Our Favorite Champagne Cocktails

Champagne and sparkling wine has always been my favorite kind of wine - the drier the better. The little bubbles are like a party in a glass! Luckily, there are plenty of delicious sparkling wines in the $5-$10 range, and plenty of ways to dress up the wine if you want a special drink to ring in the New Year.

The best champagne cocktail I ever had was on a Paris riverboat cruise on the Seine, where the scenery slid by at dusk and lights came on all over the city. People picnicking on the sides of the river waved to us and the music on board seemed to swell just as the waiter brought me a flute glass of Kir Royale. Magical. 

Mimosas/Bellinis/Kir Royales

These champagne cocktails, popular for brunches, are made by pouring champagne over fruit juices or liqueurs in a champagne glass. If you pour carefully, the juices mix in the glass without popping the bubbles, and of course you want bubbles!

Mimosa: 3 oz of orange juice in 3 oz Champagne; garnish with an orange twist.

Bellini: 2 oz peach nectar, 1 tsp Grenadine, and 4 oz Champagne; garnish with a lemon twist.

Kir Royale: 1 oz creme de cassis (black currant liqueur) in 5 oz Champagne; garnish with a cherry.

C and C: 2 oz Chambord (raspberry liqueur) in 4 oz Champagne; garnish with a lemon twist.

  

 Classic Champagne Cocktail

1 sugar cube

3 drops Angostura bitters

6 oz champagne

Put the sugar cube in the bottom of the glass and drop the bitters onto it. Fill the glass with champagne. Don't stir - allow the sugar cube to melt as you drink it.

Black Velvet

4 oz. Guiness or other stout beer

4 oz Champagne

Pour the stout into a highball or Collins glass. Slowly pour the champagne over the beer, then serve.

Barbotage

1 oz cognac

1 oz Grand Marnier (orange liqueur)

4 oz Champagne

Stir together the Cognac and Grand Marnier, then pour into a flute glass. Slowly add the champagne. Caution: this is a powerful cocktail. We're not responsible for who you kiss at midnight!

Champagne Julep

6 mint leaves (we like peppermint for this one)

1 tsp superfine sugar

2 oz bourbon

4 oz Champagne

Put the leaves in a bowl or mixing glass and sprinkle with the sugar and a few drops of water. Crush the mint leaves well (this is called "muddling"). Stir the bourbon into the mint, then strain into a highball or Collins glass. Add ice cubes and champagne, and garnish with a mint leaf.

P.S. Ever wonder about the difference between Champagne and sparkling wines? Any wine could be carbonated, but Champagnes must be made in a specific way in the Champagne region of France to be labelled "Champagne". We think they're delightful either way.

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Apple Butter Lattice Coffee Cake

I think this is the time of the year when cinnamon and apples and pastry fresh out of the oven tastes especially good. We made this lattice coffee cake with apple butter I canned this summer, and it was perfect for Christmas brunch. It's easy enough to make for any breakfast when you've got the time to sit down together and enjoy the morning.

The inspiration for this pastry came from Farm Bell Recipes, which is a fun site full of delicious cooking ideas.

Ingredients

2 cups flour
1 1/2 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp salt
1 tablespoon sugar
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 stick butter (4 tbsp)
3/4 cup milk
1 1/2 cups apple butter (we're partial to our Crock Pot Apple Butter recipe)

Powdered Sugar Frosting

1/3 cup powdered sugar
2 tbsp vanilla
2 tbsp milk

Directions

Stir together dry ingredients. With a pastry cutter or fork, cut in cream cheese and butter until crumbly and beginning to stick together. Stir in the milk. With your hands, knead the dough. It will be a little dry, but if it is too dry to stick together, add a little more milk.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Roll out the dough on a floured surface, and shape into a 12x8 rectangle. Place in a greased cookie sheet. Spread the apple butter down the middle of the dough, leaving at least 2 inches on the long sides and a 1 inch margin on the short sides.

Make diagonal

Criss-cross cut strips of dough over the top and pinch ends to seal. Bake in a 375-degree oven for 25 minutes or till nicely browned on top.

Stir together powdered sugar and vanilla, then gradually add milk until the frosting is liquidy enough to drizzle. Using a fork, dribble the frosting back and forth across the warm bread.

Makes 1 loaf.

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Shiner Holiday Cheer Beer

Shiner Holiday Cheer, from the Spoetzl Brewery in Texas, is called an "Old World Dunkelweizen" ale. Not sure what that means for average beer drinkers? This means that the Holiday Cheer beer is medium brown wheat beer with a thick creamy head. It's malty, which means it has a smooth coffee-like taste with less bitterness than some dark beers.

Lots of breweries make a Christmas brew with spices like nutmeg, cinnamon, or cloves, and Dunkelweizen beers usually have notes of banana and cloves. But Shiner Holiday Cheer went in a traditionally Southern direction with Texas peaches and roasted pecans. All of this together means a dark, satisfying wheat ale with interesting fresh fruit notes and a nutty finish.

Another reason to like Shiner Holiday Cheer? The hip retro-50s plaid and snowflake bottle and carton design. You don't even need a glass, the bottle is already decorated for Christmas!

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Pork Tamales

Tamales are one of the first holiday foods created in the Americas. Ancient Incas, Mayans and Aztecs had their own versions of meats, spices, herbs, seeds, and beans wrapped in corn dough and steamed in banana leaves or corn husks. There are over 40 types of tamales made in Latin America; some are only made on special occasions, while others are everyday staple foods.

When I lived with a Mexican family, they usually made these pork tamales (and sweet pink ones with red raisins) for Christmas dinner. Wrapping these bundles takes a bit of skill and time, but all the women would crowd into a kitchen, turn up the music, and laugh and talk their way through a pile of these goodies.

Memories like these are the best parts of a holiday tradition, don't you think? Even though tamales take time, the work seems like nothing when you're doing it with people you love.

Unwrapping a steaming hot, delicately crumbling tamal filled with smoky pepper-simmered pork is like opening a little Christmas present. These are fantastic with the mild pepper sauce and a dab of sour cream.

Did you know? One bundle is called a tamal; the plural is tamales.

By the way, you can make the filling and dough days ahead of time and then wrap them up whenever you're ready. Get the whole family involved and it might become one of your family traditions, too!

Ingredients

50 corn husks, about 8 inches long with no rips or gaps; in specialty stores, these are sometimes labeled hojas de milpa.

Filling

1 lb boneless pork, cut into cubes
4 cloves garlic, smashed
1 tbsp ground black pepper
2 tsp sea salt
4 ancho chiles
2 tsp flour
2 tsp oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp ground cumin

Tamale Dough (Masa Harina Dough)

Note: you can often find tubs or bundles of pre-made Masa dough in the refrigerated cases at the grocery store. Read the label for the ingredients; many brands use only water and corn processed with lime. If it does, be sure to beat each cup of dough with salt and 1/3 cup of shortening to reach the proper consistency.

4 cups corn flour (masa harina)
1 tablespoon salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/3 cups solid vegetable shortening (or lard, if you prefer)
4 cups reserved broth from cooking the pork (or more, if the dough is too dry)

Directions

Soak the corn husks for several hours; it helps if you weight them down with something so they are completely submerged and get pliable.

In a medium pot, cover the pork, pepper, salt, and garlic with 4 cups of water. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer for 45 minutes to one hour, until very tender. Allow to cool, then skim off the fat and drain the pork. Reserve the cooking broth and add additional water to equal 5 cups of liquid.

Seed the chiles and tear them into pieces. Place them into the blender or food processor with 1 cup of the pork broth, heated to boiling. Let soften 15 minutes then puree the chiles.

Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Brown the flour in the oil, then stir in the garlic, oregano, and cumin. Pour in the chile mixture and one more cup of the pork broth and whisk until smooth and thickened.

Reserve half the sauce in a separate covered container. Shred the pork into the remaining mixture, and allow to simmer on low heat for 20 minutes.

Drain the corn husks and towel off the water. If you have any raggedy-looking ones, peel them lengthwise into strips to tie up the tamales. You can also use kitchen string, which is a little easier to use, in my opinion!

Fill a large steaming pot with enough water to cover the bottom, but not touch the steaming basket. We use our pasta pot to steam tamales. We also add a clean penny to the bottom of the pan. As long as the water is boiling in the pot, we hear the penny rattling and know there's enough water for steaming. Place one or two corn husks on the bottom of the steamer basket.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the masa harina, salt, and baking powder. Beat in 4 cups of pork broth until you have a moist batter. Add the shortening and beat until the dough is fluffy and thick. A traditional way to test if your dough is the right consistency is to float a little ball in a glass of cold water. If it sinks, it needs more beating, and shortening. If it dissolves, it needs more flour and shortening. If it floats, it's just right.

Open up one corn husk with the narrow end toward your wrist. Spread about 1 tablespoon of the dough over half the husk, leaving a generous margin on each side. Arrange 1 tablespoon of pork filling down the center of the dough, then bring up the long sides of the husk and fold one over the other. Be sure the dough completely encircles the filling.

Fold up the pointed end of the husk so that it's even with the top of the leaf, then tie it in the middle or towards the top.

Stand up the tamales in the steamer basket, and top with another two corn husks. Cover with a tight lid and bring to a boil. Don't open the steamer unless you need to add more water. Steam the tamales for 1 hour, then take one out and try to open it. The tamales are done when they separate easily from the husks.

Serve the tamales hot with the reserved chile sauce and sour cream.

If you have leftovers, they freeze really well in their husks and you can heat them up in the microwave or re-steam them.

Makes 30-40 tamales.

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German Potato Pancakes (Kartoffelpuffer)

Thanks to Lori Stalteri for taking this photo for me.

I have to be honest with you: I don't like some of the traditional German potato pancakes. My grandma (God rest her merry soul) and many before her made them with raw grated potatoes that somehow turned a little gray and gooey in the middle. It just wasn't appetizing or flavorful enough for me.

But I have tasted superb ones in German restaurants like the Brauhaus in Chicago and Mader's Restaurant in Milwaukee, and a cute little local place called The Swedish Cafe. If I like fried potatoes, onions, sour cream and applesauce, surely there must be a way to combine this in a way I enjoy.

Every Christmas, we have a tradition of meeting my daughter and her boyfriend in Daley Plaza for Chicago's Christkindlmarket, and we always share a big plate of pancakes with sour cream and applesauce on the side, and mugs of beer and mulled wine. After our annual trip last week, I was craving them again.

Joe experimented until he came up with the most marvelous potato pancakes I've ever tasted. His trick is to cook the potatoes slightly before draining and frying, and he added the traditional German flavorings of lemon, caraway, and onion to the basic recipe. Next summer, we're going to try these with fresh zucchini, too.

These are filling enough for a whole meal, which is what I ate for dinner that night, along with a bowl of organic applesauce I canned this summer. Joe, being a meat and potatoes man, added some leftover pork carnitas to his pancake plate.

Ingredients

2 lbs (about 6 cups) shredded russet potatoes (we shredded them with the skin on for more fiber & flavor)
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and minced
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp ground caraway seed
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 tsp ground pepper
2 tsp salt
2 eggs or 1/2 cup egg substitute
1/4 cup vegetable oil (for frying)

Directions

After shredding the potatoes, put them in a colander and rinse them until the water runs clear, to remove some of the white or pinkish starch that will prevent them from crisping. Place potatoes in a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring it to a boil, cover, and simmer 5-10 minutes, until slightly tender. Drain the potatoes in a colander and allow them to cool.

Place 1/4 of the potatoes into a clean, absorbent dish towel, roll up the towel, and wring out all of the excess water into the sink (this ensures the pancakes will not be gummy or doughy). Place the dried potatoes into a large mixing bowl and repeat with the remainder of the potatoes.

Stir in all the rest of the ingredients, except the oil. Heat a large frying pan, then add 1/2 of the oil and spread it around the pan. Scoop out 1/4 cupfuls of the potato mixture and place it in the pan. Use a spatula to press it into a pancake shape. Cook each pancake for 2-3 minutes on each side, until golden brown and cooked through. Use more oil as the pan becomes dry.

As the pancakes are cooked, place them in a single layer on paper towels and keep them on a warm platter in the oven until they're all done.

Makes about 25 1/4-cup pancakes.

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