#CocktailDay - Apple Pie Moonshine

Apple Pie Moonshine 

Welcome to Cocktail Day, a multi-blogger event co-hosted by Kim of Cravings of a Lunatic, Liz of That Skinny Chick Can Bake, and Donna of Cookistry.

Change is hard folks! Leaning new things is hard! Sometimes a cocktail in the middle of life's chaos can make it seem better, even if it is temporary. Today is Cocktail Day so take advantage of the wonderful recipes you can find at the link at the bottom of the page!

I have several favorite cocktail's but a friend has been telling me about the Apple Pie Moonshine she had Christmas and how delicious it was, smooth, slightly sweet with a little kick at the end. If you love Raylan Givens…..and if you don't I don't understand you, and if you love Justified, you remember Mags' Apple Pie Moonshine. She made a truly deadly cocktail!

Mine is not deadly in the Mags sense but drink much of it and you WILL awaken with a headache the next day!

These jars were my mother's canning jars. The big one in the center was my Dad's Moonshine jar!

My parents lived in a small town in north central Arkansas for over 40 years. You might have an idea of this area as very rural, it is, and moonshine is no stranger to those parts. My dad 'obtained' a 3 pint Ball jar of 'Shine many years ago. He loved bringing it out whenever someone came over and offering them a taste. That jar lasted at least 20 years. When he died my siblings and I pulled out the Ball jar and had a sip for him…..I mean a tiny sip! Talk about deadly, I believe that stuff would melt plastic! Several years ago my mother died and when I was cleaning out her house I saved dad's moonshine jar. I used it for my Apple Pie Moonshine. I wish I could share it with him….


This recipe makes lots so be nice and share it with friends.

Apple Pie Moonshine Recipe

1gallon Apple Cider, raw, organic and unfiltered preferred

1 gallon Apple Juice, organic

1 - 2 cups of Turbinado or Raw Sugar*

6-8 Cinnamon Sticks

750 ml Everclear, 190 proof

Heat cider, juice, sugar and cinnamon sticks in a large pot until boiling, stirring occasionally to be certain sugar is dissolved. Taste for sweetness. At this point you want it to be somewhat sweet as the alcohol will cut the sweetness considerably! Remove the pot from the stove and allow to cool.  Add the Everclear when the juice mixture is cool.  Remember that Everclear is 190 proof and highly flammable! Use caution!

Fill sterilized jars with the 'Shine. Place a cinnamon stick in each jar. I also placed a vanilla bean in a few. Its good! Store in a cool, dark place. While you can drink it immediately the taste mellows with time. Once opened I put mine in the fridge.

*You can use any type of sugar and whatever amount works for you.  I like raw sugar for the flavor and less intensely sweet.

Go here to find all the fabulous Cocktail Day recipes.

Pomegranate Party Punch by Cravings of a Lunatic

White Cosmopolitans by That Skinny Chick Can Bake

Hot Buttered Chocolate Rum by Cookistry

Bacon Jalapeno Bloody Mary by Rants From My Crazy Kitchen

Blood Orange Old Fashioned by Kelly Bakes

Caipirinhas by Food Lust People Love

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Martini by Hungry Couple

Chocolate Cupcake Cocktail by JavaCupcake

Ciderhouse Whiskey by From the Bookshelf

Citrus Cranberry Punch by Dinners, Dishes, and Desserts

Coconut-Key Lime Pie Martini by Home Cooking Memories

Egyptian Martini by Cooking In Stilettos

Espresso Martini by Liv Life

Frosty Lemon Drop Martini by The Hopeless Housewife

Frozen Marshmallow Mudslide by 365 Days of Baking & More

Ginger Raspberry Fizzy by Try Anything Once

Iced Cake Martini by Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks

Le Jardinier by Confessions of a Culinary Diva

Mandarin Mulled Wine by Food Babbles

Meyer Lemon Rosemary Gin Fizz by Crumb

Muddled Rosemary and Pineapple Cocktail by My Catholic Kitchen

Nutella Martini by The Pink Flour

Peach Sparkler by Noshing With The Nolands

Pineapple Margarita by Miss in the Kitchen

Pomegranate Orange Spritzer by Dizzy Busy and Hungry

Safe Sex on the Beach by Mom’s Test Kitchen

Side Car with Dried Cherries by Karen’s Kitchen Stories

Winter Fruit White Wine Sangria by The Girl In The Little Red Kitchen

Apple Pie Moonshine by Lola’s Kitchen

FFwD - Christine's Simple Party Soups

Christine's Simple Party Soups

This French Friday is one of the simplest we've done. Basically you boil peppers, asparagus and broccoli, individually,  in chicken broth with zucchini. Then you blend it up, in the food processor for me. What could be easier, right? Well it is easy but it still wasn't worth the effort. I added hot peppers and spices and it still wasn't very good. My family wouldn't move beyond a taste and I felt the same. It all ended up in the trash. That's a French Friday first! The red pepper soup showed the most promise but even though I halved the water it wasn't very good.

Enriched White Bread

At least we had good bread!  One of my 2014 goals is to bake more bread and I'm off to a good start. How can you go wrong with Peter Reinhart though? I've baked many of his breads from bread The Bread Baker's Apprentice and plan to bake them all. I started with a simple enriched white bread since it has been a while since I baked artisan bread. I'm eager to continue my quest!

The French Friday website is where you'll find everyone's links.

FFwD - Baked Apples Filled with Fruit and Nuts

Baked Apples Filled with Fruit and Nuts

This recipe is as easy and good as it sounds. Dorie recommends using Rome Beauty or Cortland apples. I found Cortland in my local grocery which was exciting since so often its the usual Granny Smith, Red Delicious, Gala, Fuji and Honey Crisp in the winter, which I love. But there are thousands of varieties of apples yet so few readily available. When Gary and I went to NYC we were delighted at the Farmer's Market in Union Square. There were so many varieties of apples we'd never heard of and the farmers would give you a slice for tasting. We wanted to buy them all but had to content ourselves with what we could eat in a couple of days.

Also, it was April but the apples were so fresh and crunchy. I asked how that happened and one of the sellers explained to me how the apples are kept in cold storage and low oxygen levels. This article in Modern Farmer gives a good description of apple storage.

Back to Dorie. Her baked apples are very easy. Peel the apples half way down and score around the peel line to prevent bursting. Removing the core is a bit tricky since you don'tt want to cut through the bottom but a melon baller helps hollow out the apple. I used prunes, raisins and walnuts to fill the centers. my apples baked a little over an hour and I served them with vanilla ice cream. Delicious!

The French Friday with Dorie website is where you will find everyone's results as we cook our way through Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table.

And here is our new grandbaby! A tiny bundle of joy. Her brother is as infatuated as the rest of us. Life is good Doristas!

FFwD - Dressy Pasta "Risotto"

Dressy Pasta Risotto
Not a very good photo:)

Dorie says this isn't really a risotto. I guess its called that because the macaroni is cooked in enough broth to mostly absorb into the macaroni instead of the traditional boiling water that is then drained. Fancy mac and cheese is a more accurate description but I like the method and don't object to calling it risotto.

We really enjoyed this. I served it with a salad and bread and it was a delicious dinner. Everyone liked it and the left overs were good the next day too!

Gary having leftovers!

I hope your 2014 is off to a good start! Mine is. Our granddaughter made her appearance in the world today! She is beautiful and mama and baby are fine! To double my pleasure I'm staying with Mr. B while his parents are in the hospital. We went shopping for a present and B chose a bib with flowers.  He seems as in love as the rest of us.....except he'd really like his mama and dada to come home!

AJ trying on my Santa hat as we drive Christmas Eve

Visit all the French Fridays with Dorie blogs to see what everyone else thought. I bet they loved it too!

FFwD - Should be Dilled Gravlax But Its Make Up Pumpkin Gorgonzola Flan Instead

Gratuitous Mr. B Photo with his Parents:)

Christmas is over and The New Year is almost here (bringing our granddaughter with it). I am a maker of lists, plans, goals and resolutions and have only just started thinking of 2014 and what I want for the year. I can recycle many of my plans from 2013. I fell short in several areas!

Pumpkin-Gorgonzola Flan

I knew gravlax, even if dilled, would NOT be eaten at my house so instead I opted for a make up post and made Pumpkin-Gorgonzola Flans. This was an early French Friday selection, November 2010. I went back to see what everyone thought of the recipe and it got mostly favorable reviews. Betsy, I didn't add enough salt either. I was surprised by how much it needed! Tammy said it tasted like autumn which is what my mother-in-law thought too. We all enjoyed it!

One of my Christmas presents was a White Balsamic with Pear and Cranberry Vinegar. I used it to make Dorie's Everyday Vinaigrette! Delicious!

I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday! 2014 is almost upon us. Its time to take stock and move forward. I plan to begin the new year with a clean refrigerator! How about you?

This is French Friday with Dorie post. Join us as we cook our way through Dorie Greenspan's book Around My French Table.

FFwD - Recipe-Swap Onion "Carbonara"

2 #s of onions ready for the steamer

I seem to be stuck in a pattern of cooking but not blogging! Maybe after the holidays I will get back into the schedule. No, maybe after the arrival of our granddaughter on January 3rd! We are excited to meet her and also to see what kind of a brother Mr. Adorable will be to Miss Adorable! We predict he will be Extraordinary! 

Spaghetti and Onions Carbonara

For this week's French Friday recipe I went the spaghetti route. After a day of baking I wanted a quick and delicious dinner and this was perfect....in my opinion....an opinion not shared by Gary! Gary of 'will eat anything' fame didn't like this! He ate a bit and then went for leftovers! He said he's finally found something that bacon should NOT go on! Unbelievable! His sweet mother is with us and she thought it was good and cleaned her plate. I think she was as surprised by Gary's reaction as I was! Bacon, onions, cream and cheese over pasta? What's not to love?

Merry Christmas to all! Stop by the French Friday page to see everyone else's experience with the recipe!

FFwD - Mme. Maman's Chopped Liver

Mme. Maman's Chopped Liver

This week's French Friday recipe was dreaded by some Doristas. Many of them do not like liver. Others had never purchased and prepared liver at home. I venture they are not from the south. Liver and onions and fried chicken livers were standard fare for most southerners in the 50s and 60s. Then came cholesterol and liver moved to the forbidden list. Kind of like coconut and coconut oil. Ahhh progress.....

At any rate we love liver and we love pates. So this was perfect for us. Pate was on our Thanksgiving menu. I made a recipe from Southern Living's Thanksgiving issue. It was good but not as good as Dorie's recipe. The Southern Living one was served with Cranberry Pecan Chutney. Now that was good! Its become our favorite cranberry recipe.  I've even canned some. I just add the pecans when I open the jar.  You should try this. Its easy and delicious!

Cranberry Chutney

Back to chopped liver. If you like liver you will love this. If you don't like liver this won't change your mind. This is one of my favorite recipes to date. Its easy to make and elegant to serve. Its also good on white bread as a sandwich and so much better than any liver product you buy at the grocery. Loved it!

I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays. So much to do. So little time. I wish you joy. And peace.

Remember, you can find all our thoughts on chopped liver on the French Friday website. Follow us as we cook our way through Dorie Greenspan's marvelous book, Around My French Table.

FFwD - Orange-Almond Tuiles

Orange-Almond Tuiles

These delicate little cookies caused quite a stir on the P&Q page! The dough/batter mixes easily enough but from there its all down hill. I refrigerated over night, two nights actually and measured the little balls with a teaspoon. So far all went well. Things got tricky when it came time to remove the little sh--s from the cookie sheet! Last time I was at Williams Sonoma Outlet (yes Virginia, there is an outlet) in Memphis I bought a sharp edged metal spatula and I was feeling somewhat cocky about it. I thought I had the perfect tool for this job! I did not have the perfect tool. So I let them cool on the sheet a little longer. Then it was back in the oven. Then I scraped/mangled a few off. Draping them over the rolling pin was no easy task as I have a big old fashioned one and I think these need to go over a French style.

All in all these weren't worth the effort for me and I didn't even finish cooking the dough/batter.  My sweet mother in law and I nibbled on them while we worked on her Christmas cards.  We are excited to have her stay with us for a few weeks. This lovely lady has Parkinson's Disease and struggles as the disease robs her of herself but she pushes on with courage and dignity. We feel honored to have her in our home.

The day was not lost thanks to Trevor. He posted on facebook that it was the 80th anniversary of the end of Prohibition! Gary and AJ and I celebrated with a Manhattan:)

AJ wants a Manhattan too!

All the French Friday cooks can be found here. As we cook our way through Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table. Stay warm Doristas and thank you for the condolences in the loss of my friend.

Salty-Sweet Potato Far

I don't have much to say about this one. It wasn't a favorite though Gary wanted to like it. He tried really hard but couldn't do it. It needs something, cheese maybe? It was dark so I couldn't even get a good picture. Moving on to next week's recipe and holiday cooking. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Salty-Sweet Potato Far

I can't wait to see what the other French Fridays with Dorie cooks thought. Join us as we cook our way through Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table.

FFwD - Chestnut and Pear Soup + Muenster Souffle Make UP

This soup is not pretty! I guess that's why Dorie didn't include a picture and I don't blame her! Actually, I didn't know what to expect from Chestnut and Pear Soup but its good. Kind of earthy and kind of sweet and more depth of flavor than I expected.  Gary didn't share my favorable impression. He is, however, impressed that we continue to try making soups out of things that shouldn't be soup. His words, not mine. I came close to chopping off the tip of my pinky while slicing onions! It is SO hard to keep a bandaid on the end of your finger!!!

The Muenster Souffles became Camembert Souffles and they are delicious! Really good with the soup too. My bechamel was too thick and lumpy the first time. So I remade it. I had to crack 5 eggs to get 3 eggs cleanly separated! It wasn't my best day in the kitchen!

This little bundle of sweetness could care less about my kitchen troubles. Give him a piece of peanut butter toast and an apple and he's happy! He makes me happy too!

All the Doristas trials, tribulations, and successes can be found at French Fridays with Dorie.