Holiday Eggnog Latte

Tired of the old holiday standard fare? We’ve grown weary of heavy-handed feasts of roasted birds and piles of potatoes. Mix things up this year and host a holiday brunch. You’ll feel lighter and brighter with this Eggnog Latte.

Ingredients:

4 cups strong hot coffee or espresso
2 cups eggnog
2 cups milk, warmed
2 oz. rum
Whipped cream
Ground nutmeg

Directions:

In a pitcher combine hot coffee, eggnog, milk, and rum. Pour mixture into four coffee mugs and top with whipped cream and a sprinkle of nutmeg.

By Lori Ross, Southern Boating December 2018

More holiday recipes:

Billionaire’s Bacon

Pomegranate Champagne Cocktail

Holiday-Ready Recipes

Escaping winter weather is more than enough of a reason to cruise warm waters during the holidays. However, cooking while cruising isn’t without its logistical challenges, since traditional holiday roasts aren’t always achievable.

At Southern Boating, we think the three best components of any meal are drinks (of course), appetizers and desserts. Here are SB&Y’s top three holiday-themed treats that can be made right in the galley!

Here are three simple, galley-friendly recipes for Christmas cruising. These tasty delights are just a snippet of our compilation of galley-friendly recipes.

“Taste of Summer” Punch*

“Punch” up your holiday menu with this delicious fizzy cocktail

Although this drink is summery, it’s sure to warm you right up. Raspberry and mint brighten up any glass with Christmas colors!

Ingredients

3 cups prosecco, chilled
1 cup limoncello liqueur, chilled
1 cup frozen raspberries
6 sprigs fresh mint

Directions:
1. In a large pitcher, whisk together prosecco and limoncello.
2. Serve over raspberries, garnish with mint.

*adapted from damndelicous.net

Holiday Caprese Bites*

It’s a little bite of Christmas on a toothpick.

You can put these simple and delicious petite bites together in just minutes. We’re guessing that guests will eat these tasty treats faster than you can make them!

Ingredients

1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
10 to 14 fresh small mozzarella cheese balls, cut into thirds or use ciliegine Fresh Mozzarella

32 (4-inch) wooden skewers or toothpicks
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
15-16 fresh basil leaves, halved

Thread 1 tomato half, 1 piece of cheese wrapped in basil, and another tomato half onto each skewer. Place skewers in a shallow serving dish.
Whisk together oil and next 3 ingredients. Drizzle oil mixture over skewers; sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

*adapted from foodnetwork.com

Red & Green Christmas Fudge*

It’s the best kind of dessert: the kind that requires no baking.

Fudge doesn’t have to be complicated. But in this case, it does have to be festive.

Ingredients

12 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1 pound powdered sugar
1 cup white chocolate morsels
2/3 cup milk chocolate morsels
1 (1-oz.) bottle red liquid food coloring
1 cup toasted chopped walnuts
green sprinkles (optional)

Line an 8-inch square pan with parchment paper, extending over sides; coat with cooking spray.
Beat cream cheese and next 3 ingredients with whisk until creamy. Whisk in powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time. Alternatively, beat at high speed 3 minutes with a mixer.
Melt white chocolate according to package directions; beat into cream cheese mixture. Reserve one-third of cream cheese mixture. Melt milk chocolate according to package directions. Stir milk chocolate and food coloring into remaining two-thirds of cream cheese mixture. Fold in walnuts. Pour into prepared pan; tap pan on the counter to remove air bubbles. Freeze 10 minutes or chill for 90 in fridge.
Spread reserved cream cheese mixture over fudge and dot with sprinkles, if desired; chill 4 to 24 hours. Remove fudge from pan. Cut into rectangles, rinsing and wiping knife clean between each slice. Chill until ready to serve.

* adapted from myrecipes.com

Christmas Cocktail Meatballs

Host a colorful holiday cocktail party during your local boat parade of lights. All holiday recipes serve 6.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from everyone at Southern Boating!

Christmas Cocktail Meatballs

¼ cup each, vinegar and hoisin sauce
2 tbsp. each, oil and soy sauce
1 tbsp. honey
2 garlic cloves, chopped (or 1/2 tsp. garlic powder)
1 tsp. minced ginger (optional)
24 prepared frozen cocktail meatballs
Salt and pepper

In a small saucepan, combine the sauce ingredients. Add meatballs and heat on medium-low until meatballs are warmed thoroughly, about 20-30 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm with toothpicks and enjoy this simple holiday recipes.

Herbed Goat Cheese and Grapes

4 4-oz. logs of goat cheese, each sliced into 6 rounds
¼ cup olive oil
2 tsp. fresh rosemary leaves (or pinch of dried)
Pepper
2 cups red grapes, halved
1 cup walnuts or sliced almonds
2-3 tbsp. honey
1 French baguette, sliced into rounds, toasted

Arrange sliced goat cheese in one layer on platter. Drizzle with olive oil, then strew with rosemary and pepper. Scatter grapes and nuts over platter, then drizzle honey over all. Serve with toasted bread.

Salmon Tortilla Spirals

4 large tortillas (green spinach or red flour look the most festive)
8 oz. cream cheese
1 lb. smoked salmon (substitute tuna, smoked fish or crabmeat)
4 scallions trimmed and halved lengthwise or a small onion (diced)
1 medium cucumber, seeded and sliced lengthwise into long thin batons
½ cup cream
1 tbsp. lemon juice
¼ tsp. salt

Lay one tortilla on a flat surface and spread a thin layer of cream cheese up to the edges. Layer with 1/4 of salmon in a thin layer, 1/4 of scallions, then 1/4 of cucumber batons. Roll the tortilla up tightly and slice into 8 pieces. Repeat for each tortilla. Arrange spirals cut side up on a festive platter. Mix cream, lemon and salt, and drizzle a little over each slice.

Winter Solstice Shrimp

24 large shrimp, shelled, tailed and deveined
16 slices bacon cut into 2-3-inch sections
2 tbsp. ground black pepper

Heat broiler or grill. Wrap each shrimp in a section of bacon, sprinkle with pepper and secure with a toothpick (or slide several shrimp on longer skewers). Sauté shrimp in large frypan, or place the shrimp on grill or under broiler until bacon is crisp, about 2 minutes. Serve immediately.

Chocolate Truffles

2/3 cup heavy cream
12 oz. semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (you may substitute finely chopped almonds or finely grated coconut)

Warm cream in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. When bubbles appear around the edges of the pan, remove pan from heat, pour chocolate into the warm cream and stir until the chocolate melts. Add butter and vanilla until incorporated. Place the mixture in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours.

To form truffles, place cocoa powder in a bowl. Scoop out a heaping teaspoon of the chocolate mixture and roll it into a ball between your palms. Roll the ball in cocoa until it is completely covered. Roll it lightly in your palms again to make sure the cocoa sticks, then re-roll the truffle in cocoa. Repeat with the remaining chocolate mixture.

To store truffles, place in single layers separated by wax paper in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Place two or three truffles in each of 6 mini-cupcake liners for a pretty presentation.

Christmas Punch

1 cup vodka
3 cups cranberry juice
1 cup apple juice
4 cups club soda
2 cups frozen cranberries or other berries
1 lemon, thinly sliced

Mix vodka, juices and soda in a pitcher or punch bowl. Add frozen berries. Pour into glasses over ice and garnish with lemon slice.

Southern Traditions

As the first cool fronts make their way down from the north and with the holidays right around the corner, the second major boating season gets underway on the Northern Gulf Coast. Flatboats and pirogues are readied and ponds in the marshes are scouted. Fishermen head out for those big reds and trout that got away over the summer, and the oystermen fan out from the coast to bring in those salty mollusks so necessary for this coast’s holiday celebrations.

Thanksgiving and Christmas on the Gulf Coast have always featured time-honored traditions incorporating boating with holiday meals that reach back to subsistence fishing and hunting. It’s hard not to notice the flatboats covered in fresh marsh grass on Thanksgiving morning in New Orleans’ Garden District with hunters rushing in their camouflage gear to start the smokers. On the coast of Mississippi, boats skippered by “paw paws” and grandfathers are eased back onto their trailers as the proud and sleepy grandkids are ready for a nap from their quick morning of trawling for the day’s shrimp. On the bayous of Alabama, crab traps are raised and early morning trout are cleaned while the luggers in Apalachicola bring in those all-important oysters.

As families descend on their gathering spots on the coast from Pass Christian to Bon Secour and from New Orleans to Clearwater, ladies in their kitchens and men at their culinary stations out back come alive. Recipes handed down from generations long past are shared with the next in line. The number of oysters in this year’s dressing is marked on the handwritten recipe that now scrolls back fifty years. Empty shotgun shell casings and old tangled fishing line are placed with moss, green mirlitons and heirloom crystal candleholder centerpieces, while laughter and the smell of redfish court-bouillon permeate the house. Out back, brothers and uncles sip on cold beer while their sons and daughters watch as ducks wrapped in bacon are smoked to perfection—the black labs wait for that one dropped bird.

On piers and docks, oysters are charbroiled while a brisk cold wind whips down across the sounds and bays—boats pop in the water in a building chop while sailboat stanchions clink. Windows of the houses glow with the warm yellow light of families and friends gathered, their cars parked in the lawn underneath sprawling oaks next to a few boat trailers holding license plates from Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.

While the arriving winter means many cruisers across the country prepare to put their boats to bed under cover for the inevitable snow and ice, on the Gulf Coast and throughout the South, boating springs to life in a second season. Away from the summer waterskiing, regattas and the heat of waiting on that tuna to bite off shore, many might say that it’s the more important boating season.

By Troy Gilbert, Southern Boating November 2014