I like this time of year more and more as I get older. I’m not talking about the holiday season. That I’ve always loved, and actually the holidays seem to become a little more stressful and a little less joyful every year – but I’ll save that topic for another day. I’m talking about the time between the holidays, the normal, early winter days.

I typically approach winter with a feeling of dread. January and February are usually so HARD for me – it’s dark, the snow and the cold the past few years have been relentless, my skin gets so dry that I can’t sleep, and my emotions get all out of whack. Last year I tried to combat it with an end of January trip to the USVI, which helped a little, but February, and even March, to be honest, were brutal. Thankfully, we’ll be skipping a solid 6 weeks of that awful deep winter time this year – thanks to my job, it seems I’ve become a snowbird at a young age.

But December is a different story. I vividly remember walking home from work one night in mid-December last year – it was cold, but very bright. After I passed through the hubbub of Harvard Square, it suddenly felt deeply quiet, the kind of quiet that is rare in a city. The kind of quiet that I associate with being in the woods, with a soft blanket of snow reflecting the moon into the night. The moon was full, the trees, stripped of their leaves, left stark echos against the blue-black sky. And I realized, all at once, that I love that quiet, that stillness. It’s a stillness that only comes with true cold, with the earth settling into sleep. So there is a part of winter that I love, and it felt significant to me to recognize this, to embrace something I was dreading.

These past few weeks I’ve been experiencing the same thing – a feeling of calm on cold, moonlit evenings, and on brisk, crisply sunny mornings. Enjoying the quiet as I wait for the bus in the early morning light, watching my breath form puffy clouds in front of me. It’s a nice counterpoint to the chaotic joy of the holidays.

As you may recall, another reason I can get behind winter is warm cocktails. Over the years I’ve posted a number of my favorite recipes here, like this Burnt Sugar Hot Buttered Rum and this Nutella Melt. Last year I did a little round-up of all my favorite winter cocktails… which it seems I might have to update soon. My first contribution to that list for this season is this Mulled Spiked Cider with Port and Cranberries, which also has a little red wine, apples, and clementines. Like many of my favorite drinks, it’s inspired by Maria and Tara‘s genius book Winter Cocktails, which pretty much becomes a fixture in my kitchen at this time of year. This warm, sweet, boozy drink was the perfect thing to warm us up over the lazy long weekend… and the leftovers are just the thing to look forward to coming home to after a stressful weekday.

Mulled Spiked Cider with Port and Cranberries

Inspired by Winter Cocktails. Serves 4-6.

• 2 whole cinnamon stick
• 2 whole star anise
• 10 whole cloves
• 3 c. apple cider
• 2 clementines, scrubbed and cut into thin slices
• 1/2 c. fresh cranberries
• 1 apple, cored, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch cubes
• 1/4 c. white sugar
• 2 c. red wine
• 3/4 c. tawny port
• brandy or Bourbon to taste, optional

1. Add the cinnamon, star anise, and cloves to a large saucepan or dutch oven and toast over medium heat until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the apple cider, clementines, cranberries, apple, and sugar and gently simmer until fruit is soft, about 10 minutes. Add the red wine and port and continue heating just until the drink begins to steam, then remove from the heat and cover to keep warm. Ladle into mugs to serve, removing any cloves that you see as you do so. Adding a splash of brandy or Bourbon to each if you like your drinks a little stronger!

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I’ve said it before: the best part of cold weather is warm drinks when you finally get inside. With or without booze (although personally I tend to choose with), they are comforting and festive and a great excuse for sitting around the fire with friends and family. Over the past two years I’ve built up a small repertoire of festive winter cocktails, many inspired by this lovely book, so as we gear up for the holidays and you all are looking for creative drinks to welcome your guests with, I’ve rounded my favorites up in one place. Cheers!

Hot and Mulled

Burnt Sugar Hot Buttered Rum

Hot buttered rum is an old-fashioned drink, but it’s just as delicious today as it was 200 years ago. This version uses a dark caramel as the base for the drink, giving it a deep, caramely sweetness.

Meyer Lemon and Sage Hot Toddy

A mixture of honey, lemon, and rum or whiskey, hot toddies are great when you’re feeling under the weather – the honey and lemon soothes a sore throat while the warm alcohol helps put you to sleep (although if you’re actually sick and not just feeling low, I’d skip the booze and just stick with the honey and lemon). This version uses a sage-infused honey syrup and bright meyer lemons for a twist on the classic.

Sbiten

Sbiten is a Russian mulled cocktail that’s based on a mixture of jam, honey, and winter spices. Although I never actually had one of these while I was in Russia, the thick and sweet drink is just as appropriate during cold New England weather.

Mulled Pear Sangria

Sangria doesn’t have to be saved for spring evenings and summer BBQs – if you serve it warm, it’s equally appropriate in winter. With a pear and cinnamon syrup and a hit of maple liqueur, this drink is full of fall flavors and a great use for white wine on days when a chilled glass of Chardonnay doesn’t sound that appealing.

Ecuadorian Canelazo

Canelazo is a traditional Ecuadorian drink made from naranjilla, a sweet-sour fruit similar to citrus, aguardiente, a sugar-cane based liquor, and cinnamon syrup. It was one of my favorite culinary discoveries in Ecuador, so I came up with this version to have at home.

Warm and Creamy

Nutella Melt

It’s hard to go wrong with nutella, and this nutella-laden and frangelico-spiked version of hot chocolate is no exception. Serve it without the frangelico for an equally appealing kids’ drink.

Chocolate Orange Tom & Jerry

Another old-timey drink, a Tom & Jerry is similar to eggnog in that it’s made from whole eggs and cream, but it’s served warm. In the US it’s most popular in Wisconsin and Minnesota, but I promise this chocolate and orange version will go down well in the rest of the country (and world!), too.

1,001 Kentucky Nights

This drink is decidedly not a classic. Combining coconut milk, dates, cinnamon, bourbon, and rum, it’s a drink with its roots in the Middle East but a profoundly American accent. Sweet and rich but with smoky, woodsy flavors from the bourbon, it’s a great study in contrast.

Salted Caramel Chai Latte

This chai latte sweetened with salted caramel wasn’t designed as a cocktail, but turning it into an Irish coffee with a shot of Bailey’s or whiskey sounds like a pretty good idea to me.

Cold and Bubbly

Cranberry-Ginger Sparkling Rum Cider

Cranberry-ginger syrup, sparkling cider, and dark rum make a pretty addition to any holiday table. As a side note, this drink and the accompanying sweet potato souffle recipe won Captain Morgan’s Thanksgiving challenge last year – it was judged by Hugh Acheson, so you have someone’s word other than mine to go by when I say these are delicious.

Pomegranate Mimosas

These pomegranate mimosas are a standard part of my family’s Christmas brunch, which is slowly replacing opening presents as my favorite part of Christmas. Just looking at them reminds me of bright Christmas mornings spent eating cranberry and vanilla coffee cake and gruyere-baked eggs.

Raspberry Sherbet Champagne Floats

Although these floats could arguably be served at any time of year, I think they’re just right for New Year’s Eve. Festive and pink, they’re a fun way to celebrate a special evening.

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Apologies for the radio silence around here the last few weeks! It’s been a busy month, and I seem to have inadvertently taken a 2-week break from blogging. This week in particular was a whirlwind – we spent last weekend away on our first official food-writing assignment (I can’t wait to share details with you this winter!), and then we dove head first into a long, rainy week piled with work-work, school-work, and freelance-work. I’m getting on a flight to Ireland today, too, so I’m still a bit in heads-down mode, but with a clear break in sight. Trevor and I did manage to spend some solid time in the kitchen yesterday, so we have several exciting recipes to share over the next few weeks (lots of pumpkin and caramel and cheese) to prevent another accidental hiatus.

I’ve been taking an economics course after work this semester, and I’ve learned that sitting through a two hour lecture after a full day of work is a lot harder than sitting through a two hour lecture when it’s the only thing you have to do that day (college students, take note!). Since I can’t drink coffee after 2pm if I want to have a shot at a good night’s sleep, I’ve taken to picking up a chai latte and a few chocolate-covered graham crackers as an incentive for sitting through class. It’s been a while since I drank chai regularly, and I forgot how much I love it’s spicy sweetness. Although a regular chai is a treat in itself, I decided that mixing in a healthy dose of salted caramel and topping it off with whipped cream and, yep, more caramel, would make it a real indulgence, worthy of sharing here. I took the approach of making a light syrup from brewed black tea, fresh ginger, whole spices, and salted caramel, then mixing that syrup with steamed milk. The benefit of this method is that you can store any leftover chai syrup in the fridge for the next time you need a quick pick-me-up, then just mix it with a fresh batch of milk. Hopefully we don’t have another week of weather like last week any time soon, but if we do, I’ll be prepared to curl up at home with one or two of these.

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Salted Caramel Chai Latte

Serves 4.

• 4 bags black tea
• 3 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and diced
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 tsp whole black peppercorns
• 10 whole cloves
• 6 whole cardamom pods, lightly crushed
• 1 whole star anise
• 1/3 c. salted caramel, plus more for drizzling (I used this recipe but added 1 cup heavy cream instead of 1/2 cup)
• 1/4 c. white sugar
• 2 cups whole milk
• whipped cream for serving

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Pour 1 1/4 cup of boiling water over tea bags in a heatproof bowl, then let tea steep for 10 minutes. Discard tea bags, squeezing out any extra liquid you can with a spoon.
2. Add brewed tea, fresh ginger, cinnamon stick, peppercorns, cloves, cardamom, star anise, salted caramel, and sugar to a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium-low heat, then simmer on low for 10 minutes. Mixture should have the consistency of a very thin syrup. Let steep 5 minutes longer, then strain through a fine-mesh strainer into a jar, discarding solids.
3. Heat milk until it is just barely bubbling over low heat or in a microwave, then use a milk frother to froth. Divide chai syrup between four glasses, then add 1/2 cup milk to each glass and stir to combine. Top with whipped cream and a drizzle of caramel, and serve immediately.

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