Winter Comfort Foods

On Friday, I made Hot Buttered Rum mix. If you've never had it, it's a wonderful hot drink with rum, perfect for cold winter nights.  The mix is made from butter, brown sugar, confectioner's sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla ice cream.  It's all blended together, then left in the freezer to be scooped out into mugs.  Then, rum is added to the mug, and it's topped off with boiling water, which turns it all into a magical drink.  Between Hot Buttered Rums and Eggnog Rum drinks, it's no wonder I have to wear my eggnog pants during the holiday season.

On Saturday, I revisited the Asian wing recipe, this time doubling the Thai hot sauce.  They rock.  That recipe is a keeper.

On Sunday, I had a hankering for something gamey, so I set out to find a local butcher who specializes in game.  I found a butcher, and he carries EVERYTHING.  He had Venison, Elk, Antelope, Turtle, Rattlesnake, Squab, Quail, Goose, Duck, Buffalo, Ostrich, and I'm sure other stuff I already forgot about.  One of the drawbacks is that everything is frozen, so he won't be my favorite butcher, but at least I have a source for braising meats.  It smelled like death in there. I wanted to tell him that if he would bleach the floors now and then, it wouldn't smell like the butcher shop that it was. He kind of scared me, though. Nothing was priced, so I had to look up items on an inventory list and try to guess, which is not great for anyone on a budget. I picked up a pound and a half of venison flank, and a pound of Elk stew meat.  I'll have to find good recipes to highlight the flavor of each.  Maybe Elk pot pie?

But, since the meat was frozen, I decided to give into my craving of lamb when I found fresh lamb from New Zealand at Albertson's.  I sweated onion and celery in a dutch oven, then I added the lamb, which was cut into cubes.  I browned it until it was all happy and roasted on the outside, then I deglazed the pan with gin.  (Juniper berries are very complementary to lamb; in the absence of the actual berries, you can substitute gin.)  The smell was heavenly. The gin reduced almost immediately, then I added crushed tomatoes, red wine, and beef broth, and left it to simmer for a few hours.  While that was braising, I roasted a head of garlic for roasted garlic mashed potatoes, toasted fresh bread cubes for stuffing, and sauteed the onion, celery and garlic for the stuffing.  (Yeah, I know, it SO doesn't go with stewed lamb, but I was craving it.)  Then I made a batch of spiced pumpkin cookies with icing. While those were cooling, I made the mashed potatoes, braised carrots in butter, and threw together the stuffing, then baked it.  I served it all with hot buttered rums, with spiced pumpkin cookies for dessert. The cookies were so soft and spicy and pumpkiny, with just the right amount of sweetness from the icing.

So, I didn't get my outside Christmas lights up, but the tree is decorated, and I gave in to my need to cook, so it was a pretty satisfying weekend.  I will try to bake more next weekend; I want to make Chocolate Crinkles, Snickerdoodles, and a Buche de Noel for Christmas.