Day One, Twenty Ten

This is just about as good as it gets!  Two dear friends, Don and John, for a New Years Eve dinner and slumber party….I can’t imagine a better way to see out the old and celebrate the new!  We were, three (unwashed) adults, four dogs (three of which were Pugs!), great food, Apricot Egg Nog, and twenty two years of back issues of The World of Interiors! Now, first I must tell you, these issues have traveled from attic to attic with me, all tapped up in their own boxes…just waiting for a snowy night and enough Egg Nog to see us all through the stacks.  Here is the deal…we have become critical and maybe a tiny bit jaded…the old issues are not all we had dreamed them to be…not that they will be placed curb side, for next weeks trash pickup, any time soon….they were savored, with a somewhat clear eye, then placed back into their boxes, carried into the attic, put way over in the far corner, under the eves.  These boxes will be shifted around for, most likely, another 22 years!

Apricot Egg Nog

10 eggs separated

3/4 cup sugar

1/8 tsp. salt

1/2 cup milk

1 cup heavy cream (which you will whip)

46 ounces of Apricot nector

1 cup Rum (you could use Brandy)

1/4 cup Cointreau

fresh grated Nutmeg

In double boiler, mix egg yokes with 1/2 cup of sugar, salt and the milk…cook, over gently boiling water, until thickened…about 15 minutes.  Cool

Beat egg whites until frothy, add the balance of sugar then beat until stiff…pour cooled custard over the beaten egg whites…fold in gently…add whipped cream…fold in gently.  Add nectar, Rum and Cointreau.  Mix to blend, cover and chill over night…Stir with wire whip, when about to serve, sprinkle each serving with fresh grated Nutmeg.  Enjoy!  I cut this recipe in half, for the three of us, and could easily have treated the whole neighborhood…were we willing to share!