A Warming Trend

Hot Holiday Drinks

By Dianne Boate and Robert Meyer

As Autumn makes its solemn journey toward winter, warmth of home, hearth, and heart becomes a little more important. A small treasure chest of good recipes to serve yourself or to offer holiday guests can eliminate entertaining anxiety and give you much more time to consider gilding other lilies. Ms. Boate has quite a stash of cookbooks to rely on for interesting recipes, so the elegant hunt was on to find something new and exciting for you. But before we talk about the recipes, let us put forward a really simple idea for a mulled wine that you can have fun with, not overdo on expenses, and be inventive with.

Basic Mulled Wine is red wine placed in a cooking pot with a few cloves, cinnamon sticks, and perhaps a slice of fresh lemon or orange. The mixture is heated, simmered for a short while, and served. Glass cups with handles make a nice presentation.

Mulled Cider, from Sunset 1989 Recipe Annual, is a little more complicated:
2 quarts apple juice or apple cider
1 12-oz. can thawed frozen pineapple juice concentrate
2 medium oranges, cut into 1/2 inch slices, ends discarded
5 cinnamon sticks (each about 3 inches long)
12 whole cloves
12 whole allspice
3 quarts dry white jug wine
In an 8-10 quart pan, stir together juice, concentrate, orange slices, cinnamon sticks, cloves, and allspice. Cover and heat until simmering, about 15 minutes. Add wine. For an outdoor event, pour into heated thermos to transport. Serve in mugs. Makes 24 servings, 8-oz size.
Note: Preheat your thermos with hot water before adding hot beverages.

Drinking Exercise for Computers
Dianne’s research in her collection yielded some fabulous recipes in The Best of Gourmet, 1994.This bound book may be difficult to find, but with some computer sleuthing, we found the following recipes at www.epicurious.com, drinks search: Rusty Nail Milk Punch, Hot Apricot Buttered Rum, Warm Beaujolais Kir, Warm Bourbon Lemonade, Spiced Cranberry Rum Tea, Mulled Cider with Calvados, and Hot White Russian. Have fun.

Let Your Fingers Do the Wine Tasting
Just as some of us enjoy reading the dictionary, the Yellow Pages can be pretty entertaining, too. Check out pages 29-48 in the SBC SMART Yellow Pages. It is quite a surprising package of information about our local wine areas--history, maps, wine tasting tips, choosing glasses, evaluating wine quality, creating a wine cellar, and listings of Sonoma and Napa wineries.

One of the most useful “tools” you could have in your car is an amazing map from California State Automobile Association (AAA) entitled Wineries Guide Map-Northern California. It contains information about Napa and Sonoma Valleys, Mendocino and Lake counties, Geyserville, Healdsburg and Santa Rosa areas, plus the Northern Sierra Foothills. It includes maps, listings, an extensive glossary, wine resources, and annual events listed by month. Free to AAA members.You know who you are.