Friday, December 24, 2010

Christmas Eve Update

The du Noel has been Buched, the wine is mulled, the nuts are spiced and soon the chicken will be parmesaned, the shrimp scampied, and the Eve-ing underway.  Our regular Christmas guests had to bail with the crud.  But we will make merry on our own.  The Hippocras is one of my favorite holiday drinks - just enough to get all warm and merry.  Just wish I had some medieval-type goblets!

HIPPOCRAS - warm spiced wine

2 quarts of good red wine
1T. ginger
2T. cinnamon (use less!!)
1/2t. nutmeg
6-7 whole peppercorns
9-10 whole cloves
1/2t. rosemary
1 cup sugar

Pour wine into a large glass jar.  Add ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  With a pestle or the edge of a heavy fry pan, crush peppercorns, cloves, and rosemary together.  Add these and the sugar to the wine.  Stir well.  Cover and let stand at least 12 hours - stir once during that time.  We put ours in the mudroom where it's cooler.  Strain well and heat on low or in a crock pot.

5 comments:

Mauigirl said...

Mmmm, sounds good. I just completed drinking a well-spiked eggnog.

Anonymous said...

That sounds good. On the fat chance that there was any left over, I'd even be tempted to reduce it to a syrup and glaze some lamb chops with it. Merry Christmas!

Unknown said...

I've never had that before, can you come down to FL and make it?
Merry Christmas dear Margaret!!!

lisahgolden said...

MMMMmmmmulled wine!

I hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday, my friend.

SkylersDad said...

Sounds great! And Merry Christmas, from me, and from another Minn friend:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62RwHHFuf14&feature=youtube_gdata_player