my wife swears she started developing an allergy to alcohol. One or two glasses of wine and or champagne and she'd get the worst hangovers ever. Just came back from a staff party where we went out afterwards and she switched up drinking ranch waters with "fake ones" which is just topo chico, lime, and salt on the rim so people still thought she was drinking. Probably had three of those for every one full-strength one. I was fine drinking Heineken Zero the whole night, 4 years no alcohol this january. I had a few coworkers asking me about it tonight, same thing I told them: with what's out there now, it's never been easier. I could not have stopped drinking 10 years ago when you got MAYBE an odouls at a bar, if you were lucky, and even then it was dusty and well past expiry. Now there's good na beer everywhere, and our home bar is stocked with at least 40 bottles of my na spirits.
I had 1.5 beers in the hot tub the other night and - despite drinking a quart of water at the same time - I was wrecked the whole next day. I was very pouty about it, I feel like I didn’t earn that level of misery.
Not sure how "festive" you're looking for. I feel like chocolate crinkle cookies feel festive because of the powdered sugar and I like them because they're basically brownies in cookie form, and are really easy except for the time required to chill the dough. Spoiler Chocolate Crinkle Cookies (makes ~72 cookies) Ingredients: 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 2 cups white sugar ½ cup vegetable oil 4 eggs 2 tsp vanilla extract 2 cups all-purpose flour 2 tsp baking powder ½ tsp salt ½ cup confectioners’ sugar Directions: In a medium bowl, mix together cocoa, white sugar, and vegetable oil. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt; stir into the cocoa mixture. Cover dough, and chill for at least 4 hours. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Roll dough into one-inch balls. I like to use a number 50 size scoop. Coat each ball in confectioners' sugar before placing onto prepared cookie sheets. Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes. Let stand on the cookie sheet for a minute before transferring to wire racks to cool. Something my partner has started making every year is maybe my favorite cookie ever, but is a project. I can't really think of what makes them festive, except for the filling being red and white, but I guess anything is a holiday cookie if you just make it around the holidays. They're fucking awesome. Spoiler Viennese Whirls (Source: Mary Berry, Great British Bakeoff) For the jam (modified): 6 oz raspberries [a small] ½ cup granulated sugar (reduce to ¼ or 1/3 if raspberries are quite sweet) 1 tbsp corn starch For the biscuits: 2 sticks (1 cup) + 1 ½ tbsp very soft unsalted butter (at room temperature) 1/3 cup icing sugar 1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour 3 tbsp corn flour For the filling: ½ cup unsalted butter, softened 1 ½ cups icing sugar, plus extra for dusting 1 tsp vanilla extract Directions For the jam, put the raspberries in a small saucepan and crush. Add the sugar and simmer over low heat. In a small bowl, mix cornstarch with a bit of the raspberry juice (or a splash of water), then add to saucepan. When the sugar is dissolved, increase the heat and boil for 5–7 minutes. Remove from heat and carefully pour into a shallow container (pass through a sieve if desired). Leave to cool and set. For the biscuits, preheat the oven to 375F. Line 2 baking sheets (insulated work best) with non-stick baking parchment. Using a 2-in round cutter as a guide, draw 12 circles on each sheet of paper, spaced well apart. Turn the paper over so the pencil marks are underneath. Measure the butter and icing sugar into a bowl and beat until pale and fluffy. Sift in the flour and corn flour and beat well, until thoroughly mixed. Spoon the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle (Wilton 1M). Pipe 24 swirled rounds inside the circles on the baking sheets. Place whirls in fridge for 15 mins prior to baking to help retain shape during cooking. Bake in the center of the oven for 13—15 minutes (15 minutes historically), until pale golden-brown. Cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes then carefully transfer to a wire rack to cool completely and harden. For the filling, measure the butter into a bowl and sift the icing sugar on top. Add the vanilla extract and beat until very light and smooth. Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle (Wilton 1M). Spoon a little jam onto the flat side of 12 of the biscuits and place jam-side up on a cooling rack. Pipe the buttercream on the remaining 12 biscuits and sandwich together (place biscuits jam side down to prevent dripping). Dust with icing sugar to finish.
Having a CDL, I have to be REALLY careful about drinking. My DWI BAC is 0.04 instead of 0.08 like for others. But I enjoy going out for a few. So I have a relatively hard limit of regular beer I'll drink, then I switch to Labatt's NA, which isn't as good as what I was drinking, but it's also a way for me to continue to hang out with less risk.
My wife makes these Orange Cranberry cookies that are really damned good: Spoiler: Recipe Ingredients For the cookies: 3/4 cup butter softened 1 cup sugar 1 egg 2 cups flour 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 cup dried cranberries finely chopped 1 tablespoon orange zest For the rolling sugar: 1/2 cup sugar 1 tablespoon orange zest Instructions Preheat oven to 350. Using an electric mixer, mix butter and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Add to butter mixture and mix until just combined. Fold in cranberries and 1 tablespoon orange zest. Chill dough while you make orange sugar. Combine 1/2 cup sugar and 1 tablespoon orange zest. Use your fingers to rub the 2 together until everything is combined and mixture is fragrant. Shape dough into 1 inch balls and roll in orange sugar. Place on baking sheet and flatten slightly. Bake 10 to 13 minutes or until lightly golden. Cool on wire racks.
check out Athletic Brewing and Two Roots which you can order directly to home. Also heineken zero tastes like regular heineken minus the skunk.
I didn't renew my CDL because of this. Not that I drink heavily and drive, a beer with dinner at a restaurant, at most. If I ever need them again, I retake the tests, a friend can loan me a semi truck for the road test without much hassle. I'd have to be in a really tough position to get back into over the road driving.
@walt and @Binary thanks for the recipes! It's hard to wade through all the recipes on the internet and I wanted to try something totally new.
When I'm drinking at home, it's regular beer, booze, etc. The NA stuff is only when I want to hang out longer but hit my limit. I don't either. I'm a bigger guy, so my self-imposed limit is 3-4 beers, usually consumed within a 2 hour window, then I'll flip over to the NA or soda. Honestly I think treating someone with a CDL differently, even while off the job, is bullshit but that's the government for you.
If you want to try something unusual, we made Danish Christmas cookies last year and I really enjoyed them. They're cardamom, ginger and white pepper - just little spice cookies. As noted in the recipe I would probably add more white pepper next time because I love the pepper flavor. Spoiler Pebber Nodder (Danish Christmas Cookies) (makes ~100 bite-sized cookies) Ingredients: 1 cup butter, softened 1 cup sugar 2 eggs 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour 1 tsp baking soda (omit in future?) 2 tsp ground cinnamon 2 tsp ground cardamom ½ tsp ground ginger ½ tsp ground white pepper (increase?) Directions: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a large bowl, mix together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, stirring until light and fluffy. Combine the flour, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger and white pepper; stir into the sugar mixture just until blended. Roll the dough into 1/2-inch balls, and place them on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 10–13 minutes in the preheated oven, or until lightly browned. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
Yes that looks great! I will try these out asap, I have all the ingredients. Cardamom can be such a delicate flowery taste when used properly. Like spiced flower. These cookies will be delicious.
Someone at work was bragging about a Blue Waffle cookie. It sounded awesome. May have to Google for the recipe.
I'll vouch for Athletic Brewing. Some pretty decent NA beers. I try to keep a few on hand for guests and the times where I want to take the night off but still want the routine of coming home and cracking a beer. And agreed that Heineken NA tastes the most like it's boozy counterpart, I'm just not a fan of Heineken.
During my first year, I was with a big refrigerated fleet company, to get experience before getting my own. I got asked to stop and kick people out of their trucks and secure their equipment a couple of times. Every single time it was a trainer that bought themselves a small amount of beer to drink in the truck stop parking lot, and their trainee ratted them out to the company. They send a car service for the trainee and put them up somewhere until another trainer can come pick them up. The person that bought the beer is just fucked. They have to find a ride home, figure out what to do with thier stuff. Not to mention it screws up their job prospects.