Happy new decade everyone. Hope yours has been launched, as mine has, with gusto!
As I mentioned in the previous post, we host a New Year’s Day gathering every year that has grown and morphed into a true extravaganza. This year we had 180 people glide through our humble home and I hope we helped each and every one of them get their new year started off right.
To do this, we provide a few menu items that we believe cinch the deal:
– Milk Punch
(milk punch image from SLOSHED!)
I would bet most of you have never had milk punch, so I’ll provide a little history. Once upon a time, I lived in New York City where we celebrated EPIC new year’s eves. I mean the big bash, cocktail attire, drinks sloshing everywhere til 5am kind of new year’s eves. At some point, Adam started dating Sarah. Sarah has always been an early-to-bedder so she was never a part of our epics. But she hosted a traditional all-day new year’s day drop-in that we usually stumbled into somewhere around 4pm, as the sun was starting to set. One of the things she always served was milk punch — a brilliant, creamy, nurturing, hair-of-the-dog endeavor that was just sweet enough to be desirable, yet potent enough to do the job. It became the thing I looked forward to the most about her parties.
After our twins were born, it slowly dawned on us that these epic new year’s eves were essentially over for us. Luckily we had a good community of fellow new parents who were in the same boat, and we decided to launch our own new year’s day tradition. For me, this had to include Sarah’s famous milk punch. I know it’s a little late to only just now be giving you the recipe, but this way I can re-link to it at the end of the year! So here it is:
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Sarah’s Milk Punch
– 1 gallon of milk (whole is best)
– 1 bottle (750ml) of brandy
– 1 bottle (750ml) of rum
– 1 glug of bourbon
– 1 quart vanilla ice cream
– grated nutmeg, to taste
Mix all the liquid together in a big bowl. Add the ice cream in scoops. Grate or sprinkle the nutmeg on top. I prefer fresh nutmeg, so I grate an actual nutmeg over a microplane (not the whole thing).
As the day wears on, if I’m paying close enough attention, I go back and add another round of ice cream scoops just to chill it up a little.
Be sure to inform any nearby parents that this is not for their kids!
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Happy new year everyone! Hope 2010ftw is everything you want it to be!