So Mixology Monday definitely caught me off-guard this month.? Fortunately for me, I had something up my sleeve purely by coincidence.

You see, one of our neighbors had a Christmas party on Saturday night.? When we were talking about he expressed interest in having eggnog.? None of us had really had eggnog before and his plan to buy some from the store and spike it.

Whoa whoa whoa, I said.? Give me a chance first.

I’d seen Jeffrey Morgenthaler’s recipe for eggnog and decided to give it a shot.? I went out to the store and bought all the stuff I didn’t have so that I could make up a batch: mostly, I needed whole milk, heavy cream, and fresh nutmeg.? Spice connection is a GO!? (Huzzah.? Nutmeg.)

I grabbed the sugar, Foursquare spiced rum – which I’d never opened, and some Chalfonte cognac.? I don’t have a traditional blender but I did have a stick blender.

Now I’m going to tell you something – this recipe is a pain in the butt to make by yourself with a stick blender!? I was smart enough to grate the nutmeg ahead of time, as well as to portion out all of the other ingredients involved.

When I was done blending everything I was tempted to try it right away.? Two reasons came up that kept me from drinking it: a) I wanted to let it cool first and b) I fell asleep.

For whatever reason I was busy the next night.? So it was yet another night before I could take a taste.

The eggnog kept torturing me and I finally got to take a taste.? I shook up the concoction, poured it into a glass, and topped it with a bit of fresh grated nutmeg.

Sip.

Wow.

I mean – great googly moogly!? This was some awesome stuff.? It reminded me in a lot of ways of a vanilla milkshake, though without an obvious vanilla taste (I did, however, strongly consider adding vanilla extract to the recipe).? At the same time, it wasn’t heavy while being as amazingly rich as it was.? Telling my friends who were dietitians what was in it was quite amusing – and one of them still slugged back a full cup of it!

It ends up for the party I stocked up to make a bunch of it.? My friend suggested how much we should make – I ended up buying two fifths of Sailor Jerry’s and two of St. Remy XO brandy, a gallon of whole milk, six pints of heavy cream, and four dozen eggs.

Uh…yeah.? We didn’t make that much.? We went through a dozen eggs, so we made six “batches”.

Still, everyone who tried it – from seasoned drinkers to lightweights – loved it.

This is the Scofflaw’s Den, though, and to make up for lack of a drink recipe from Marshall I figure I should post another one.

At the same neighbor’s house a couple of weeks before my brother and I had visited to watch the Redskins play – uh – somebody.? (Hey, I’m a Steelers fan.)? The neighbor asked that I bring a “tasty beverage”.

Initially I hadn’t really planned on anything but while I was at the store I had an idea.? I picked up some fresh apple cider and went home.?? While I was at home I grabbed a bottle of Laird’s Applejack (the non-bonded kind), some St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram, and a bottle of Fee’s Aromatic bitters.

See the spice connection?? If you can’t consider allspice dram under the “spice” category I don’t know what counts!

I experimented a bit while I was over there but the general recipe ended up being as follows.? Our neighbor gave the drink its name:

Apple Cider Heaven
4 oz. fresh apple cider
2 oz. Laird’s applejack
1 oz. Jameson’s Irish whiskey
1/2 oz. St. Elizabeth’s Allspice dram
1-2 dashes bitter
Shake all together and strain into a double old fashioned glass.? If you’d like to garnish it, I suggest an apple slice with a light dusting of nutmeg.

You could make the drink a number of different ways.? For instance, it could be made hot (in which case I’d shake just the liquor ingredients, then pour it in a glass and add hot apple cider).? We made them in pint glasses, more like shooters, and free-poured most of them.

For the party I made more of them but I made one rookie mistake – we were short on space in the kitchen, so I went outside.? Yeah, you know, when it’s less than 32 degrees outside it’s going to lower the amount of water you get into a shaken drink, and thus, it’ll taste stronger.

Still, people loved them!? The combination of apple cider and allspice dram, in my opinion, is KILLER.? From there you can work on all kinds of combinations!

Anyways, thus goes Mixology Monday: Spice.? I’d like to thank Craig at Tiki Drinks & Indigo Firmaments for hosting it, Paul as usual for setting up Mixology Monday, and Jeffrey Morgenthaler for that killer eggnog recipe.? After making all that nog, and eating deviled eggs with it, I will be avoiding eggs for a while.? Probably until Saturday.