Homemade Gifts: Spiced Maple Simple Syrup for Cocktails and More!
Still struggling with a last-minute gift idea? Turn this maple spiced simple syrup into a gift for the foodie or cocktail lover on your list.
Still struggling with a last-minute gift idea? Turn this maple spiced simple syrup into a gift for the foodie or cocktail lover on your list.
It’s GIVEAWAY time! I’ve been steadily baking my way through Alternative Baker by Alanna Taylor-Tobin, and it has steadily become a favorite. Her recipes are indulgent yet wholesome, and they’re developed with utmost precision.
This pumpkin pear bread, with oat and brown rice flours, is a rich, flavorful quick bread that feels like dessert for breakfast. Are You Here for The Food? Pumpkin Pear Bread…
I wanted my Valentine to know he is "simply the best," and while I may not be able to sing and strum the song like Patrick, I can say it in chocolate. Thanks to fellow devoted fans on Etsy and time in the kitchen creating these chocolate peanut butter roses, I conveyed that message with a very Schitty Valentine, which of course, you could turn into an any-time-of-year care package for the Schitty's Creek fan in your life. <3
I meant to share these photos and this Dutch Christmas Bread recipe last year, but as so often happens, I was busy, and the season passed too quickly. However, as Christmas and Hanukah rolled around this year, I started reminiscing about the book and our brunch. The sentiment behind it felt even more meaningful after the major challenges of this year. It felt like this post was meant to be shared in 2020 all along.
Still have people on your shopping list? Skip the lines and try one of these homemade gifts for a more personalized holiday this year. There's homemade gifts for baking, bartending, sipping and self care. Plus, there's ideas for what to sip as you get crafty.
I'm choosing not to stress and to enjoy my final Christmas preparations. Homemade gifts are one of my defense mechanisms against the holiday hangups. Instead of battling feuding families in malls, hit the wine and spirits shop (extra bonus: might as well buy yourself some wine while you're there) and your favorite spice store. Two stops, and you'll have the makings of homemade vanilla extract. Cue up your favorite holiday albums (Mariah Carey and She & Him, for me please), spike the egg nog, and then, it's as simple as pouring liquid over vanilla beans.
Take a long look in a full-length mirror. Does your neck lurch forward? Do your shoulders slope to one side? When you see yourself in photos, do you think, “Damn girl, stand up straight,” only to realize you were standing at your straightest? Then you, my friends, might need a doctor… a spine doctor!
The above was my scenario. My many years of hunching over a drawing board, crouching over photo sets and then slouching into my computer had caught up with me- in a gnarly way. These poor posture habits had longer lasting and riskier effects than simply making me look slouchy in photos. We pay so little mind to our spine, and yet our very health and our very lives depend on its maintenance.
Lucky for me, chiropractics found me. The Urban Farmer’s brother once wanted to be a medical doctor, only to realize the main stream medical system doesn’t prioritize health and prevention, focusing rather on fixing. In chiropractics, he discovered the fundamentals and a means to helping people live their best lives. He found a world in which health, nutrition and fitness combined to serve people, so he devoted himself to the spine and became Dr. Alex Pattison. I believed his words and explanations, but more than anything, I believed the way I felt within a few adjustments.
If this sounds preachy, I can’t help it. When I find something good, something I believe in, I want to share it, want to sing it like Julie Andrews on those Austrian hills. Chiropractics often get a bad rap, as a scam or hoax, but I know Alex as a family member, as a doting father, as a loyal friend and as a doctor. I know him to be incredibly informed and earnest in his pursuit to make our city a healthy one. I also know Alex to be a whiskey aficionado.
This past Christmas, I drew Alex’s name from the hat for the family secret Santa. Rather than simply giving a bottle of whiskey, I played my graphic-designer-boyfriend card (did you know the Urban Farmer is also a design wiz?) to create a custom label to celebrate his love of whiskey and his devotion to spinal health. Introducing Doc Pattison’s Miracle Elixir…
To personalize the bottle even more, I concocted a Spice Infused Whiskey, a fiery flavor reminiscent of a fireball, derived from our forefathers.
Below you’ll find the historical reference for this “receipt,” as it was called in the day. (The “Dulcify” step is my favorite!) You’ll also find the modernized version, designed to be fun and not kill you, by Steven Grasse, author of Colonial Spirits: A Toast to Our Drunken History, and the man behind Art in the Age, a personal favorite of mine. So toast some spices, toast a glass, find yourself a chiropractor, and let’s all toast to health and longevity!
Here’s to you Doc Pattison!
p.s: If you’re interested in creating a custom bottle design to give as a gift, get in touch!
Spiced Whiskey
from Colonial Spirits: A Toast to Our Drunken History
The Historical Recipe
Take of cinnamon, ginger, and coriander seed, each 3 oz. – mace, cloves, and cubels, each 1 1/2 oz.- Add 11 gallons of proof spirit, and 2 gallons of water, and distil [sic]; now tie up 5 oz. of English saffron, – raisins (stoned) 4 1/2 lbs.- dates, 3 do.- liquorice root, 2 do.- Let these stand 12 hours in 2 gallons of water, strain, and add it to the above. – Dulcify the whole with fine sugar.
-From Five Thousand Receipts in All Useful and Domestic Arts
by Colin MacKenzie, 1825
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