked up” as he put it and I spotted the elderly woman in the pew behind me dabbing her eyes after the Gloria finale. I’m not going to over analyze this phenomenon, I just feel blessed that I was able to attend and be present as 22 voices sang songs, modern and ancient, celebrating the love and hope that Christmas represents.

Concerts like this one happen in every big city and small town during the holidays; usually they are free, like this one, make a donation if you are moved to do so, but attend one if you can. The joy of the holiday season can dissolve in endless to-do lists and rampant commercialism; a hometown concert is a great antidote and a way to tap the spirit of the season.

Ascots for All

Newly knitted for Christmas gifts

Yes, I go on knitting “kicks” where I knit multiples of the same pattern, especially at Christmas time. One year it was hats, another knitted animals, last year it was a Knitty pattern called calorimetry; this year it’s ascots. I have made these before and this year two of my nieces and my SIL have requested them for Christmas; I am happy to oblige. I love this pattern because it’s fun to knit, quick, cost effective, quirky, warm and leans preppy on the style spectrum. Here’s the link if you want to knit the Anthropologie-Inspired Bobble Cable Ascot by Kayla Kramer.


The first group of ascots



Warm & colorful

Make Your Own Simple Chocolate Advent Calendar

My kids have always loved their chocolate advent calendars. It’s one of our most treasured holiday traditions, one that began when I was a kid and my parents bought the colorful, chocolate-filled calendars at the German butcher shop. Now you can get them at import stores like World Market, but since we don’t live anywhere near one of those and the chocolate inside those mass marketed ones isn’t too tasty, we started making our own. My sister came up with the idea a few years ago and the tradition stuck. We usually make ours the day after Thanksgiving and everyone from my four year-old nephew to my 16-year-old daughter loves making these. Here’s how you can make your own:

Simple Chocolate Advent Calendar Supplies:

- Cardboard (I use old cereal or gift boxes)

- Rectangle of craft felt (we found some at Michael’s that had sticky backing, otherwise you will need glue)

- Scissors

- Hot glue gun and glue sticks

- Permanent marker for writing numbers on your chocolate wrappers

- CHOCOLATE (we used silver kisses, but you could use anything you like)

Using your felt rectangle as a size guide, cut out a simple tree shape with a trunk at the bottom, cut out a matching piece of cardboard. Peel off adhesive back or glue felt to cardboard, number chocolates 1-24 with permanent marker, use hot glue to adhere to felt. If you arrange your chocolates randomly, you still have the fun of finding the numbers.

Voila! Simple.