No holiday season is complete without Eggnog in our house! Starting at thanksgiving I get cravings for it. I usually like mine nonalcoholic but on a cold winters day some spiked eggnog can totally warm your bones!

Normally I’ll just buy the nonalcoholic stuff from the grocery store but I am also a sucker for making stuff from scratch. Here is my recipe to make Eggnog from scratch if you are feeling up to it:

Eggnog Recipe

I found via this source.

• 4 egg yolks
• 1/3 cup sugar, plus 1 tablespoon
• 1 pint whole milk
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 3 ounces bourbon
• 1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 4 egg whites

First, beat the egg yolks until they lighten in color. Gradually add the 1/3 cup sugar and continue to beat until it is completely dissolved. Add the milk, cream, bourbon and nutmeg and stir to combine.

In a separate bowl take the egg whites and beat till soft peaks form. Gradually add the 1 tablespoon of sugar and continue to beat until stiff peaks form.

Whisk the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture. Chill and serve.

For cooked eggnog, follow this procedure: Beat the egg yolks until they lighten in color. Gradually add the 1/3 cup sugar and continue to beat until it is completely dissolved. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan, over high heat, combine the milk, heavy cream and nutmeg and bring just to a boil, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and gradually temper the hot mixture into the egg yolk and sugar mixture. Then return everything to the pot and cook until the mixture reaches 160 degrees F. Remove from the heat, stir in the bourbon, pour into a medium mixing bowl, and set in the refrigerator to chill.

In a separate medium mixing bowl, beat the egg whites to soft peaks. Gradually add the 1 tablespoon of sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. Whisk the egg whites into the chilled egg yolk mixture.

Hot Toddy Drink Recipe

This is a drink recipe perfect for my mother and mother in law. You see my mom loves brandy and my MIL loves tea. A hot toddy combines both brandy and tea to make a warm, festive drink. To make this drink you’ll need:

• 1 tbsp honey
• 3/4 glass tea (fruit flavored tea is good)
• 2 shots brandy (fruit flavored brandy is my choice)
• 1 slice lemon

To whip up the drink simply brew tea and fill a tall glass 3/4 full. Mix in honey and brandy shots. Then garnish with a lemon slice and enjoy! Super easy to make and will be sure to warm your bones in no time.

What are your favorite drinks of the season?

For more drinks of the season check out these posts: More Drinks of the Season Recipes

The post Winter weather drink recipes favorites: Hot Toddy & Egg Nog appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

Anyway, I baked him an Orange Crush Cake per his request. Last year he got a Red Velvet Cake, some of you might remember this. Now I love making pretty treats or trying new recipes which is why I have him pick his cake every year. Gets him what he wants (since my tastes for cake are rather boring) and it challenges me…

I looked online and found several recipes for the cake then I compared all the differences and he choose the one he thought was the most like what he was hoping for. It was this one, the one that calls for jello mix, pudding mix and crush soda.

Basically you just pick a cake flavor you want. It can be orange, vanilla or whatever. He thought the box of lemon cake mix we already had would be fun to use. Then you bake the cake up and as soon as it comes out of the oven you poke holes in it. This is a messy cake so it is best to do it in a 13×9 inch pan and to plan serving it in the pan it is baked in. Trust me on this, it is way easier that way and you’ll have better luck keeping the yummy goodness on the cake!

Anyway, once you poke holes in the warm cake you pour a warm gelatin/ orange crush mixture over the top of the cake. It soaks in to the holes you just made then you cram the cake pan in the fridge to chill and get all happy.

Another unique thing about this recipe is the frosting, it ain’t your regular sugary frosting! You take a package of vanilla pudding mix, make it as directed and then you fold in half a tub of whipped topping (cool whip). It sounds strange and somewhat questionable but it is heavenly goodness!

Here is a cut and paste of the recipe just in case the web address changes or the link breaks:

1 c. Orange Crush soda
1 sm. pkg. orange Jello
1 sm. pkg. vanilla instant pudding
1 orange cake mix
1 (4 oz.) carton Cool Whip

Bake cake as directed on the package in 9″x13″ pan. As soon as it is out of the oven, poke holes in it with a fork and pour over the following: 1 package orange Jello dissolved in 1 cup boiling water, add 1 cup Orange Crush soda, and stir well. Chill 9″x13″ pan for 1 hour. Mix pudding as directed on package. Fold in the Cool Whip and frost the chilled cake. Refrigerate 2 hours. Keep covered, serve and enjoy.

He was very happy with the cake and we both think it is quite th refreshing treat. Totally glad we tried the recipe out and will be making this one again. Yummy!

The post N's Orange Crush Birthday Cake: shared with you! appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

I searched high and low for a good from scratch pot pie recipe and kept coming across the call for “crescent rolls” as the “pie crust”. To me from scratch is not buying premade crap and throwing it together guys. I mean what are people going to do if the store runs out of crescent rolls for any extended amount of time?

Anyway, I finally found a recipe I thought sounded good and boy was I right, it was great! I did modify it a bit because it was way to sticky and wet when made as directed. If you are interested here is the recipe.

Pie Crust Recipe

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/4 cup lard
• 1/3 cup water

Mix the flour and the salt in a large bowl. Add the butter or margarine and lard; mix with hands until crumb like texture is achieved. Mix in the water. Here, I came to the consensus that the dough was way to wet so I fixed it by adding in one tablespoon at a time of flour until it balled up in the mixer and looked like dough again. Then you pat it into a ball, and wrap in wax paper. Refrigerate for at least two hours.

Yesterday while the pie was a cooking we busted out the old school Nintendo that I got as a birthday present a few years back. I know it is ancient but I love it some much, common you know you do too! Oh, but I still do suck at it…

Other than Nintendo and pie crusts we are also worried about our first ice storm! Word is we are supposed to get a pretty bad one this whole week and we could be without power for a few days…Now what are you supposed to do to prepare for an ice storm? I have no freaking clue!

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If you like trying new recipes or want to share some of your favorite recipes you might consider joining keyingredient.com, they have lots of cool features!

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The theme of this years E-book is centered around how to plan the best cookie swap ever.
Each participating vendor was asked to share a tried and true family cookie recipe and or one of their family traditions. This years e-book is set up as follows: You will find a listing of all of the vendor’s recipes and/or holiday tradition followed by their special offer with a link that is click-able to their website.

The resource page is full of useful links to websites such and secrets to making the perfect cookies, fantastic photos of a cookie swap, and party games and icebreakers just to name a few of the links. You will find at the end of the E-book an invitation, recipe cards, a cookie swap to do list, cookie swap planner etc all as a gift for you. You may print these out to use for your own cookie swap.

Click Banner To Download The FREE E-book

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