Last Minute Holiday Recipes

Is it just me or did this year fly by? I just can't believe that Christmas is less than a week away! As you finalize your dishes for your holiday table, I would like to share a couple that I created for Thanksgiving that would translate well for events through the rest of the month! The Apple Cider Sangria is a great drink for a crowd and doesn't involve too many specialty (or unnaturally flavored) ingredients like many of the other recipes I encountered. The Pumpkin Cornbread Stuffing Bites were just the right about of sweet and savory to accompany a traditional or non-traditional holiday meal. They would also be great on a appetizer buffet! Please excuse the photos as always. These items are much more beautiful in real life! Enjoy!

Apple Cider Sangria

6 cups Trader Joe’s Pear Cinnamon Cider (If you can't find this particular cider, I would recommend adding some pear juice to your traditional cider as well as some cinnamon. Mix to taste.)

1 cup Captain Morgan’s Spiced Rum

1/2 cup Patron Citronage (or another orange flavored liquor)

2 apples (I used Sweet Tango), chopped

2 Bosc pears, chopped

1 orange, chopped

1 bottle Sauvignon Blanc

1. In a large bowl sealable bowl, combine the cider, rum, and Citronage.

2. Add chopped fruit to cider and alcohol mixture. Stir well.

3. Seal and refrigerate for at least 3 hours though overnight is recommended.

4. Prior to serving, mix in 1 bottle of Sauvignon Blanc.

5. Serve in a punchbowl or a pitcher. Make sure each glass gets some of the delicious fruit in it!

Pumpkin Cornbread Stuffing Bites

4 cups Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Cornbread Croutons (Can't find these croutons? You can try regular cornbread croutons with some pumpkin pie spice.)

4 slices of bacon, chopped/crumbled (more if you want to amp up the bacon flavor, this can also be left out to make it vegetarian)

½ cup chopped shallots

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, browned

2 cups chicken broth (vegetable broth can be substituted, if you prefer a slightly more moist stuffing, you may want to consider adding another 1/2 cup broth)

¼ cup fresh sage, chopped

1. Pre-heat the oven 350.

2. Brown the unsalted butter in a 12 inch skillet (directions for creating browned butter can be found online).

3. As the butter starts to foam and brown, add the shallots so that as the butter finishes the shallots will get a quick saute.

4. Add the crumbled bacon, sage and broth. Heat to boiling.

5. Remove from heat and fold in the croutons and mix well.
6. Spray mini muffin tins with cooking spray.
7. Make small balls out of the stuffing mix and place one into each slot in the mini muffin tin.
8. Bake for 20-25 minutes until tops are crispy and the bites are set. This made exactly 2 dozen bites!

Notes: I prepped the stuffing mix earlier in the day and didn't bake for several hours and had no problems. They were a little crumbly but that didn't bother me. As mentioned above, you may wish to include a little more liquid of some egg to help bind it.

Turkey Day Cocktails

Last week I shared with you a couple fun ideas for Thanksgiving tablescapes using the same products on each table. As promised, I am pleased to share some delicious cocktails to make your Thanksgiving more festive! The two recipes I am sharing today are for Apple Cider Margaritas and Lingonberry Royales. Both are drinks I have successfully served at previous Thanksgivings. The Lingonberry Royale has been a recurring Thanksgiving drink whereas the Apple Cider Margarita was inspired by my initial discovery of Pinterest!

Apple Cider Margaritas
This recipe is modified from the recipe on How Sweet it Is. Photo credit also goes to this site as I was too busy drinking margaritas to take a photo! I changed this recipe due to cost of ingredients as well as simplicity in serving for a large crowd. The margaritas in the original recipe would need to be individually made and at an event with over 20 people that was not realistic. The portions below are for one drink so multiple for the quantity of drinks/size of pitcher.

1 ounce Citronge
1 ounce gold tequila
5-6 ounces apple cider (I used both Trader Joe's Spiced Cider and their Pear Cinnamon Cider and thought both were great.)
orange wedges
sugar (coarse preferred)
cinnamon
ice

1. Mix Citronage, tequila and cider together in a pitcher. I recommend having the cider chilled in advance.

2. Mix sugar and cinnamon together and place on a saucer. This will be used to rim the glasses. I did a 50/50 mixture.

3. Take a glass and rub the lip with an orange wedge. Dip the glass lip into the cinnamon sugar mixture. Squeeze the remaining juice from the orange into the glass and toss the wedge into the bottom of the glass.

4. Fill the glass with ice and the tequila mixture. Enjoy!

Lingonberry Royale
This is a take on the classic Kir Royale. If you have never tasted a lingonberry before, I like to say that they taste like a cranberry and a raspberry had a baby but in reality it is probably more like a tiny cranberry. Sounds perfect for Thanksgiving doesn't it!?!? I get the lingonberry concentrate from IKEA however if you don't have an IKEA handy you can order from Amazon. I think an unsweetened cranberry juice (or at least a naturally sweetened - NOT cranberry juice cocktail) could probably work in a pinch as well.

lingonberry drink concentrate
water
sparkling wine

1. Mix 1x lingonberry drink concentrate to 2x water. Keep in mind that you will end up with 3x the amount of lingonberry so choose your proportions carefully. The water is key in order for the concentrate to mix with the sparkling wine. Otherwise it is too heavy and does not mix well.

2. Place lingonberry mixture in a champagne flute (to taste) and top with sparkling wine. Serve!

 

NOTE: Not an actual photo of a Lingonberry Royale however a close approximation.

 

 

What will you be serving with your Thanksgiving dinner? Do you have a favorite seasonal cocktail?