Inspiration: In an attempt to declutter her house, my mom unearthed a family cookbook from the attic. Well acquainted with both my enthusiasm for baking, vintage cookbooks (especially family heirlooms), and old recipe boxes I find at thrift stores — my mom made a point of saving the handwritten culinary history of our family for me.
The above recipe comes from my great-grandmother, who managed a cafeteria for decades and it also happens to be one of my husband’s favorite cookies. So, I decided to whip them up as a treat for him and his colleagues at work.
What I like most about sour cream cookies is their tang and the fact they aren’t overly sweet. (Don’t read savory here. They aren’t. The cookies just don’t shock you with sugar.)
Christie: For once, I got the right book with the right recipe! I think Miss Marple would enjoy eating and serving these cookies immensely.
Inspiration: A few weeks back, I wrote about a recipe from the Pioneer Woman called the Veggie Tot Pie. It was so popular in this house I quickly ran out of tater tots to top the dish with….then came the unexpected gift of some stew meat….and I decided to use the Veggie Tot Pie as my inspiration and started throwing things into a pot.
Not only does the variation now contain beef, I also added more spices, veggies, lentils, and barley to the party!
And it turned out great! Especially when eaten with a piece of buttered bread.
From the Office of Full Discloser: I was impatient to get the dish done & dusted and didn’t want to wait eight hours for the crockpot to work its magic. Hence why, I first soaked the stew meat in a baking soda solution for 15 minutes, rinsed the beef off, and then simmered the treated meat in a can of Campbell’s Beef Consomme (diluted with a half-can of water) and fresh squeezed lemon juice for about 45 minutes.
If you want even quicker results, sub the stew meat for your favorite meat alternative! Which takes the cook/prep time to about an hour and a half from start to finish. (Most of which is just simmering/stirring time as the lentils and barley need the time to soften up.) However, you’ll need to taste test the final results to ensure the dish contains enough salt, as (thanks to the consomme & broth) I didn’t need to add any extra salt to the original iteration.
Christie: I can easily see Tuppence whipping up a stew along these lines, as the stew’s chiefly created from pantry and fridge staples!
Inspiration: One day, whilst wandering down a rabbit hole of tangentially related shows on my cable box’s menu screen, I stumbled upon Alton Brown’s show Good Eats — not the original version but The Return.
And I’m hooked!
His blend of history, skits, culinary hints-tips-& tricks, and very clear recipe walk-thrus made me an instant fan.
Now, while binge-watching Good EatsThe Return, our host featured a low-ABV beverage my husband and I found fascinating — A Clarified Milk Punch. (Don’t know what low ABV is? click here to find out.) Generally speaking, neither of us are fond of mixing alcohol with moo-juice. However, we figured if Charles Dickens enjoyed the beverage — we might as well.
At this point, after watching ‘Holiday Spirits’ again and locating the written recipe on Alton Brown’s website, we had a good-ish handle on the process of making this fortified punch.
Now I say process, because one of the key ingredients is an Allspice Dram, which, unless you’ve got the address of one heck of an eclectic liquor store in your hip pocket, you’ll need to make it yourself. But don’t fret. It’s a straightforward recipe but takes ten days to steep properly.
After we finished creating the dram and swearing a bit, plus some spillage, we managed to produce a punch that looked exactly like the one Mr. Brown made!
And it’s delicious!
Helpful hint: In Alton Brown’s demonstration, he’s got a colossal sized sieve, industrial-sized coffee filters, and a large container to strain the milk punch through.
We didn’t have any of those things.
So we came up with a workaround, which calls for two regular-sized metal sieves, several standard coffee filters, and a canning funnel. And set it up like the picture below.
Now here’s the trick, you only pour a potion of the curdled mixture into the sieve at a time — careful not to fill the sieve above either the line of the coffee filter or the edge of the canning funnel. Otherwise, you’ll end up with the unfiltered liquid on your counter or small bits of milk stuff in the punch mixture.
Ask me how I know.
After the first small bit filters through, you top up your contraption again, again, and again until all you’re left with is a clear cranberry-colored liquid!
Learn From My Mistake: This will take some time as the filter grows slower and slower with each pour. However, unless you’ve got another two sieves sitting around, don’t give in to temptation and change out the coffee filters. Inevitably you’ll get a bit of milk stuff into your perfectly clear punch, which will force you through the whole process again!
Christie: I can see the Grande Dame herself enjoying this punch during the festive season! I think even Poirot and Miss Maprle would appreciate a small sip of this low-ABV drink if it appeared on a drinks table!
Inspiration: As I’ve written about before, I’ve got a stupid allergy to sulfur, and it pops up in the strangest places. The newest substance to contain this bright yellow chemical element — grenadine!
Since it called for in many drinks, I’d resigned myself to a series of disappointing Malibu Sunrises, Bomb Pops, and Cherry Bombs…
…Until, surprise, surprise, a book came to the rescue!
In Tequila Mockingbird, it had a recipe for grenadine! Which is dead simple to concoct and lasts for ages.
(BTW – these literary punny drinks are a lot of fun to make and drink. Plus, the book gives additional recipes for mocktails and some interesting recipes for accompanying nibbles — all still literarily themed. Tequila Mockingbird would make a great gift to someone who loves reading and the occasional libation!)
Christie: This reminds me of Miss Marple (as portrayed by Geraldine McEwan) from the television when she made her own sweet sherry. And while I won’t give out bottles of grenadine as presents, it still reminds me of our beloved sleuth!
During the exploratory phase of trying to figure out what I was going to bring to a football viewing party a few weeks ago, I found a new cookie recipe. Excited to try a slight twist on the classic snickerdoodle, I gave it a go…the only problem is I’ve no clue which magazine I found it in! Which is one reason why it’s been relegated to the Outtakes.
The other reason it’s not getting the full treatment is due to my tastebud’s disappointment upon the first bite. Unfortunately, the slightly new slant to this recipe (the addition of ginger, cinnamon, and molasses) steamrolled over the cookie’s original hero ingredient — Cream of Tarter. Thereby making it into a generic, and frankly uninteresting, spiced cookie.
It definitely wouldn’t win an award at a village fete!
My 52 Weeks With Christie 
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