Monday Madness

1. What song gives you the most holiday cheer?
I love love LOVE Christams music… but there is one song I can mention being my personal evergreen: Last Christmas by WHAM!

2. Who is the hardest person to shop for on your holiday list?
We surrendered Christmas shpping years ago. Our family disrelished the “shopping mania” it turned out to be in Germany. So we decided to go back to the roots and celebrate our Christmas with family and friends on the 24th of December - like Germans used to do it. We sit together, enjoy the turkey (my job) and have a great evening… You can´t figure it out? Just imagine an “ordinary” Christmas Eve and subtract the presents =)
I guess we all care about each other the whole year and don´t need to celebrate Christ´s birth by giving ties, food processors or stuff like that to each other. The only one who will recieve a (little) present this year is our little cutie Mr L. =) Just my opinion… please don´t be offended, I know most persons think in another way.

B.t.w.: While I went shopping for Christmas presents the hardest person to shop for has been my Daddy Mr Gargarmel. What kind of present do you shop for somebody who owns simply everything and is in need of nothing???

3. When do you start your holiday shopping?
HA! On the 23rd of December… visit the market to get all the ingredients I need for dinner (incl. the turkey).

4. What food or drink do you love when it’s cold out? (Recipes and
recommendations, please!)

This is my granny´s eggnog recipe. It is a rich, creamy, and truly delicious version of the holiday drink. I do not know if he concocted it himself or picked it up somewhere.

Ingredients	8 servings	16 servings	24 servings
Eggnog
Fresh eggs (seperated into yolks/whites)	4	8	12
Sugar (divided into 2 equal parts)	1/2 cup (1/4c, 1/4c)	1 cup (1/2c, 1/2c)	1 1/2 cups (3/4c, 3/4c)
White Rum (dark works)	1/2 cup	1 cup	1 1/2 cups
Milk (Whole or 2%)	1 1/2 cups	3 cups	4 1/2 cups
Whiskey (Bourbon or Canadian)	1 1/2 cups	3 cups	4 1/2 cups
Heavy/Whipping Cream (divided into 2 equal parts)	1 cup (1/2c, 1/2c)	2 cups (1c, 1c)	3 cups (1 1/2c, 1 1/2c)
Ground Nutmeg (strongly recommended)	Enough to sprinkle on servings. Consider whole nutmeg nuts and grinder!

Eggnog Recipe Instructions

You are doing things gently and slowly to preserve the eggnog’s fluffiness. A good whisk for the stirring and a high speed mixer for the egg-whites and cream helps this process immensely.

Separate eggs into yolks and whites in separate bowls. I put the whites into the mixer and the yolks into another bowl.
Beat egg-yolks with 1/2 of sugar, set aside.
Beat egg-whites until stiff, then mix in other 1/2 of sugar.
Poor the yolks into the whites and mix together slowly.
Stir in white rum slowly. I’ve tried dark rum and it works.
Stir in milk slowly
Stir in whiskey slowly (I use Glenfiddich)
Stir in 1/2 of cream slowly
Whip rest (1/2) of cream and fold in carefully.
Serve at room temperature by ladling the eggnog into cups and sprinkle nutmeg on the top. Information on nutmeg grinders below. Try to get some of the foam and some of the liquid (if not fully mixed) in each cup.

5. What do you do to get rid of a cold or flu?
In Germany we use to drink hot beer throgh a straw =) That´s an old secret recipe… *ooops* I told you about it… HA!
I don´t like this recipe anyway. Usually I take a warm bubble bath, take tons of Ibuprofen and go to bed, cuddling my electric blanket. No Ibuprofen available? Okay… please give me some Grog (Rum with sugar, hot water and a dash of lemon juice). If it doesn´t help to get rid of the flu… it may halp in an other way: grog is a guaranty to get insane in the membrane for a few hours =)

Wanna play along?

Catch ya,

And now…
… our moment of Homer J.:

Homer: I saw this in a movie about a bus that had to speed around a city, keeping its speed over fifty and if its speed dropped, it would explode! I think it was called … “The Bus That Couldnt Slow Down.”

Monday Mdness
Christmas
The Simpsons