Eggnog

My mom has been making homemade eggnog every Christmas for years. This year I tried making it without dairy, and it is delicious. And the best part, for me at least, is, unlike most other homemade eggnog recipes, this one does not have a final product with raw eggs.

Ingredients:
6 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 salt
4 cups milk, divided (almond, rice, soy, or if you aren't allergic, cow, I am only allergic to pasturized/cooked dairy, so I used half raw milk)
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups dairy-free whipped topping (I used cream off our milk...mmmm)

Instructions:
In medium pot whisk eggs, sugar, and salt together.

Add 2 cups of milk, while stirring.

Cook on low heat until 160-170 degrees, usually 30-35 minutes. You need to stir the entire time, and if you start getting custardy stuff on the bottom, well that's just not good. :)

(Yes, flash was used for this picture. I digress.)

When your eggnog reaches the correct temperature, immediately remove from heat, and pour into seperate container and place in an ice bath. The idea is to get it cold as quickly as possible, because if it keeps cooking you have egg custard instead of eggnog. I think. :)

Add vanilla and remaining 2 cups of milk (since you don't cook it after this, here is where I used raw milk).

Strain into a pitcher. You do this to remove any chunks of custardy stuff you might have, because that is not something you want in your eggnog! 

You should have just under 1.5 quarts...

Next add your whipped topping, I didn't measure mine, and I had more than I needed. So in the end I have some really creamy eggnog. Yum. :D

Stir very well before serving, and serve quickly as the cream tends to seperate really fast. Like 30 seconds fast. Sprinkle with nutmeg before you drink it.

 This picture looks a little odd...

Can you see the seperated cream??? That happened before I could get the nutmeg out of the cabinet, and onto the eggnog. 

I hope you all enjoy your eggnog!

-Emily

All pictures courtesy of EMPhotography (in case you didn't know, that is me. Haha)

Coming Soon!

Here are a few sneak previews from some posts I have been working on! :)

-Emily

Decadent Truffle Bottom Chocolate Cream Pie

Don't you love the name? :) I found this recipe on a bag of chocolate chips, looked it up online because the instructions said to add the milk, but there was no milk in the ingredients! Well, in the end, I changed it to dairy-free, and my whole family thinks it is good. Yay!

1. Put goats milk and marshmallows in microwave-safe bowl.

2. Microwave for one minute on high.

3&4. Add chocolate chips and stir until smooth. Microwave 30 more seconds if necessary.

5. Pour 1 cup of marshmallow mixture into graham cracker crust and smooth out, set remaining aside to cool to room temperature.

6. Cover and refrigerate 4 hours or until firm.

7. In medium bowl whip your whipped topping replacer, I used rich's rich-whip.

8. Fold remaining chocolate mixture into whipped topping. 

9. Pour on top of marshmellow mixture in pie crust.

10. Refridgerate overnight or until eaten. 

***Optional: Serve with whipped topping and/or chocolate curls on top.***

Ingredients:

• 1 8-9in. graham cracker pie crust
• 2 cups miniature marshmallows or 20 large marshmallows
• 1/2 cup goat milk
• 2 cups chocolate chips
• 1 container of rich's rich whip
• whipped topping (optional)
• Chocolate curls (optional)

Graham Cracker Crust

Ingredients:
6 Tablespoons Earth Balance Buttery Spread, melted
1 1/2 cups crushed graham crackers (usually one package)
1/3 cup sugar

Mix ingredients together, press into 8 or 9 inch pie plate. Bake at 350 for 8 minutes.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today our snack was cookies. They were delicious. :) Mine turned out really, really, tall. Like over an inch tall! I can only guess that it's because the dough was completely room temperature. (That's because it took me about two hours to make the cookies, first I had to stop to feed people lunch, then I stopped again to eat, then I stopped to do kitchen. So in the end, it took forever.) But their cookies weren't as tall as mine. Their cookies looked like hats, flat around the edges, and a hump in the middle. Who knows. :)
Anywho...to the recipe:

Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 cup dairy free butter replacement. (I used Earth Balance again, but don't use the whole 3/4 cup or else you will have way greasy cookies, and the taste is a little overpowering.)

1 1/4 cup brown sugar

1 Tablespoon vanilla (yes, that says tablespoon)

1 egg or 1 egg worth of egg replacer. (I don't know what brand we use, but it's dairy free, naturally)

2 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

teeny, tiny bit of salt

2 cups chocolate chips (that's how my sis makes cookies, equal amounts of chocolate and flour, but I have found when I use Earth Balance, that many chocolate chips don't stick in the dough, so just add them until they stop staying in your dough :)

 

Here are the instructions, and captions for the pictures.
Cream sugar, spread, and vanilla.
Add egg.
Add flour, salt, and baking soda.
(Next add chocolate chips, I forgot to get that picture)
Bake at 350 F. for 8-10 minutes, DO NOT overcook! (Believe it or not, the ones in the oven are done...they will be really soft when they come out, but harden up a little when they cool off.)
The rest of the pictures are just of cookies. 
If you try this recipe, I hope you enjoy it! :)

Hwe Che

Hwe Che is a popular Korean drink, and last week in Geography we learned about North Korea.
Last night we made it, and it's a weird combination, I personally would only mix watermelon and soda in a blender, to make it slushy-like, with ice, of course!

Diced watermelon.

Ginger Ale....we used Twist Up (see picture???)                                                         

Spoon watermelon into glasses.

Sprinkle with sugar.

 Add soda.

And tada! There you have your very own Hwe Che!

Beautiful Brownies!

Okay, so maybe they're not beautiful, but they sure are good! :)


I used the recipe off the back of Rapunzel Rapadura Cane Sugar...I changed it to be un-healthy...a switch from normal, but who cares? Besides, the one on their website is way less healthy than on the actually bag.


Preheat oven to 350. (I decided not to cook them at 375 seeing as my pan is dark...) 

          

                         

In medium bowl, melt one stick of Earth Balance Natural Vegan Buttery Sticks.

                Add one cup sugar.

                                                                                  

     

Add 1/2 cup cocoa powder.

1/4 teaspoon salt.

1 teaspoon vanilla.

 Stir well. (it was really gritty, but after I added the eggs, it was really smooth. :)

Add 2 beaten eggs.

See how smooth it is??? 

 Stir in 1 cup flour. (It about turned to dough!)

 Do NOT lick the whisk, no matter how tempting, or else you might get food poisoning from the eggs. (yeah, right!)

Stir in 1/2 cup heavenly chocolate. (my mom buys Eileen's something or another from piggly wiggly, Ghiradeli Semi-Sweet are also dairy free.)

 Dump in greased 8x8 in. pan, smooth out. 

Cook at 350 for 20-25 minutes, or until cooked to your liking. Be sure to make a big hole in the middle when you check them, so you get lots of tastes of not-quite-cooked-brownie-batter. =)

Ingredients:
1 stick of dairy-free butter replacement. (1/2 cup)
1 cup sugar. 
1/2 cup cocoa powder.
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (Did I mention I LOVE vanilla??? ;)
1/4 teaspoon salt.
2 eggs, beaten.
1 cup flour.
1/2 cup dairy-free chocolate chips.


In medium bowl stir together first 5 ingredients. Add eggs, stir well. Add flour, stir well. Add chocolate chips, stir well. 
Pour batter (will be really thick) into greased 8x8 in. pan. Cook at 350 for 20-25 minutes until gooey in middle or desired consistency. 
Enjoy!!! =)








While making these brownies, I had the grand idea of making mocha brownies. YUMMY!!! =) I think I will try to convince my mom to let me make some for youth group next Sunday...haha, not sure she'll go for that! First I have to find a good recipe (I'm sure someone else has thought of this already) or making one up myself. So stay tuned!!! :)

French Toast

This is a really good french toast. The ingredients don't have to be exact so the weird amounts don't really matter. :)

3 1/4 Tablespoons flour (just approximate the 1/4)
1/3 cup original rice, soy, OR almond milk
a TINY bit of salt
heaping 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
skimpy 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 Tablespoon brown sugar
3 slices of dairy free bread

In small mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, salt, and cinnamon.

Slowly whisk in milk.

Add egg and vanilla extract.














Mix well.

Dip bread in mixture. Cook over medium low heat on a cast iron pan.

Serve with maple syrup.


This recipe is originally from allrecipes I just made a smaller batch, and swapped out some ingredients.